The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-06 00:00:00

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.

M. Jules Favre (Foreign Affairs) is one of the most
distinguished members of the new Ministry. He was
born in 1809, took part, being then a law-student, in the
Revolution of 1830, was Secretary-General at the MinistrY
of the Interior at the Revolution of February 1848, soon
after entered the Chamber. and was for a short time
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The coup d'etat
drove him for a time from public life, to which he did
not return till 1858, when he again appeared in the
Chamber, and has since been the recognised leader of the
Democratic party.
M. Picard (Finance) is the well-known advocate and
deputy. He was born in 1821, and is a decided
Democrat.
M. Jules Simon (Public Instruction), born in 1814, is a
moderate Republican, whose reputation is perhaps more
literary than political. He devotes himself to education
and social questions.
M.'Ldon Gambetta (Minister of the Interior), is already
well known as a rising advocate and politician. He be'
longs to a Genoese family, and is thirty-two years of age•
It was as. counsel for some of the accused in the prosecu-
tions consequent on the Baudin subscription in 1868 that
he first distinguished himself in public. He is a man of
considerable ability and eloquence, and a Republican Of
the most advanced kind.
M. Cremieux (Justice), born 1796, was Minister of
Justice in 1848, and a staunch member of the Democratic
Left, though for a moment he seemed to be disposed to
trust Louis Napoleon.
'General Le Flo (War Minister) was born 1804, served
in Algeria, and owed his generalship to the Government
of 1848, when he had a seat in Parliament.
M. Lavertujon (Secretary-General), born 1827, ig 9
Democratic journalist.
M. Fourichon (Marine), captain in the French navy►
was born in 1809, and has been since 1864 President o;
the Council of Naval Works.
M.. Dorian (Public Works), a deputy and rich iron-
master ; born in 1814.
M. Magnin (Agriculture), born 1824, also an ironma,ster
and landed proprietor.

THE COLONIES AND THE ENGLISII
GOVERNMENT.
IMPORTANT REPRESENTATION FROM TO
AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.
The Melbourne Argus, of July 16, just received
England, states that the Internation 11 Conference, which
met in Melbourne on the 20th of June, and broke up 011
the sth of July, agreed to press certain questions upon
the attention of the Imperial Government. Her MajestY'n
Government is asked in the first place to remove 01
prohibitions against' international free trade, interposec;
by Imperial enactment. In effect the representatives 01
New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania request that those colonies should be recogniseii
by the Home Government as a geographical mart for
purposes of Customs revenue. Three of the four colonic'
represented at the Conference signified their adhesion to
the doctrines of free trade in the broadest and most libern
sense, and their determination to consent to no uniform
tariff for the whole group, which was not founded upon OP,
basis. (The dissentient colony was Victoria which the .4)1
describes as the most influential and most' unenlightened
of those represented at the Conference.) Another subjec",
pressed upon the attention of the Home Government is the
extension of its protection to the Fiji Islands. Their geogra'
phical position, it is alleged, is such as to render it highly in°
pedient that they should pass under the guardianship °1
a foreign flag. They already constitute a commercins
appanage of Australia. They are being settled W
Australian colonists, and cultivated by Australian
capital, and if adequate measures are taken
for the protection of both, there seems no reasocei
to doubt that a great future is before these islands, an
that they may prove as valuable to Australia as Java t 1
the Netherlands. Another application to the Imp.,.eri
authorities is to permit the minting of silver coin in J-`4° `I
South Wales and Victoria, or to cause a periodic?,
supply of fresh coin to be furnished to the mints to
Sydney and Melbourne. Finally, as the burden an
responsibility of providing for the military defend
of the colonies has been thrown entirely upon themselvng'
the Conference thinks it desirable to press upon wei
attention of her Majesty's Government the duty
„°/
providing at all times, and especially in time "e
war, for the naval defence and protection of the coast-I.?
of Australia and the extensive British commerce on 3";
waters, and to express the confidence with which th
Colonial Governments believe this obligation will be re'
cognised and admitted by the Imperial Government.

It is stated that M. Marius, the actor, who made
so favourable an impression during his engagement V'th
M. Herve at the Lyceum Theatre, has been killed bef°ro
Metz while serving with the French army.
7'be
PRUSSIAN SPIES HUNTED DOWN AT PARIS.
passion for the hunting down real or supposed Prussia
spies continues unabated in Paris. On Thursday eight,
about 10 o'clock, according to the.Liberte, a young reap;
wearing the uniform of an officer of Chasseurs, was arrest e
on the Boulevard Montmartre, his foreign accent havi9;
betrayed him. He was taken to the police-station, and W
with difficulty preserved from the anger of a crowd el;
posed of many hundreds of persons, who sought to execuAg
speedy justice upon him. At the police-office it Wce
alleged to have been proved that he was a spy. On tv.
previous evening a young man of distinguished apP ,e`
ante, mounted on a fine horse, was riding in the ChaTe
de Mars. Suddenly the horse, startled by a roll of t'd
drums, made a bolt, and the rider, being nearly unseats,'
dropped a letter from his pocket. A soldier picked it nio'l
and found that it was written in German. A ea
" Prussian spy !" was raised, and the equestrian ",j
arrested. Upon being conveyed to the police-station Ityl;
interrogated it is said to have become evident that •
public suspicion was well-founded. On Friday eveall
another Prussian spy, disguised a$ a woman, was arrest
at the Buttes Montmartre.
NAPOLEON AND lIIS ADVISERS.—Accordiu "" a
letter in the Band of Berne "An eminent stag tegt„i.
advised the Emperor at Rheims to throw 11
self at the head of a cavalry regiment on the
bayonets. The Emperor pulled his moustache phleg,
tically and replied, It would be very grand for—hist°;:is
am not, however, at such a depth as the people in P„ot
suppose. On my return I shall demand a reckoning, ;1.,0
give one, and shall fix the responsibility.' In the EniPer are
opinion, however, General Lebocuf and his associat.,:ty
by no means the guilty parties ; the responsn'or
rests with the Left of the Chamber and with the -`,OO
liamentary extravagances of 011ivier. In this tn"
must the criminals who reduced the military budge,.uwth
'
the standing army be sought. The Palikao Cabinet, tropi
the Bonapartist Right, since Rouher's return ,No
Rheims have accordingly laboured in this direction. 'to-
rinperialists, with blind confidence, count upon an
diately approaching victory, whereupon the Chanabereider
be at once dismissed, even though President Sall'„ of
should in that case refuse obedience. The clial:.01,
opinion in France, however, ig so radical and univ iB
that even the victorious Napoleon would be cenviuc..;sive
a few months of his powerlessness. In the army (15'; ose
songs about him are sung, and the bonds of discipline
terribly relaxed,"