The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-16 00:00:00

COUNTY CESS.

This tax is to be paid in equal parts by landlord and
tenant ; in old tenancies under £4 the occupier is to be at
once relieved.

RUMOURED CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE

FRENCH EMPEROR.
There are rumours in Paris of an extensive conspiracy
agamst the Emperor. "It appears to be beyond doubt,"
says the France, " that the arrests effected during the
last fortnight have not been exclusively caused by the
disturbances at Belleville, several of them are connected
with the discovery of a plot against the public peace and
the life of the Emperor." The Temps, in referring to the
numerous rumours in circulation concerning the
conspiracy which the police are said to have
discovered, says that there is great variety in
the reports. Some speak of a plot against
the Emperor's person, others only of compromising docu-
ments-found at the houses of those arrested. The Temps
observes that, in the face of such conflicting
statements, it becomes more and more a matter
of regret that the Government does not give
some explanations. If the examination of the
accused was public as it would be in England, and other
really free countries the silence would be less objectionable.
The Temps adds that the relatives and friends of the
accused have not been allowed to see them, although
Prince Pierre Bonaparte was permitted to receive
his family and friends. The Gazette des Tribunaux
believes that the object of the recent machinations was to
overthrow the Government now estabished, and excite the
citizens to civil war. Another paper, the Sol:2', admits
that forty individuals have been arrested within
forty-eight hours, but maintains that they were
only implicated in general political manoeuvres, and
had no plan of violently instituting a new form of
Government. The Francais gives yet another version of
the affair, and refers to a statement that several officers
have been cashiered. The rumour was current that
traces had been discovered of a great military conspiracy,
in which fifty officers and subalterns were involved.
The conspirators, it was said, had numerous adherents
in the Imperial Guard. The Constitutionnel gives a specific
denial to this statement, and maintains that no officer has
been censured for political misconduct during many
weeks. The same journal alludes to a story
told by the Reforme of three soldiers who found
themselves in the midst of the rioters on the 7th February,
and were treated with fraternal kindness. The Constitu-
tionel affirms that so far from being treated with kindness,
the soldiers were roughly handled. Two of them
contrived to escape into the barracks, but the
third less fortunate, was deprived not only of his
arms, but of his watch and money ! Several public meet-
ings which were to have taken place at the Salle Moliere
and elsewhere, have been postponed by order of the
Government. The Liberte says that there has been some
talk in Paris of revolvers being fired at some sergents-de-
villa. On Saturday night it seems that three indi-
viduals, belonging to the commercial classes, who
were a little excited by drink, came down the Rue Mon-
sieur le Prince singing loudly the " Marseillaise." Two
police agents advised them to be quiet, when they shouted
" A mort et It bas les Bonapartistes." After a brief
resistance, the agents succeeded in capturing them, but
as they led them along, one of them drew a revolver,
from under his paletot, and pointed it at the agent who
held him. A struggle ensued ; other agents ran to the
rescue, but two of the persons arrested escaped, and the
third, who had not fired the revolver, was carried off to
the police station. The other two were arrested the next
morning at their houses, and it is said that a quantity of
arms and of compromising papers were also found there.

The 66th 11.1,7inient is now under orders to
embark for Bombay, as follows : —The left wing,
under command of Major Galbraith, on the 18th
inst., and the head-quarters and right wing, under
Lieut.-Colonel Watson, on the 25th inst., from
Queenstown.