The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-15 00:00:00

LATEST NEWS.

ST. PETERSBURG. AUG. 13.

An official announcement has appeared in the
journals that the Russian troops were ready to
evacuate Kars and the Ottoman territory, and
that they have received orders to retire to Alex-
andropol.

MADRID, AUG. 13.

The Gazette publishes decrees appointing AT.
P.tcheco Minister of Spain at Loudon, and M.

Souza at Turin.

The permission to import wheat and flour into
Spain is extended to June, 1857.

PARIS, THURSDAY NIGHT.

A despatch from St. Petersburg says that the
Russian Government has given orders to all its
agents in Europe to deliver passports for Russia
without conditions.

It is with a view to the approaching Coronation
of the Emperor that these new facilities are
accorded.

The Times Paris correspondent (second edition
says :
"I have received, from a source which I consider
trustworthy, some curious notes concerning the
origin and ramifications of the celebrated secret
society of the Marianne. This society was formed
subsequently to the events of December, 1851,
by those Socialist chiefs in the department who
had escaped transportation, and who felt
the necessity of reviving the revolutionary
element and of disciplining democracy in the
masses. Its chief founder was the montagnard
and ex-deputy of the Lipper Loire, Martin Ber-
nard. This man, an associate of Battles in May,
1839, enjoyed among his patty the reputation of a
remarkable talent for organisation. As one of the
founders of the secret society of the Seasons he
had displayed remarkable tenacity and coolness.
When he was arrested, some months after the
12th May, 1839, he was found busy composing
the elements and fixing the bases of a new secret
society, although the recent defeat of his party
might well have made him believe its re-
constitution impossible. Compelled to flight
after the affair of the Conservatory in 1849,
he nevertheless, under all the disadvantages of
exile, supplied, with the assistance of Felix Pyat
and of some others, the whole political organisation
of the Marianne, which was adopted, towards the
middle of 1852, by the principal chiefs of the De-
mocratic party both in and out of France. The
name of the society, which has given rise to so
many conjectures, arose from a pass-word current
among the initiated. The idea of the founders was
to oppose the military dictatorship installed in
Dec., 1851, a revolutionary dictatorship, a vast
I Jacquerie, including all France, combining the scat-
' tered members of the secret societies, trained to act
as a single man at a given signal. To carry out this
scheme it was necessary to abolish, or rather to
absorb all rival and analogous associations, and ac-
cordingly instructions were given to repudiate the
names of these and to assume no particular designa-
tion until further orders. Meanwhile the sign of
recognition, given by the chiefs without any parti-
cular importance being attached to it, consisted in
the question, 'Do you know Mother Marianne ?'
and in the reply, 'Yes, she has good wine, and she is
well." This was subsequently abridged to the
question, ' And Marianne ?" and the reply ' Well.'
No other name being given, this vast web of secret
societies ended by taking its title from this trivial
watchword.
"The objects proposed by the Marianne are the
overthrow of the Bonaparte Government, the pro-
clamation of the Democratic and Social republic,
and the triumph of the working classes. To attain
such great ends little scruple is shown as to the
means. The assassination of the Emperor has been,
and still is, authorised, and may even be enjoined.
The burning of Bonapartist houses and property,
or of domains belonging to notorious members of
the reactionary party, is authorised in case of need
—recommended in case of resistance. It has been
said that pillage is permitted, but this does no',
appear in the instructions given by the chiefs of
,the society.
" Every member of this revolutionary and sub •
versive league must devote himself to it, body and
soul, and must be prepared to sacrifice his property
and family to the success of the cause. He must be
ready to take up arms and to march to the fight,
without question or hesitation, at the command of
his chiefs. If the society decides that the Emperor
of the French, or any other personage is to be sa-
crificed, the associate to whose lot it shall fall must
put aside all personal considerations, and strike
the victim pointed out to him. If he be discoverel
and arrested, his duty is to die silent and keep the
secret of the " Marianne." Such is the sangui-
nary and desperate programme of this formidable
society.
According to the best information obtainable,
the ramifications of the " Marianne" are very
widely spread, and exist, in the:form either of regu-
lar secret societies or of small groups of adepts and
propagandists, wherever revolutionary clubs ex-
isted previously to 1852. It is believed that, .dat-
ing from the latter months of 1855, the "Mari-
anne" was organised throughout France, and cer-
tain judicial data tend to prove the correctness of
this belief. The best way to trace its existence
and proceedings is to follow the revolutionary acts
and schemes that transpired before the tribunals.
These indicate its great extension.
" In September and October last the workmen
in the slate quarries of Angers and of Pont de Ce
were tried as belonging to the Marianne ; three
were condemned to transportation, and 47 others
to various terms of imprisonment.
" In the different trials, some singular statements
have been made and sworn to as facts by the wit-
nesses. Thus, at Angers, one of these declared
that the Marianne had a director and a secretary
in every department, and added that, of all the
slate quarries of Maine et Loire, there were
perhaps not 10 who were not affiliated to the so •
ciety. Concerning the form of the oath and the
obligations accepted by those who enrolled them-
selves, the testimony of the different deponents is
pretty uniform. It comprises the usual terrifying
paraphernalia of such associations ; the midnight
meetings in lonely places, the eyes bandaged, the
dagger presented to the throat, the solemn threat of
instant death in case of disobedience. The points
chiefly insisted upon are the foundation of the
social and democratic republic, abandonment of
family ties, instant compliance with given signals,
and the murder of the chief of the State, should
that be ordered.
"Although a sketch of a society of this kind
must necessarily be imperfect, sufficient facts ap-
pear to have been positively ascertained to remove
all doubt that the Marianne is either constituted
or in embryo throughout the greater part of France.
It is said that the French Government at first paid
little attention to it, and a reason assigned for this
neglect is, that it has taken comparatively little
root in Paris and even in Lyons, where, as in
some other important cities, the secret societies
of older date were not willing to allow them-
selves to be absorbed by it. It is believed, how-
ever, that the Minister of the Interior has begun
to bestow greater attention upon this certainly not
unimportant subject.
" Another society has lately been spoken of,
under the name of the Pere de Famille, having its
chief directors at Paris and Lyons. Some of its
members, have, I believe, already been presented
at St. Etienne. Its aims are said to be nearly the
same as those of the Marianne, but it does not
take instructions from the chief of that society."