The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-23 00:00:00

CORRERPONDENOE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

A migration amongst the Ambassadors is taking place.
Lord Lyons is going to England, and Count Stackelbm g
is about to return to Russia for a short time. The CLeva-
tier Nigra is already absent.
With regard to the explosion at the Sorbonne, I may
mention that the official journal declares the manufacture
of bichrate of potassium to have been carried on without
authority. Such stuff ought not to have been kept in the
midst of a crowded city, and the explosion of the Nth is,
therefore, the result of an infraction of the law. 7.he
five victims were buried yesterday, in the presence of an
'immense crowd.

THE PAPAL STATES.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

ROME, MARCH 15.
The Pope went again to St. Peter's on Friday, and was
surrounded by a greater concourse than even on the pre-
vious week. The crowd was immense. Every day adds
to the influx of strangers, among whom there is a very
large proportion of German and French Catholics. '1 ha
Pope, after praying before the shrine of St. Peter and the
altar of Saint Gregory, whose feast it happened to 1 e
returned to his apartments. He was looking extremely well.
Great preparations are being made for the fetes of the
11th of April. The Pope will say a low mass (i. e., unac-
sompanied by mus.c and unassisted by deacons and sub.
deacons) at the High Altar, about eight in the morning,
being, as your readers are aware, the anniversary of his
first mass said fifty years ago at the little church of can a
Elma, attached to the charity school of Tata Giovanni.
The space does not admit of his saying the anniversary
mass there, and so it has been arranged for the Vatican
Basilica. A review of the Pontifical troops in the Piazza
of St. Peter's will immediately follow the ceremony, and
a hymn will then be sung by several thousand young
Romans in the courtyard of the Damaso, immediately
under the Pope's windows. The rest of the day will be
occupied by the reception of congratulations frcm the
Efferent public bodies of Church and State ; and in the
evening the Pope will drive round the city to see the illu-
minations, which will be on a scale of extraordinary
brilliancy. On the following day, the 12th, he will go as
usual to St. Agnes, outside the walls, to give thanks for
his preservation from death by the falling in of the building,
and for his return from Gaeta in 1850.
The weather is still miserably cold and stormy. Thunder,
hail, and rain have succeeded each other with little variety
ever since the beginning of the month, and a furious storm is
!weeping over Rome as I write these lines. There does
not seem a hope of its settling into the usual spring
weather.
There is very little going on of political interest in Rome
.tself, as everything is suspended by the uncertainty of
matters in Spain. I may, however, state that in official
?Inks here the election of the Duke de Montpensier is
considered certain, and has been pointed out as the most
probable ever since the fall of Isabella by Mgr. Franchi,
the Papal Nuncio in Madrid, a man of extraordinary
talent and political capacity, in his private despatches to
the Cardinal Ministers. The Comte de Paris has signified
his extreme disgust at the conduct of his uncle, both
to himself and to Isabella in a recent autograph letter.
The saltworks of Astia, from which so much was hopes,
nave turned out a dead loss this year to the spirited
enterpriser the Cavaliere Paerardi, the heavy rains having
completely prevented the necessary evaporation. The
emissary, however, which is intended to drain the
great marsh of Campo Marto, close to Finnicius, is in
full work, and promises to restore several square miles to
cultivation.

The only fact of importance connected with Rome is
the formation of a camp of twenty-five thousand men by the
Italian Government, near Montalto, only two days' march
from Rome, and one from Civita Veechia. As it is in the
most unhealthy part of the Marremma, there can be no
reason for such a proceeding save ulterior intentions
against the Pontifical territory. Considerable gravity
is attached to this fact as it has not any precedent
since 1860.
Garibaldi, according to letters received here within the
last few days, is extremely ill, and entirely incapacitated
from taking any part in public business. His friends con-
sider his state very precarious, and prophecy a complete
break up of his constitution. The Republican movement
is daily assuming greater importance, and Mazzini has
portioned Italy into four " Regie," or governments, each
of which is confided to a separate chief. Genoa, Bologna,
Florence, and Naples are the centres of action, and all are
preparing for a desperate struggle. The King is fully
aware of the direction matters are taking, and has placed
1 urge sums in foreign securities in order to provide for the
worst.

The Legion d'Antibes has received its first instalment
of a,' m 150 breechloadir g guns, this morning, presented
by the Archbishop of B6sancon (Mathiem).
T ,ey carry 1,300 yards, and fire 12 rounds to the mixiute,,
The ie ,t of the regiment will be armed in a few weeks
with the same weapon, and the Zouaves with the Reming-
ton. The gendarmerie, Swiss and line, are armed with
reformed rifles turned into breechloaders. Every prepa-
ration is being made for war, and, as matters are, it is
scarcely probable it can be staved off beyond the autumn
in Italy.

The meal tax in the kingdom of Italy is effectually
suspended. No one will pay it. The Government dares
not enforce it, and is framing a new bill, by which all pro-
prietors of land or houses above 20,000 f. in value are to
pay a heavy tax, those above :50,000f. still higher, and so
on in an ascending scale, so as to fall entirely on the higher
classes. It is impossible that such a measure can be
carried out in Italy, where the people are absolutely null,
and where money is the one influence. The operation on
the goods of the Church has failed, and a national bank-
ruptcy seems to be a mere question of weeks.

At the Cork assivs, on Saturday, Mr. Downing
pleaded guilty to the charge of sending money to Lord
'Fermoy, lieutenant of the county, who was procuring for
him a nomination to a magistracy, but disclaimed by affidavit
any corrupt intention. Sentence was deferred. 3(r. Dovina
log bailed.

PARIS, MONDAY, March 22.
The Emperor has been slightly 111 during the last day
or two, but was able to preside at the Council of Ministers
to-day. The Marquis de Lavalette was absent, owing to
the death of his wife. It is stated that the Empress is
again expressing a wish to go to Rome. This desire is said
to be merely personal. Her Majesty wishes to be one of
the numerous Catholic pilgrims who will wend their way
to the Holy City on the occasion of the Pope's jubilee.
There is very little to be said of the debate in the Corps
TAgislatif on the bill for calling out the annual contingent
of 100,000 men, which the reorganisation of the army has
rendered the law of the land. The general impression is
that the law as it stands must be altered—the country
cannot bear such a strain upon its resources ; but at present
the pacific empire is determined to have an army of
these dimensions: so the contingent is voted, and will
be until the country comes to a dead-lock and will pay the
" blood tax "no longer. That the immense army of
of France was infinitely injurious to the country, and
beyond this that it was comparativey useless, was the bur-
den of M. Picard's speech, who led the assault upon the
bill. He argued that in spite of this drain upon the
country the army was not ready for action, for the
National Guard Mobile was wholly unorganised. Only a
few captains had received commissions. Expensive,
baneful to industry, and useless was M. Picard's comment
on the French army. Marshal Niel's reply was the old
story. Other nations were arming, France must keep
pace with them, just influence in Europe, &c. The
debate was dull and slow, and generally miserable,
like the weather outside, which was cold, snowy, and
dismal. But suddenly a burst of laughter aroused the
Corps L4gislatif from its torpor. M. Haentjens had by
mistake emptied at one draught M. Picard's glass of water.
Whether the liquor had any contagious effect or not is
an open question ; certain it is that M. Haentjens,
a member of the majority, became a second Picard.
Instead of supporting the Government, the inspired
Haentjens made a furious attack upon the conscription;
in other words, denounced the only means by which the
fikloiwed by the usual result. The
contingent was voted without a division.
The Imperial Court has fairly frightened the Govern-
ment by its excessive complaisance. M. Louis Ulbach,
one of the leading journalists here, was lately fined £l2 for
asserting that the name Napoleon was derived from two
Greek words which signify " hangman." The Govern-
ment appealed against this sentence as being altogether
too light for the enormous offence of making public such
a derivation. The Imperial Court took the matter in
hand, increased the fine to £2O, and added the trifle
of six months' imprisonment. This is too much
of a good thing. The enormous disparity between
the two judgments is ridiculous. Everybody agrees that
in making such an alteration the Imperial Court has done
no good service to the Government.
It appears that the authorities have not yet succeeded
in quite extinguishing the Lanterne. Four men and two
women have just been tried before the Tribunal of Correc-
tional Police of Paris on a charge of introducing the Lao e •ne
into France. Nearly 700 copies of that publication were
found at the residences of two of the accused ; there were
also found a petticoat with eight large pockets, by th,
of which one of the females had recently brought from
Brussels 130 numbers of the prohibited work;
and a waistcoat, flannel vest, and belt, containing in
all twenty-three receptacles, in which one of the men Lad
imported 170 copies. The accused were sentenced to terms
of imprisonment varying from two to six months, with the
addition of a small fine.