The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-05 00:00:00

FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

The following is the despatch addressed by the
French Government to its diplomatic agents abro•id,
in order to reassure the Powers as to the intentions
of France in respect of Belgium and the left bank
of the Rhine :

" Paris, March 19, 1860.
" Monsieur,—ln the despatch which you have
dome me the honour to write me you announce that
you have forwarded to -- the communication of
the Emperor's Government, under date of the 13th
of this month, relative to Savoy and the county of
Nice, and you add that the principal Secretary of
State of reserves to himself the taking advice
of the Council before making known to us the an-
swer of the Government. In the meanwhile
I think it desirable to resume with you the discus-
sion of a point which I merely indicated in my pre-
vious correspondence, and to insist especially on an
objection which was brought forward in the dis-
cussions to which the question gave rise.
" Analogies, in fact, are alleged, and these are a
starting-point for distrust. But, do these analogies
rest on facts, and does there truly exist a relation
between our position with regard to the Alps and
our situation on the Rhine? Without doubt the
treaties-of 1815 had constituted in the North a state
of things not without resemblance and connection
uith that which still.exists at this day on the side
of the Alps. The kingdom of the Low Countries
had been crealid with a view similar to that with
which the territorial limits of Sardinia had been
settled. Eike Sardinia, it had the custody of posi-
tions which permitted it to deliver up the ap-
proaches and entrances of our territory to foreign
armies.

" After a duration of 15 years the arrangements
have been greatly modified, with the concurrence
of the great Powers themselves. Belgium has been
formed, and its neutrality, acknowledged by Europe ,
has covered from that time all that part of our
frontier which was exactly the most exposed, and
for which France might feel the most reasonable
anxiety.

" In a word, whatever of a menacing nature for
us, in the North, was presented by the treaties of
1815 has been made mere matter of history by the
Con feience of London. We have no longer on
that side any sort of guarantee to demand, and
onr plan of defence, supported by our most im-
portant strong places, shelters us completely
from dangers analogous to those of which we
should have more than ever to take account at
another point, if Piedmont, with its new propor-
tions, remained in possession of territories which
give access to the very heart of the empire. On
the Rhine the peril has disappeared, while it has
increased in the Alps.

" Thus the situations the similarity of which it
is attempted to show present no point of resem-
blance, and the potent considerations which oblige
us to claim the annexati3n of Savoy are without
any possible application to the state of things in
the east and in the north of France. This combina-
tion will complete that which Europe itself has
adopted by effacing the last trace of stipulations
manifestly conceived in a spirit of distrust and
aggressiveness towards us ; and, far from
.finding
thhaevree ionz r
raeiun tc
soefediinsqiutiae tnuedwe , Gco
ne
dr t
iaonny woilleosntlay.
billty and duration of the peace.

" THOUVENEL."

KEW GARDENS.—These gardens will be optn to
the public (free) on Good Friday and during the holidays.
The collection of camellia japonica or Japan roses, and
many rare and beautiful plants from China, Australia, and
New Zealand, are now in fine flower. The recent addition'
to the museums are of a highly attractive character.
NEW CANNON.—On Monday and Tuesday last
experiments were made at the Mound, Woolwich, with a
new gun manufactured by Messrs. Brown and Hughes,
Newport, Monmouthshire. The gun is of semi-steel iron
(homogeneous), and is of the same internal diameter and
bore as Sir W. Armstrong's 12 -pounder. The rounds were
fired as follows :-10 rounds of each up to, and inclusive of,
8 shots, making 80 rounds; and when this point had been
attained the copper venting of the gun, which had been
put in by the authorities at Woolwich, gave way, and
prevented the completion of the programme in-
tended for 100 rounds. The gun was carefully
examined, and has not sustained the slightest damage
from the severe tests with which it was proved. The
A -
strong's or Whitworth's, can be used as eitherifled with either
makers say it can be manufactured at half thecosmt
muzzle or
breech loader, and is capable of 1?e g
Lancaster's,
clic
lic aas
;tile.
er
s'
,s ,
A most lamentable accident, FALMOUTH.— or Whitworth'sinr systems.—
s'
h Shad k
The pilot Josep arroc , belong..
yesterday forenoon.
111-Aagrmazsitnreo.ng's,
(attended by two men named Henry
in.- to No. 13 cutter
at-
tended with the loss of three. live occurred off this port
he Dutch schooner Catharine, from Rio de Coffin and John Rowe, all of this town), was in the act of
boarding t
Ja-
neiro, for the purpose of piloting her into port, when the •
boat was struck by a sea and upset. Sharrock and Co,ffm
although they "apparently clung to the boat, soon disap-
peared after the Catharina, close hauled, Chad passed them
on her weather side and thrown them a rope. Rowe ma-
naged to hold on by the boat for upwards of half ai hour,
durtno- which time the most strenuous efforts were made by
the pilotr' cutter to reach him, though blowing a heavy gale
with a high sea running. On their first tack they fell
short othim, but so close that they heard the poor fellow
call, " Mind you reach me the next tack." On coming up
again they were able to throw him over a rope, but from ex-
haustion he was incapable of laying-hold of it, and at the
same moment was engulphed by the heavy swell. Sharrock
and Coffin have left widows and children.
PICKLED CORPSES.--It is not generally known
that at Coppet, on the lake of Geneva, the residence of the
late Madame de Steel, and her father and mother, the
celebrated Monsieur and Madame Necker, the latter are
not there buried, but preserved in a huge vat of spirits ofto
wine. The curious, and they are not few, rush. there
Necker that he and
strange manner, that
this see this most painful as well as disagreeable of sights. It
was so much the desire of Monsieur
his wife should be pickled in
fearing his own family might not carry out his wishes, he
left a certain paid yearly to the town for the
of spirits of wine for: that pur-
pose. supplye a e
eszi n tq o
quantity
ty
The vat is placed in the grounds close to, the house,
and partially hid by trees which his grandson, IN,lonsieux le
Baron de Steel, had planted round it.--Courts 'Tama/.