The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-31 00:00:00

FAMINE IN russrA.

Last year's soiching, drouthy summer has been succeeded
in Russia by a mild, wet winter. The latter season has
but enhanced the calamities of the first. We in England
always consider a severe winter the greatest calamity that
can happen to our vast pauper population ; but in Russia
a severe winter is a blessing, for it gives the inhabi-
tants firm roads and highways in places which,
when the frost is gone, are inaccessible. This
year there has been a premature thaw, and so it has
been found impossible to convey food to the districts which,
owing to last summer's short crops, sorely needed sup-
plies. The consequence is that multitudes are dying of
famine, and the Russian Government, always on the look-
out to advance its one great purpose—the bringing all
parts of Russia into intercommunication —is urging
English capitalists to invest in Russian railways as an act of
Philanthropy as well as a matter of business. Railways,
it is announced, are to be made to Finland at once. -Of
course in such a sparsely-peopled country they can never
pay, but the Russian Government guarantees the divi-
dend, and tba.t Government has always been far too shrewd
to think of breaking faith with its creditors even when at
war with them. Give us your gold to make our iron
highways, it says, and then we can do what we please in
India and at Constantinople.

FANATIC INFIDELS.

There are oertain persons in Paris who are not only
infidels, but fanatics, who not only disbelieve in Chris-
tianity, but are determined to insult those who believe in it.
They have chosen a singular way of shelving their hatred.
On Good Friday, which, as all the world knows, is kept
in Roman Catholic countries as, par excellence, the day of
abstinence, a number of these unbelievers dined together
at a public eating-house. This banquet de libre penste,
as they called it, may have lightened their consciences,
but it must have lain rather heavily upon their
stomachs, for it consisted of cold veal and roast
pork. It must have been rather mortifying
to the men who thus incurred the horrors of nightmare to
see that the churches were more crowded than ever.
While they were feasting at the risk of a fierce attack of
indigestion, the people whom they hoped to convince were
thronging the Madeleine and Notre Dame and St. Eustache
and St. Roche to such an extent that it was necessary to
station scrgents de vale at the doors, in order to prevent
serious accidents. In the cathedral the crowd kept con-
tinually moving, leaving or entering, and they were com-
posed of every class of society—working men in their blouses,
women of the faubourg-s, or peasants from the environs
carrying their child' ren in their arms, and mingled
with those of the higher class, the owners, possibly, of the
handsome equipages outside. There was no gorgeous
ceremony to attract them, and a few hours' stay in the
church enabled one to see that they came for no other
purpose than to pray at the different shrines or at the
"stations of the cross "—to kneel and kiss the crucifixes
exposed in the chapels of the side aisles or the silver circlet
containing the relics for which Notre Dame is famous.
Priests were in attendance in the chancel to present them
to the salute of the crowds who knelt before the altar.
The priests relieved each other every hour, and this
ceremony lasted till after nightfall. The sermon of the
Passion was given by the celebrated preacher Father Felix,
and there were hundreds who for want of room had to
stand outside. The preacher announced at the close of his
sermon that, judging from the crowds attending the ser-
vices during the last week of Lent, the male communicants
on Easter Day would be far more numerous than in pre,
vious years, that measures were. taken to abridge the
ceremony, and that four priests would be in attendance at
the same time for that purpose. All the other churches
of Paris were crowded in a similar manner. Clearly
Christianity is not going to be vanquished by a fillet of veal
and pork chops.

BUDGET GF PERSONAL ITEMS.—The Queen has
approved of Mr. Oliver Mungen as Consul at Turk's Island
for the United States of America.—General Breckenridge
reached his home in Lexington on the 4th inst., and has
commenced practice ns a lawyer, eschewing politics of
which he has had quite enough. George F. Boar, brother
of the Attorney General, and whom the Times correspon-
dent insisted on making Attorney-General, was admitted
to the bar of the United States Supreme Court on the 9th
instant. The Sioux Indians call General Sherman " Ge-
neral Walk-a-heap." A monument to General Lyon is to
be erected in St. Louis. Major-General Ames has been
assigned to command the Fourth Military District. Walter
H. Smith, of Ohio, has been appointed Solicitor of Inter-
nal Revenue, in place of Binckley, removed. Mr. Frede-
rick Seward, Assistant-Secretary of State, will remain in
Washington a short time to settle family affairs and to
give over the department to the incoming Secretary. Mr.
Seward has closed a continuous residence of twenty years
in Washington—twelve as Senator and eight as Cabinet
officer. Secretary Browning returns to Quincy, Illinois ;
Secretary M'Culloch settles down near Washington ; Mr.
Evarts remains for the present, as does Mr. Randall, while
Secretary Welles goes to Codnecticut next week. 0. L.
Grant, of Chicago, brother of President Grant, is at the
St. James's Hotel. The Hon. William A. Faxon, ex-As-
sistant Secretary of the Navy, is at the Fifth-avenue
Hotel. F. M'Cracken and John O'Neill of Stratford,
Canada, were poisoned on the 11th of March by taking a
cough mixture procured from a druggist. There is no
hope of O'Neill's recovery, and very slight hope of
11'Cracken. Chas. Wallace, editor of The Warrenton (Ga.)
Clipper, was shot and instantly killed on the 12th
by Dr. Darden, also of Warrenton. Wallace had attacked
Darden in his paper, calling him a liar and a villain.
Superintendent Kennedy, on the 12th inst., returned from
his Sotzthern tour. Bo left President Acton at Aiken,
Georgia, much improved in health. Thurlow Woed was
stopping at the same place, and was also recovering his
health a- id strength rapidly. Mr. Seward will shortly
there pty him a visit. Representative Dawes has
become the Father of the House, now that Mr.
Washbtt-ne has accepted the mission to Dais. Mr.
James :all. Mason, of Mason and Slidell fame, was to leave
Canada, an a day or two, and expected to be at his old home
in Win,cl tester, Virginia, by the middle of March.
2Lieut.-
General' ,Sheridan arrived Assistant Washington
ta ont-tn
Generalhe Ith,
and
ac-
compae,isel by his Acting Adju
Aid-de- Ca mp, Brevet-Lieut. J. Schuyler Crosby, and
Han an hotel at St. Catherine's, Canada. General
Brevet :11.-ajor-Gen. E. Mory. Beverley Tucker is about to
Hancocl.: Is et the residence of a friend at Clinton-place.