The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-17 00:00:00

TIIE (Y)11:2,11:7WE OF FRANCE.

The official report of the commerce of France, drawn up
by our Secretary of Embassy at Paris, shows a decided
increase over previous years, notwithstanding the great
stagnation of trade. The imports of articles of food
have risen from £33,700,000 to £37,800,000;
natural products and materials necessary for industry
from £73,266,000 to £82,790,000; manufactured articles
from £8,880,000 to £9,360,000. The total value of imports
was in 1867, £121,000,000, and in 1868, £135,000,000. The
total of the exports was £113,000,000 in 1E67, and
£116,270,000 in 1868. Considering that the population
of France is almost stationary, these results are con-
sidered most satisfactory.
The imports of cattle, too, have largely increased, not.
withstanding stringent measures against the importation
of cattle disease. The English Secretary of Embassy
notes as a significant fact that the Government,
while taking precautions against the introduc-
tion of a disease from foreign countries, is
actually investigating the nature of an indigenous one
which has many years caused great ravages among the live
stock in some parts of France. "As the commission
appointed for the purpose has not yet published its report,
I can only state some general facts concerning it. This disease
is peculiar to the departments of the Cantal and Puy de
Dome, in the centre of France, and is known by the name
of the mal de montagne.' It infects the cattle fed upon
the high lands of these departments, which form
a vast volcanic plateau about 3,500 feet above
the level of the sea. The southern and western
departments are supplied with cattle from these
pastures, and almost all the young beasts which are fat-
tened in Normandy are bred here. Large quantities of
cheese are also made in these districts. It seems to be
established that the malady consists in an affection of the
viscera of the animals, caused by the presence in the blood
of an undue quantity of carbon, whether produced
by the peculiar properties of the flora or n ater remains
doubtful. Although it does not extend to the neighbour-
ing districts, and has not hitherto been considered con-
tagious, it is, I think, questionable whether cattle infected
with it and removed to the other pastures may not repro-
duce it, under different conditions, in a more -virulent and
even contagious form."

It is stated that Finlen, of Hyde-park notoriety,
will shortly sail from Liver' 00l for the Llitt d States.
Previously to doing so, ho is to receivo a testimonial from
his Loudon admirers.

The Earl of Denbigh writes, for the information
those who have subscribed to the Papal Defence Fund, that
the committee have sent out 1,000 Hemir•gton r:fles com-
plete, at an expense of .£3,,100, ::11 of u Lich are paid for.

The madness of the suicidal mania is singulnr. On
Saturday, for t xemple, a man at Liveipeol thought it meet to
destroy himself in public, wl.ile Ilw chits (I was awaiting the
arrival of the judges at the nifize,. A ftllow iusied up the
Eters of the St. George's Ilall, drew attentit n to Litr,elf,
and thin cut Lis throat with a razor. Ile is not expected to
recover.

The application to have the Duke of Ncwcastle
made a bankrupt came again on Monday Laura the Commis-
sioner of Bankruptcy. Nothing, however, was done. A
discusion as to whether the case ehould be postponed was
settled by the appointment of the IBth cf October as the day
in which the question whether a peer could be made a
bankrupt should be argued.

The foot and month disease is spreading through
Surrey and Kent. At Wallingtun two hundred head of
cattle have hen affectid. The trrniment ado! ted, under
which cattle have grt qtly improved, is to have their mombs
swabbed out night and morning with a gargle, cornio:ed of
chlorate of potash and dilute sulph ic acid, and to feed them
on mashes containing quantities of common salt.

The as&zes for the county of Chester terminated
on Saturday. Amongst the concluding cases dispoEed of
were two actions for compensation against the Lond( n and
North-Western Railway Comtany, in which the dnnil:Lres
were assessed at £2CO and .! LOO rrspecticrly ; and a Ln ach
of promise ease from Birkenhead, wherein a fair complainant
lost not only a husband but her cause.

A rerious collision occurred c n Saturday afternoon at
Tinsley, near Sheffield, which resulted in several persons
being injured. A passenger train of the Manchester, Shef-
field, and Lincolnshire Company ran into sane trucks
which wire being shunted flora the main line to a siding.
Several passengers were cut and bruised, and others were
severely shaken.

Mr. Hadfield, M.P., has taken the opinion of Mr.
H. H. Dodgson, of the Thuile, as to whetLer under the
act recently passed for exempting Sunday and Ragged
Schools from rating such schools must be exempted, or
whether it is left to the disctetion of the local authorities to
exempt them or not. Counsel irclincs to the former view,
but he says there is so great room for d( ut‘t vs to the mean-
ing of the act that it requires the ju4ineet of a court of
law to settle it.

At the. Central Criminal Court, btf6re Mr. Cern-
miseioner Kerr, on Monday, a man mimed Thomas Walo
was indicted for manufacturing ecunt4 rf, it coin and keeping
a house at Millburn-row, Holloway, for the making of it.
The accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to fifteen
years penal servitude. No previous convictions were proved ;
but the prisoner was well known to the police, who on
searching the premises are said to have found between 2,00
or 3,000 counterfeit pieces.

James Higgins and Isaac Harris, two labourers, of
Leamington, well-known to the lolice, have been appre-
hended on a charge of night poael.irg and violet.tly assault-
ing Lord Willoughby de Broke's keepers. Early on Sun-
day morning the prisoners and others were found, by his
lordship's keepers, poaching on Lis estate near Kinoton. A
desperate struggle ensued, in which the keepers were injured
and the men escaped. Some of them were pursued to Leam-
ington, where the above two mcn were apprehended, and
another escaped by swimming across the Loam, near
Leamington.

VALUE OF SrAßßows.—A few years ago the
streets of New York and Brooklyn were infested withbugs
and worms that riddled all the vegetation, hung in great
festoons from the trees, swung in the air on every side,
drove the whole population from what was once the cool
and comfortable shade, making the sunny side of the street
the refuge of the pedestrian, and the parks no longer plea-
sure resorts, but nuisances. People were always dodging
these pests in walking ; in the cars they picked them
from each others' bonnets, in church from each others'
backs. It was like a plague of Egypt, and people
cryed out for a Moses. The little European house
sparrow undertook that rae, anti was successively in-
troduced into the parks and open spaces, and everywhere
its enemy and ours vanished before it. The difference in
enjoyment between a summer in New York now and three
years ago is very great, which difference of cemfort must
be laid to the account of our faithful little ally. Sparrows
are now seen in this country by the thousand, and not only
are they scavengers of cities and keepers of parks—not only
do they make streets habitable anti shade trues gratclal,
but they are worth their weljt in gold to fruit-growers
in the country round about. The only sufferers,
indeed, by their domestication here are the comic papers,
which used to be full of woodcuts describing the dis-
comforts—Adolphus making love to Angelina with a pair
of the banished enemies hanging to the waxed ends of
his
moustache, she wearing a cluster of them cn chignon, and
so on. All that resource is closed now for the humorous
artists. But to the original question—are we ungrateful to
our feathered friends? Not so, as one who walks through
Central Park will see, observing the palaces we have built
for them, or who ever glances of a morning at their
original settlement in Union Perk—the Jamestown, so to
speak, of these little colonists--and notes the hotels we
have provided for our winged allies, while a steady old
policeman is posted as faithful guardian of taeirrigats and
interests below. .77.7 m 'gA' Antee,