The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-13 00:00:00

DEPARTURE OF 211 E EMPRESS OF

THE FRENCH.

Her Imperial Majesty the Empress of the
French left Claridge's Hotel at eight o'clock last
evening on her return to Paris.
Her Imperial Majesty, with the members of her
suite, left the hotel in a private carriage, and arrived
almost unobserved at the railway station.
Mr. Teulon, one of the directors of the South
Eastern Railway, with Mr. Eborall, general mana-
ger, and Mr. Knight, superintendent, were in
attendance to receive the Empress, and conducted
her Imperial Majesty to a reserved first-class com-
partment in the ordinary night mail train.
The Empress was accompanied to the station by
the Duke of Atholl.

The fact of the Imperial presence was not known
to the general public on the platform until just
previously to the mail leaving, when a few persons
approached the carriage in which the Empress sat.
As the train moved out of the station a loud out-
burst of cheering bade the august traveller " God
speed" on her journey homeward.
Just before the train started the Empress spoke
from the carriage window to Mr. Claridge, who
had attended her Imperial Majesty to the station,
and expressed her great satisfaction at the com-
fortable privacy she had enjoyed while under his
roof.

The Empress was to sleep last night at the Pa-
vilion Hotel at Folkestone, and embark in the
French Imperial yacht La Reine Hortense this
morning for Boulogne.

FOLKESTONE, THURSDAY MORNING.

Her Imperial Highness the Empress of the
French, • after passing the night at the Royal
Pavilion Hotel, embarked at 10 a.m. this day on
board the Imperial Government steamer for France,
amid deafening cheers.

THE EMPEROR OF CIIINA'S PLACE

OF RIFUGE.

The Moniteur der Armee gives the following par-
ticulars in reference to the spot whither the Em-
peror of China is reported to have fled :
Moukden is not in Tartary properly so called,
but in Mandchouria. The country of the Mand-
choux forms part of the interior provinces of the
empire, and comprises three departments. The
first is that of Ching-King, having for its chief
town Moukden or Foung-Thean ; the second
Ghirin, with a chief town of the same name ; and
the third is Sakhalien-Oula Khoton, with Tsi-
Tsikar as its capital. It is in the country of the
Mandchonx that are to be found the most devoted
partisans of the Tartar-Mandchoux dynasty, which
effected the conquest of China in 1644, and
still reigns over that vast empire. Mandchouria is
separate from the province of Petchi-li, in which
Pekin is situated, by that of Laotang. Between
the two last-named provinces are the high moun-
tains of Than-Yen, which aro of difficult access, and
must have protected the retreat of the Emperor.
Moukden is about 400 kilometres (5-Bths of a mile
each) from Pekin. If the Emperor had retired into
Tartary properly so called, he would have had to
make a journey across Mongolia of 1,000 kilometres
(625 miles), and pass through some provinces the in-
habitants of which are completely hostile to him.
We may add, in order to explain the English de-
spatch, that at Hongkong, Shanghai, and in the ports
on the coast inhabited by Europeans, all the Chinese
posses-ions which have been formerly conqueredby
the Tartars and by the Tartar Mandehoux—such
as Mongolia, Mandchouria, Dzoangaria, Daouria,
and Chinese Turkestan—are all comprised under
the general and usual name of Tartary. Moukden
was the residence of the Sovereigns of China until
1644, the period of the conquest. It comprises two
distinct cities—the Imperial one, which has a cir-
cumference of four kilometres, and a magni-
ficent palace ; and the other, which surrounds the
former, 12 kilometres round, is enclosed by a wall
much more considerable than that of Pekin. The
population of Moukden does not now exceed
500,000 men. The city contains very fine temples,
and magnificent buildings of all kinds.