The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-04 00:00:00

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, FRIDAY, September 3.
The debate in the Senate is at this moment the all-
engrossing topic. You are already familiar with the
speech of Prince Napoleon, which is still being every-
where discussed. Naturally, everyone is asking what the
Emperor thinks of his cousin's manifesto, and the news
that the Prince had yesterday afternoon a long interview
with NapoleoDexcited lively interest. The Constitutionnel,
which favours the Prince, asserts that the Emperor ex-
pressed his concurrence in most of his relative's
views, but the Patrie triumphantly declares that
long before this interview the Emperor had com-
manded the attendance of M. Forcade de la Roquette,
and had warmly congratulated him on his speech of the
day before. Now as the two speeches were certainly not
identical in their views, it follows that if the Emperor
was pleased with that of the Minister of the Interior, he
could not have very cordially approved of his cousin's.
Thus argues the Patric, and it explains Prince
Napoleon's visit by the Emperor's natural desire to thank
him for his professions of attachment to his dynasty, for-
getting that yesterday it stigmatised those very profes-
sions as ill-timed and out of place! Rumours of every
kind are rife. Some would have us believe that there is
a secret understanding between the Emperor and his
cousin ; others, that at this very interview of which I
have been speaking the Emperor reproached the Prince
vehemently for his conduct and his speech. As for the
Ministry, they are naturally a good deal irritated
by this sudden explosion in their midst. M. Rouhcr, I
hear, had the greatest difficulty to restrain himself from
an immediate reply. " I will not read it again," he is
reported to have said of the obnoxious speech, "lest I should
be tempted to answer it." M. Arcade's reply was not very
prudent, inasmuch as he pledged himself against all those
supplementary reforms which the Prince demanded, and
for which the Liberals of Paris aro eagerly looking.
While speaking of the Minister of the Interior, I may
notice that he alluded to the amnesty as one of the glories
of the Empire—that amnesty which M. Forcade de la
Roquette, if report be true, oppoSed to the very last
minute.
The views which the Prince expressed in this redoubtanie
speech will doubtless find favour in England. He forsees
the danger which would result from the excessive powers
claimed by the Senate, which he terms a convention in pre-
sence of a Cmsar. Ile would abandon such ex tremeprivileges;
he would permit the public discussion of the Constitution,
affirming reasonably enough that every good citizen must
take an interest in politics. lie would modify the articles
relating to the nomination of deputies and he would have
a thorough municipal reform. I mentioned the other
day a rumour that M. Boujean's amendment would not
fail to receive his Highness's support, and you will
accordingly End that Prince Napoleon declared himself
unmistakeably in favour of a change in the composition
of the Senate. "Election," said he "is more powerful than
any mere nomination, and history has proved that the fertile
soil of universal suffrage is more favourable to the vigour
of any body than the mere brilliant sand of Imperial
favour." "The best method of combating revolutions,"
said the Prince, in conclusion, "is to adopt what is good
in them, and on this path the Government has entered.
Let it persevere." In all this there is nothing which merits
M. S6guin d'Aguesseau's denunciation of " scandalous,'
even if we include the Prince's supplementary list of
future reforms, in which I am glad to find that he ranks
the abolition of Article 75, indemnifying Government
agents from the consequences of unjust and arbitrary
arrests.

In its second sitting the Senate voted the four first
Articles of the Senatus-Consultum, thereby preparing no
small perplexity for the future, since the ques-
tion of Ministerial responsibility is left delight•
fully vague. M. Devienne defended himself and
his report against the attacks of Prince Napo-
leon, and was followed by M. Michel C'hevalier,
who declared himself iu favour of a division of legislative
Dower between the two Chambers, and opposed to the
monopoly of constitutional power by the Senate. M.
Chevalier, in an eloquent and impressive address, pointed
Tepeatedly to the examples of England and of the
United States as instances of the success of parliamentary
government. What progress, he explained, had not
England made in the last century in agriculture, in
science, in arts, and in letters, and to-day she was founding
empires that another half-century would see rivalling
those of Europe. Eighty years ago the United States
had barely 4,000,000 of inhabitants. To-day No iv York
tanks next to Paris and London. All this was due to
that system of political liberty which England possessed,
but which she had been forced to fight for, work for,
conquer by degrees, as France was doing now. In an
eloquent peroration, M. Chevalier warned his hearers that
they might clog the movement, but they could not arrest it,
and that notwithstanding the opposition of the Ministerof
the Interior, two years would not pass before the system
of Parliamentary government was proposed in that
Chamber for France. I have no space for reference to the
addresses of M. Boujean and M. de la Guerroniere, who
succeeded M. Chevalier in the debate.
The Emperor has improved so much that there will soon
be little occasion to comments on his health. The consul-
tations of the doctors, which have been held twice a day,
will shortly he discontinued altogether. The Empress and
the Prince Imperial are expected to arrive at St. Cloud
to-night. The Empress appears to have suffered from
fatigue during the latter portion of her journey. She met
with a warm welcome at Chambery, and has certainly no
cause to complain of the manner in which she has been
treated wherever she has been.

Marshal Prim, not being able to see the Emperor, has
paid a visit to Prince Napoleon. He complained that it was
most difficult to find a king for Spain, and discussed the
prospects of the Duke of Genoa's candidature. It is
believed that the Marshal will have Jan audience of the
Emperor on his return from Vichy. Ills visit to France
will have no political significance.
An inquiry is to be instituted at Berlin with respect to
the false accounts that were given of the health of the
Emperor Napoleon. The bad news produced so great a
sensation in the town that the king's carriage could
not proceed on account of the crowds which collected in
the neighbourhood of the Bourse.

I hear that the Empress expressed her thanks to the
representatives of the Paris press who accompanied the
Imperial party, for the admirable accounts which they
sent to their respective journals. It seems that her
Majesty took great interest in these descriptions of her
journey, and that her maid of honour read them to her in
succession as they appeared.

The cattle disease in West Prussia is diminishing so
rapidly that the authorities at Marienwerder have authorised
the reopening of the markets in the present week on the
right bank of the Vistula, and it is expected that all the
precautionary measures, which, of course restricted trade
and intercourse, will soon be recalled. In East Prussia filo
pestilence has given way so much that the highest civil
and military authorities of the Province do not hesitate to
recommend that the great military manoeuvres be held there
in the course of this month, as had been previously arranged.
The church furniture and appliances in some of
the churches in the Cumberland lake district are apparently
of a wry primitive character. It transpired in Carlisle Cerisi9-
tcny Court the other day that in _Lorton parish church, in the
picturesque vale of Lorton, well known to the tourist, the
plate upon whick the communion bread child's half was put was a
penny tin Plate ; the chalice was a pewter jug only
tit for a beer-house, and might be identified as one of the
same kind, and the cup was a child's drinking cup, and was
as thin as an egg E hell, and would contain about a quarter
of a pint. Tho church is now about to be repaired and
renovated, and these curious specimens of communion plate
will In replugecl by a Nam aorvice.