The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-02 00:00:00

tHE Su N, LON' ON, MONDAY EVEINING... DECEMBER 2, 1867.

were doomed. King ARCHIBONG, of Duke
Town, Old Calabar River, is at the head of
these systematic murders, and the Europeans
have often succeeded in getting his victims out of
his hands. In September they rescued six ; in
October, as we have seen, four, though twenty-four
victims, many of them very young, were killed in
that month, and their heads sent to King ARCIII-
BONG. His MAJESTY was very indignant at the
escape of the four saved, and sent a letter demand-
ing to have them back. The Europeans held a
meeting and resolved not to give them up, and
accordingly an answer was sent ARCIIIBONG, assur-
ing him that if ho did not give up his barbarous
customs the Europeans would take the strongest
measures to compel him to do so. The Mandingo
gave the four persons— a man, woman, and two chil-
dren a safe and free passage to Fernando Po. Such
bold and vigorous interferences with the savage and
brutal customs which disgrace humanity deserves all
praise. If the traders incurred any risk they were
fully justified in doing so, and their firm and manly
pretest may be the means of saving many lives.
But to court danger unnecessarily, and to provoke
hostilities which might be avoided, is an unwise
course, and one which the representatives of English
authority, be they political, ecclesiastical, or military,
cannot too carefully avoid.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, Sunday Evening.
There was a Cabinet Council yesterday at St.
Cloud, at which, as usual, the Emperor presided.
The Empress did not attend.
It is stated from Spezzia that, in execution of
orders received from Forence, Garibaldi, accorn panied
by a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Carabineers
of the Guard, to whose care he was confided, has
been sent to the Island of Caprera on board the
steamer of the Imperial Marine, the Exploratore.
The Conference of the four States of Southern
Germany, relative to military organisation, will
commence at Munich to-morrow.
The Queen Dowager of Prussia has arrived at
the Royal residence of Sans Souci from Saxony.
The important discussions upon the interpella-
tions in regard to Italy have commenced in the
Senate. Baron Dupin made a very long speech, in
which he minutely reviewed all the incidents con-
nected with the Italian question. Referring to the

preparations for invasion, made by Garibaldi,
the Baron said that Garibaldi had 8,000 men
in the valley of the Tiber, he had other forces in
the vicinity of Naples, and in the latter days of
October he had his advanced posts within three or
four miles of Rome. All this proves that Garibaldi
is a very bad soldier. Any one but he would
have hastened to penetrate into Rome, for all was
prepared to receive him. The barracks had been
mined; other establishments had been mined.
Facilities for this operation had been afforded by
the catacombs and their subterranean passages.
Depots of arms had been prepared in the interior
of Rome. It was also proved by the yellow-book
that there were 3,000 Pontifical troops, and 2,000
French troops, in all 5,000, who had to contend
against 8,000 Garibaldians, and they vanquished
them after an obstinate combat, which cost the
Garibaldians 600 in killed, 1,200 or 1,400 wounded,
and 1,600 prisoners. Baron Dupin was rather hard
upon the new Italian Minister, General Menabrea,
who had succeeded M. Rattazzi. Rattazzi, he said,
was a sort of professor of politics, who had
given, lessons to General Menabrea. M. Rat-
tazzi had given the idea of a Congress, and
General Menabrea had adopted it, and in
other respects he closely followed the lessons
which M. Rattazzi had given to him. Baron Dupin,
however, he believed, was desirous to conduct
affairs satisfactorily. A few years ago General
Menabrea brought to him (Baron Dupin) at Paris
a letter from an eminent astronomer, the nephew
of the iilustrione La Grange, and the General ap-
peared to him to be a man worthy Gf respect, per-
fectly well-intentioned, and well disposed to solve
a problem which unfortunately, however, cannot be
solved by the course he is pursuing.

Cardinals Bonnechose and Donnet followed, and
earnestly, mildly, and eloquently supported the
rights of the Pope.
It is now said that the haiku Government has
not definitively given its adhesion to the Con-
ference. Such is the report, bat, as will be seen
above, it is in contradiction to the views formed by
Baron Dupin from the disclosures and documents
of the yellow-book. It is also said to-day that the
Pope, although not at all opposed to the idea of a
Congress, has made certain conditions, upon the
acceptance of which his adhesion to the Congress
will depend.
Avinain, the butcher, just executed for murder
and mutilation, was about as great a villain as one
might wish to meet with. He was condemned for
one murder only, but, according to information,
and from his own confession, it seems that he has
carried on the trade of murder, in a very ingenious
manner. His mode of carrying on business was
this. He attended the markets where dealers sold
hay and forage, pretending that he wanted to m ►ke
purchases to feed his cattle. He enticed these men
to haunts which he frequented in different solitary
places, took them to dine with him at a wine shop,
and plied them with wine until a late hour arrived.
He then asked his customer to sleep with him. In
the course of the night he murdered his guest while
asleep, cut up the body, and threw portions of it
into the Seine or the canal St. Danis. This was his
mode of treatment in the case of the man for whose
murder he was executed, and many similar
cases have been brought home to him. When the
President asked Avinain why he cut his victims into
pieces, he replied with an air of candour and indif-
ference, " I am an old man (he was nearly 70), and
I am not strong enough to carry a body entire, and
so I was obliged to divide the load." He was a great
glutton, and since his condemnation he thought of
nothing but eating. Ho waited very impatiently
for the hour of repast, and he was usually indulged
with double the quantity of the usual prison ration.
He several times said that the only thing which
annoyed him was that he had made any confession.
His last words to the crowd on the scaffold were—
"My friends, never confess anything." He leaves
a wife and daughter to bewail his loss, if they can
feel the loss of su'h a man. The culprit always
slept tranquilly, even on the night when he knew
he was to be executed the next morning.

A frightful occurrence has created consternation
in the little town of Bata, one of the ancient
capitals of Provence. The wife of a farmer,
named Moulin, fired a gnu at her husband while ho
was asleep. She placed the mouth of the barrel on
the temple, and death was almost instantaneous.
Three of her children were asleep in the room at
the time. This woman and her husband had
priously lived very happily together, and the crime
is attributed to a momentary hallucination. She
.had been in bed with her husband, but got out in
the middle of the night and went down to the
kitchen for the gun, which she loaded herself.
M. Polo, the manager of La Lune, has been con-
demned to pay a fine of 600 f., and to be imprisoned
for a month, for having inserted political articles
without permission. The Lune was a pestiferous
journal, which gave weekly a caricature of some
person of note, and accompanied it with a memoir
tending to bring the victim into cuutemi.t and ridi-
cule. It was of the same disgraceful character as
the Age and Paul I'ry, published in London some
five-and-twenty years ago. In addition to the
above punishment the Correctional Tribunal ordered
the suppression of La Lone, and has thus done
good service to the cause of morality and propriety.
The present Minister of the Interior, M. Pinard,
which department has the regulation of the press,
is a man disposed to assist real freedom of discussion
in every possible way, but, in accordance with the
views of every true friend of liberty, he is desirous
to suppress licentiousness and immorality.
The greatest woman of France, Elizabeth
Veronique, has just gone the way of all flesh. She
was iu her 46th year, and weighed upwards of 460
English pounds. In the month of May, 1848, this