The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-11 00:00:00

AL. TEST N
J.L.4

FRANCE.

PARIS, WED.NESDA.T EVENING.
The paragraph in the Moniteur of yesterday, de-
scribing the revolt of about 40 men at Chalons-
sur-Saone, who surprised the military post to the
cry of " Vivo la Republique !" has puzzled people
a good deal. Chalons is not so far from Paris that
a handful of men could hope to persuade an
entire population that the Government was
overthrown and the Republic restored throughout
France. And then the officers, it appears, first
ran (the Moniteur says) to the house of the Sub-
Prefect to know if the news was true, and, when
they found it was not, forced their passage, sword
in hand, to the barracks. There are various con-
jectures on this subject, exaggerated no doubt,
and contradictory. One is, that the affair was
more serious than is represented, and that the
resistance was greater. ALother account ig, that
the echauffource was only an attempt to rescue
some persons who bp.d been arrested under the new
Penal Law, and who were in the act of being taken
off. Nothing is more likely than that tale friends
of the arrested raised a clamour, and that those who
are ready to profit by every opportunity increased
the disturbance.
Marshal Castellano bad arrived at Chalons ; he
quitted Lyons, where he commands, the moment
the news reached him.
The Pattie publishes further particulars. It
says :

" Under cover of the darkness of the night and a
heavy fall of snow, the insurgents, preceded by
some persons of inoffensive appearance, approached
a guard-house occupied by a few infantry soldiers
in the Rue de Beaune. The greater number of
the insurgents remained at a distance, and a few
stole on the sentinel and disarmed him, while
some covered his mouth to prevent him giving an
alarm. They then rushed into the guard-house,
where the soldiers were sleeping. The assailants
took possession of some of the muskets, but the
sergeant of the guard drew his sword and attacked
them. They then fled towards the bridge, where
they were met byla detachment of infantry, and the
greater number of the revolutionary party were
arrested.

Apropos of people arrested under the new law, a
person who has arrived from Marseilles mentions
that he saw a gang of 68 men embarking in that
place for Algeria, He adds, indeed, that several of
them were persons of notoriously bad character,
independent of political opinions.
It is again said that M. Pietri will cease to be
Prefect of Police after the execution of Orsini and
his accomplices. It is thought that his successor
will be a military man, indeed a general officer.
The lifoniteur de Agriculture draws up a table
of the uncultivated moors and " landes" contained
in each department of France. The total amounts
to nearly twenty million acres, without reckoning
marshes, which by drainage might be transformed
into Risture land. Surely here is an opening for
capital and intelligence.
The Paris correspondent of the Daily News says :
" The authorities continue to give themselves the satis-
faction of seizing English journals very frequently. I
cannot find in the reading-rooms to-day either the Daily
Naps, Express, or Sun, but the attend-tilts are strictly
enjoined not to answer any questions about the missing
papers. Journals addressed to private individuals are
frequently purloined in the post-office by minor officials,
who take it for granted that the persons to whom they
belong will suppose they are seizsd by authority."
A Paris letter in the Nord says :
" It is stated that a pamphlet on the relations between
England and France, prepared under the direction of
the Emperor himself, is about to be published. On all
important occasions we have had publications of the
same kind ; there was one, for example, on the revision
of the Constitution, just before the 2d Dec., 1854, and
one on the Eastern question, on the eve of the Crimean
war. The pamphlet now spoken of will, it is said, give
a summary of the just complaints of the nephew of
Napoleon I. against England. It will ask ho.s the
English Government has responded to the confidence
shown in it ! By allowing, it will answer, a series of
attempts on the life of the Emperor to be organised with
impunity during the last six years at London. The
pamphlet will then give a curious historical account of
all the plots of the refugees. The paper will terminate,
it is said, by a warm appeal to the English nation to
oblige its Government to carry out the alliance with a
sincerity worthy of two great nations. Such is what is
rumoured about the contents of the writing in question.
The title will be, it is said, "Napoleon 111. (levant
l'Angleterre."