The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-31 00:00:00

FRANCE.

An important trial to recover damages for per-
sonal injuries caused by accident has just taken
place before the Civil Tribunal in Paris. In the
month of July, 1865, the Prince of Valentinois, a
younger son of the Prince de Monaco, while in the
playground of the school attached to the chapel of
St. Mcsmin, near Orleans, of which he is a pupil,
threw a pebble in sport at another boy named Caf-
farelli, but, missing him, struck in the eye a young
man named Yvonneau, aged 22, who was preparing
at the same establishment to enter ecclesiastical
orders. The injury was of a most serious kind, and
resulted in a total loss of sight in that eye, although
the young man was under surgical treatment for a
year. He had been forced to abandon his intended
career in the Church, and had even been refused em-
ployment by a railway company in consequence of his
partial defect of vision. M. Yvonneau now brought
an action to recover damages, demanding a sum of
15,000 fr. for loss of time, surgical treatment, &c.,
and a life pension of 6,000 fr. a year in addition.
The Prince of Monaco did not deny his responsibi-
lity, but considered the amount asked for exagge-
rated, alleging that the blindness had arisen from al-
leging that the blindness had arisen from a defect of
vision from which Yvonneau had suffered since his
birth ; the Prince offered a total sum of 10,000 fr.,
which he considered would be sufficient to indemnify
the plaintiff. The court appointed M. Tardieu and
two other medical men to examine the eye, and their
report confirmed the defence put forward by the
Prince, that the loss of sight did not proceed from
the accident, although at the same time showing
that the infirmity from which M. Yvonneau had ori-
ginally suffered might have been cured by a proper
treatment, but in consequence of the wound
was now irremediable. The Court, taking into
consideration all the circumstances, condemned the
Prince to pay a sum of 10,000 f , in addition to
2,000 f., which M. Yvonneau bad already received,
and also to constitute on the latter an annual pen-
sion of 1,200 fr. The defendant was likewise ordered
to p:Ly the costs of the suit.
A man named Tchamatekine, head groom to the
Emperor of Russia, while passing yesterday across
the Place Beauvau, was knocked down by the horses
of a carriage belonging to the Marquis de Latour-
Maubourg. He received some rather serious in-
juries, and was removed to the city hosidtal in the
Faubourg St. Denis.

The bulletin of the Paris Observatory gives the
following as the atmospheric situation yesterday :
" The barometer, since Tuesday, has risen over nearly
the whole of Europe, except at Vienna, where it has
fallen 2mm. Strong pressures extend from St.
Petersburg to Algeria. The minimum was observed
this morning at Nairn (Scotland), where the mercury
reached 753 mm. ; and themaximum, at Vienna, being
768rnm. Rain is falling in Ireland. The winds
are in general moderate ; they blow from between
S.E. and N.W. in the north and west of Europe ;
from between N.E. and S.E. on the Mediterranean
coasts of France and Spain ; and are very variable
in Central Europe and Italy. The S.E. wind was
strong this morning at Bordeaux and Perpignan."—
In Paris yesterday the weather was most brilliant ;
the temperature high but not too oppressive. At
three in the afternoon the thermometer marked 28
Centigrade (83 2.5 Fahrenheit). .

EARLY CLOSING ASSOCIATION.

The twenty-fifth annual meeting of the members
of this association took place last night at the Lou-
don Coffee-house, Ludgate-hill, Mr. James Harvey,
of the firm of Betram, Harvey, and Co., Gresham•
street, occupying the chair. Mr. Henry Walker,
the secretary, read an abstract of the report for the
past year, which was of a highly satisfactory cha-
racter, showing that the object of the association is
making rapid strides, not only in the metropolis but
in most of the large towns of the provinces. Both
in the east and west of London there was a general
disposition amongst most trades to adopt early
closing and the Saturday half-holiday. The special
operations commenced in July last for extending
the latter boon to employes were producing very
good results, having been greatly assisted by the
ladies' committee organised by thelluchess of Suther-
land, and a work written by the Rev. Newman
Hall under the title of " Arguments for a Saturday
Half-Holiday." No less than 100 illustrated pla-
cards inviting the public to abstain from shopping
after two o'clock on Saturdays had also been posted
at different street stations, and the committee were
well satisfied with the results this appeal had already
produced. Many additions had been made to the
number of wholesale City houses that close at two
on Saturdays, and six on other days, while the last
Christmas holiday was generally carried out through
the exertions of the association to secure uniformity
in the day selected for that purpose. The income of
the association proper had been £1,414 ss. 7d., and
the expenditure left a balance in favour of the asso-
ciation of £29 odd. The subscriptions to the special
Saturday half-holiday fund amounted to £598 125.,
of which about £2OO remained in hand ; but there
were outstanding liabilities on this account of £175.
The chairman in his address said he could hardly
realise the change which had taken place since the
commencement of the movement, 25 years ago,
when the association was first called into existence.
Then the City hours were nine, ten, and eleven
o'clock, and on Saturdays still later ; but now,
thanks to the exertions of the association, the
custom was likely to become universal of closing at
six, and adopting the Saturday half-holiday. it
seemed to him as if he were living in a different
age. Nor had this great revolution been attended
by any of the coil consequences at first predicted.
Another gratifying feature was this : formerly the
association depended for its funds upon the em-
ployers, now the young men were the principal con-
tributors, having subscribed something like £1,089
of the last year's income. The report was unani-
mously adopted, after which the retiring members
of the committee were re-elected, and the proceed-
ings closed with a cordial vote of thanks to the
ch airman.

FIRE AT MILE-END.—Last night a fire occurred
in a private house in Henry-street, Mile-end, and
before it was subdued two children of oue of the lodgers
wore severely injured by the flames. For some time it
was thought that the children must polish, but they wore
eventually rescued by the firemen, but not until they had
sustained such injuries that the medical gentleman has
pronounced their Lives to be in great peril.