The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-06 00:00:00

or will be, made to the Parliament of the North.
The terms in which the King of Prussia at the

opening of Parliament speaks of the fall of the Ger-
man Empire, and of the vacancy caused by that fall,
are very significant. If, according to King William,
Germany has been divided into morsels, it is because
Germany has fallen. Therefore, reconstruct it upon
the basis of facts, that is to say upon the basis of

the present Prussian power, and the divisions will
disappear, and strength will return to the German
people. We may expect an attempt at the recon-
struction of a new Empire, although it may be con-

trary to the refusal of 1849. At the meeting at
Tilsitt, said a celebrated grenadier, there were four
Emperors, one of whom was the King of Prussia.
The King of Prussia appears to wish to be no longer
a simple King. If there were to be another meeting
at Tilsitt there would really be four Emperors.
But how far would would the German Empire of
1867 differ from the empire of 0 tho ? The King
of Prussia seems also to wish it to be considered that
" the Empire is peaCe," but the Luxembourg ques-
tion is not entirely pacific. Here is what a Copen-
hagen paper, the Dagbladet, says about Danish
Schleswig :—" In spite of Article 5 of the treaty of
Prague, Prussia has proceeded with the elections
throughout the whole extent of the annexed Duchies.
The Danes of Schleswig at first would not take part
in the election of an Assembly for which they had
no sympathy, and which could not in any way re-
present their wishes and interests. But upon re-
flection, considering that their abstinence might
result iu the nomination of German candidates, and
that false deductions might be raised relative to the
opinion of the country, they resolved by a common
and energetic action to anticipate, as it were, the
vote which the- Cabinet of Berlia continue in so
singular a manner to refuse to them. The Danish
candidates were, therefore, elected by a large ma-
jority-. Their protest in the Parliament of the
North will be curious. The labours of that Parlia-
ment do not present anything very striking."
The eighth great show of cattle fattened for the
butchers will take place during the present year as

follows :—On April 9 at Chateauroux, Lille, Nancy,
and Nismes ; on April 10 at Bordeaux, Lyons, and
Nantes ; and on April 17 at Poissy. Poissy is the
great cattle market of France. Forty-two prizes
and medals will be awarded at the competition at
Chateauroux to the proprietors of bovine and ovine
animals ; 45 do. at Lille; 36 do. at Nancy; 33 do.
at Nismes ; 43 do. at Bordeaux ; 38 do. at LyonS ;
and 45 do. at Nantes. At the last great show at
Poissy, on Wednesday in Passion Week, 46 prizes
and medals, and a work of art, will be given to the
owners of prize animals.
One of the curiosities of the Exhibition will be
an astronomical clock, sent by a clockmaker of
Breslau (Prussia), of very complicated machinery.
The pendulum serves both as a barometer and a
thermometer. _

Some men going to their work at an early hour
two mornings ago discovered in the Park Mon-
ceaux the body of a man whose skull had been bro-
ken by a bullet. Near the body were a broken stock
and a revolver. The body has been identified as
that of the Marquis de V., a gentleman about 45.
The marquis, who resided in the Rue Chaptal,
left home on the previous night, intimating his in-
tention to visit a friend, but the friend states that
he did not see him. An empty purse was found
near the body. The police are pursuing their in-

quiries.
To-day has been very cold and gloomy, enlivened,
or at all events varied, by occasional snow, sleet, or
rain. The provincial papers contain accounts of
unusually severe weather in many parts of France.
From Switzerland it is stated that the fishermen
upon Lake Constance have remarked that the fish
remain at the very bottom of the lake, a circum-
stance which their experience enables them to re-
mark is indicative of more severe weather.
The proposal to erect a statue to the memory of
Voltaire has brought to light a letter upon the sub-
ject from Jean Jacques Rousseau. It is addressed
to M. de la Tourette, the then secretary to the
Lyons Academy of Science and Fine Arts. The
letter is as follows:--" I learn, sir, that a project is
on foot to erect a statue to M. de Voltaire, and that
all those are permitted to assist in it who have
printed any work. I have paid dearly enough
for the right to dare to claim a share in the
object, and I beg you to be good enough to in-
terpose your good offices, so that my name
may appear among the subscribers. I hope, sir,
that the kindness with which you honour me, and
the occasion which prompts me, may induce you
easily to pardon the liberty I take. I salute you,
sir, very humbly and with all my heart. Rousseau."
There is a verse at the head of the letter, which at
that period Rousseau affixed to all his correspon-
dence. It runs thus :
" Pauvres aveugles que nous sommes !
Ciel ! demasque les imposteurs,
Et force lours barbares emirs,
A s'ouvrir au regard des homrnes."
Here is a translation of the verse in plain prose.
Poor blind creatures that we are 1 Heaven, un-
mask the importers and force their barbarous
hearts to show themselves to the sight of meu.
Rousseau's subscription was received.
A voyage of an unprecedented character has just
been accomplished by a Havre vessel to Madras,
which arrived in that port on the Ist inst. The
vessel left Havre for Valparaiso on the 22d of
August, and performed its voyage out and return,
includingday.s a stay at-Chili, in six months and seven
There are in France 3,243 Societ6s Orpheoniques
or singing societies, forming a total of 147,499'
singers. They are all invited to the Exhibition.
30,000) accept
no occasion to
'tlh'heusinsvhiotualtdionon, only
uthsiecifianftsh
wpiallrt
have
ey
" sing small" about the position they occupy.
Another calculation of a statistician is, that if all
the inhabitants of Paris were to place themselves in
a line, holding each other by the hand, the one at
the extreme end would reach as far as Archangel, a
good many miles further than St. Petersburg.

PORTUGAL.—Among the reports laid before Par-
liament from her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy
and Legation is one in which Mr. Lytton gives some ac-
count of the condition of Portugal. The tariff of Portugal
was framed at different periods, but on a highly protec-
tive scale. In the Budget for 1866-67 it was estimated
as likely to produce above £2,000,000 of a total revenue
of little more than £3,500,000; the population, which
is about 4,000,000, consisting largely of small rural
proprietors not offering, a favourable field for direct
taxation. As far as the immediate necessity of raising •
a revenue from Uustoms' duties will permit, it appears to
be the real interest of the country to encourage commercial
intercourse with foreigners, which tend to create tastes
and wants and social habits that would stimulate local
markets for home manufactures. Excellent lace is made
in Portugal, superior in some respects to that of France or
Belgium, and very much cheaper, but it is little known is the
country itself, being made in
places isolated by the want of
roads. The only defect—the ugliness of the patterns—would
disappear if there were such intercourse with other countries
as would lead to an acquaintance with better designs. Linen
is also manufactured in Portugal superior in quality of auy
now manufactured elsewhere, and equal to ghat the Irish
linen was, but is no longer ; but this article also is difficult
to obtain, and commands only a very insignificant market.
The Portguese manufacture of paper has been thought by
some to be the best in Europe, being made most conscien-
tiously from the purest materials, at least until recently the
diminished supply of cotton has made rags more scarce, and
driven some paper manufacturers to the use of inferior ma-
terials ; but there is difficulty and delay in obtaining any
considerable supply of Portuguese
paper. The paper manu-
facturer complains that he is placed under a disadvantage
by the high duties he has to pay on the import of coals
and of chemicals. Mr. Lytton is of opinion that home
consumption in Portugal, so repressed.by the tariff, would
be instantaneously increased,
and is capable of the most
extensive development, by a better commercial system ;
but there can be no trade without roads. "At present,"
says Mr. Lytton, "Portugal is practically an island which
can only be reached by sea, and of which the interior, a
thinly-populated territory of wondrous fertility, can only
be reached on horsback." The State has begun with the
construction of rairoads without making common roads to
feed them. Increased intercourse with the rest of Europe
by railway through Spain, and increased intercommuni-
cation at home by means of good common roads, must be
looked to for the augmentation of the wealth and develop-
ment of the resources of a country singularly rich in
attractions, uniting the luxuriance of the tropics with the
healthfulness of the north. " I know of no other region
1 in Europe," writes Mr. Lytton, " where, in the healthful
I enjoyment of a climate mild but not debilitating, the tra-
) yeller can breathe the breezes and pluck the heather of
. Scotland upon hills that shelter the paint and the aloe;
and I have little doubt that if they could be reached with-
out a long, fatiguing journey, tho groves, mountains, and
mineral springs of Portugal would soon become places of
European amt."