The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-07 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROX PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Friday Erening.
There was another Cabinet Council yesterday at
the Tuileries, over which, as usual, the Emperor
presided.

The Moniteur has received a telegram from Con-
stantinople, dated Jan. 2, which states that the
Porte had that morning received news of the sub-
mission of Cellius and Kissamos, the two fortified
points occupied by the insurgents in the western
part of Crete. Completely beaten in an encounter
in which they had 200 men killed, the insurgents
fled in disorder towards the sea, and were enabled
to leave the island in vessels which they had been
able to procure for the purpose.

The Senate of The kingdom has beeu prorogued
without any day being fixed for the resumption of
its labours.

According to a private despatch from Athens, the
political programme of the new Ministry was one of
moderation, the Ministry being of opinion that
Greece requires tranquillity to develope her re-
sources. The Ministry has no connection with the
insurrection in the island of Crete. " Greece," says
this despatch, "in spite of her sympathy for the
Candiotes, will respect the laws of neutrality in re-
gard to Turkey,"
The despatches received by the Minister of 'War
by the last mail from Mexico are uninteresting as
far as mil!aary operations are concerned. Indeed,
the only announcement they contai❑ of importance
is that a telegram, dated Dec. 1, mentions the re-
turn of the Emperor Maximilian to his capital. At
the departure of the last despatch the bells of the
churches were ringing in celebration of the event.
Some of the insutrectionary bands continued to give
cecasional trouble to the troops, but their efforts
are so powerless that they are treated with indif-
ference.

The Siecle says:—"Everyone must have re-
marked the pacific character of the reply of the
Emperor to the felicitations of the Diplomatic Body.
At Berlin the Prince loyal, in reply to the deputa-
tion who brought to King William I. a present
offered to him by the army, finished his speech with
these words God grant us many more long
years of pacific Government.' May these wishes
be realised (adds the Siecle). May the Universal
Exhibition also have the good results which are ex
petted from, it ! The speech of the Emperor to the
Archbishop of Paris is the analysis of a wholes poli-
tical system. The Archbishop is complimented upon
the fact that his Mandements and his Pastoral
Letters are, vmbued with a spirit of patriotism, faith,
charity,
understa r aid conciliation. May the other bishops
nd that the eulogiums bestowed upon Mon-
seiguerar Darboy should be considered by them as a
sort 'ollmoli, and that they afford a. 4 twequivocal

There was a great deal more snow last night, and
it has snowed several times during the day. It has
been dull and foggy and intensely cold, the ther-
mometer generally being below freezing point.
There is every indication of great abundance of
snow. According to the accounts from the North
of Icelatzd there is a great deal of what is called
Greenland ice in that territory. It was detached
from the coast during the summer, but not to a
greatd istance, and it is supposed that the arm of
the sea which separates Greenland from Iceland was
completely crowded by the ice from the north of
that island. According to a letter from a naval
officer, which appears in a Copenhagen paper, the
ice in its progress towards the south, will soon:come
in contact with the great current of the Gulf of
Mexico, and it will then be melted, and will cause
great perturbations in the atmosphere. The con-
sequence, in all probability, will be that all the
countries of Europe situated to the north of 51 and
52 degrees of latitude will experience wet and vari-
able weather during the summers of 1867 and 1866.
The year 1866 (says one of the Paris papers) was
remarkable for numerous calamities. We had the
seven plagues of Egypt, and other plagues which
were unknown to the ancients—the cholera, the
cattle plague, inundations, invasion of locusts, bad
harvests, war, and earthquakes. These were the
items of one side of the account. As to the other,
the only clear benefit WM the enfranchisement of
Venice. As to the battle of Sadowa, we don't learn
on which side of the aecouns to place it. We must
not forget that three new planets were discovered in
1866, but then they are such small ones. Let us
hope that the year 1867 will be more happy in every
respect. There will be one rather rare peculiarity
which pleases the superstitious. This year only two
Fridays fall on the 13th, the 13th November and
the 13th December. Only two days reckoned by
some as positively unlucky.

Snday Evening.
The Gazette d Italie announces that the negotia-
tiona with Rome continue favourable, and that
already several points of difficulty in regard to eccle-
siastical matters have been overcome.
The Moniteur states that the King of Prussia will
shortly arrive at Kiel, as his Majesty is desirous to
decide himself respecting the best point of the bay
on which to construct the naval port.
The vessel Jean Bart, which serves as a school of
instruction for young sailors, arrived in the roads of
Rio Janeiro on Dec. 22. The sanitary state of the
vessel was satisfactory at that date, and the cases of
fever which had manifested themselves during the
passage of the vessel from the western coast of
Africa to Brazil had completely disappeared. Seven
of the youths who had been attacked with fever
were landed at Rio in full convalescence. The
Jean Bart was to put to sea on the 10th, for the
purpose of executing some manoeuvres, and would
shortly afterwards proceed to Bahia.
The Sieck says: —" The German papers announce
that the Eastern question is beginning
to assume a
formidable aspect. AVe do not know upon what
information the newsmongers beyond the Rhine
found their opinion, but, according to documents in
our possession, France is on terms of cordial under-
standing with the Powers who signed the Treaty of
Paris, and the Ottoman Porte will consent to con-
cessions in favour of the Christian populations, It
will, therefore, be in an amicable manner that the
difficulties presented by the Eastern question will be
arranged."
On Friday commenced the nine days' fete of
Sainte Genevieve, the patroness
of Paris. This
religious ceremony, which is every year celebrated
with great pomp at the church of St. Etienne-du
Mont, as well as at the Pantheon, has attracted a
considerable number of the faithful, not only in
Paris, but from the neighbouring villages and towns.
At the period of the demolition of the Abbey Church
of Sainte Genevieve in 1801 the stone coffin con-
taining the remains of the patroness Saint of Paris,
which was placed there on the 3d of January, 511,
was found. The tomb, which remained empty
when the relics were taken away to be carefull
preserved in one of the chapels of St. Etienne-du-
y
Mont, have always been held in great veneration,
as well as the chasse of the Saint, which is now at
the Pantheon. In the reign of Louis the
Sixth, towards the year 1131, a malady
which was called the sacred fire (feu sacre) deci-
mated the population of Paris. The inhabitants
requested that this chasse should be taken with great
solemnity to Notre Dame by way of
propitiation.
When the epidemic disappeared, it was carried back
to Sainte Genevieve, and placed behind the altar.
As has been the case for many years, temporary
shops for the sale of articles of piety and Church
ornament and worship have been erected at the
doors of the two churches which contain the chasse
and the tomb of the patroness of Paris.
Several violent shocks of earthquake were felt at
Spa on the 3d of January at mid-day. They lasted
several seconds.
The same phenomenon was re-
marked in the neighbourhood of Stavelot.
In Algeria there has been a terrific earthquake,
of which the following particulars have been ob-
tained :—Ou the morning of the 2d of January
several shocks of earthquake took place in thepro-
vince of Algeria, at a quarter past seven and at
nine
in the morning. The shock at a
quarter past seven
was the most violent. It caused considerable loss and
destruction at Blidah and in the villages to the
west of Chiffa. A great number of houses were
thrown down and rendered uninhabitable. The
soldiers left their barracks and encamped under a
tent. Only one man, however, received any in-
jury. The villages of La Chiffa,
Mouzaiaville, Ben-
Roumi, El-Affroun, El-Amour, and E - have
1 A'n .
ville
been almost entirely destroyed.
At Mouzam
37 persons were killed and 100 injured. At
Ben-itoumi the number killed was four and many
were injured. At El-Affrouni 12 were
killed and
sixty more or less injured. Arrangements were
rapidly made to render assistance, and the troops
were sent with all haste with provisions and tents
to shelter the inhabitants. Shocks of earthquake
the
were also felt in all the towns of
the Tell and
province of Algiers. The earthquake was
not at

One of the most eminent jurisconsults of France,
M. Frederic Mourlou, has just died. The name of
his works is legion.
The celebrated Swiss prophet, Jean Tobia, is
dangerously ill. Should he live till the 16th of next
February he will have reached his 105th year.
During the year 1866 the number of letters dis-
tributed in Paris by the Post-office was 1,028,437.
Your readers will regret to learn that Rossini is
rather seriously indisposed.
The shopkeepers of Paris, who provided such an
abundance of gaudy and tasteful articles of the season,
have no reason to be dissatisfied with the result of
their exertions. It is evident, from the appearance
of some of the shops, that the goods sold well, for
some of them which were completely filled are now
comparatively empty. As to the dainty eatables,
the official records of the markets prove that the
amount sold considerably exceeded that of last year
at the same time. The English have done their
part effectively, for I noticed yesterday, on passing
the shop of M. Deboos—the English butcher in the
Faubourg St. Honore—the upper portion of which
now forms a part of the Boulevard Haussman, that
his splendid stock of Christmas meat had been con-
siderably thinned, like the stocks of articles of taste,
luxury, and industry at the other shops. The
French butchers cut their meat differently from the
English, but this great purveyor accommodates him-
self to the English taste, which is one reason why
they patronise him so extensively.

7HE DEATH OF SIXTY-SIX, WITH LAST
DYING SPEECH AND CONFESSION.

One of the happiest political squibs we have
anywhere met with for a long time past we tran-
scribe below from the columns of the Morning
Herald of to-day :
The slushy earth, struck by a sudden frost,
Hardened, and silently the foot's impression
Sank in a now-fallen skew, and then was lost,
A. flake on flake fell fast in quick succession,
Tho West wind veered to North, and, sadly sighing,
Huddled the snow in drifts, and, onward flying,
Whispered around, "The old, old year is dying ;"
And folk looked up and smiled, as if replying,
"A good job too ;" and still the wind went crying
To where the holy man in vain was trying,
By terror, admonition, intercession,
To move the sad old sinner to confession.
But when he spake no word, with wrath aflame,
Re called on the accusers. And they came
And swarmed around—not ones and twos, but dozens ;
Each glad reviler, to enjoy the game,
Brought his own angry sisters, wives, and cousins,
And such a chorus swelled, and such confusion
Rose round the white head of the dying giant,
That had he not been ruthlessly defiant,
He surely to the parson had been pliant,
And owned his biUS, and got his absolution.
But he, regardless quite, spake not a sentence,
Nor showed the slightest symptom of repentance,
Whilst all around, in stormy gusts, was whirled
The babble of the grumblers of the world.
"Who killed our fruits with early frosts that caught'em ?
"Who drenched our moors and,stubbles all the autumn ?
Who turned our barley into farm-yard litter
" And made our Bass and Allsopp raise their bitter ?
" Who made our streets a mud-sea, in which wretches
" Condemned to walk where filthy London stretches
" Could find for crossing not a single isthmus ?
" Who forced. Gigantic Gooseberries at Christmas ?
"Who raised the prices of all kinds of victuals ?
" Who knocked down Kings and Emperors like skittles ?
"Quite indiscriminately bowled good and bad over,
"And throned brute force upon the field of Sadova ?
" Who fired his holocaust in earth's black bed
'• And filled the ghastly catacombs with dead ?
"Who strewed the seas with wrecks and floating spars ?
" Who dragged us from our beds with shootitg stars ?
" Who taught vile Bears, death-dealing lies to vent ?
" Who kept the Bank two months at 10 per cent. ?
" Who broke great firms and solvent banks like sherds ?
" Left but a remnant of our flocks and herds' ?
"(Worst slanghterman that ever raised a cleaver!)
" Who brought the cholera and yellow fever?
" Who burnt the two giraffes ? Who killed the porpoise I
"Suspended twice the writ of Habeas Corpus?
"Hatched pale rebellion in the Queen's dominions,
"And frighted Erin with the skulking Fenians ?
" Who laughed at vile venality in voters
" And glorious greediness in Yarmouth bloaters ?
" Who set one class against another railing ?
" Who quite demolished all the Hyde-park paling ?
" Who set John Bright to fall on Robert Lowe?
" Who 'gainst the bishops egged on S.G.O.' ?
" Who set all Churchmen squabbling about capers,
"And albs, and chasubles, and copes, and tapers ?
" Tho form of waistcoats ? and the cut of bands ?
" Who sent the wreckers on to Goodwin Sands ?
" Who, as a parting gift, in wanton malice
"Destroyed th• Winter Garden of our Palace ?
" And just to spite the generous friends that bro't 'om us
" Fried the poor Chimpanzee and Hippopotamus ?
"Who _,
But the giant stirred ! His hour was near.
The pleased Confessor bent him down to hoar—
He would not die without a single word—
Confession came at last—his prayers wore heard !
Hush !
The slow words bespeak the inward tussle—
" But then—you know—l did—turn out—JOHN RUSSELL."

A. faint smile played around his lips. His foes
Stood speechless. Then a mystic band arose,
Weird, black robed, horse-hair wigged, each one a knight,
And hailed him as their maker, and, from sight,
Bore him away, the while the startled heaven
Clanged to the birth of 1867.
Jan. 1, 1867. _