The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-08 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Sunday Evening.
There was a Cabinet Council yesterday at the
Tuileries. The Emperor presided, and the Empress
was also present at the Council. ller Majesty occa-
sinally takes part in the discussions.
The Moniteur states that, upon the resignation of
the Italian Ministry, the King at first requested

General Menabrea to form a new Cabinet.

Thal

statesman, however, from private motives having
declined the task, his Majesty charged M. Itatazzi
to propose to him the names of persons whom he

wished to form a portion of the new Cabinet.
A letter from Spezzia announces that the Italian
Government has given a fresh impulse to the works
at the arsenal, which proceed rapidly. The walls
and the numerous forts, that is to say the most im-
portant part of the defence, are almost completed.

The construction of the head of the jetty and

the advance military fort is being carried on with
great activity.
The Minister of War has decided that the pupils
of the Special Imperial Military School shall be
immediately armed with the breech-loading gun of
the model of 1866. The same regulation is to be
adopted in regard to the troops of the Imperial
Guard, and those who will form part of the camp
at Chalons. The battalion of Foot Chasseurs of
the Imperial Guard, who last year received 500 guns
of the 1866 model, have just been supplied with the
remainder of their armament.

The Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, and
Public 'Works, Vice-President of the Universal Ex-
hibition, yesterday received the members of the
French and Foreign Commissions, the Commis-
sioners accredited to the Imperial Commission, and
the functionaries of the Foreign Commissioners pre-
sented by:their President, and also various persons
having business at the Exhibition.
The juries will resume their labours to-morrow.
Notice of the fact has been given to the exhibitors
of various classes according to well-ordered arrange-
ment. The office for the purchase of season tickets
is now transferred from the Champs Elysees to the
office of the Imperial Commission in the Avenue de
la Bourdonnaye, No. 2 in the Champ de Mars.
Commencing from to-morrow (Monday) weekly
tickets will be delivered for 6 francs. Purchasers
must first have their portrait photographed on an
ordinary visiting card, on which the admission autho-
rity will be pasted. The day on which the ticket is
delivered will be included in the week. The ticket
will also serve for the Billancourt Exhibition.
The workmen are now engaged in constructing in
the centre of the Exhibition a handsome circular
Pavilion, with glass work around, which will con-
tain the coins struck during the present reign. It
is also destined for the exhibition of the crown

jewels. Great precaution will be taken for their
safety. Every night they will descend by ingenious
mechanism into an underground receptacle, the
opening to which will be invisible.
Among the illustrious strangers who will grace the
Exhibition is a sovereign of note, the nigger King
of Bonny, who, it is said, has a palace constructed
of the bones of vanquished enemies, and who can
give a human skull to 100,000 guests to drink from
as with the loving cup. The kingdom of Bonny is
situated to the north of the coast of Guinea, be-
tweeen the Niger and one of its confluents. It has
an army of 60,000 men and 100 pieces of artillery
of English manufacture. The habits of the people,
says a French writer, are very simple, and if they
do not love one another they love the Europeans—
particularly after their flesh has been cooked upon the
gridiron and if they be fat. This description reminds
me of a question put by a traveller to a chief of
one of the tribes of these niggers. The traveller
asked if the chief's people liked the English. Oh
yes, said the chief, and so do I ; I have eaten some of
them. They seem to illustrate the admonition to
" Love thy neighbour as thyself." Ilis nigger ma-
jesty, adds the account, has not eaten any human
beings since his journey to London in 1861, and the
lords of his court hair:, followed the example of ab-
stinence. The people, however, still preserve their
primitive taste ; but, in virtue of a recent law, no
native of Bonny can touch human flesh without the
permission, in writing, of his lord and master. The
black king, it is said, will bring with him plenty of
gold in barrels, and so no doubt he will be wel-
come.

Thursday next will be a busy day at the Billan-
court Exhibition, as there is then to be a sale of the
beautiful sheep and other animals now on exhibition

there.

There is still much to finish at the Exhibition in
the Champ de Mars. Switzerland and Italy are
nearly empty, and Belgium is rather behind.
The Opposition have given notice of several
amendments which they mean to propose in the
Legislative Body upon the law respecting the press.
These amendments aro of a moderate character, and
several of them do not involve any serious modifica-
tion in the proposals of the Government. Some
relate to the stamp duty, which it is proposed to
make more equal in its operation. Other amend-
ments are with the view of changing the mode
of proceeding for offences of the press, to mitigate
the fines, and to lower the security of money to be
paid upon first publishing a newspaper. Another
important amendment is to provide that there shall
not be any proceedings against
the printer of a
newspaper unless in cases where the author is not
known or refuses to assume the responsibility of an
incriminated article. Some members of the Opposi-
tion wished to propose amendments of a much more
extensive character, but their opinion was overruled
on the suggestion that there would be no chance of
passing them.
The articles of the newspapers respecting Luxem-
burg form a labyrinth through which it is difficult
to travel. Although Lord Stanley, in the House of
Commons, and the Dutch Minister, M. de Zuylen,
in the Dutch Chamber of Deputies, both speak of
what has taken
place as "discussion" or overtures,
and not <<negotiations," the Meniorial Dipoinatique
asserts that the preliminaries have assumed the cha-
racter of " a formal negotiation," at least as far as
France is concerned. According to the Nord, Russia
claims to have a part in the negotiations in her cha-
racter as a party to the treaties of 1839. Another
journal asserts that the Prussian Government has
informed the French Ambassador that it is opposed
to the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Luxem-
burg either to France, Prussia, or the Confederation

of the North, but tht,t the inhabitants would be more
satisfied with the maintenance of the independence
of the Duchy under the sceptre of the King of liol-
land. The Etendard has a despatch from Berlin
which states that hi:Arm:Gen:3 have
Leal sent fronl
the Prussian Cabinet to its diplomatic agents at the
German States, and to the powers who signed the