The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-05 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Sunday Evening.
There was a Cabinet Council yesterday at the
Tuileries, at which the Emperor presided.
The Emperor and Empress yesterday afternoon
received Prince Humbert at the Tuileries. His
Royal Highness was accompanied by General
Cugia, his aide-de-camp. Their Majesties after-
wards received the Prince of Servia.

Another sovereign is added to our list of visitors.
The King of Sweden, Charles the 15th, has arrived
here from Vichy.
Letters from Toulouse give accounts of the
religious ceremonies which have just taken place in
that city on the occasion of the removal of the re-
mains of Sainte Germain. In the procession there
were 14 bishops, an immense number of curates,
vicars, monks, and members of different religious
bodies. The constituted authliities of Toulouse,
official personages, magistrates, officers of the army,
and the greater portion of the inhabitants, took
part in the proceedings, which one account says
were conducted with the pomp and magnificence
displayed by the Church in the middle age.
With a view to the encouragement of musical
composers a committee has been formed to make
arrangements for three competitions for prizes.
They will be simultaneously opened at the opera,
the Opera Comique, and the Theatre Lyrique. It
is not yet settled what prizes are to be offered.
The competition will be among French composers
only.
An eminent French hydrographer, M. Gustave
Lambert, has suggested another voyage of discovery
to the North Pole in a direction very different from
the expeditions of the present century by Ross,
Franklin, Parry, Mar, Clintock, and other great
men of our day. A committee has been formed,
and a subscription opened in aid of this important
undertaking. No attempt has yet been made at
explanation in the direction which this expedition
will take. It will leave Bebring's Straits, and
proceed to the sea of Polijnca, which is known to
be free from ice, and from thence endeavour to
reach the. North Pole direct. In the origin this
plan was opposed by Doctor Augustus Petermann,
a German geographer, who suggested in preference
the route between the Spitzberg and New Zealand,
returning by way of Barentz. The object of most
of the previous expeditions was to find a direct and
commercial route from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
either by the north-west or the north-east. After
Franklin's unfortunate expedition, and the return
of the ships sent out to make researches after him,
for ten years nothing was done to forward the
great object in view. In 1865 Captain Sherard
Osborne proposed a new expedition by Smith's
Straits to the north of Greenland, following, to a
great extent, the route traced by the American
Elisa Kane. This project found some favour, but
it was abandoned chiefly in consequence of the op-
position of Dr. Petermann, just noticed. The pre-
sent plan excites interest anal sympathy. It is con-
sidered to be an expedition with peculiar character-
istics, and likely to be attended with important re-
sults. As soon as the subscriptions shall have
reached the amount of 600,000 f., the minimum sum
considered to be requisite for an expedition ex-
clusively of a scientific character, a ship will be
chartered and especially fitted out under the direc-
tion of M. Gustavo Lambert, the head of the expe-
dition, under the control of the committee. Seve-
ral savants will form part of the expedition. If by
Ist of July, 1868, there should not be sufficient
money, the amount will be returned in full to each
subscriber. The project has the sanction of the
Geographical Society, many members of the Insti-
tute, Senators, and learned men. It is also ap-
proved of by the Emperor, who is ever active iu
promoting any object of public utility. The presi,
dent of the committee is the Marquis de Chasse
loup Lambert, President of the Geographica
Society, and Senator, formerly Minister of Marine.
Accounts from Ostran (Moldavia) mention a ter-
rible explosion in a mine belonging to the Roths-
child family. At the moment of the explosion there
were 100 men in the mine, only 30 of them had
been extricated, 20 of whom were dead. The
others were so much injured that they are not ex-
pected to survive. Great exertions were being made
to save the others, if possible, but descent to the
mine was attended with great danger.
The restaurant omnibus established at the Ex-
hibition, under the auspices of the Imperial Com-
mission, to provide meals for working men at reason-
:ble prices, has progressed well. In 98 days
363,900 persons took meals there and ex-
pendol 424,500 francs. A good dinner was
given for little more than a franc—and some Ger-
mans made au arrangement to have breakfast and
dinner for a franc and a half a day. On the 9th of
ahNi'cehawdasinnoenrlyto
asbooou t oft h
rhei
es
.wltionrkemaenm, atihthef accotsttiroerf
shillings per head, including champagne.
Some interesting statistics have been published by
the Minister of Marine relative to the convicts in
the hulks at Toulon. On the Ist of January of this
year 1,594 convicts were there in confinement.
During the year which then terminated 1,031 con-
victs entered the hulks, and 1,309 left. Of the pri-
soners, 665 were condemned for robbery, 303 for
murder, 193 for violation, 78 for inceudiarism, 63
for assassination, 33 for stabbing and wounding,
27 for forgery, 13 for poisoning, 8 for coining, 6
for parricide, 14 for political offences, 4 for military
erimes, 2 for fraudulent bankruptcy, 2 for extorting
money by violence, 1 for bigamy, and 172 for vari-