The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-17 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS,

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Thursday Evening.
There was a Cabinet Council yesterday at the
Tuileries, at which the Emperor presided.
The Emperor has conferred the dignity of
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour upon

.._ _
Prince de la Tour d'Auvergne, French Ambassa-
dor in London. There is a report in Paris that

the Prince is about to leave London, to assume
another diplomatic post.
On the occasion of the Emperor's fete to-day
his Majesty has pardoned or commuted the term
of imprisonment of two or three hundred persons
confined in the colonies, the hulks, or prisons.
A similar act of grace has been awarded to
many soldiers and sailors condemned by military

anti naval tribunals.
The evening iloniteur, reviewing foreign affairs,
says:—
"The Federal Council, established by virtue of
the new Constitution of Northern Germany, is

to meet on the 15th (to-day). It is announced
that the Prussian Budget of 1866 is balanced, in
spite of the war, with an excess of receipts of
nearly a million of dollars, and tint the Budget
for the current year will, in all probability, pre-
sent a similar excess. For the next year, there-
fore, there will be no new taxes, or increase in those
I which now exist.
" A great many political exiles have returned
to Hungary. The assemblies of the Comitats
approve of the policy adopted by the Ministry over
which Count Andrassy presides, and the Hunga-
rian nation considers it a point of honour to jus-
tify the confidence which the Emperor King has
placed in it.
"A committee, which is now sitting at Vienna
during the adjournment of the sessions of the
Reichsrath, is occupied with the project of a penal
code, which has been drawn up by the most enlight-
ened juris-consults. Anxious to give his Empire
laws most in harmony with the progress of social
science, the Emperor Francis Joseph made an ap-
peal to the most distinguished professors of law in
the German Universities, and the Minister of Jus-
tice is present at all the sittings of the committee,
in
whichorde
arisero k
respecting
pa
yt
article
l r
tieeaed l
er learned
ft h e discussionseew
pro-
ject of law alluded to."
Vice-Admiral de la Grandiere has taken posses-
sion, in the name of the Emperor, of three western
provinces of Lower Cochin China, three of which,
those of Bien-11°a, Saigon, and Mitho, have
belonged to France since 1862. The country in
question is composed of six provinces, and the whole
of Lower Cochin China is now under the dominion
of France. The three new provinces now acquired
by France were only left in the possession of the
Sovereign of Annam because he undertook to main-
tain tranquillity there, and particularly not to allow
them to become the refuge of bands of robbers.
These promises, however, were not fulfilled, and
France was determined to take possession of them.
The annexation was affected without force of arms.
The jury have found Madame Frigard guilty of
the murder of the widow Mertens, and of the other
charges laid in the indictment, that is to say, for-
gery and robbery from the person after death, but
without premeditation," so she escapes the punish-
ment of death, and is sentenced to hard labour for
life. Considering that the forgeries were committed
at long intervals, it seems somewhat curious that
the jury thought there was no "premeditation."
Another strange thing in this strange trial was the
defence of the prisoner's counsel, M. Lachaud.
After an elaborate argument, to show that the evi-
dence did not prove the commission of the murder
by the prisoner, he argued that there was no murder
at all. The deceased might have died from indi—
gestion. The food was not digested, as the analysis
of the contents of the stomach showed, and there
was no trace of any poison. This sort of argu-
ment reminds one involuntarily of the defence set
up in America, in a case where damage was claimed
for injury done to a copper, which the defendant
had borrowed. The first plea was that the copper
was not injured. Secondly, that it was worked
before the plaintiff lent it to the defendant.
Thirdly, that the defendant never had the
ceohpaupedr
eaethtehaldl.ed Athsat to L
he was an inaray-
being, a shadow. In regard to the disguises of
Williams, " I," said the learned counsel, " knew
very well at the Court of Assize another English-
man, a Mr. Howard, who every day wore a fresh
beard and a fresh wig." In reference to Williams,
I f.rgot to mention that one of the witnesses
gravely told me that out of ten Englishmen who
came to his hotel six were named Williams. On
learning strange things about England in France,
M. Lachaud's argument in regird to the forgery
was equally novel.' He said it was possible that the
alleged forged receipts were, in fact, signed by the
deceased, or she might have availed herself of
forged documents to obtain the money lodged in