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

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

Pants, Tuesday Evening.
The Emperor yesterday presided at a general
meeting of the Council of State, which assembled
to discuss the project of law relative to public
meetings.

The 3loniteur states that the Sovereign of Japan
has just adopted two measures which evince the
good feeling of that Prince towards foreign Powers.
In concert with the Micado, the Taikoun requested
the diplomatic residents in Japan to come and visit
him at his chateau of Osaka, where they were re-
ceived at a solemn audience in the course of last
month. This invitation is the more important
from its being without precedent in Japan. In de-
ciding, also, to send his brother to Paris At the
time of the Exhibition, the Taikoun openly pro-
claims his intention to create settled relations be-
tween his people and foreign countries.
The Journal de Rome publishes the following
account of the position of the Pontifical Bank on
the 25th of February. The amount of the assets
is 6,951,933,-746f. ; liabilities, 5,631,601,-646.
Thus the assets exceed the liabilities by 1,320,392-10.
This excess is thus composed :—Capital of the bank,
1,000,000 crowns; reserve of the bank, 155,180.
Interest, commissions, profit and loss, 165,212-10 f.
Total, 1,320,392-10.
It appears from the German papers that the result
of the first sittings of the Parliament of the North
has been favourable to the National and Liberal
party. To the candidate of M. de Bismark, M. de
Stolberg, as President of the House of Lords, the
Chamber preferred M. Simson, as President of the
Parliament of Frankfort. For Vice-President, the
Duke Ujest was chosen in preference to M. Bennig-
sen, President of the Nationalverein. M. Bennigsen
had previously been defeated as a candidate at
Hanover, in opposition to M. de Munchausen.
These elections of President and first Vice-Presi-
dent seem to prove that Northern Germany is de-
termined to have a properly regulated Parliament.
The Committee appointed to make an inquiry
into the general condition of the Agricultural in-
terest will meet on Thursday.
The Siecle comments in these terms upon
the Speech of the King of Prussia :—" This
Speech, although very moderate, appears to
many people like an invitation to his Ma-
jesty himself to assume the Imperial title of
Emperor of Germany. A report indeed has been cir-
°ldeated that a proposition to thi4 effect has been,

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 thatfall,
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, ono 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 Otho ? 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 in 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 Berlin 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 :—OnApril 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 :
" Pauvree aveugles quo nous sonunes !
Ciel ! demasque los impostours,
Et force leurs barbares cceurs,
A s'ouvrir au regard des liommes."

Here is a tramdation of the verse in plain prose.
Ponr blind creatures that we are ! Heaven, un-
mask the importers and force their barbarous
hearts to show themselves to the sight of men.
Rousseau's subscription was received.

A voyage unprecedented character has just
been accomplished o
fan
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,
including a stay at Chili, in six months and seven
days.
There are in France 3,243. Societes Orphconiquee
or singing societies, forming a total of 147,499'
singers. They are all invited to the Exhibition.
Thus should on]y the fifth part (say 30,000) accept
the invitation, musicians will have no occasion to
" 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 ono iu 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 £3,000,000; 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 Customs' 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 cheapel., but it is little known in 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 any
now manufactured elsewhere, and equal to ,a hat 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 ho 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 bettor commercial system ;
but there can bo 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
in Europe," writes Mr. Lytton, " whore, in the healthful
enjoyment of a climate mild but not debilitating, the tra-
veller can breathe the breezes and pluck the heather of
Scotland upon hills that shelter the palm and the aloe ;
arid I have little doubt that if they could be reached with-
out a long, fatiguing journey, the groves, mountains, and
mineral springs of Portugal would soon become places of
Ettropeazi rant,"

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, March 6.

Herr Louyai, the Hungarian Minister of Finance,
who has arrived here, has taken part in the discus-
sions of the Cabinet of Ministers relative to the
forming of the tobacco monopoly.
Contradictory reports are current upon the result
of the Ministerial deliberations.

The Emperor and Empress intend making a tour
in July next through all the Hungarian Comitats.

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, March 6.

M. Sorret, the Secretary of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs at Paris, has arrived in this capital
with despatches, and proceeds to Warsaw and St.
Petersburg.

Nutnerous despatches have recently been ex-
changed between the Cabinets of Paris and St.
Petersburg.
Both the Conservative fractions of the North
German Parliament have determined that the draft
of the Federal Constitution shall be discussed in full
sitting. A portion of the Liberal faction has
adopted a similar resolution.

INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
MALTA, March 3.

The Delta, from Southampton Feb. 20, arrived
yesterday at 8 a.m., and left at 3 p.m. for Alex-
andria.

The Ceylon, from Marseilles Feb. 28, arrived at
10 p.m. yesterday, and left at 4 a.m. to-day for
Alexandria.

GIBRALTAR, March 4.

The Ripon, from Southampton on Feb. 27, ar-
rived to-day at 7 a.m., and left at noon for
Alexandria.

The Massilia left for Southampton on the 2nd
inst. at 10 a.m.

FRANCE.

BOURSE, March 5, Two o'clock.—The market to-
day is weak, and stocks and shares of every descrip-
tion are being offered at a a ensible reduction on
yesterday's rates. Three per Cents. are 12kc.
lower—at 70f. 10c. ; and Italian Fives 10e.—at
53f. 80c. Credit Mobilier shares have fallen 13f.
75c.—to 503 f. 75c. ; and and Credit Foncier have
receded 15c.—to 1,507 f. 50c. Comptoir d'Escompte
have declined 7f. 50c.—to 785 f. A similar down-
ward tendency is noticed in the Railway depart-
ment.

Three o'clock.—The close has taken place on the
following quotations:—

4 per Cents lOO 40
Do. and month —
3 per Cents. 7O 12
Do. end month 7O 10
Credit Mobilier
Do. end month
Credit Foncier —
Do. end month 1510

Bank Shares 3565
Italian Loan 53 80
Do. end month 53 85
Mexican Loan —
Do. Bonds —
Spanish Threes
Home Debt —
Deferred
AYe.

For Account.
Orleans 935
Northern 1235
Lyons and Mediterranean 942 50
Southern 590
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona ,
Roman.

555 -

418 75
417 50

130 -

The Fire and Loss of Life at Accrington.

Ac c las GTON, March 4.
More detailed intelligence concerning the fire that
broke out in a workshop at Accrington on Friday,
and spread to the chamber above, in which an in-
fant school was assembled at the time, shows that
nine or ten lives were .then lost instead of 13, as at
first reported. The building, of two storeys, was
erected under one of the tall arches of the via-
duct over which the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway is carried, and was situated at the
bottom of King-street. The ground floor and the
room above it were practically each one chamber,
measuring 30 feet long by. 15 feet wide ; but in the
lower department, or shop, where the heald-knitting
was carried on, under the wooden staircase by which
alone the upper floor could be reached, was a small
enclosure containing a stove, and used as a drying-
room for the healds when varnished. The fire
broke out in this division, and by consequence
the wooden stairs were first to burn of the whole
place. The flames, however, spread with fearful
rapidity, and as.the flooring of the room wherein
the children were was only one board thick the
havoc was soon consummated. The school was a
Roman Catholic seminary, supported by a charit-
able lady. Before the stairs broke the mistress
succeeded in descending with several of the little
scholars, and she bravely returned again and again
on the same errand. When this means of commu-
nication had given way a ladder was got up to one
of the windows, and a man commenced passing
the children out with some success, but so many
men from the crowd got upon it endeavouring to
help that it broke in the middle, and thus a delay
ensued till another ladder could be procured. The
excitement at this conjuncture was most distressing
to witness. The children, screaming piteously,
thronged to the window furthest from the approaching
fire, which flamed every moment nearer and nearer.
Below many of the mothers were shrieking and
crying to those above, and every spectator was
moved with horror. A second ladder was brought,
and through the very flames a number of the chil-
dren were dragged out. But all could not be seized.
Certain of them could be heard screaming on some
spot to which they had retreated, but were hidden
by the smoke. Soon their cries ceased. The fire
was practically extinguished in an hour, when
almost everything in the place had been con-
sumed. Huddled all together in one corner
the remains of nine bodies were found, pro-
bably on the spot to which the little creatures
had retreated when the floor beneath the window
was burnt. Seven of them were girls. The corpses
were almost past identification, and a majority were
recognised only by portions of clothing found with
them. One part of a boy's clothes was discovered
without any body. The workshop in which the fire
originated belonged to Mr. Jas. Duckworth, heald-
knitter. The schoolmistress's name was Miss
Burscough. _ _ _

A coroner's inquest on the nine bodies that have
been recovered was opened on Saturday, but the
proceedings were only formal, and were adjourned
till this day.