The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-20 00:00:00

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CORRESPONDENCE FRO PARIS.

(FR03.1 OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Monday Evening.
The 3loniteur has nothing respecting Germany
to-day, and its bulletin is chiefly composed of Eng
Lish and American news.

The German papers state that 15,043 signatures
have been obtained in favour of the restoration
of Northern Schleswig to Denmark. The German
party assert that most of those signatures have been
obtained by fraud and intrigue. On the other hand
the adherents of Denmark assert that the Prussian
authorities used unwarrantable exertion and influ-
ence to oppose the separation of the province of
Prussia.

The Ex-King of Portugal, Dom Miguel (Maria
Evariste), whose death at Carlsruhe I have men-
tioned, went through many changes and vicissitudes.
He was born at Lisbon in 1802, and had just
attained his sixty-fourth year. He was the son
of John the Sixth and his wife Charlotte Joachin,
infanta of Spain, exiled with his family to Brazil at
14 years of age, and confided to the mercenary
care of negroes. He could neither read nor write
when he returned to Lisbon in 1822. He revolted
three times against his father, at the instigation
of his mother, with whom he was banished by a
decree of the 12th of May, 1824. He afterwards
took refuge at Paris, Rome, and Vienna, from
whence, at the death of John the Sixth, he re-
turned to Lisbon, as regent of the kingdom of
Portugal, in the absence of his niece, Dona Maria
da Gloria, daughter of Don Pedro, Emperor of
Brazil, who ceded to him his rights in Eu-
rope. Ultimately he proclaimed himself King
of Portugal, in opposition to Don Pedro,
who was forced to abdicate the Crown
of Brazil, but also was desirous of retaining that
of Portugal for his daughter. The struggle for it
lasted several years, and was finally concluded on
the 29th of May, 1834, by the capitulation of
Evora. Sentenced to perpetual banishment, Don
Miguel went first to Genoa, afterwards to Rome,
and then to Germany. By his marriage with the
Princess of Lowenstein-Westheim-Rosemberg he
leaves three daughters and a son, who bears his
name.

A remarkable incident l&s taken place at Rodez.
A paper devoted to religion published in that town,
the Sentaine Catholique, has been prosecuted for
referring to politics. The Tribunal, however, dis-
missed the complaint, a result which excited strong
enthusiasm. The audience was composed of the
whole of the clergy at Rodez, with the bishop at their
head. The Procureur Imperial offered the bishop a
seat upon the bench, which he declined, preferring a
place by the side of the defendant, the Abbe Fabre,
the editor of the paper. When offered the seat by
the Procureur-General, the lifshop said, " The
accused."place of honour to-day is by the side of the
A letter from Berlin states that the return of M.
de Bismarck -to that capital is expected with much
anxiety. M. de Bismarck was very anxious to be
present at the opening of the Session to participate
in the relations of the Government with the Cham-
ber, but his medical attendants strongly interdicted
him from making the journey, His return, there-
fore, will not take place until the end of the month,
and journey may be de-
layed
fora is even
o n possiblegr
period, that his
The Marquis de Le Valette has sot yet returned
l e
to Paris, but his Excellency is expected to-day or
to-morrow.
To-day hai been one of regular winter. There
has been a little sunshine however. A bitterly
cold wind prevailed, and about 11 o'clock there was
a InAvy hailstorm.
111. Boillot, the scientific writer of the Moniteur,
gives some very interesting particulars of the shoot-
ing stars, or, as he terms it, the meteoric rain, com-
mencing with the observation that there is another
accomplished fact for science, the proof of the predic-
tions of astronomers that in a cycle of thirty-three
years there would be a repetition of this phenomenon.
The night between the 13th and 14th was cloudy
and few observations could be made, but on the fol-
lowing night, about a quarter-past eleven, numerous
stars, with beautiful luminous trails, were seen. The
general direction of these meteors was from east to
west, and from north-east to south-west. Eight
shooting stars were seen in less than half a minute
between the interstices left by the clouds. These
natural fireworks could not be observed for a
long time as the clouds soon covered the por-
tion of the sky where they appeared. Shortly
before one o'clock on the morning of the
14th the sky became clear, and these shoot-
ing meteors were perceptible in large numbers,
having the appearance of long luminous white trails
shooting in the same direction, opposite to that of
the movement of the earth, which, as is known, is
from west to east. In spite of the short duration of
fine weather, it was easy to see from what direction
this mass of celestial fires came. At this period of
the year the sun is on the constellation of the
Scorpion, and at 11 that of the Lion rises. At 1
o'clock the latter constellation is entirely over the
horizon of Paris to the east. It was from thence
that these shooting stars seemed to come. On the
night of the 14th more of these luminous stars were
seen, but few were perceived on the night of the
15th, it being too cloudy. These shooting stars
become fire on penetrating our atmosphere from
their enormous speed. When the earth in its move-
ment round the sun approaches sufficiently near to
those little satellites from its attraction to be expe-
rienced in an atmosphere, they become incandescent
under the influence of the heat caused by their
rubbing against the air. If not entirely consumed
in the air, a portion falls and constitutes a stone
called an aerolite. An aerolite found in Mexico,
weighing 780 kilogrammes, will be sent to the
Great Exhibition.
A fatal disease has manifested itself among the
trees in some of the gardens of Paris, which resists
every precaution. It has been neceessary to cut
down some of the most beautiful trees in the gar-
dens of the Luxembourg and Tuileries. The malady
is supposed to arise from the eggs which insects de-
posit in the bark of the trees. The larva are found
on forests of trees, and the worms penetrate both to
the root and the heart of the trees. Another cause
of the disease is rottenness, produced by deposits of
water from the heavy rains. During the late heavy
rains the water was a foot in depth in the centre of
the Tuileries gardens. All kinds of experiments
are made with the trees, but they generally have
proved inefficacious.
M. 'll., a shipowner, was nearly assassinated by
a gentleman broker, at the Theatre Italien, on Fri-
day evening. M. T. and his brother were seated
together in an orchestra stall, and their violent
gestures and noise attracted attention in the early
Pert of the evening. When the..eurtain fell they