The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-01 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROJI OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Friday Evening.
The Moniteur says that a project of law has been
submitted to the Saxon Chambers respecting the
nomination of the Parliament of the Northern
States. According to this project, the election will
be direct and not by three steps, according to the
present Prussian electoral system. Every Saxon
citizen of twenty-five years will be eligible as
elector. One deputy will be elected by 100,0)0
souls ; and should there be an excess of 50,000
another deputy may be elected. Saxony may rest
on upon 24 members in the Parliament, and the
Northern States, exclusive of Prussia, en masse,
upon 75 votes.

The Chamber of Deputies of Dresden has agreed
unanimously to the treaty of peace between Saxony
and Prussia.

It appears from the German papers that the
Prussian Administration in Hanover is giving fresh
impetus to the advance of public works. It is de-
cided that there shall be granted to the Company
of the Railway from Cologne to Minden the con-
cession of the direct line from Paris to Hamburg,
which is to be constructed between Osnabruck and
Harbourg. A gigantic bridge over the Elbe will
connect that town with the great Hanseatic city.
The Prussian Minister of Commerce has an-
nounced to the Chamber of Deputies that the con-
struction of the canal between the North Sea and
the Baltic will be commenced as soon as a capital
of 30 millions of dollars shall be realised. The
State will perhaps take upon its account a few mil-
lions of dollars and a certain number of shares, but
it will not guarantee the whole amount.

It appears (says the Siecle) that Prussia has
thought better of the matter, and does not wish to
defer indefinitely the organisation of the Confede-
ration of the North, as was reported. The Cabinet
of Berlin has just addressed to the States of which
it is composed a Circular requesting them to ap-
point delegates to the Conference which will be
opened at Berlin on the 15th of December, with
the
.object of settling the constitution of Parlia-
ment. By the same Circular the Cabinet of Berlin
informs the States of the North that the elections
will terminate on the Ist of February, 1867, and
that the meeting of the Parliament is fixed for the
15th of that month.

Some of the papers have raised a difficulty in re-
gard to the exact day on which theßtrdoomeolpaesy
awonifdl ttwhoeyfars Pontificalallow
teedr
rf
iotro
rtyh e
beyv a
tchuea t
French
ex-
pire. Article 2of the Convention of the 15th of
September, 1864, says that the evacuation is to be
effected within the delay of two years, and by the
terms of an additional Protocol the Convention
should receive its executive power from the day
when the King of Italy shall have decreed the re-
moval of the capital of the kingdom to another city.
According to a future arrangement signed by M.
Drouyn de Lhuys on the part of France, and by
M. Nigra on the part of Italy, an additional delay
was allowed for the removal of the capital. The
Journal des Debats, after explaining this and other
points, says :—" Thus on the 13th of December
next there ought not to be a single French soldier
at Rome. That is the day on which the temporal
government of the Pope will commence a period of
greater trial than any to which it has yet been sub-
ected."

The despatches received by telegraph from New
York, of the 28th of Nvember, have made " 0011-

fusion more confounded" in regard to the reported
flight and abdication of the Emperor Maximilian.
One account says that he left Vera Cruz on the Ist,
but to return to Mexico. Another despatch asserts
that he had embarked for Havannah. These and
other contradictory statements prove that I was
well informed when I told you that the French Go-
vernment had not received any official intimation or
report to warrant the assertion that the Emperor
Maximilian had abandoned his position. It seems
that there is no truth whatever in the report that
Marshal Bazaine had assumed the direction of affairs
in Mexico. This report was founded upon the idea
that the Emperor had left. M. Loysel, formerly
chief of the Military Cabinet of Maximilian, has
arrived in Paris.

A number of students have followed to the grave
with great respect the remains of an old lady, who
was well known for her eccentric habits, in the
quarter of the Schools. There is a little romance
about her history. She was very tall and thin,
almost like a skeleton, but is said to have been very
handsome in her youth. The students gave her the
name of La Mere Bapteme. Both in summer and
winter she carried in one hand an old worn out muff,
and in the other an umbrella of the Mrs. Gamp
school, with this difference, that she always had it
open, whatever was the weather. A pail was always
suspended to one arm. This appliance fur water
obtained for her the name of La Mere Bapteme,
as she was always ready to assist at a baptismal
ceremony. Previous to 1848 she was a governess. A
rich young man fell in love with her and married
her, but he lost his fortune at the Revolution.
He lost his senses and disappeared. In the
pail which she used to carry about she found a letter
couched in these terms :—" My dear Friend,—l am
about to take a journey to the moon. 1 cannot fix
the period of my return. I embrace you.—Thy
husband, J. de S." Madame de S. instituted in-
quiries as to the whereabouts of her husband, but
without success. One morning, by a strange fatality,
while passing by the Ile St. Louis, the idea came
into her head that she would go into the Morgue.
The first corpse she looked at was that of her hus-
band. From that moment her reason was gone.
She ran out, and, placing her back against a wall,
she burst into delirious paroxysms of laughter, and
then went home by turns dancing and running.
Since then she has paraded about the Quartier Latin
with head erect and slow and steady pace, curtsey-
ing whenever she saw a passer-by, whose counte-
nance pleased her, and offering out her hand for a
sou. If it were refused the poor old lady would use
some brief but eloquent words of appeal, but gene-
rally the sou was cheerfully given.
The exterior of the Exhibition Palace may now
be considered as terminated. All that now remains
to be done is the ornamental work and the comple-
tion of the internal arrangements. Belgium, being
dissatisfied with the amount of the space allotted
to her, has been allowed to construct a small private
palace, in which will be exhibited the products of
Belgium for which room may not be found in the
Palace itself.

A treaty has been signed between the French
and Prussian Governments, the object of which is
to suppress the charge of sf. made for passports
upon travellers between the two countries.
There has been another odd vagary of the tele-
graph people. The Paris papers astonished their
readers with some news, headed " Health of the
celebrated Ungnade." Everybody was asking
" Who is Ungnade ?" The mystery is unravelled.
Some days ago the report was current in Paris as
well as in London of the serious illness and disgrace
of Ungnade. A telegram from Berlin gave an offi-
cial contradiction to the report. The intention was
to deny that Bismark was either in disgrace or
seriously ill. Ungnade is the German word for
disgrace, and the facetious translator of the de-
spatches in Paris mistook the word for the name
of a man. Hence arose the consternation about the
great unknown, described to the Parisians as
Ungnade. _ _

Early this morning the hills and fields around
Paris presented a beautiful spectacle. The fields
were covered with white frost, and when the sun
rose the frost with which the trees were shrouded
glittered like diamonds. The Eky all day has been
what is called an Italian sky, blue and splendid as
iu summer. The sun was not obscured for a mo-
ment. The weather was very cold. Yet it was
" frosty but kindly," as Shakspere has defined it.