The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-08 00:00:00

OUR PARIS LETTER.

The following appeared in part of our impression of
yesterday :

PARIS, Monday Evening.
Some amendments are to be proposed on the
Address, but hitherto few adhesions have been made
to the Opposition suggestions. Fourteen members
of the Right only have signed an amendment in
reference to Colonial policy, and urging that the
three important islands of Martinique, Guadaloupe,
and Bourbon ought to be placed in the same cate-
gory as the departments of the Empire.
At a meeting of Opposition Deputies, which was
attended by M. Thiers, it was resolved that three
amendments to the Address should be proposed.
One respecting Algeria, another for.a committee of
inquiry into the state of agriculture, and the third
demanding the " completion of the edifice ;" this
vague phrase, I suppose, means extension of popu-
lar power.

The rapid transmission of the Emperor's Speech
by the electric telegraph has excited curiosity and
satisfaction. In most of the provincial towns of
France the whole Speech was received in less than
half an hour, and in an hour at the most distant
ones. The telegraph came into full operation in
Paris in 1861. The chief . office is in the Rue de
Grenelle St. German. The Director-General is the
Viscount de Vougy. Two hundred electric wires
communicate from the central office, which is in
direct communication with the 89 prefectures, the
principal sub-prefectures, the other important cities
of France, and the great centres of Europe. About
200 clerks are employed for the service of the de-
spatches. I have not ascertained the exact number
of females, but the number of female clerks is on
the increase. The service is carried on day and
night by two divisions of clerks. The first division
is engaged from 8 in the morning till 11, and is then
relieved by the second. The clerks of the f ormer return
to duty at six in the evening and leave it at nine.
The second division relieves it in its turn. At mid-
night half of the latter take repose till three o'clock.
The second sleeps from three till eight o'clock in
the morning. The average number of private
despatches is 5,000 a day, but in some days the
number is much greater. The service in general is
performed with much correctness, but occasionally
strange errors occur. (What human institution is
free from them?) When Algeria was first placed
in electric communication with Marseilles across the
Mediterranean, a French gentleman was in the
habit of going to hunt the lions, and was accom-
panied by a well-known shot very conversant with
the localities frequented by the lions of the Atlas.
The rest of the family also lived in Algeria, with
the exception of a brother who resided in Belgium.
On one occasion a telegraph messenger brought the
latter a despatch at Brussels. It was sent from
Algeria, and was as follows :—" We hunted lions yes-
terday. Our uncle devoured (devore). All the family
in joy." The young gentleman was stupified. An
explanation took place at the office, and it was dis-
covered that the word devore had been used instead
of decore (decorated). A v instead of a c made a
wonderful difference.

One of the Paris papers, in an article on the In-
ternational Electric Company of London, ascribes
the great success of that company solely to the
exertions of M. Gamble. Those acquainted with
the details of the management know that the
activity and zeal of Mr. Charles Boys, the superin-
tendent of the Intelligence Department, aided by
Mr. James Parry, have tended greatly to the de-

velopment of the resources of the company.

A good deal of amusement was caused at the
time of the Exhibition of Paintings in 1864 by the
erection of a room appropriated to paintings which
had been refused admission to the general saloon by
the Committee of Selection. The leading artists
have improved upon this idea. A building has
been hired at Montmartre, in which will be exhi-
bited the pictures to which admission may be refused
at the next Exhibition of living artists. A com-
mittee of artists will be appointed to select pictures
for admission. All, however, have a place, .but the
pictures vetoed by the committee will be exhibited

in another room. Thus there will be the refusal of
the refused.

The TiiiCial tables respecting the progress of rail-
ways in 1865 show that the total of new lines con-
ceded was to the extent of 100 kilometres (a kilo-
mar,' is 1,004 The- goor.l Stattt
concessions, on the 31st December, 1865, was de-
finitive concessions, 20,392 kilometres ; eventual
concessions, 603 kilometres ; total, 21,000 kilo-
metres. The length of the lines which came into
operation in 1865 was much less than in 1864,
being only 516 kilometres. Among the
lines which came into operation, however,
several are of great importance ; for instance,
the section from Guingamp to Brest, which
completes the last vacancy between Paris and
that important military post, the line from Ser-
quigney to Rouen, the branch from Castelnandary
to Castres, the line from Ager to Auch, that from
Bretigny to Vendome, which forms the first section
of the diract line from Paris to Tours and the lino
from Lille to Tournay, which opens a new commu-
nication between France and Belgium. The total
length of the lines thus placed in operation on the
31st of December, 1865, was 13,570 kilometres,
and that of the lines not yet finished, 7,430 kilo-
metres. In 1866 and 1867, 2,200 kilometres of
new lines will be finished, so that at the end of the
latter year the total development of railway com-
munication will be to the extent of 15,800 kilo-
metres. The amount of the subventions granted
by the State towards railways reaches to a capital
of 1 milliard 455 millions, that is to say less than
70,000 f. per kilometre.
The official part of the Moniteur states that the
Emperor has received a letter, in which his Majesty
the King of Bavaria notifies the birth of a Princess
daughter of his Serene Highness the Prince Charles
Theodore, and of her Royal Highness the Princess
Sophia, Duchess in Bavaria.
Madame Wagner, the wife of the musical com-
poser, has just died at Dresden.
The Marquis de Flers, formerly Councillor Re-
ferendary to the Court of Accounts is also deceased
at Brussels.

The weather to-day and for the last few days past
has been unseasonably and unusually warm, and I am
sorry to say that an unusual amount of illness exists
in Paris. Many cases of inflammation, with tend-
ency to fever, have occurred, but they have not been

of a fatal or dangerous character.
The Constitutionnel has an argumentative article
anticipatory of the contents of her Majesty's Speech,
and contends that the position of England is such
that the Cabinet, and particularly Mr. Gladstone,
will have to exhibit qualities which " eloquence
alone cannot always supply."

Foreign Nail Packet List

-----
ALLILS DUE.
Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton—. „Feb. 19
Feb. 13
Ditto, via Marseilles ................
Brazil and Cape Verde. by British packet Mar. 6.
Ditto, by French packet .......... Feb. 2z.
Cape of Good lope, ASOenaioll, and St. Helena... Feb. 22.
China, Penang. and Singapore, via Southampton Feb. 19.
Feb. 13
Ditto, via Marseilles ........................
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton ..........
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton.... Feb. 19
Ditto, via Marseilles ........ . .... Feb. 13
India (Bombay), via Southampton..
. . Feb.
FlF'' ee, Feb.
bbb . 11133234
Ditto, via garseilles
Mauritius, via Southampton
Ditto, via Mandl e.i .
Newfoundland " Feb. 14
Portu,gal ...... , .........
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon..
United states and British .North America, by Bri-
tish
United States packet, via Southamp.-
tisphititoiack,
ton

Ditto, sia C,,rk

Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry Feb. 9.
West Coast of Africa. Madeira, and Teneriffe Feb. 11
West Indies and Pacifio (except Bahamas, Cuba,
and Mexico
Cuba and Mexico
Feb. 28.
Bahamas, via New York. Mar. R.'
Bermuda, ditto
Feb. 14

MADAME TUSSAITD'S.—The admirers of the late
lamented Gustavus V. Brooke, the eminent tragedian, who
was lost in the ill-fated steamship the London, will, we
feel assured, be pleased to knew that Madame Tussaud
has just added to her exhibition in Baker-street a full-
length portrait model of the departed gentleman.
As we anticipated yesterday, Lord Dufferin will
be retained in the Administration. He will succeed the
Marquis of llartington as Under Secretary of State for the
War Department—Times.