The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-09 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FRO3I OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Tuesday Evening.

The Moniteur says :—" According to the private
correspondence from Germany, the Austrian Go-
vernment on the 4th of May addressed a despatch
to its Minister at Berlin, in reply to the Prussian
communication of the 30th of April, relative to the
question of disarming. In this despatch Austria
maintains the necessity of the measures of defence
which she has thought it right to adopt, as well as
in regard to its own territory as to the Federal ter-
ritory, and justifies the preparations made by
Saxony for her own defence."
The same paper states after the Emperor and
Empress had attended mass at Auxerre, his Majesty
had a long conversation with the Archbishop of
Sens, and promised to allow 30,000 f. during ten
years for the restoration of the Cathedral, one of
the most beautiful Gothic edifices of France. The
Emperor also gave 10,000 f. in aid of the charitable
establishments of Auxerre.
paper,
warw h ischhosag etnaekrea illypla
cwee 1 lt
h-ei nKf oirnmg e do
f,
apt
Prussia
st e srs aa€ailt i l
tke the command in chief of his army,
with Field-Marshal Wrangel as head of his staff.
Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia will have the
command of the First Corps d'Arm6e.
According to a letter from Dusseldorf, Prince
Charles of Hohenzollern has accepted the sovereignty
of the United Principalities, and thus the wishes of
the Roumanians to have a foreign Prince to rule
over them will be fulfilled. On the other hand,
some of the Paris papers express doubts whether
this vexed question of the Danubian provinces be
finally settled. There is no allusion to the subject
in the Moniteur or other morning papers of to-day.
A clever thief has just victimised the proprietor
of one of our leading hotels here. While a gentle-
man was still in bed, there was a knock at the door,
and a man dressed like one of the servants entered,
and, after apologising for coming so early, removed
a handsome clock from the mantlepiece, and said
his master had desired him to take it to be repaired
as it did not go, and it was inconvenient to a tra-
veller to be without a clock in his room. When
the gentleman went out the real servant of the
hotel immediately discovered the robbery, and the
master was charitable enough to imagine that his
guest had taken away the clock, and ordered that
notice should be taken whenever he went. When
the gentleman was going away and had paid his
bill, the hotel-keeper politely observed that there
had been a clock in the room. Au explanation en-
sued, and the master was perfectly satisfied of the
respectability of his lodger, who indeed is a rich
merchant. The thief, however, has not yet been
traced.

Some commercial travellers in the north of
France have introduced a new and curious branch
of trade. At the town of Villers-Sire-Nicole and
other neighbouring localities, they purchase the
hair of married women and young girls, for which
they give a liberal price. They do not, however,
pay in money, but find it more delicate and enticing
to give in exchange articles for the toilet and the
house, trinkets, and other " unconsidered trifles."
The person who furnishes this news states that
many husbands who on going out left their wives
or daughters with a beautiful head of hair (or a
nobby head of hair, as it is called in the London
concert halls), on coming home at night find them
like shorn lambs, and their hairless heads concealed
under a fancy new cap, perhaps the produce of the
ham. The hair trade is literally going ahead.

Since the excitement about the war the Bourse
speculators have not been satisfied with doing busi-
ness during the legal hours, but many have assem-
bled in the evening in the Passage de l'Opera, as if
they intended to go to the theatre. With a view to
deceive the police, they adopted for the nonce a lan-
guage of their own. For instance, when Patti was
mentioned, that was to signify " I offer to sell
Dente ;" it is fine weather, meant " I sell." The
police, however, who have discovered everything,
have found out the deception, and steps have been
taken to prevent speculation in stocks after the legi-
timate business hours of the Bourse.

A significant fact has transpired in regard to the
probability of war. Some hundreds of young
Prussians who have been employed as clerks to
bankers and merchants, or as workmen, have re-
ceived orders to join their regiments. These young
men form part of the reserve of the Landwehr in
the regiments of the six corps d'armoe already mo-
bilised.
A letter from Auxerre giTe4 t3OlllO farther parti-

culars of the visit of the Emperor and Empress.
Her Majesty was dressed in black silk, and wore a
bonnet of Italian straw with blue ribbons. Their
Majesties walked about the Exhibition for more
than an hour, and inspected every object very
minutely. The spectacle of the field of competition
was very beautiful. It is in the valley of the Yonne,
and the Imperial pavilion where the prizes and
medals were distributed was tastefully decorated
with flowers. Among those present were M. Vaitry,
President of the Council of State ; M. Fremy, Di.
rector of the Credit Foncier, deputy for the Yonne;
M. Mony de Mornay, Director of Agriculture at
the Ministry of Public 'Works ; M. Leconte,
deputy ; M. Camille Doucet, the Duke de Cler-
mont Tonnerre, Viscount de Virieu, and other
well-known individuals. Baron Martineau des
Chenetz, Vice President of the Council, was pre-
vented from attending by illness.

The candidates for the vacant seat at the Academy
of Fine Arts of the Institute, caused by the death
of M. Clapisson, are Messrs. Felicien David, A.
Elwart, C. Gounod, and Aim Maillart. The elec-
tion will take place on Saturday week.
The Academy of Fine Arts has elected a 3 free
correspondents (section of correspondence) liessrs.
Fiorelli of Naples, and Newton of London.
The recent terrible explosion at Havre which de-
stroyed the English vessel the European, 8112 caused
the death of 60 persons, was, according to tle scien-
tific men of France, the result of the explosion of a
liquid matter called nitro-glycerine, which has been
employed with success for two years as a substitute
for gunpowder in mines. The idea is due to M. A.
Nobel, an engineer of Hamburg. It may be heated
to 100 deg. without danger, but it explodes at 180.
It is a poison, and forms one of the principal con-
stituents of fat substances. It may be catained by
pouring the glycerine drop by drop in ,;o an equal
volume of nitric acid and sulphuric acid. It ex-
plodes from the influence of a shock, tat not always
at the point where the shock takes place. This ex-
plosive oil will not explode by contact with a lighted
match.

Ceramique having been the " observed of all ob-
servers," at least among sporting men, since Chan-
tilly Races, some may like to know that the name is
of classic origin. Among the masterpieces of
Grecian art are three bronze statues erected by the
Athenians in honour of three manes of Miltiades.
With these manes Cimon had three times gained
the principal prize at the races at Athens. There
were gentlemen riders in those days. He rode
his own horses, and so did the sons of the
Kings of Syracuse, Agrigentum, and Macedonia.
So did Nero and Pythagoras. So highly esteemed
were these horses in that day that when they died
they were buried in Ceramique with great pomp
among heroes and warriors. M. E. Houel, a
French writer, the author of an ertdite history of
the horse, relates that Philodas had t splendid mare
named Dura by the Corinthians, and that after it
bad been ',ictor at a celebrated race, the Greeks al-
lowed him to place the statue of his mare at
Olympus.

About three years ago a gentleman named
Cochin, residing at Passy, on dying recommended
his widow particularly that she shottld take great
care of his garden, and always retail the gardener
in her service. The lady scrupulously observed these
directions, and has had no occasion to regret that
she has done so, for a few days glace while the
gardener was pursuing his ordinary labours in the
garden he dug up a packet containing securities to
the amount of 3,500 f., which he immediately gave
to his mistress.

This has been a settled, beautiful summer's day,
not intensely hot, but warm enough fir June, bright
and beautiful, and without a cloud. The recent
rains have improved vegetation wonaerfully.

Karl Blind and the Attack on Count

Bismarck.

The family of Karl Blind have been profoundly
afflicted by the intelligence of the last few days
from Berlin. The earliest telegrams stated that
Count Bismarck's assailant, who has since died, was
a son of Karl Blind ; and subsequently others have
been received denying the relationship. In truth,
he was the son of Mrs. Blind by a former husband,
but has borne his step-father's name. He was 22
years of age, and left England four years ago, but
paid a visit to this country two years since. 'When
here he was a rifle volunteer, and won a prize at
Wimbledon. For the last two years he has been
studying political economy at Hohenheim in Wir-
temberg. His family had so little reason to sup-
pose that he was engaged in desperate projects
that they were expecting shortly to see him, having
lately received a letter announcing that he was
coming to England. In the absence of direct and
authentic information they can only suppose that,
living in that part of Germany where Count Bis-
marck is hated perhaps more intensely than any-
where else on earth, he was carried away by his
political influences that surrounded him, and led
to commit an act to be reprobated by all honourable
men, and regretted by none more than the patriot
whose name he had been permitted to bear.