The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-17 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARTS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Thursday Evening.
The clouds which lowered in the horizon at the
time my letter was posted yesterday cleared off,
and the opinion is universal that there never was
such a magnificent fête in Paris, nor could there
be elsewhere. From the Tuileries to the Arch of
the Etoile was a blaze of many-coloured lights.
Not only were the trees illuminated, but all the
grass-plots and flower-gardens were decorated with
lamps of every hue. They who had come from far
distances must have thought the trouble of the jour-
ney well repaid. Imagine miles of light of all '
colours, Chinese lanterns, beautiful flags, and
fanciful ornaments. Nothing in the Arabian tales
or Oriental imagining could come up to the
reality of the beauty of the Place de la Concorde
and the Champs Elysees. The effect of the fire-
works was magical. The Seine appeared as if on
fire. The reflection was thrown for many a mile.
The multitude was countless or would have taken
months to count.

In the French calendar the 15th of August is
marked as the Fete de l'Assomption, but there was,
in fact, a Saint Napoleon. By ancient writers he
is styled Neopolus or Neopolis in the Roman lan-
guage, which afterwards in Italian became Napo-
leone, and in French Napoleon. Saint Napoleon
was celebrated by birth and attainments. He
flourished in the reign of persecution under Diocle-
tian and Maximieu. He died for his faith, and,
after having been cruelly tormented, he was thrown
half dead into prison, where he lingered for some
time. I hear that there were some accidents
arising from the immense crowd in the Place de
la Concorde.

The Feast of the Assumption in honour of the
happy death of the Virgin Mary and her glorious
assumption in heaven is, says the Abbe Godescard,
" a. pious tradition, according to which the Holy
Virgin was resuscitated immediately after death,
and, by a special privilege, the soul, uninhabiting
the body, was received into heaven. Andre of
Crete and Gregory de Tours attest that this tradi-
tion existed in the East in the seventh century, and
in the West in the sixth century. It is, besides,
founded upon the sentiments of piety and respect
which we owe to the Mother of God. It was ap-
propriate that this sacred, uncorrupt body should
not be subject to decay, but that it should be imme-
diately resuscitated and placed in the possession of
glory." Some say that Mary died at Ephesus, others
that it was at Jerusalem. This point the Abbe says
he cannot determine.

In addition to the various games and diversions
yesterday, including the climbing up a greasy pole
for watches and jewellery (the Mat de Couragne),
the theatres were opened gratis at two o'clock in
the afternoon, and I perhaps need hardly say that
they were all crowded to suffocation. The price
paid by Government last year foi these gratuitous
representations was 80,000 f. Probably the amount
was about the same yesterday.
The trial for the great railway robbery is about
to take place before the Court of Assize of the Seine.
The accused are three in number—M. Berthome,
cashier ; M. Dupray de la Maherie, a printer ; and
the Prince de Crony Chanel. The latter is not in
custody. I gave some particulars of this robbery
at the time. The sum abstracted from the Sous
Comptoir of the railways is no less three millions
of francs.

The Minister of Marine has received some infor-
mation valuable to the herring fishery on the coast
of Scotland, from which it appears that for some
time past on the northern coast the fishing was very
successful, and that the French fishermen were dis-
appointed because they left the ports of France too
late, and did not go sufficiently far northwards.
They therefore could take no part with the 3,200
English boats in the Gulf of Moray. An immense
number of herrings had been taken.

M. Gendre, a furniture dealer, at Rouen, lately
bought several articles from a person in distress for
110 f. While cleaning one of the articles, a drawer,
which opened with great difficulty, was found to
contain a bag in which were 5,125 f. M. Gendre
hastened to the person of whom he had bought the
furniture and restored the money. It had been left
ih
el literary
fromhr i lre yGautier.and m
to him by will some time previously, and he had
never thought of opening the drawer.
The papers not being published this morning, in
the absence of news I give you an analysis of a very
able and beautiful review of the second volume of
i ict
erii,tri,c
Ts i i " The History of Julius C:esar," by the Emperor.
hois z
the p e na
I‘oi .
t af
Gautier,
c criticha
ue
t ieadmired
s poef a anditnh
g
enlightened ae
of Julius Caesar, says that no personage had more
illustrious historians or more august annotators.
The King of France,
Charles VIII., had a peculiar
taste for the Commentaries Caesar
; a translation
of which was presented to
him by the celebrated
monk, Robert Gaguin, in 1480. The Viceroy
of
Sicily, Ferdinand de Gouzaque, sent to France a
scientific commission to study upon the spot the
campaigns of Julius Caesar. The 40 plans drawn
lip by this commission are still in existence. The
great Conde patronised the translation of the Com-
mentaries by Perrot d'Ablancourt ; Louis Philippe
of Orleans, surnamed Egalite, ordered a plan of the
campaigns of Caesar in the Gauls. Napoleon 1., at
St. Helena, dictated to Count Marchand un Precis'
des Guerres de Caesar; " and the Emperor Napo-
leon 111. is about to raise to the glory of this man,
the most perfect, perhaps, whom nature ever pro-
duced, a monument, which, for the greatness of the
plan, the richness of the materials, for the accuracy
of the appreciations and the position of the author,
from whom nothing is hidden of things military or
political, may justly be considered as definitive."
M. Gautier proceeds to say that the second volume
which he has under consideration contains the war
of the Gallia according to the " Coramentariee." Ln

this history the august writer has taken for the
foundation of his recital, as often as he could, the
text of Caesar himself. That brief, summary prose,
haughtily rapid, where the idea is of the action, and
where the author speaks of him only in the third
person, may perhaps be discussed, annotated, ex-
plained, but not ornamented. It is complete ; and
those hasty notes, written or dictated every even-
ing, have the imperious force of the absolute. Cicero,
who was a good judge, said that " Caesar had writ-
ten memoirs worthy of every praise. Deprived of
all oratory art, his style is similar to a body without
clothing—naked, straight, and gracious." The his-
tory of the campaigns of Caesar in the Gauls opens
with elevated political considerations upon the neces-
sity, the bearing, and the value of that war. Caesar,
according to the illustrious author, employed on it,
from pure patriotism, a long portion of his life,
which he could have rendered useful in a more di-
rect and rapid mode for the profit of his personal
ambition. Had he been covetous of military glory,
the East offered him more easy triumphs and a
richer booty. M. Gautier proceeds to remark upon
the strategic plans of Caesar, and explains the inci-
dents connected with his passage by the Alps to
France on the left bank of the Saone. The criti-
cism is altogether remarkable, and characterised by
elegance and just appreciation.