The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-05 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Tuesday Evening.
The following is from the bulletin of the Moni-
!eur

" The Minister of War of the Kingdom of Italy,
General Cugia, has just appointed a military com-
mission to study matters connected with the re-
cruitment and organisation of the army.
" The Minister of Finance of the Netherlands
has presented the budget for 1867, which does not
differ materially from that of last year.
" We have correspondence from Mogador, which
states that the Mecca pilgrims have not yet re-
turned. The losses, the sufferings, the difficulties
of the voyage, and the fear of cholera which raged
in Arabia at the period of the religious fetes, so
diminished the number that in 1866 only 73 pil-
grims embarked at Mogador, although generally
they assemble in hundreds and thousands. The
rebellion of the Chieks of the Orad Nourn is not
yet terminated. They still demand as the condition
of their submission that the privileges they formally
enjoyed shall be restored to them."
The Constitutionnel, in noticing the arrival of M.
Bismark at Berlin, says that it will no doubt give
fresh impetus to the political labours of the Cham-
hers. In spite of the concessions made (adds the
Constitationneo the Opposition has not abdicated,
and indeed several members of it are as hostile to
the Ministry as they were before the war.
On Saturday a deputation from the French Demo-
crats were received by M. Bigelow, at the American
Legation, to present a gold medal offered by them
to the widow of Abraham Lincoln. It is a beauti-
ful medal, struck at Geneva, artistically engraved
by M. Franky Magniadas. With the medal the
committee handed a letter to Mrs. Lincoln, signed
by them, and couched as follows :—" Madam,—
We are charged to offer you this medal which has
been struck in honour of the great, honest man
whose name you bear. The medal was struck by
more than 40,000 French citizens, desirous to mani-
fest their sympathy for the American Union in the
person of one of its most illustrious and the purest
of its representatives. If France were possessed of
the liberties which are enjoyed by the American
Republic, it would not be by thousands, but by
millions, who would be reckoned with us, the ad-
mirers of Lincoln and the partizans of opinions to
which he devoted his life and consecrated by his
death. Receive, madam, the homage of our pro-
found respect." M. Albert, who handed the letta
and medal to M. Bigelow, made a speech, in which
he said that the medal was as a homage to the
memory of the illustrious President, and a testimony
of admiration for the man who bad immortalised
himself in the service of the United States, and of
the gratitude of the defenders of Democracy and
liberty all over the world. M. Bigelow, in elo-
quent terms, thanked the deputation for their
sympathy.

The system of railway communication progresses
in Switzerland as well as elsewhere. Twelve com-
panies work the Swiss railways at the present time.
The total length of the lines conceded is 1,588,653
metres. The length cf the lines in actual operation
is 1,310,716 metres. The most important lines are
those of the Union Swisse, the Central, the North
East, and the North 'West. The North East has
paid 7 per cent., and the Central 6 per cent., includ-
ing interest and dividend. The new lines in course
of construction are those of the canton of Argovie,
Orm (Fribour-Lausanne-Berne), Jougne, in the
Canton deVaud, and those for establishing commu-
nications over the Jura mountains. Railways im-
prove every year in Switzerland, and the number
of travellers increases.

The Turin Gazette states that Cardinal de Ville-
court, who is at Rome, is so dangerously ill as to
preclude any hope of his recovery. The Cardinal,
who was born at Lyons, is nearly 80.
The trial of Lamirande, the late cashier of the
Bank of Poitiers, commenced yesterday, before the
Court of Assize for the department of Viune, held
at the former town. The evidence is so volumi-
nous that the trial will last several days. It is stated
that the council for the defence, previously to enter-
ing upon the facts, intend to take a technical objec-
tion to the progress of the indictment on the ground
that the prisoner was illegally arrested in Canada.
The prisoner is a man of 37. He was born at
Chatellerault. In England such an objection would
be taken before the reading of the indictment, but
yesterday the Clerk of the Court read it 'without
any observation being made by the counsel for the
prisoner. He, however, took the objection after-
wards.

The assizes of Digne will not be held this quarter
for the simple but satisfactory reason that there is
no case for trial, a circumstance which has occurred
several times in the department of the Basses Alpes
within a few years.
Destructive Ores seem very frequent just now in