The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-30 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, Monday Evening.

Some despatches and letters from Spain continue
to be published, but they are uninteresting, and it
is stated in a well-informed quarter that the Spa-
nish Government is about to abolish the state of
siege, at least so far as Madrid is concerned.
In that portion of the blue-book which refers to
the affairs of Italy there is the following important
passage:—

" In engaging by the Treaty of the 15th Sept. to
respect the independence of the Papacy, the Cabi-
net of Florence has acquired the adhesion of those
Catholic Governments, other than Austria, which
still hesitate to cement diplomatic relations with it.
Re-assured by this guarantee of its devotion to the
Sovereign Pontiff, Spain has recognised Victor
Emmanuel. Bavaria has followed this example,
and the Treaty of Commerce just concluded
between the Zollverein and Italy gives a valuable
pledge on behalf of general peace."
A. terrible occurrence has taken place at the
Lunatic isylum of St. Pierre, at Marseilles. Three
of the patients, in a violent paroxysm of madness,
consulted together upon the best mode of murder-
ing their attendants. They tore away some iron
bars fixed round a stove, with which they attacked
one of the keepers, and beat him about the head till
he was dead. Another keeper, who went to his
comrade's assistance, was attacked in the same way
and was also killed. There was method enough in
the madness of the three men to enable them to take
the keys from the pockets of the dead keepers, and
they opened another room in order to murder some
of the other keepers. The latter, however, escaped
and locked the door, so as to prevent the egress of
the madmen. The attendants were thus able to
raise an alarm, and the three mad murderers were
secured.

M. Blondel, one of the judges of the Tribunal of
Arbois, in the Department of the Jura, has just
died from hydrophobia. It is now two years since
he was bitten by one of his own dogs while out
shooting.
The most brilliant ball of the season was given on
Saturday, by Count de Goltz at the Prussian Em-
bassy, in the Rue de Lille, formerly the residence of
Prince Eugene de Beauharnais. The saloons are
very capacious, but it was with difficulty they con-
tained the vast assemblage of fashionables invited.
The Prince and Princess of Hohenzollern arrived
about half-past 10. The Princess was dressed very
simply in a gown of white tulle, and wore a wreath
of white camellias in her hair. The Emperor and
Empress entered the balroom at 11. Her Majesty
was also dressed very plainly in white, and her dia-
dem of diamonds was interspersed with white lilac
flowers.'„The Emperor was in black, the Court being
in mourning for King Victor Emmanuel's son, and
wore the grand cordon of the Black Eagle. The
Emperor danced with the Princess and the Empress
with the Ambassador. The quadrille of honour was
made up by Prince Hohenzollern and Madame de
Metternich, Prince Metternich and Madame
Aguado, the rich banker's wife. A supper was
served at one o'clock and another at two o'clock.
Dancing was prolonged till four o'clock on Sunday
morning.

The following is the progress of population in
Paris and the three other considerable cities of
France within 40 years, viz., from 1820 to 1861,
when the last census was taken :

1820. 1861.
Paris 713,765 ... 1,696,141
Lyons

Bordeaux 92,374 162,750
Marseilles ... 104,217 ... 260,916

According to a letter from Lithuania, the number
of exiles from the provinces of Volhynia, Podolia,
and the Ulivaine amounts to no less than 200,000.
The dioceses of `Vilna and Samogita furnish a con-
tingent of 150 priests as exiles ; that is to say, the
fifth of the total number of Catholic priests in those
two dioceses.

The Siecle states that the new Minister of Jus-
tice, in Belgium, M. Bava, is about to propose to
cl,nmbers the abolition of the punishment of
each.
argued that for the safety of society it is absolutely
necessary to retain the punishment, the Siecle retorts
upon that journal very bitterly, and says—" How
this accredited champion of the Church and the
scaffold conforms to the maxim that the Church
has a horror of blood.' "

At a sale of some furniture belonging to a decayed
merchant the other day, a gentleman bought a desk,
for which he paid 57f. When it was sent homethe
purchaser opened a secret drawer, in which he found
gold to the amount of 3,000 f. He sought the
gentleman to whom the desk belonged, and, with
equal kindness and delicacy, made him the offer of
the desk and its contents, an offer which was
accepted ,Aith much gratitude.
A marriage has just taken place in Paris under
romantic circumstances. A few years ago a rich
merchant of the Faubourg du Temple was returning
home from the fete of St. Cloud, when he met a
man and a young girl of 14, who implored charity
in such eloquent and unusual language, at least in
the mouths of beggars, that he questioned the father,
who said they were in the most frightful misery,
arising from unfortunate circumstances entirely
beyond their control. The gentleman was much
interested in the story, and learning that it was a
true one, he took the father into his house of busi-
ness in Paris. Ile also placed the daughter in a
school at Romainville,where her education, suddenly
interrupted, was carefully attended to. On Friday
the young and interesting beggar girl became
the rich merchant's wife, and in the course
of the day he and his newly-married bride visited
the interesting spot where they first met.

The Prince Imperial has just made a present of
a handsome boat to the Central Society established
to give assistance in cases of shipwreck.
It has been stated that the Queen of the Sand-
wich Islands had left France on her return home.
This is not the case. Her Majesty went to Hyeres
in the South of France, with the view of recruiting
her health in that salubrious locality ; but a letter
from that town says that it is by no means re-
established. On the contrary, her Majesty's health
is now in a very unsatisfactory state.

MR. GLADSTONE ON THE NEW REFORM BILL.—
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in acknowledging
the receipt of the memorial adopted at the working men's
Reform meeting recently held at Bradford, has transmitted
a letter, in which the right hon. gentleman says he " begs
to assure the memorialists that her Majesty's Government
are examining the question with a full sense of its impor-
tance, and they will consider themselves bound to support,
with determination, any proposals which it may be their
duty to make in a matter of such vital importance to the
community at large."
SEVENTEEN HIGHLY INTERESTING AUTOGRAPH
LETTERS OF LORD BYRON are to be sold by Messrs.
Sotheby next week. They are mostly addressed to Mr. J.
Hodgson, and contain numerous passages which have not
yet been published. One, for instance, contains this rather
plain confession :—" I hope you will find me an altered
personage; I do not mean in body, but in manner, for I
begin to End out that nothing but virtue will do in this
world. I am tolerably sick of vice, which I have
tried in its agreeable varieties, and mean, on my return,
to cut off all my dissolute acquaintance, leave off wine and
carnal company, and betake myself to politics and de-
corum." In another letter, dated Athens, he says :—" I
am living alone in the Franciscan Monastery, with a
Capuchin friar, a bandy-legged Turkish cook, two Al-
banian savages, a Tartar, and a dragoman." Respecting
his speech in the House of Lords, he remarks :—" I have
had many marvellous eulogies repeated to me since, in
person and by proxy ; of these I shall only mention Sir F.
Burdett. He says, 'lt is the best speech by a lord since•
the Lord knows when !'"

THE PLEASURES OF INSECTS.—lnsects must gene-
rally lead a jovial life. Think what it must be to lodge in
a lily ! Imagine a palace of ivory or pearl, with pillars
of silver and capitals of gold, all exhaling such a perfume
as never arose from human censer! Fancy, again, the fun
of tucking yourself up for the night in the folds of a rose,
rocked to sleep by the gentle sighs of a summer's air, and
nothing to do when you wake but to wash youself in a
dewdrop and fall to and oat your bedclothes.
A letter is published from Victor Hugo to Madame
George Sand. The popular novelist wrote to the poet to
announce the birth of her little granddaughter Aurora, to
which she received the following reply :
Cette deuce Auroro qui luit
Vient h point dans notre ciel sombre ;
A nous deux nous sommes la nuit,
You dtes l'astre et je suis l'ombre.
Maclaine Sami'l name it Aurora.