The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-04 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, THURSDAY EVENINGI.
A Comeil of Ministe-s was held yesterday at the
residence of the Minister of Justice.
The French Government has instructed its Re-
presentatives in foreign countries to disavow the
Miaratist proclamations which have been distri-
buted. These proclamations, however, have prot.
dated no effect in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The Minister of Marine has received despatches
from Hong Kong to the 12th of July. They an-
nounce that Admiral Guerin had despatched twe
ships of war to protect M. de Mon tigny, the French
Consul at Shanghai, whose person had been
threatened.

The Moniteur publishes a decree promulgating
the convention concluded between France and the
Republic of Venezuela for the reciprocal establish-
ment, of consuls in the two countries. The con-
vention contains the usual clauses relative to
affixing the arms of the nation over the consular
residences ; their personal inviolability, as well as
that of the archives and papers connected with their
office, &e.
Politics occupy the attention of the Paris jour-
nals in only a very insignificant degree. The
Siecle dilates on the advantage of the water-cure
and on the great obligations under which Priess-
nitz, the inventor, has placed mankind by intro-
ducing it to the world. The Union complains of
the continued dearness of butchers' meat iu Paris,
and decbtres itself opposed to the present monopoly.
The Constitutionnel contains a !ono article on the
work of an engineer of the Pones-et-Chaussee,,
named Valles, respecting the dreadful inundations
which so frequently visit France, and the best means
of neutralising, if not preventing, the dam ige which
they produce. Our contemporary, adopting the
views of the author, expresses the opinion that in-
undations,if properly regulated, are far from being
npnja
ure relotru
the water is
aresidueer,t fertilising character.
oiiirfitsnhge to
b muddye thi
being
landof a o
most
Tne consequence is that, in, succeediug years, the
land which has been flooded produ es far more abun-
dantly than it had done before. The whole ques-
tion to be s_ lved therefore is so to manage matters
that the waters may run off without precipit ttion,
and the removal of the valuable surface-soil be pre-
vented. Our contemporary, on the subject, makes
the following observations :
" It is easy to see the error committed by those who,
instead of combating the mischief effected by turning to
account the good which it might produce, have pre-
tended to suppress inundations altogether by confining
the waters within certain channels. Such la • been the
object of the greater part a the hydraulic works under-
taken for many years past. Longitudinal dykes have
been raised to both sides of the rivers, and it hat been
sought to force the water, whatever might be its mass,
to flow off in the circumscribed apace 'race 1 out for if.
What has resulted from this systems) ? On the one hand,
the valleys have been deprived of the prec:ous benefit
the dep )sits ; and on the oth e-, catastrophes have not
been prevented, but rather aggravated. The sy,'.e aof
dykes, wrote the Ea:wet-et. last year in Lis w.ell known
letter to the Minister of Public Wt.rks, is only a pallia
tive, ruinous to the State, a ,d impieect as regards this
interests to be protecteo. • I.: f.c-, t .ey do not offer the
conditions of reiistance necesatery to keep b sck the water,
and are always brok,n thrt ugh ia seine plsces during
considerable floods, and the water thee rushes over the
surrounding land with greater violence that it has bet n
kept at a greater height by the dykes themselves. It is
impossible for these dykes to be made more resisting, as
no one can calculate with any degree of certainty that
they will be high enough to prevent their being over-
flowed, as no limit can be filed to the height to which
the water may rise. That system of defence is therefore
ineffectual, dangerow, and contrary to the obi set which
it is proposed to attain."
What, therefore, are the means to be employe d
and the works to ba executed to prevent the ill
effects of the rise of rivers, to lessen their violence,
and to convert into a benefit what is now a great
disaster This is what the Constitutionnet proposes
ti examine in a future article, _ _

The Debats, in no icing the elevation of Mr.
Macaulay to the House of Lords, pays the following
well merited tribute t r the talents of the distin-
guished writer :
' "'role j ist eco upense bocours both. the Government
which has (o..ferred it and' the eminent historian who,
after havini, served his country in the Howie of Com-
mons, will find in the House of Lords a theatre m 're iu
cunformi y with the el Tahiti of. his talent and the phi-
losophic& cbaracter of his eloqu-mce. Recently nomi-
nated a foreign aisoc'ate of th-3 Alade.my o' Moral and
Po itical Sciences of F a,:;cr, Mr Macaulay may j istly
be considered as belonging w lit e -ed Europe as well as
to Eugltud. Hi; account of the Revolution of 1683,
.chick is so , xict and elnvent 83 precise in details and
in the study of eharac:;er, and so philosophical and ele-
vated in thought, is a veritable course of constitutions!
policy by
which all those who interest themselves in the
good government of na•icus ought to profit, This noble
interpreter of the Elglish constitution, this edightened
friend of liberty, who has become, by force of clearness
and of interest a popular historian, has done in his coun-
try and beyond his country all the good that talent and
uprightness can produce in this world."
'there is, however, one subklet ; f a rolitical na-
ture to which the Debats, tLe Union, and the Ga-
zette do France allude, though in the) slightest man-
ner, viz., tlu article in the Poston the Principalities.
They all notice it for the purpose, they state, of