The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-19 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY TEE QUEEN.

WINDSOR; CASTLE, DEC. 18.
The Queen had several hours of undisturbed
sleep last night, and is calm this morning.

We are happy to be enabled to state that Lord
Palmerston, who had for several days been suffering from
an attack of gout in the wrist and in one foot, htLd almost
entirely recovered from it yesterday. Ho has beer confined
to the house for a day or two, but has never been. prevented
either from receiving his colleagues in the Ministry, or
transacting the immense amount of business which, espe-
cially at such a moment, devolves upon the head of the
Government.

The Earl and Countess of Derby have been re-
ceiving a distinguished company at Knowsley. On Mon-
day, on the receipt of the lamented death or his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort, the company separzited.

His Serene Highness Prince Nicholas of Nassau
has arrived at Fenton's Hotel from Germany.

His Excellency the Belgian Minister, who has
been suffering from indisposition for some d.sys past, at
New Lodge, Windsor, is somewhat better.
The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland arrived at
Stafford :House, St. James's, yesterday, from lilleshall,
Shropshire.

The Duchess (Dow.) of Sutherland has, though
not generally known, been staying with the Queen at
Windsor Castle since Monday morning, at the request of
her Majesty. The soothing presence of the d uchess has
been a source of some consolation to the Queen under the
poignancy of the grief naturally consequent on her Ma-
jesty's severe affliction.
The Duke and Duchess of Manchester have re-
turned to Kimbolton Castle, Hunts, from visiting the Earl
and Countess of Derby, at Knowsley Park, Lancashire.

The Duke of Argyll is expected immediately in
London from the Continent.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Exeter, and
Lady Victoria Cecil, have arrived in town from Brighton.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Headfort, have
left town for Ireland.

REMOVAL OF THE O'DONOGIIIIE FROA THE
COMMISSION OF THE PEACE.—The _Evening Mad under-
stands that her" Majesty's writ has passed the Great Seal
superseding The O'Donoghue in the commission of the
peace for the counties of Cork and Kerry.
About £72,000 in gold, chiefly Australian, by the
Wellesley, was taken to the Bank yesterday, mit,Jtiug a
total of £142,000 since the last weekly return,

DECEMBER 19, 1861.

LATEST NEWS.

PARIS, DEC. 19.

The Aloititear of to-day publishes a decree open-
ing the Custom-house of Strasburg for the importa-
tion of woollen and cotton yarns of every kind of
Belgian and English manufacture.
The Custom-houses of Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk,
Valenciennes, S trasburg, and Chambery are added
to the number of those which have already been
opened for the direct importation and clearing of
English and Belgium textures taxed ad valorem.
The Moniteur, in its bulletin, gibes a categorical
denial to all the reports of modifications in the
French Ministry.

Count Pourtales, Prussian Minister to the Court
of the Tuileries, is dead.

MADRID, DEC. 18.
The Marquis Vega Armigo has been appointed
Minister of Public Works.
Mr. Schurz, the American Minister, has left
Madrid on leave of absence.

CATTARO, DEC. 18.

Numerous detachments of volunteers have been
sent to Antivari and Spizza, in order to defend
these places against any attack that might be made
by the Montenegrins. The latter, however, have
retreated.

A considerable sum of money has been received
at the Turkish camp for the payment of the arrears
due to the troops.

BERLIN, DEC. 18.

It was alleged by some Berlin papers that the
King, in replying to an address presented to his
Majesty at Leztlingen, while on his recent hunting
tour, had expressed his dissatisfaction with the
election in that district of certain members of the
more advanced section of the Liberal party.
The Preussische Zeitung of to-day says :
" We are authorised from the highest quarters
to declare that the report of the speech of the King
to the clergy of Letzlingen has been exaggerated,
and even falsified, from party motives. The King
neither used the words nor conveyed the sense re-
specting amnestied persons which have been attri-
buted to him."

BRESLAU, DEC. 18.

The Breslauer Zeitung of to-day says :
"Mgr. Bialobrzeski, Administrator of the Arch-
bishopric of Warsaw, has been condemned to death.
He refused to appeal for pardon, and said,—' I
have done nothing which should be punished with
death.' "

GENOA, DEC. 18.

The Corriere Mercantile of to-day states that a
disagreement has arisen between Garibaldi and the
leader of the majority of the Genoa Committee,
who had voted that the authority of the committee
was superior to that of Garibaldi.

NAPLES, DEC. 18.
Vesuvius has recommenced casting forth ashes.
An official report states that Torre del Greco
has risen to the extent of one metro.

INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
SOUTHAMPTON, DEC. 19.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Pera, with the heavy portion of the India,
China, and Australian mails, arrived off the Needles
at 10.25 this morning.

FRANCE.
PARIS, WEDNESDAY.

The Senate met yesterday—M. Troplong in the
chair. M. Baroche, Minister-President of the
Council of State; M. Billault, Minister without
portfolio; M. de Parieu, Vice-President of the
Council of State ; and M. Vuitry, President of
Section, took their places on the seats appropriated
to the Government Commissioners. The order of
the day was the reading of the report drawn up by
M. Troplong in the name of the committee ap-
pointed to examine the Senatus-Consultum intend-
ing to modify Arts. 4 and 12 of the Senatus-Con-
sultum of Dec. 25,1852. The document commences
in these terms:—

"Gentlemen,--For the second time in a year the Em-
peror has called on the Senate to deliberate on measures
calculated to extend our constitutional guarantees. In the
month of December last, the field of discussion in the Senate
and the Legislative Body was enlarged ; and now you have
to occupy yourselves with the control of the finances and
new means calculated to render it more efficient. rho na-
tion regards with interest those important labours of the
Senate, and its gratitude is warmly expressed to the Sove-
reign, who knows how to call them into existence with that
happy appropriateness which is the genius of Government,
and with that boldness which is only the prudence of the
man who reads the future.

" However, gentlemen, there is now no more than there
was a year ago, any question of quitting the path traced out
by the Constitution of 1852. That Constitution has a cha•
ratter which is clearly defined in our organic plebiscites.
It reposes iu its fundamental bares on a former
contract, which the national popular assemblies
have stipulated, and which they alone can modify.
" But tho Constitution of 1852 did not undertake to re •
store to liberty the combinations and the forms which were
crushed down in 1848 by the heavy car of revolutions ; far
from that, universal suffrage, whose voice still resounds in
our ears, has declared them incompatible with the wants of
a society which democracy guides, but which dreads abysses,
and which is resolved not again to fall into any by the
powerlessness of the pilot and the weakness of the rudder.
No doubt the country must obtain all franchises which it
can support without injury to itself ; but the Government
also must not lose any of the attributes which constitutes its
liberty, and which necessarily belong to its authority. This
was forgotten after 1789, but we are too near 1848 for it
to be again lost sight of.
" It is thus that the Emperor himself has understood the
respective situations.
" It follows from these observations that the measures
proposed deserve all the favour of the Senate, if, as we think
with the Emperor's Government, they are only improve-
ments of, and not deviations from, the Constitution of
1852, and its mechanism.
" The first of these measures is as to the mode of voting
the Budget by the Legislative Body. The article of the
draft submitted to your deliberations, proposes to you to
make a modification in Art. 12 of the Senatus-Consultum
of the h December, 1852, which has regulated this point.
The Senate will perhaps be kind enough to call to mind
that the reporter at the litter epoch was the same as on
the present occasion, and it is on that account that I owe to
you the honour of now expressing the opinions of your
committee,"

The report then examines at considerable length
and with great ability the manner in which the
Budget had been voted under preceding Govern-
ments from the time of the First Empire down to
the Revolution of February. That part of the
document is afterwards summed up in this manner :
" Under the monarch of Napoleon I. the right of voting
the taxes existed, but it was limited through not taking
cognisance of the cause. It wanted the condition required
by the principles of 1789 for the vote to be free, namely,
the proof of the requirements and the discussion of the
means.

" Under the Parliamentary system the control, on the
contrary, was excessive ; but it was wanting in the princi-
ple of authority proclaimed in 1852 ; it disturbed the har-
mony of the powers, and gave to the Chambers, sometimes
even to the commission, attributes belonging to the Crown.
" These two systems do not suit the monarchy of the
Second Empire, which will not have absolutism either in
power or in liberty."
_ _

In the case cl preparations for war which would
require secrecy in the face of great perils from
abroad, the committee considered that the system
of transfers would be of paramount utility, but such
measures it believed could never remain long con-
cealed, and when light should at last break in on
what was going on, the best plan wouldbe toboldly
assume the clear position which belongs to a Govern-
ment supported by the sentiment of the country.
The report terminates as follows :
" Gentlemen, our task is very nearly terminated. We
should, however, consider it incomplete, if we did not
endeavour to show the political signification ofthe measura
by which it is recommended to your attention. The measure
is only a change in the form of proceeding ; it is not the
disavowal of a glorious past, and we must not allow impres-
sions to exist calculated to create the belief that it was con-
ceived in consequence of accumulated =harassments, and

not in the full liberty of a Government, master of existing
circumstances. (Approbation.)
" After ten years the Government modifies its line of
conduct by a now step in advance; it does not condemn
itself in the acts which marked its accession.
" The law of the 25th June, 1811, ordered numerous ex-
traordinary works of general utility. That law was, so to
speak, a noble page in the history of that epoch. To exe-
cute the works, it was necessary to submit to annual defi-
cits, to contract loans, to increase the floating debt, and to
augment the budget from year to year. In January, 1818,
the floating debt was 630,793,609 f. ; a loan of 350,000,0001.
was negotiated, and, let us remark in passing, it could not
be entirelyrecovered : not less than 800,000,000 f. were added
to the public debt, and the budget, which in 1830 was
975,044,745 f., attained the figure of 1,126,110,170 f.
" The public expenses since 1852 have considerably in-
creased, and the loans have exceeded the bounds where the
preceding monarchy had stopped. But the France of
1852, strengthened, pacified, and restored by the 2d of
December, is no longer the France of former days, and
she can no more keep herself within the budgetary limits
of 1830 than 1830 could within those of 'B7. Her ca-
pital has more than tripled, and her riches eclipse all
that was ever before known ; she has seen her glorious flag
astonish Europe, and float on the walls of Sebastopol. Her
policy and her arms have realised the great design, perhaps
the dream, pursued since the time of Charles VIII, of an
Italy released from a foreign yoke. Our soldiers have
caused the extreme East to tremble ; Syria has hailed them
as deliverers ; Rome receives them as the guardians of order
and the protectors of the Holy See. Is the money, there-
fore, badly spent which serves to pay for so much glory,
grandeur, and generosity? England saddled herself with
a debt of several milliards to endeavour but in vain to stifle
the French revolution ; and we, we have been imprudent in
borrowing two milliards to raise to the highest degree the
name of France, to resume the series of our victories, to
carry to the ends of the world our civilisation and our influ-
ence, and to crown our secular tendencies beyond the Alps
by the miracle of definitive success. (Approbation.)
" At the same time, the extraordinary works carried on
in part by about 500 millions obtained from credit under
different forms, have diffused life through the provinces,
transformed the capital which had become too small, and
multiplied all the means of communication which enrich
a country, facilitate commerce, and diminish the expense
of carriage and travelling. From 1848 to 1860, that is,
in thirteen years, four of which only belong to the Re-
publican Government, and were subject to its uncer-
tainties, 863,365,057 fr. have been devoted to new
works, roads, bridges, rivers, canals, seaports, reclaim-
ing of downs, plantations, and railways ; and further, what
the State has applied to railways has led to an outlay by
the companies of 2,935 millions. This result which, taking
the yearly average, exceeds the proportions of works exe-
cuted during the 17 years of the monarchy of July, must be
regarded as a compensation for the addition to the debt ;
for, if the interest of the public debt has been increased,
the annual benefit to the country has been far greater owing
to the diminution of the cost of conveyance of goods and
passengers, and to the impulse given to trade, manufac.
tures, and agriculture. (Renewed approbation.)
"A Minister of King Louis Philippe declared from the
tribune that the public debt was not large enough in propor-
tion to our wealth, and he was right, on condition, how.-
ever, that the funds borrowed be applied to productive
works. The loans which are transformed into roads,
bridges, railways, canals, &c., procure the country con-
siderable economies which the interest paid for the capital.
" Thus, Messieurs, these 2,000 millions borrowed for
war; these 500 millions borrowed for public works, bring
them a signal justification.

" Apprehensioas have been felt on the subject of the
floating debt, which now amounts to 579 millions ; but the
floating debt was larger in 1855, 1857, and 1360, and France
suffered no embarrassment oa that account. Can France
be alarmed by these 879 millions? She had in January,
1843, a floating debt of 630 millions ; are the 879 millions
of to-day so very far in excess of that sum, when we take

into consideration the increased wealth and the progress of
the country ? It should also be remembered that in these
879 millions there are 652 millions accruing from deficits
anterior to 1852, and not imputable to the empire, and 78
millions which served for the conversion of the Rente, in
paying off creditors who preferred to receive their money

instead of the new stock. The other 100 millions have been
employed in the expedition to the East and the occupation
of Rome.

"Now, Messieurs, these are the faults of the Empire.
Who, at the present moment, would wish that they had not
been committed ? Who would wish to efface Sebastopol,
Magenta, and Solferino ? Who would wish to see France
deprived of her new weapons of war and her transformed
navy, her railways, and so many other improvements, great
and small, which would ere while have been considered
luxuries, but cannot now be regarded even as superfluities,
to such an extent as the taste for the comforts of life ren-
dered them necessary ? (Marks of assent.)
" If those are faults, a Monarch loss reserved than the

Emperor might say with Scipio, 'Let us ascend the capi-
tal and give thanks to the Gods.' But he employs different
language, and making what Montaigne calls a pause in his
strength, he says, not 'let us stop, for France cannot do so,'
but ' let us charge our route, and moderate even our pas-
sion for the people's welfare,'—a prudent resolution, espe-
cially in questions of finance.

The report, which was listened to throughout with
earnest attention, was loudly applauded at the

close.

BOURSE, Dec. 18.—The market has been more
buoyant, and a fair amount of business has been
transacted at the closing prices of yesterday. For
the Account Threes are now at 67f 40c. Railways
also firm, and some lines rather higher.
The following are the last quotations :-
41 per per Cents ... 94 50 Credit F oncier
Do end month.... Belgian 4i, 99 50
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 40 Roman
Bank Shares 2960 Austrian
Credit Mobilier.... 721 25 Spank,h Threes —
Do. Account 722 50 Home Debt
RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account..
Orleans 1295 1297 50
Northern
New ditto . 915
Lyons and Mediterranean 1003 75 .. 1005
Geneva — • • --
Southern 656 25 .. 657 50
Western
Eastern
Sardinian 335 .. 340
Austrian
Lombard ......... • . 506 25 .. 507 50