The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-30 00:00:00

tORREsroNDENcE PROM. PARIS

(nom OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, WEDNESDAY, April 29.

News is scarce to-day. The semi-official journals still
discuss King William's speech, and resolve to find in it
nothing pacific. There have been rumours of interviews
between the Prussian Minister and our Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and it is assumed that they had an unfriendly
import. But peace is in the ascendant to-day. I
am told that the majority of the Council are very
anxious that the Emperor should make a deci-
sive declaration during his approaching visit to Orleans ;
and I am even assured that the Emperor has promised
to do so, but, lest his promise should be inisundersfo6d,
ho has sent word to the War Minister and the Minister of
Marine that he fully approves their resistance to any re-
duction of their Budgets. Consequently, there will be no
reduction, and therefore no relief for us unfortunate and
overburdened taxpayers.
The conscription has given rise to disturbances at
Nimes. A Government paper thus describes it. Ten
young men who had drunk too freely at dinner attacked
an unarmed citizen, and one of them was arrested
immediately. His comrades endeavoured to release him,
and two more of them were then captured. A crowd then
gathered before the prefecture, and the gendarmes fearing
mischief appeared on the scene. The musket of one
of them went off accidentally, and inflicted a fatal
wound upon a comrade. The gendarmes were shortly
afterwards reinforced by troops, and the crowd disappeared
as if by magic. Such is the semi-official account of the
transaction. It evidently is an incomplete representation
of what took place ; for, as everyone asks, if the disturb-
ance were not more serious than this, why did the
gendarmes load their weapons, and why were the troops
called out ?

It is rather amusing to see how strong It; the influence
of party spirit upon our journals. To-day, for instance,
the Opposition journals announce, in the largest print,
fresh defeats of the Government, and the semi-official
journals announce a Government triumph. Both are right,
but both are guilty of a suppressio reri by taking no notice
of the fact which does not please them. At Mrac,
in the Gironde, three Opposition candidates for the
municipal council beat three Government candi-
dates, and the Avenir National is jubilant. The
Etendard knows nothing of that event, but tells us
that at Corrdze and Moisdon two Government candidates
have been elected councillors of arrondissements.

Some of the journals have been blundering respelling
the approaching elections to the Corps LLlg,islatif. The
Figaro has been exhorting the electors of Dordogne to
choose M. de Malleville, and has given a biography of
him ; but it turns out that the Figaro has got hold. of
the wrong Malleville, and the Etendard sarcastically asks
what value the electors will attach to the advice of so
ignorant an adviser. The Etendard goes on to say :
" Decidedly the Figaro has got into a muddle with its
universal biography. In the same number in which it
confuses M. de Malleville, of the Refonn banquets, with
the Marquis de Malleville, it seriously affirms that the con-
queror of Magdala is Sir Charles Napier, that he was an
English naval officer, and commanded the Baltic fleet in
1854. The truth is, that the commander-inchief of the
Abyssinian army is a general of the land army, named Sir
Robert Napier, and that Sir Charles Napier, who took
Cronstadt one evening after dinner, died in 1860, at the
age of 74 years. To-day he would have been 82." The
reference to Sir James Graham's friend and the dinner at
the Reform Club is decidedly neat.
_ _

•
Every day we hear of some fresh democratic journal being
started. They are so numerous that I have now ceased
to refer to them. But there is one mentioned to-day
which deserves notice on account of the brilliancy of its
staff. The paper is to be called the Democratic. It is to
appear weekly, and will, in fact, be a review. Among its
contributors, I am told, will be Louis Blanc, Victor Hugo,
Ingar Quinet, Michelet, Jules Simon, Bethmont, and
others.
The Arcadians have closed their club. They find, I
suppose, that there is such a thing as being more Napo-
leonist than Napoleon, and that it is useless for them to
resist the concessions which the Emperor has resolved to
give, and which—and far more than which—the country
demands.
It appears that it was not Pr6vost-Para.dol, but
lUmusat who introduced Jules Favre to the Emperor the
other day, when the new Academician presented his
address. It was 116musat who replied to that address,
and as the first was no less anti-Imperialist than the
second, it may be imagined that the persons concerned
looked forward to their interview with some curiosity.
The Emperor said little, but what he did say was
decidedly neat : " I thank you, M. Favre, for speaking
so well of one (Victor Cousin) who, during the latter
years of his life, was such a devoted adherent of mine."
This was at the same time good-humoured, and yet
sharp.

The correspondent of the Times gives a very picturesque
account of the festivities which succeeded the marriage.
The tournament afforded opportunity for the display of some
splendid costumes and gallant horsemanship. The knights
were divided into three sets of thirty-two each, named
re:Tectively Spanish, Italian, and Flemish, with violet,
blue, and red and green for their predominating colours.
The Duke of Aosta, brother of the bridegroom and the
hero of Custoza, was conspicuous for his gallant bearing,
and made his horse leap obstacles which other steeds re-
fused to take. One curious part of the performance was
the hurling of javelins against a target, that, when
its centre was hit, let loose a number of birds
which flew out fluttering, dismayed by the crowd and
the noise and the strangeness of the scene. The
illuminations were brilliant in the extreme. Turin
is one of the most regularly built cities in Europe, and the
façade of its streets offers peculiar facilities for lamp decora -
tions. The view down the Via di Po across the bridge, to
where the church of the Gran Madre di Dio stood lambent
with rose-coloured fire, was superb. At the banquet
Tokay wine of 1760 was served to the guests, a remi-
niscence of the old days of friendship between the Houses
of Hapsburg and Savoy, so long interrupted, but now
again renewed. The King took no food, having a habit
of dining early, but he walked about and talked to the
guests, and made himself generally agreeable, and no end
of witticisms are attributed to him. The Duchess of
Aosta had a reception, and pleased people by her affability
and by the absence of the hauteur which would not have
been unnatural, but would have been very disagreeable, in
one who had been lately raised to Royal rank. The
Princess Clotilda had a return indisposition to that which
prevented the Russian Ambassador from waiting upon
Prince Napoleon, and she was prevented from receiving
his Excellency. The illness in both cases was of more
than usually diplomatic brevity.

In the midst of all the festivities there is much general
discontent, which threatens to burst forth in some shape
or other. The meal tax is not to he voted until after the
rejoicings, having been deferred at the express command
of the King, but the evil is only deferred, and politicians
declare that they are walking on hot embers. Brigandage
has again assumed very formidable proportions, and rages
almost up to the gates of Naples. The amnesty given in
honour of the royal marriage will let loose a crowd of dan-
gerous characters, so that the plague is likely to increase.
An attempt has been made to terrify the brigands and
their supporters by an example of severity. Two brigands
having been captured and condemned to death,
two of their comrades had to perform the
office of executioners. The crowd that stood by jeered
the latter, telling them that they had an opportunity
of sliewing their prowess. One of the executioners, stung
by their taunts, accomplished his task at one blow, and
the severed head of his wretched colleague rolled down
over the side of the hill. The second execution was a
horrible scene. The blow had to be repeated ten times,
and still without putting an end to the sufferings of the
helpless victim. " Derided by the other brigands," says
the narrator, " Pizzuti threw himself like a famished beast
upon the body of the still breathing Serra plunging the
dagger into every part of his body. It was the most
terrible scene ever witnessed, but with all this, Serra was
not yet dead. At last the captain thought fit to inter-
fere, and a revolver discharged in the ear of the mutilated
wretch brought the dreadful proceedings to a close."

The second anniversary of the Czar's escape from the
pistol of Karakozoff was celebrated on the 16th with great
pomp. There was a grand procession through the streets
of St. Petersburg, and a "Te Deum " at the Kazan
Cathedral. The Czar will probably go to Kissingen
during the summer. The Princess Dagmar has been in
delicate health during the winter, and has had to maintain
a recumbent pc.sition. She is now better, and drives out,
followed by a stalwart Cossack footman.
The 'myth* Passe says that the official report cf the
work done in the arsenal of St. Petersburg during 1867
sheers that it was four times as great as in the preceding
years ; and during 1817 about two cannon a day were
turned out, besides 100 converted into rifled guns. A
large number of copper cannon are now being cast. At
the arsenal of Biansk men have been working night and
day.

A semi-official Servian journal says that the Porte has
summoned the Nizams and the Itedifs in all haste, and sent
them to the Servian frontier. The heights of Nisch are
being armed. Troops are being concentrated neat
Ka.mienetz. The journal in question professes to be
astonished at all these preparations, since the most pro-
found tranquillity prevails in Servia.
A Greek vessel, the " Crete," intended to run the
blockade of the Cretan ports, has been captured by the
Turks.