The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-23 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE PROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, SUNDAY, March 22.

`The red flag has been hoisted at Bordeaux." This
news has a startling sound. It is really somewhat serious
though not so alarming as appears at first sight. The
facts are these. According to the semi-official Etendard,
which is not likely to exaggerate the occurrence, at two
o'clock yesterday afternoon a band of men appeared
suddenly on the All6es de Tourny. They bore a
red flag, and some of them were armed with sticks.
Some attempts at disorder took place. The Commissary-
General, at the head of his agents, tore away the flag from
its bearer, and then engaged in a struggle with the dis-
turbers of the peace. The Prefet of the Gironde marched
to the spot with a picket of honour and gendarmes. They
made some arrests, " and in ten minutes all was over.''
One agent was wounded. The account goes on to say tint
the behaviour of the . people was perfect, and that they
blamed the rioters. A police commissioner, we are in-
formed, endeavoured by paternal words to turn away the
young mea from their culpable folly. The Mobile Guard,
who were undergoing revision at the time, took no
part in the disturbance, but remained perfectly calm.
Presuming that this affair is no worse than the Govern-
ment organ has made it out, it is yet somewhat serious, as
indicating a growing unpopularity of the Imperial regime
in the large towns. We are now looking forward with
some anxiety to the enforcement of the Army Bill in Paris.
The Corps Legislatif is expected to vote to-morrow without
any opposition the two millions (E 80,000) forthe relief of the
distress in Algeria. It will also sanction the prosecution
of M. de Kerv(s.guen for slandering the Paris journals.
The telegraph has already informed you that the editors
of the Situation and the Figaro have been found guilty of
slandering the Chamber. The editor of the second
mentioned paper has to go to prison as well as to pay a
fine. What would your journalists think if they were
liable to incarceration in Newgate for declaring that the
House of Commons was past its work and ought to be
dissolved ?

The irritation which this trial has produced will not be
lessened by another which came off last Friday. A certain
association, called the Working Men's International
Association (Societe Internationale des Travailleurs) was
lately started, in order to discuss such matters as co-opera-
tion, strikes, the wages paid in different countries—certainly
very legitimate objects of consideration. But the members
omitted to obtain the authorisation of the Government,
which is necessary when a society consists of more than
twenty persons. For this cause fifteen of them have just
been put upon their trial, and, after making an able de-
fence, in the course of which they said that they did not
think of demanding the Government authorisation for such
an association as theirs, they were each sentenced to a fine
of £4 and thirty days' imprisonment.
The report that the Emperor means to go to St. Peters-
burg gains ground, and it is taken for granted that he will
call at Berlin on the way. The Prussian official papers
, are now admitting that Prince Napoleon had a mission,
but that he had no definite instructions.
The Minister of Commerce has just stated, in a speech
delivered to the Corps Ldgislatif, that 30,000 working men
received hospitality in Paris during the Exhibition, and
400,000 free tickets were given.
Baron llaussmann's-street making mania has had the
effect of bringing to light a large number of crimes which
have taken place no one can tell how many years ago.
There is scarcely a street or a boulevard upon the site of
which human remains have not_been discovered. During
fifteen years no fewer than 300 skeletons have been found.
If to these we add all the bodies which have probably
been thrown into the Seine, those which have been burnt,
those which still remain buried in the cellars of the houses
that the Emperor of Paris has not yet touched, we have
room for any number of additional chapters to Eugime
Sue's " Myst4es de Paris."

The Calcutta correspondent of the Times gives several
interesting items of Indian news. Sir John Lawrence
resigns the Viceroyalty on January 11, when his term of
office will expire. He will, says the correspondent, carry
with him the blessings of four classes of the community—
the English soldier, the sailor, the native peasant, and the
third-class railway passenger. One of his latest acts,
which seems to have been the proximate cause of this
eulogy, is the providing of a room in every barrack where
a married scripture-reader will reside, and hold prayer
meetings with the soldiers. The Viceroy is a Presbyterian,
and this arrangement would seem to be intended as a
demonstration against the Bishop of Calcutta, the general
of division, and some of the military chaplains, who are
accused of Ritual tendencies. The other day a Highlander
in one of the regiments grounded arms, and absolutely
refused to enter a church to which he had been marched
on account of objections to the mode of conducting the
service. As a religious controversy of this sort was likely
to endanger the discipline of the army, an order has been
issued permitting the troops to go to any place of worship
they choose. As regards s:cular matters, we learn that
Sir John Lawrence is strongly opposed to granting a
Council to Bengal, being convinced of the importance

maintaining direct personal government and single respon-
sibility. Mr. Grey, the new Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal, takes the Opposite view. The correspondent
thinks it hard that the 150,000 pure Englishmen in India,
89,000 of whom are English gentlemen chiefly resident in
Calcutta and Bengal, should not be represented if such a
Council is to be appointed. In financial matters the great
event has been the unexpected discovery of a surplus.
Ten months ago the deficit was estimated at £1,827,500 ;
it is now said to be non-existent. Opium has, for the first
time during Mr. Massey's rt'gime, yielded a million more
than was anticipated. There have been other circum-
stances tending to the same result. The correspondent,
however, puts no faith in the figures, and pretty broadly
intimates that the accounts have been cooked in order to
prevent the levying cf the unp,pular income. tax. The
new mail arrangements have caused the greatest possible
dissatisfaction. They have been so fixed that while
Englishmen at home have the whole week between the
arrival of one mail and the departure of the next, Anglo-
Indians will have to work all day Sunday in order to
answer their letters by the return mail.

From the Times of India we glean the following items :--
The rebellious Naikras have been attacked near Baroda,
and their leader has been killed. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald
is in ill health, and was prevented from attending the
opening of the Bombay Art Exhibition. Captain Cun-
ningham, who, it will be remembered, was some time ago
cashiered by court-martial, has been restored to his rank,
and will receive the arrears of the pay which should have
been given to him if he had not been cashiered. A strong
illustration this of the unsatisfactory chara:ter of military
courts of justice.

The information respecting the reported murder of
Azim Khan is vague. According to a Peshawur telegram
to the Indian Pub.'ic Opinion, dated February 16, the
Amir had been killed by Muhammad Sharif Khan. Some
travellers who have just arrived deny this, and state that
the Amir who had gone to a feast at Kutsha-Merdom-
Chandol was, on returning, shot down close to the Kutsha-
Chandol gate by a man with a carbine who had hidden
himself there.

The Melbourne Argus of February 14 believed that the
Victoria Government would not obtain so large a majority
at the impending general election rs it did at the last.
Opposition candidates had not been chary in exposing the
administrative blunders and offences of the Government.
The financial mess into which the Government had
brought the country has been a fruitful theme for the
speeches of the Constitutional party. A deficiency of
£650,000 on the year—that is to say, the revenue falling
short of the estimated expenditure by that amount—was
felt by the Government to be so damaging a fact, that the
revenue returns were withheld for a fortnight beyond the
usual time of publication, and until the first batch of elections
were over. Nevertheless, the " Constitutional" party—those
who resist the intrusion of the grant to Lady Darling into the
Appropriation Bill—had an uphill battle to fight. The
Ministry were believed to have secured the co-operation of
a large section of the squatters, who are content that the
Constitution should be subverted if only they can retain
their runs on favourable terms after 1870, when their
present tenure expires. The power conferred by so many
millions of acres of land being at the absolute control of
the Ministry is in itself sufficient to secure a majority for
almost any Ministry.

The civil servants in Victoria were compelled to go
without any money, in consequence of the recent decision
of the Supreme Court that it was illegal to pay money
which had not been sanctioned by the Legislature. It
was believed that Government were about to issue promis-
sory notes. The subject of meat-preserving was attracting
much notice, as well it might when mutton was selling
for id. per lb. Captain Cadell had reported in favour of
the Liverpool River as the site of the capital of North
Australia. The Duke of Edinburgh had received an
address from 800 old colonists of Victoria, some of whom
were the earliest settlers in the colony.
The deficit on the Italian Budget for the year is esti-
mated at 8 millions sterling ; the previously accumulated
deficit is variously stated at from 24 to 32 millions; it is
probably not less than 30 millions. Count Cambray-
Digny's financial proposals—the macinato, or grinding tax,
and the additional income tax,will reduce the first-mentioned
sum to 2 millions. It is hoped that by the sale of the
Church lands he will be able to make a substantial assault
upon the larger amount. Hitherto, however, these sales
have not brought in much ready money, in spite of the
heavy discount offered to purchasers for cash. It is sup-
posed that the Government will have to arrange a finan-
cial operation with one of the great houses. The rumour
that such an arrangement had been made with Rothschild
i 4 denied,

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

Mr. Gye's New Season-1868.

The Prospectus just now issued by Mr. Gye
demands a more than ordinarily cordial welcome.
This we award to it at once, as it deserves. For an-
other year, at any rate, London is to have a couple of
Opera Houses instead of the one grand amalgamated
establishment that was promised to us by arrange-
ments which were but very recently all but com-
pleted, yet which after all fell through, as we now
very clearly understand, through no fault whatever
attaching to either of the two great rival managers,
Mr. Gye or Mr. Mapleson. 'rho former, indeed,
in the preamble of his recently issued Pro-
spectus, gives a very lucid account of the
manner in which these hitherto merely rumoured
arrangements were opened up, carried apparently
to a successful conclusion, and then abruptly, and
(it is impossibke that we should not add here at once)
most vexatiously dropped altogether. The expla-
nation runs in effect as follow :—" About the

middle of the month of January," says the Pro-
spectus, " Mr. Gye received an application from

the managing director of one of tiro financial corn

panics in the City, requesting an interview on the
subject of some contemplated opera arrangements.
The plan, as explained to Mr. Gye at that inter-
view, was the following—The financial company
was about to enter into an agreement to purchase
the interest of the Earl of Dudley in the lease of
the site of her Majesty's Theatre, as well as the in-
terest of the ground landlord of whom that lease is
held. The company also intended to purchase
of Mr. Maplesou the interest which he had
in the remaining term of his lease of the theatre.
"l'hese three interests having been bought up, it was
the intention of the Financial Company to sell the
site of Her Majesty's Theatre for the erection of
some public building--probably for a branch of the
Bank of En\gland or for a West-end Post-office.
The managing director of the Financial Company
then proposed to Mr. Gye to sell the Royal Italian
Opera, thus uniting the interests of the two Opera-
houses under one direction." The result of these
❑egotiations was that, in the course of a few days,
a contract was signed for the sale of Mr. Gye's
Covent-garden property to the Financial Company

in question for the sum of £270,000. This con-
tract, it should be added, was not a provisional or
contingent one, but a contract for a posi-
tive and definite sale, with specified pay-
ments to be made at certain fixed dates.
This was on the 25th of January, and the manner
in which the decision agreed upon between the
contracting parties was arrived at was this—that
Mr. Gye frankly and most honourably "placed at
the disposal of the Financial Company who had
agreed to purchase his property the whole of the
account books, with every account, receipt, and
voucher, appertaining to the receipts and expendi-
ture of the Opera-house for the last ten years—that
is to say, since the building of the new theatre ;
that four professional accountants were engaged
at the theatre during seven days ; that he gave
instructions to his Treasurer to •attend upon
them and to show them every document they
required, and, that in order that they should
be in no way embarrassed, he abstained from
being present himself for a single moment
during the whole of their investigation." How
it is that, after all this, the arrangements
have (as they have) entirely fallen through, the
Prospectus now placed in our hands explains clearly
enough by the simple statement that the Financial
Company have not fulfilled their contract with Mr.
Gye, and that therefore the entire arrangement has
fallen to the ground. " Mr. Gye," adds the Prospec-
tus, upon this point, in conclusion, " regrets this for
two reasons--first, that after nineteen years of very
arduous labour he would have been but too glad to
have retired from the direction of the Opera, al-
though the proposed sum which he was to have re-
ceived would only have left him a very moderate
remuneration for all the labour and anxiety which
he has undergone, for notwithstanding the " exor-
bitancy" of the demands before alluded to, the
public have but very little idea of the cost of build-
ing and furnishing such an establishment as the
Royal Italian Opera ; secondly, that as the esta-
blishment has now been formed, and the outlay
made, Mr. Gye feels quite certain that had the pro-
ject been carried out it would, under proper ma-
nagement, not only have produced an immense
revenue, but, by combining in one establishment
the very few great artistes who are now living, both
the cause of art as well as the interests of the public
would have been better served." However—possibly
—le bon temps viendra ! At present matters are
upon their old footing, for inasmuch as we
have still two great rival opera houses
here in London. With this difference only,
that they are brought into nearer neigh-
bourhood of each other, by reason of the disastrous
fire which destroyed her Majesty's Theatre but a
few months since--a conflagration necessitating the
removal of Mr. Mapleson's noble company of ar-
tistes, both vocal and instrumental, to their tem-
porary home and shelter, in our great national
Theatre Royal Drury-lane.
Reverting now, however, to Mr. Gye's Pro-
spectus, in so far as it relates to the prospects of
the Royal Italian Opera at Covent-garden
during the immediately on-corning season of
1868, we have to congratulate the public
at large, but more especially the subscribers and
habitues of that grand arena of the Lyrical Drama,
upon the radiant promise here set forth by way of
appetiser ! As for the array of great names, hardly
anything is left for us to desire in reason, whether
in reference to the Company, or in reference to the
Repertoire. Again, Mademoiselle Adelina Patti
and Mademoiselle Pauline Lucca, are to be, there,
the rival Queens of Song 1 The former (Madlle.
Patti) appearing for the first time in England as
Elvira, in the Puritani! The latter (Madlle.
Lucca) in ber turn appearing, for the first time, in
Auber's Domino Noir, now in course of adaptation
to the Italian stage by its illustrious composer. Then,
again—Mario is coming back this season to the
scene of.so many triumphs of his, in finer voice than
he has had for years past. One great name we miss
with regret from the list of Mr. Gye's company—
one of the greatest names connected for years upon
years with the lyrical stage, the name of an artist
and actor of true genius—we mean, Signor Ronconi.
In the ever widening repertoire, again, of the Rcyal
Italian Opera, we look in vain for what we should
have so gladly seen, any, even the faintest promise
of, that is to say, the Premier Jour de Bonheur of the
perennial composer of Fra Diavolo and Masaniello.
However, without saying a word about it in his Pros-
pectus, Mr. Gye may even yet vouchsafe it to us be-
fore the close of the approaching season! The operatic
version of Hamlet we could spare, or at any rate wait
for, very patiently. But Auber's Last we would
indeed glad.y have welcomed ! As it is, however,
we must not be ungrateful ; for Mr. Gye is suffi-
ciently bounteous with his foreshadowed novelties,
conspicuous among which is the production of
Rossini's grand opera L'Assedio di Cortnto. Be-
sides, who would not blush to utter one whisper of
complaint as to the absence from the list of any
opera that could be named, when Mr. Gye can
point, as he now does, to such a magnificent reper-
toire as the subjoined :

L'Africaine—Meyerboer
L'Etoile du Nord—Meyer-
beer
Les lluguenots—Meyerbeer
Dinorah—Meyerboer
Roberto it Diavolo—Meyer-
beer
Le Propbeto—Meyerbeer
Dun G' iovauni —Mozart
Le Nozzo di Figaro— Mozart
11 13arbiere di Siviglia—Ros-
sini
Gugliolmo Tell—Rossini
La Gazza Ladra—Rossini
Lucrezia 11Jrgia.—Doniz.2tti
Don Pasquale—Donizetti
Maria di Rohan—Douizetti
La Favorita— Donizetti
Lucia di Lammermoor— Do-

L'Elisir d'Arnoro—Donizetti
Linda di Chainounix—Doni-

zettiLat
—Bellini
Traviata —Verdi
11 Trovatore —Verdi
—Verdi
ai
79110 ei tat 03,—,
a ch Verdi o
r a
Don Carlos —Verdi
Stradella—Plotow
Martha—Flotow
Zampa-I.lcrold
Fra Diavolo - Auber
Masaniello—Auber
Il Giurtunento Mercadante
I'idelio-13eetlioven
Orfee—Gluck
Faust e Margherita Gounod
Romeo e ietta,—Gounod
rispino e la Con:tare—Ricci

nizetti
La Figlia del lleggimento—
Douiz,Ati
With a choice from such masterpieces, and with
artistes as peerless as those already named, to in-
terpret them—those artistes supported by instru-
mental performers and choral singers, such as
ara marshalled under the baton of Mr. Costa
on the stage and in the orchestra of Covent-garden

_ o
—what true lover of music is there amongst us wh
does not look forward with delighted and confi-
dent anticipations to the New Season at the Royal
Italian Opera, as it is here sketched out for us, in
anticipation, in Mr. Gye's brilliant and attractive
Prospectus?

Cn-n-rt
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