The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-06 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5.

The French Press Bill may be consideted As now vir-
tually law. It is an extension of liberty which will leave
France behind most of the States of Europe, Russia and
Turkey being the principal exceptions, in respect to free-
dom of publication, but it is still a step in the right
direction. Rumours have been current that M. Rouher
and M. Pigard had resigned their seats on account of their
being unwilling to modify the press law to suit the Arca-
dians. Persigny, Jerome David, and General Fleury
were named as the ornaments of a reactionist Ministry
to succeed the present. The Bourse fell slightly
in consequence of these rumours, but it is now plain that
they were without foundation. At *the same time it was
supposed here that the Stock Exchange in London was
under some bad influence. It was reported that Consols
were g lower, and the spectre of the Eastern question was
believed to have been seen by speculators. We are now
told that neither Fenian alarms nor Russian designs had
anything to do with it, and the Bourse is again quiet.
As to M. Rouher and the Ministers, they are safe, and the
debate on the Press Bill is hardly worth following. That
the bill will be materially altered, or its punitive clauses
made less severe, I do not expect.

A report from Madrid states that the Queen of Spain
has determined to send 10,000 men as auxiliary troops for
the Holy Father.

Another 1-1 ;gal present. The Emperor has transmitted
to the Queen of Prussia two splendid vases of Sevres
porcelain. It seems these vases attracted the Queen's
attention at the Exposition.

A grand banquet was held a few days ago at the French
Embassy in Berlin. The magnificent bouquet presented
by M. Benedetti to the Queen of Prussia was got up in
Paris. It was composed entirely of riolettes de Parme, and
cost 140 f. (25 125.) A grand ball is to come off at the
Hotel de Ville on the 13th. A brilliant reception took
place yesterday at M. Magne's.

According to a letter from Athens, dated 30th ult., a
Russian frigate had landed 1,200 Cretan women and chil-
dren at the Pirmus. The Greek Government has given an
order for 10,000 Chassepot rifles.

The Havas Agency have forwarded to the papers a
Japanese official document, intended to explain to
foreigners events that have recently transpired in that
empire. The Tycoon's address reads like a communiqué.
He states that he has resigned his authority into the
hands of the Mikado, "to warn the public against com-
ments which could only cause disquiet." The Tycoon had,
however, come to the conclusion that unity of power was
essential to good government, and he preferred to sacrifice
himself to the public weal. Foreign Powers are assured
that treaties will be faithfully carried out, and their for-
bearance is asked for during the operation of the changes
in the government of the country.
The Itloniteur contains an interesting résumé of facts
lately published in England of the wealth and pauperism
of the United Kingdom. The article admits that the
poverty existing in the large towns is only a social (not a
political) danger. Efforts, the writer thinks, should be
made to employ more of the people in agriculture.
The mail steamers bring us frightful pictures of the
condition •of nearly all the Spanish republics in South
America. War or revolution appears to be everywhere.
The last rising seems to be in Bolivia, where General Acha
is seeking supremacy. The Nacion Argentina professes to
give the secret of the power of Lopez in Paraguay. Ac.
cording to the Nacion, the Dictator has had an enormous
cage of iron constructed, in which he keeps ten jaguars.
The bodies of those who are accused of treason are em-
ployed to nourish the jaguars. A decisive battle was be-
lieved to be imminent the date of these advices.
Almost the only good news we have is that an excellent
harvest has been gathered in Chili.

AL Emile Angier is to be made a commander of the
Legion of Honour.

Count Bismarck has announced in the Prussian Cham-
ber another step in a liberal direction. It is the inaugura-
tion of a scheme to give to each prince of the Confedera-
tion the management in part of its own finances. Thil
was announced as a matter of high importance, tending
towards a large and wise measure of decentralisation.

A Florence telegram appears in the continental papers,
which may explain the recent mission of Lord Clarendon
to Italy. It states that a daughter of his lordship is about
to be married to Mr. Odo Russell.

The famine in Tunis is producing dreadful effects. The
crops in the Regency have failed for two years in succession,
and the inhabitants are reduced to the last degree of desti-
tution. A letter is published, written by Mr. Wood, her
Majesty's Consul-General at Tunis, relative to the suffer-
ings among the Arabs in the Regency. He states that
" the famine is hurrying thousands 4,1 our fellow-beings
to their graves from sheer starvation. In the streets of
the town, on the roadsides, in the fields, the corpses of the
wretched Arabs are found in frightful numbers. A
-ghastly harvest is gathered in the morning of those who
have died in the night." In some cases parents have de-
serted their children on the roads, being no longer able
to find food for them, and in others they have
.sold them for a few shillings to buy food for them-
selves. In the city of Tunis alone the mortality from.
starvation amounts to 100 per clay, and as private charity
becomes exhausted the number will, it is feared, go on in-
creasing. The famine extends to the cattle, the grass
having disappeared from the fields. Notwithstanding
the severity of the calamity, no disturbances or acts of
violence have been reported. Steamers from Glasgow
touch at Tunis, and Mr. Wood undertakes to distribute
any relief that may be sent to him.

Rebellions and revolutions are the principal -political
phenomena of Mexico, as they have ever been. Yucatan
has been favoured with a pronunciamento and a forced
loan by Don Villafana, and the country placed by the
Government of Juarez in a state of siege. The butcher
Escobedo has perpetrated a series of executions to suppress
mutinies among his soldiers. One Sunday morning he
had thirty-three of them shot and a number flogged.
Most of the northern part of the country seems to be in a
state of revolt. Bandits and kidnappers pervade the
whole of Mexico. A gentleman was recently seized
near the capital, and was only released on payment
of $15,000. A child was carried off to the moun-
tains, and as parents were told that unless a ransom
of $2,000 were sent the child would be killed. For the ransom
of a banker $60,000 dollars were, it is said, extorted. It
is supposed that Juarez will ask Congress to invest him
with the " ample faculties " he lately resigned, on the plea
that the country needs a Dictator. The Government
sets a bad example to its subjects. The British Legation
had no sooner left Mexico than the Government seized a
sum of money in the hands of Barron, Forbes, and Co.,
belonging to the English conventional bondholders. They
pretend to acknowledge the validity of the debt, and allege
that they will pay it over to its owners. Perhaps Lord
Stanley will see to that.

The Herald is enabled to state that Sir Charles J. Selwyn
Q.C., M.P. for the University of Cambridge, has suc-
ceeded to the Lord Justiceship of Appeal in Chancery,
vacted by Sir John Rolt, and declined by Sir Roundel].
Palmer. The new Lord Justice is a son of the late Mr.
William Selwyn, Q.C., of Richmond, in Surrey. He is a
brother to the new Bishop of Lichfield, to Dr. Selwyn, Mar-
garet Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, and to
Captain Jasper Selwyn, R.N. He was born in 1813, and
was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge,
where he graduated M.A. In 1840 he was called to the
bar at Lincoln's Inn, of which he is a bencher, in 1856 he
was made a Queen's Counsel, and for several years has
enjoyed a leading practice in the Rolls Court. He was
appointed Solicitor-General on the elevation of Sir John
Rolt to the Lcrd Justiceship in July last, and the conse-
quent promotion of Sir John Karslake to the post of
Attorney. General. •

The changes in the Court of Chancery Appeal since the
accession of the Conservatives to power have been of a
most remarkable character. Before Lord Derby took
office for the third time, the Lords Justices Knight Bruce
and Turner sat together year after year as regularly as
term succeeded term, 'until they almost came to be
regarded as permanent fixtures in Lincoln's Inn. They
sat out three Parliaments, and while they heard argu-
ments and delivered elaborate judgments, no fewer than
five Administrations came into existence and passed away.
They witnessed the transfer of power from the hands
of Lord Aberdeen to those of Lord Palmerston, from
Lord Palmerston to Lord Derby, from Lord Derby back
to Lord Palmerston again, from Lord Palmerston to Earl
Russell, and from Lord Russell to Lord Derby. No
wonder that rising equity barristers made the longevity of
the judges a proverb in their courts. Lord Derby had
not been in office a quarter of a year before Lord Justice
T(night Bruce bent beneath his weight of years, siu-ren•
,tiered his post, and died within a fortnight of his retire..
lient. Eight months afterwards the hell of Lincoln's-
run tolled for the memory of the colleague with
whom Sir James Knight Bruce has sat so long, and with
whose olccisions he so generally concurred. Sir John
11(..lt, who succeeded Lord Justice Turner, enjoyed the
reward of a long and laborious professional life only six
nlonths, when he was stricken with paralysis and obliged
to resign that which he had so deservedly won. It is
earnestly to be hoped that with two comparatively young
men on the bench, the Court of Chancery Appeal will
now be able to make some progress with the business be-
fore it. Lord Cairns is six years younger than Sir Charles
Selwyn ; he was called to the bar four years later, and
received his silk gown in the same year wllich saw his
colleague invested with the dignity o: