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

CORRESPO,

14X, 'PARIS

(FROM 0111: 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-Jay. 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 rnisundersfotsd,
be 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
redaction, and therefore no relief for us unfortunate and
overburdened taxpayers.
The conscription has given rise to disturbances at
:\:asmes. A Government paper thus describes it. Ten
young men who had drunk too freely at dinner attacked
an unarmed citizen, and one of teem 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 nut?

It is rather amusing to see how strong t 3 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 takingno notice
of the fact which dues not please them. At Ndrac,
in the Gironde, three Opposition candidates for the
municipal council beat three Government candi.
dates, and the Areni)• National is jubilant. The
Etendard knows nothing of that event, but tells us
that at Corr(ze and Illoisclon two Government candidates
have been elected councillors of arrondissements.

Some of the journals have been blundering respecting
the approaching elections to the Corps L6gislatif. 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 Reform 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-in-chief 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,
Edgar 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 Prtivost-Paradol, but
R4musat who introduced Jules Favre to the Emperor the
other day, when the new Academician presented his
address. It was 11,5musat 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

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 sonic
splendid costumes and gallanthorsemanship. The knights
were divided into three sets of thirty-two each, named
respectively 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 Din stood lambent
with rose-coloured fire, was superb. At the banquet
Tokay wine of 1760 was served to the guests, a rend -
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 clewing 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
hurible 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, " Pizz-ati 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 Deurn " 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 pcsitiou. She-is now better, and drives out,
. followed by a sta:wart Cossack footman.
The Inralide Russe says that the official report cf the
work done in the arsenal of St. Petersburg during 1867
Thews that it was four times as great as in the preceding
years ; and (luring 1867 about two cannon a day were
turned out, besides 1O 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
lay.

A s‘aiii-official Servian journal says that the Porte has
iimmoned the Nizams and the Redifs in all haste, and sent
them to the Servian frontier. The heights of Nisch are
being armed. Troops are being concentrated neat
Kamienetz. 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. •

THE FENIAN TRIALS AT THE CENTRAL

CRIMINAL COURT.-THIS DAY.

The proceedings in connection with the trial of Burke,
Casey, and Shaw were resumed this morning at the Cen-
tral Criminal Court.

When Mr. Baron Bramwell and Mr. Justice Keating
took their seats upon the bench, the former, addressing.
the Attorney-General, said, as the result of a consultation
with his learned brother, he wished to ask whether the law
Officers of the Crown thought there was sufficient evidence
against the prisoner Casey to press for a conviction. To this
it was answered, that it had been proved that Casey when at
Birmingham was found in close connection with Burke,
then engaged in procuring arms, and had also lived with
him in London, from which circumstances it must be as
sumed that he was fully acquainted with his designs and
the way in which they were carried out.
After further discussion, in the course of which both the
learned judges expressed a strong opinion as to the faint-
ness of the evidence, the Solicitor-General intimated his
determination to withdraw the ca,e against Casey, and the
jury, under the direction of the bench, pronounced a ver-
dict of "not guilty," the foreman remarking that the
course adopted by the law officers of the Crown was one
that he and his colleagues fully approved.

Mr. Lewis, who was counsel for Casey, intimated that

he bad witnesses in attendance who were prepared to prove
that his client was engaged at Messrs. Pickford's at the
very time that he was stated to have been associated wits
Burke.

"..Ir. Baron Bramwell remarked that though it might be

hard upon Mr. Lewis's client to be prevented from chew-
ing that he was innocent, all that could be now done was
to act upon the verdict of the jury that he was not guilty.
Casey was at once ordered to be discharged from custody,
there being no other indictments against him, and he left
the clock immediately, without saying a word to, or taking
any notice of, either. Burke or Shaw.
Mr. Ernest Jones, who all e ,red for Burke, then pro-
ceeded to address the jury, admitting that Burke had
been engaged in the purchase of arms, but contending
that there was nothing to chew that they had found their
way into the hands of the insurgents, or had been pro-
cured for the purpose of the Fenian conspiracy. With
the exception of that of the informers, there was no evi-
dence proving that the whole transaction was not one of

*p,!.rfect innocence, nor was there, further, any testimony but
heirs connecting the prisoner Burke with those who were
known to be actively engaged as Fenians. Llaving
_corn-
.nented upon the cautious manner in which, according to
:he ruling of various learned judges, the statements of
tpprovers must be received, the learned counsel minutely
oxamined the evidence of Mullany, Massey, Devany, and
(lorydon, men whose characters • would be rightly esti-
mated by the jury. That evidence was full of contradic-
tions, came from a source so tainted, and was so
unsubstantiated, that he argued the jury could not found
.a conviction upon it.
Mr. Pater then addressed the jury for the prisoner
Shaw, pointing out that the only particle of proof that he
had ever been in Liverpool or passed under the name of
Mullady was furnis'aed in the testimony of Corydon. Of
his being in Birmingham the only evidence was that of
the witnesses Kynock, Amelia Tye, and Fisher—a man
of indifferent character—and was of the most insufficient
kind. The fact that Shaw had been arrested
in the neighbourhood of Dublin at the time of
the Irish rising, with a pistol in his possession, could not
be construed into a greater offence than that of carrying
arms in a proscribed district, and the jury would probably
say that he had been sufficiently punished by being kept
in prison for fifteen months. lie fearlessly asked for a
favourable verdict.
Continued in our Late Edition.