The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-29 00:00:00

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, TUESDAY, April 28.
The country is giving unmistakeable signs of resenting
the system of official candidates. Two elections for the
Councils General—the bodies which regulate the affairs of

the Departments—have just taken place, and in each the

Government candidate was defeated. At Chartres he was,
though sub-director of the Credit Foncier and supported by
the Prefect, defeated by 2,398 votes against his 1,578. At
Vaucluse there were three candidates—a Liberal, an Im-
perialist, and a Clerical. The second received the smallest
number of votes, though a Government official, and
retired. At the second scrutiny the Liberal was elected.
These results do not augur well for the five elections to the
Corps L6gislatif which are now impending.

Somewhat contrary to expectation, the commission of
the Senate appointed to report upon the, new press law
have produced a favourable report. M. Devienne, the
president of the commission, being ill, the report was
read by M. Ferdinand Barrot. It is a long docuMent,
occupying more than five columns of the Paris papers, and
is one of those exhaustive and exhausting papers in which
the French delight. It attempts to hold the balance between
the reactionary party and the Liberals, and it was frequently
cheered while being read. The Emperor was congratu-

fated for having presented the rare spectacle of asovereign
voluntarily- surrendering a l ortion of his power. -Unfor-
tunately, the /c/«t of this sacrifice is diminished by the
much more brilliant one on the part of the Emperor
Francis Joseph. " After fifteen years of tranquillity,"
says the report, " there were two courses to take, to lay
down these arms (the laws of 1852 against the press) and

to preserve them for future eventualities, or from the
present time to reform them and destroy them. The first
course was that of prudence ; the second that of courage
and confidence. The Government has preferred the latter."
The much-talked-of reduction of the Prussian army
amounts to 9,000 men— a • mere cypher. But it is said
there will be more important reductions in August.
Meanwhile we are told that a portion of our troops in
Algeria are coming back, and Our eastern fortresses are so
abundantly supplied. with provisions that it will not
be necessary to buy any more in their behalf for some
months.

The Presse tells us that a supplement to the Yellow
Book will be presented to the Chambers before the end of
the session, and adds : " We have often said that this
publication appeared to us indispensable. Public opinion
knows nothing of what has been going on in international
politics for the last six months. A collection of documents
proving that the most cordial relations exist between
Prance and Prussia, for instance, or Italy and Russia,
would do more to calm the public mind than all the
observations of the little Afoniteur— than all the pacific
declarations." This is quite true ; but is it not rather
cruel of the " Journal de l'Empire " thus to speak of the
official organ ?

The Paris journals still discuss the Abyssinian expedi-
tion, and are now beginning to believe that we
do really intend to withdraw our troops. But M. de
Girardin cannot resist having a sneer at England, and his
paper (the Liberte) has the following sarcastic para-
graph :—" The moral of the history (of the war) is found
in this news published by the Patric : 'We learn by
letters from Suez of April 16 that the military hospital
established by the English, upon laud granted by the
Viceroy, has been inaugurated. The erection of this
hospital is a permanent institution. A large barrack
is about to be added to it for the detachments
of the English army which traverse the isthmus on
their way to and from India.' The English army may
henceforth quit Abyssinia in all security. The taxpayers
will be reimbursed." In other words, the Liberte would
have its readers believe that the Abyssinian expedition
was undertaken in order to give England an excuse for
establishing barracks upon Egyptian territory, and that
we shall get back our five millions. Great is the credulity
of jealousy.
A report has just been published respecting the Societh de
Secours Mutuels. They answer to your friendly societies
At the end of 1866 there were 5,614 of these societies
in France, whereof 3,916 were " approved," and the re-
mainder were " authorised." The first are ruled by a
president named by the Government, but enjoy, as a com-
pensation for that partial surrender of liberty, certain
civil rights not possessed by the others. The " approved "
Societies have 94,050 honorary and 500,740 participating
members ; while the " authorised" societies have 10,187
and 282,178. Thus, reckoning only the participating mem-
bers, there are 732,918 persons who give evidence of pro-
vident habits—a small number, unfortunately, compared
with the population, and only about half the total of the new
National Guard. The subscribers
di have a
so clalimm in to relief
6 in
sickness, and 195,728 of them d cai 186.
Funds are also given to defray tles cost of the funerals a
deceased members, to pension widows and orphans and the
aged. The property of the societies at the end of 1866 was
about £1,746,000, of which two-thirds belonged to the
" approved" societies. The receipts were about £537,000, and
the expenditure, including the items abovementioned, was
about 2478,000. One curious fact is mentioned, that whereas
female members are a little .more frequently ill than male
members (28 against 27), the illnesses of the first are con-
siderably shorter than those of the second (16 days against
20). Thus, in the long ruu there are 549 sick days per 100
men, and only 482 per 100 women, a fact which should
overcome the reluctance which has hitherto existed to admit
women on the supposition that their more frequent sick-
ness would exhaust the funds of the societies.
A certain Mr. James Cane, of English parentage, but
who has lived all his life at Tours, has just died, and, after
spending his years in works of charity, has left a million
francs (£40,000) for the poor. He left instructions that he
was to be buried without any religious service.

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF
THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH.

'Further telegrams of the same date as those already
made public, from the Earl of Belmore to the Secretary of
State for the Colonies, intimate that the assassination of
his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh was attempted
by O'Farrell in pursuance of messages sent from conspi-
rators in this country, which ordered the Prince's death.
It is understood that O'Farrell was selected by lot to per-
petrate the crime, and that the attempt would have been
made when the Prince landed in State, but that an oppor-
tunity of doing so without risk of injury to others did not
Occur.

-- -
The New South Wales Government offered £lOO reward
for the apprehension of each accomplice, and one arrest,
considered to be important, has been made in Victoria.
H. S. BRYANT.

A special Court of Common Councl is to be held on
Friday next, at three o'clock, to consider the following
motion to be made by Mr. John Symonds :—" That an
address be presented to her Most Gracious Majesty the
Queen, expressing the horror and indignation felt by this
court at the recent attempt upon the life of his Royal
Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, and congratulating her
Majesty, with the most sincere and heartfelt feelings, upon
his providential escape from mortal injury."

The Town Council of Birmingham, on the motion of the
Mayor (Mr. Thomas Avery), seconded by Mr. Alderman
Phillips, has agreed to an address to her Majesty expres-
sive of deep sympathy, also of indignation at the attempt
on the life of the Duke of Edinburgh, and of congratula-
tion on the escape of his Royal Highness.
The Medical Press and Circular says :—" If the tele-,
graphic information respecting the character of the injury
received by his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh
can be depended on, the nation has to he thankful that
the life of the Prince has been saved by one of the most
extraordinary escapes which has ever been recorded •in
the history of gunshot wounds. If the ball, which we
are told entered the back half an inch from the spine, and
in a downward direction, had taken the cource which in
nine hundred anA„ninety-nine cases out of every thousand
it would have taken, it could not have failed to pierce
the heart and great vessels, the lung, diaphragm, and
intestines, or livet, such an injury to any of these viscera
being almost certainly fatal. That it should have tra-
Velled a distance of 12. inches on the outside of
the ninth rib, and lodged under the skin of the
abdomen, without even touching the peritoneum, is all but
incredible, and the fact, if true, will add another to the
few extraordinary cases in which balls have glanced from
their natural directidn and taken a totally unexpected
course. Cases are on record in which a ball entering the
hip came out at the heel, where it entered the temple and
Passing over the bones of the head lodged at the opposite
side. Mr. Lawson narrates a case in which a grain of shot,
striking the eye, passed from side to side under the con-
j tinctiva ; and a case was communicated to the Surgical
Society of Ireland about a year ago, in which a bullet
was removed from the heart of a man who received it in
the battle of Salamanca thirty-three years previously."
The following is from the Edinburgh Courant :—" No-
thing, perhaps, could so thoroughly show the deep-seated
affection for the Royal Family, and the ducal Prince in
p articular, than the prompt and fervid prayers that were
offered up on Sunday in the Established churches of this
city for his speedy recovery, and for consolation to his
royal mother the Queen, under this severe affliction.
Many tears were shed as the ministers conducted this
pathetic part of their devotions. We believe we record
the universal sentiment of the people of Edinburgh when
we repeat a remark on this subject by an old man return-
ing home after the communion service, I'Vla could help
rreetuf, for he was ju2t a bairn o' oor

THE FENIAN TRIALS AT THE CENTRAL

CRIMINAL COURT.-THIS DAY.

It is a curious fact, and one not without significance,

that while Michael Barrett—who, by the verdict of the
jury before whom he was indicted, has been adjudged to
have been the chief actor in the mad and abortive attempt
made to rescue Burke—is now in the condemned cell in
Newgate, awaiting the carrying out of the dread sentence

of the law, the trial of the man for whom he risked so
much and has suffered so severely has only reached its
second stage, and, if it result in a conviction, will
be followed in the person of the instigator of the crime by
a punishment falling infinitely short of that which has
been visited upon the too obedient follower. Burke—who,
if the evidence of the informer Mullany, corroborated as it

has been by other witnesses, is to be believed, planned the
explosion at Clerkenwell, and gave directions how it should
be accomplished—will, if found guilty, be transported or
imprisoned for a term of years. Barrett, who carried out
the infamous device, will expiate his crime upon the
gallows. The difference in the physiognomy of the con-
vict and the prisoner now on trial is indicative of the
parts they played in the terrible outrage. The face of the
former, as he stood in the dock, denoted in every line
dogged determination ; the aspect of the hitter is that of
reckless daring. Now that he has been brought to trial,
his one olject would appear to be to make himself the
conspicuous c litre of a sensational drama. Everything
is done f r fLet. WV() tl e ,thee pris iners sit

down or lean u'etly over the front of the dock, he is
always on the alert, occasionally addressing an observa-
tion to the warder behind him, or pointing to his com-
panions to band him a document or newspaper, which he
conspicuously scans, or, looking across the court, smiles
scornfully el the witnesses as they enter the box to give
their evidence against him. Anon he takes a pen daintily
inland and indites a note which he hands to a policeman
to pass to his solicitor ; not an unusual course to be pur-
sued by a prisoner, but done, in this instance, with an air
which is theatrical in the extreme.

The first evidence taken this morning was that of
Amelia Kaye, assistant to Mr. Kynock, gun. manufao:
turert of Birmingham, who identified Burke as thopur-
chasei of a quantity of ammunition and firearn sat her
master's shop in December 1865, the goods being sent
directed to Mullady at a house in George-street. The
witness thought that the prisoner Shaw had on one occa-
sion brought a letter to Mr. Kynock's. The goods were
purchased in the name of Winslow,.
According to the evidence of Mr. Kynock, the first
purchase made by Burke, calling himself Winslow, con-
sisted of two millions of military percussion caps and
250,000 caps for revolvers, amounting in money value to
£385. The goods were delivered to the prisoner at-the
railway station on the order of the witness, and several
other purchases were made—one of 500 rifles with
bayonets--at dates between December 23, 1865, and the
13th January, 1866, the sums paid amounting to £1,970.
The prisoner Shaw witness had Seen at his own shop, and
Casey, he believed, at Burke's warehouse in George-
street. (A number of letters from Burke to Mr. Kynock

•
were put in and read.)
It was elicited by Mr. Lewis that when examined in
November and December, witness expressed the opinion
that Casey was the man he bad known as Mullady. Had
Shaw not been taken into custody, would have been under
that impression still.
In reply to Mr. Baron Bramwell, the witness said that
when he first saw Casey in the police-court he did not
recognise him.
Mr. William .Tames Hill, who had supplied the pistols
for Burke through. the last witness, was examined as to
the dates at which the several purchases had been made,
saying, in cross-examination, that he was indirectly told
that the arms were to be sent to South America ; and a
youth named Samuel Whitehead, working in Mr.
Kynock's manufactory, was called to prove that he had
seen the prisoners in the warehouse in George-street,
Birmingham.
Mr. Day, the agent who let the warehouse in George-
street to a person na•ned Winslow, identified by him as
the prisoner Burke ; Inspector Alantell, of the Birming-
ham police, who produced the name-plate from the house
in George-street occupied by Burke ; the foreman of the
order-shed at the railway station, who deposed to forward-
ing a number of cases addressed in the name of Winslow
at Liverpool ; and Samuel Marriott, who deposed to the
reception and delivery of the same at the Liverpool sta-
tion, were also examined.
Some further evidence WAR given as to the arrival of the
goods at the Liverpool station, and their removal ; one of
the witnesses stating that Casey was the man who fetched
the packages away.
The delivery-orders were identified by Bit.. Kynock as

being in the handwriting of Burke.
The carman who had conveyed the casos from the railway
station to ihn-- warehouse in George-street, Birmingham,
said to have boon occupied by Burke, would be unable to
identity rim who sitrued the receipt. .

The consignment note proved to be in the handwriting of
the person known by the name of Winslow was produced
and read. All the receipts for goods given at the Liverpool
station, it was stated, were signed in the name of Lawrence.
A shipping clerk at the Birmingham railway station
named Fisher, deposed that the goods were brought by the

prisoher Shaw.
in answer to Mr. Pater, the witness stated that he was
not now in the employ of the railway company. His con-
duct had been complained of on several occasions in conse-
quence of his drinking. Had been in the company's service
15 or 15 years. The witness was severely cross-examined
as to a subscription that had been raised by his fellow-
workmen on his representation that he had s child
dead, and needed funds to bury it, whereas he had no child
dead at the time, though one had died at some time, the
date before which he was unable to fix.
Elizabeth Hiorns, lodging-house keeper, Liverpool, iden•

ified Burke as having visited a person named Preston at
her house on several occasions.
By Mr. Ernest Jones—Had seed Corrydon at her house
twice.
Elizabeth Sidon in April or May, 1866, had let a room
to a person called Edward C. Winslow, whom she now
recognised as the prisoner Burke. A friend named Beecher
afterwards joined, and the two loft after about six weeks.
Only saw Winslow once afterwards, when he called to ask
for letters.

Continued in our Late Edition.

It is impossible to believe that the conviction of -let,.
'Barrett has given satisfaction to the general public, while
it must have grievously disappointed the law officers of the
Crown. Out of nine persons originally charged with
taking part in the deadly outrage of the 13th December,
only one has been found guilty and sentenced to death.
One was discharged by the magistrate; another, Mullany,
-ivas admitted as Queen's evidence ; the grand jury
ignored the bill against O'Neill ; the case broke down as
against Ann Justice and O'Keefe ; and of the four who
remained in the dock three were acquitted. The prosecu-
tion was conducted by a formidable bar, inclubedin d
su g the
Attorney and the Solicitor-General, and it may asme
that the case against the prisoners was presented to the
jury in the most efficient manner, and that no point was over-
looked which had been detected by the watchfulness and
ingenuity of the police. When it is further remembered
that more than four months have elapsed between the
commission of the act and the trial at the Old Bailey, that
the prisoners were remanded again and again at the
instance of the prosecution, and that all the talents and the
energy at the service of the crown have been devoted to
the elucidation of the crime, we must be content to believe
that we know all that could be known of it, and that no
negligence or unskilfulness has interposed to shield the
offenders.
'William Roupell, we are informed, will shortly
be teleaSed from detention at Portland Convict Prison
His health has severely suffered during his punishment
and his return to the world—broken down and despised—
will be a bitter discipline for some who, it i
on Prs rumoured,
wore morally as criminally as he.—South Londess.
It is stated that the Liberals intend to propose
Mr. Brand as Speaker in the Reformed Parliament.
The death of Mary, daughter of the late John
Singleton Copley, R.A., and sister of the late Lord Lynd-
hurst, aged 94, is announced.
The steamer Isle of Arran, of Holyhead, sank,
after being in collision with the royal mail steamer Aus-
tralasian, on Saturdv morning. Six hands were lost and
two saved.
The trial of Canoness Julia De Ebergenyi, alias
Baroness Maria Vay, for the murder by poison of Mathilda
Rueff, wife of Count Gustavus Chorinsky, son of Gus-
tavus Count of Chorinsky, Baron de son
of
governor of the archduchy of Austria below the Euns, has
resulted in the conviction of the prisoner, who has been
condemned to 20 years' imprisonment.
11 he Cork police have received a report that
about 50 men were met on Sunday by two constables near
Carrynavar, and stopped. Some of the men produced re-
volvers, threatening the police, who theieupon allowed
the party to pass unmolested. No arrests have been
made.
The Papal Government has signified its readiness
to join an international convention for the care of the
wounded in tim i of war, concluded at Geneva.
The Prince and Princess of Wales arrived in
London on Monday night from Trentham.
The Post states that the Duke of Wellington has
been appointed Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex.
The editor of the news per La Cigale has been
p a
ordered to quit Belgium.
THE TEA DUTY IS REDUCED —Horniman's Pure Tea is
sold Bd. per pound Cheaper. This interesting fact will, when
fully known, oven further increase the demand for these
Choice, long-approved Teas. They aro not sold loose, but
only in Packets, signed "Horn-Mon," Leaden.

Michae

An, • -
Clyt
*la 11-t0 &i*
Jan Tit 4-11:* Mi/1

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, April 28.
Her Majesty, accompanied by Princess Chris-
tian, walked in the grounds this morning.
The other members of the Royal Family also
went out.