The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-25 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM FARM

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT)

PARIS, WZDNESDAT, June 24
The Emperor came to Paris to-day from Fontainebleint
held a Council of Ministers at the Tuileries, and set oub
this afternoon for the camp at Chalons. It is believed
that he will go to!Plombieres about July 12 or 15, and rep
main there a month ; and that he will be at Chalons on
August 15, his fête day. Some persons will, I suppose,
attach importance to the fact that the Emperor prefers to
celebrate this festival in the midst of his army instead of
in his capital.

To-day the statue of General Hoche (whom your readers
will remember as the invader of Ireland) was uncovered at
Versailles. Hoche was, as you know, a Republican, and
on that account to-day's celebration has been viewed with
little favour by the powers that be. For instance, it was
intended to have had a banquet and a representation at the
Versailles theatre of Ponsard's "Lion Amoureux," but both
have been forbidden : the first for some reason that I do not
know ; the second, I presume, because of the liberal senti-
ments put into the mouth of Hoche. This incident shews
what little faith the Imperial Government has in its own
stability. The Imperialists are especially nervous just
now, in consequence of the urgent representations of the
Prefects, who are for hurrying on the elections, because, as
they say, they cannot tell what will happen when the
" pestilential" journals, which are springing into existence
on all hands, have infected the people.
Another incident has just happened, which by no means
gives satisfaction in high quarters. The Princess Sophie
of Bavaria—(so the papers say, but I suspect they meak the
Princess Charlotte), sister of the Empress of Austria, and
the Ex-Queen of Naples—has been betrothed this week to
the Duc d'Alencon, second son of the Due de Nemours,
second son of Louis Philippe. The Duc de Nemours
is related to your Royal Family, having married
the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. On the pre-
mature death of his brother, the Due d'Orlans,
the Duc de Nemours became a person of importance, and
it was at one time intended to make him Regent in the
event of his father dying before his nephew came of age.
In the revolution of February 1848 the Duke commanded
the troops in the Place du Carrousel, and accompanied
his sister-in-law, the Duchess of OrMans, to the Chamber
of Deputies when she went to appeal in behalf of her young
son. He then joined his relatives at Claremont, in Eng-
land. He has four children, and his two sons, the Comte
d'Eu and the Due d'Alencon, are 26 and 24 years old respec•
Lively. The Princess Charlotte is 21. It is, no doubt,
somewhat mortifying that just at this moment,
when the Emperor is doing his utmost to establish an
alliance between himself and Austria and South Germany,
the sister-in-law of the Kaiser and near relative of the
King of the chief South German state should be making
a matrimonial alliance with the old Royal Family of
France. This match, together with those which have
just taken place at Rome and Madrid, appears as though
the Bourbons were looking up again, and experience has
shown that just as the Bourbons go up the Bonapartes go
do en.

The. Siecle to-day has a remarkable article entitled
" Europe and Russia." The writer, M. Vilbort, points
out that the great impediment to the peace of the world
is the Russian Empire. Strictly speaking, Russia is not a
nation, but an amalgam of incoherent men and things
melted and hardened in a mould and cast with the effigy
of the Czar. It is not a people, but a great human mass without
personality or conscience, prostrating itself in adoration of
the Czar ; and all those who will not bear the yoke are sent
to Siberia or to the gallows. The writer then goes on to
speak of the ambitious encroachments of Russia towards
the Elbe in Europe, towards the Indus in Asia, and adds :
" One must be blind not to see that a hundred millions of
armed men in possession of the railways which lead
to the heart of Europe, ready to kill and to die for
the Czar, believing that thereby they gain Paradise,
are dangerous to the peace and the liberty and the
civilisation of Europe," Russia now pretends to
advocate the doctrine of nationalities, and is putting itself
at the head of the Pan-Slavist agitation, after having
destroyed the noblest of the Slave nations--Poland. The
Siecle has no belief in the movement, for there are geo-
graphical difficulties, to mention no other. Therefore, it
bids Europe beware of the agitation, which is really only
one of Russia's plots against the peace and the freedom of
the continent.

About a month ago the Temps told its subscribers that
it was bound to raise its price in order to keep the paper
in existence, all the capital having been swallowed up.
The Temps now announces that its subscribers have
willingly assented to the alteration, and that the journal
is established on a firm foundation.
The latest of Baron Hausmann's demolitions is the
Hotel Laffitte, at one of the corners of the street of that
name. This fine house was built in 1772 by the Comte de
Laborde, farmer•general and banker of the Emperor of
Austria. Fifty years later it was bought by the banker
Laffitte, and he made it a rendezvous of the Opposition,
and it was in this house that the Liberals met during the
" three days" of July 1830, in order to decide upon their
plans. Laffitte suffered pecuniary losses, and was obliged
to sell his hotel ; but so great was the estimation in which
he was held that the public bought the house and presented
it to him. There he died in 1844. A tablet in the wall
has the following inscription in letters of gold : " A
Jacques Laffitte, Souscription Nationale." Close by this
house was formerly a terrace running the length of the Rue
Lafayette : here the father of Napoleon 111. lived, and
here, according to one account, Napoleon 111. himself
was born. The property passed into the hands of the
famous Fouch6 ; it was subsequently sold to one of the
Rothschilds for £14,000.
M. Arls Dufour, the celebrated silk manufacturer, has got
into a fierce dispute with the clergy. He was mainly instru-
mental in founding a popular library at Oullins, and it is
this institution which has been the cause of the present
disturbance. Fifteen of the inhabitants took exception to
seven books in the library, on the ground that they had
been placed in the Roman Index, and with the assistance
of the Minister of the Interior they got the objectionable
works removed. Thereupon M. Dufour declared that he
could not consent to this, and that if his resistance led to
the closing of the library, he should open one in his own
house for the public use, and include in it all such works
as he approved, excluding all those which " serve the
congregations to pervert the moral, intellectual, and
political sense of the people. Those the Government
might deliver without interference." The matter is not
yet settled.

THE WEATHER TABLE-THIS DAY.

METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS.

Extreme 15134
Thursday, (13' 1
June '25, B. T. W. Ito F. D.
12 W R. to
8 a.m. 9
Naini
Aberdeen
Leith
Shields
Scarborough 30'00f. 58 55 W.
Yarmouth 30'688. 63 60 W. . 3 S.W. c.o. 2
fielder ... •
Cuxhaven
Skudesn Ze3
Valentia 3318r. 58 52 N. 5 1 N.W. e.rb 4
Cape Clear 3o'oBr. 59 57 N.W. 2 2 W. c.o. 0.03 2
R che's Pt 3o'llr. 59 56 N.W. 3 3 S.W. c. 2
ll°olyhead , 3o'o6r. 57 54 W.S.W. 4 2 W. c.o.
Liverpool
firdrossati
Greencastle 29 99r. 53 51 N.W. 4 4 N.W. r.c. o'll --
Penzance
Plymouth
Weymouth
Portsinouth 30'18r. !64 59 W. 4 4 W.s.W. c.o. 3
London 30'13r. 16'2 57 W. 'IV. 2 3 W. co.bc
C'peGris Rez 30'18r. 163 58 S.W. 4 4 S.W. c. 2
Brest
L'Orient
Roch efort 3O 27r. 66 64 S. E. 3 5 S.W. o.b. 3
Biarritz
Corunna —
Brussels
Paris
Strasbourg —
Lyons —
Toulon
hearts Con-
tent (6 a.m.
local time) 30'065. 41 41 N.W. 1 1 N.W. r. 013 S