The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-27 00:00:00

CORRESPO.

OM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORIIESPONDENT.I,

PARIS, SUNDAY, Jan. 24.

U. Dumas has presented to the Senate the report of the
commission on the new Army Bill. It is a curious docu-
ment, made up of excuses, first addressed to those who
deem it an addition to the burdens of the country, and
second, to those who supposed the power of substitution, of
re-enlistment, and whatever other concessions to popular
feeling the bill contains, needed apology. This kind of
apology is a recognition of the alarm and disgust which
the Army Bill has unmistakeably created throughout the
nation. We learn from the International one of those
facts which you often need to go abroad to learn, that the
prefects of eighty-seven out of eighty-nine departments
have reported that the bill is regarded by the
populations under them with undisguised dislike.
To efface this feeling the Emperor himself wrote the
pamphlet referred to by the Patric. That they will not
succeed I feel certain. But there is a curiosity about the
way in which the justification is being attempted. As
your readers are aware, political publications require a
stamp. Yet the numerous brochures that are in circula-
tion in Paris in defence of the Army Law bear no stamp.
The question is, first, is that a political subject? second,
how would the Government treat the publishers
and editors of similar brochures to the Exposo
Succinct if they resort to the same method to
attack the law? As to the merits of the scheme,
the public do not take the same view of the four
years in the reserve which the Government wish them to
take. They look at the fact that nine years of service
will be required, and though the term of active service is
reduced from seven to five years, they cannot be persuaded
that the reduction in one direction compensates for the
aggravation in the other. Then, again, there is no dis-
guising the fact that the yearly contingent " has increased,
is increasing, and ought to be diminished." Under the
Royalty, after the fall of Bonaparte, there were seven
contingents of 60,000 men, and an army of 420,000 men ;
under the Republic of 1848, seven contingents of 80,000
men ; under the Empire of 1852, seven contingents of
100,000 men ; .now there aro to be nine contingents awl a
total army of 1,280,000 men. The chances of the French-
man's escaping the military net are therefore growing less
and less.

The frienels of Count Montalembert--and there are
many in England—will be glad to hear that he has so far
recovered his health as to resume his pen. It is in
the old cause—Poland. The death at Paris of Ladislas
Zamoyski, the Polish patriot and exile, furnished
the occasion. It is unnecessary to say that Mon-
talembert's biographical sketch is brillant : and it
reads like an eloquent speech. I must give one short
passage to illustrate its force :—" The 19th century,
which already inclines towards its close, will have in the
course of its history nothing more grand, more touching,
or more impressed with moral beauty to shew than Poland,
vanquished, proscribed, and abandoned by the world
What a spectacle and what a lesson—a nation in mourning
and in blood that will not die—a race of unconquerable
men and women surviving all species of torture, of treason,
and of calamity. Its [existence is at once a defiance and
an appeal—a defiance flung at the insolence of fortune—an
appeal to the slow justice of an avenging God ! Forgotten
disdained, calumniated by triumphant iniquity, by selfish
opulence, by sycophants of the successful, insupportable
to the vanquishers and the prosperous of this world, it
stands, like Mordecai before Haman, immovably resolved
never to forget, never to despair, never to capitulate—an
incomparable type of suffering, of sacrifice, of untiring
patience, of indignant patriotism ; martyrs and invincible
confessors not only of the faith that is in them, but of
right, of country, and of liberty."
The press prosecution has passed through the first act.
A fine of I,ooof. (£4O) and the costs has been inflicted on
each of the ten journals. This is the penalty for publish-
ing a summary of the debates in the Legislative Chambers
for the sake of discussion merely, instead of the official
reports given to the press. It is regarded as the most
vexatious prosecution to which the Parisian press has yet
had to submit. The decision just given renders it all but
an impossibility for the French press to discuss the
debates at all. Everybody now feels that the law
must be altered. The discussion on the new press
law, which should begin next Thursday, is looked
forward to rectify a state of the law which virtually
annihilates free discussion. It is stated that an amend-
went is in contemplation to give the papers liberty
to discuss the sittings of the Chambers with or without
the official compte-rendu. The present decision condemns
the journalists without enlightening them. It leaves un-
certain how much of speeches they may quote in the ar-
ticles in which they are discussed, or whether they may
discuss at all speeches which they do not report in full from
the official account. Under the new law editors will not
be liable to imprisonment, but they will still be subject to
heavy fines. One of the most striking instances of the
severity of the present discipline is the case of the Franche
Comte, the editor of which dared to dispute the correct.
ness of a communique by a provincial prefect, and has been
sent to prison for twenty-four days, without the power of
pp ea I.

A good story is told of a poor man who fell among
thieves recently, and who adopted a novel and successful
way of bringing the police to his assistance. He set up
the cry lustily " Vive la Republique." The serpents de
title were there in an instant. Seditious cries gave wings
to their heels. A man in one of the departments, by a
similar expedient, got a night's lodgings a few days ago.
Refused admittance at the office of the commissaire, he
began to sing the " Marseillaise." That was eneugh, he
was soon lodged by the police. The poor fellow was ac-
quitted on consideration of the facts of the grave charge
of seditious cries, but for vagabondage he was incarcerated
a whole month.