Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-04-26


course with the crowd to it, and should have mentioned
the subject this in my letters but The accounts which sp
pearsd in the papers various and full Of palpsby
gross errors that before describing the experiment. desired
- notice of il from scientific whose name
and pen was acquainted with. The inventor himself NJ
FoUcAuLr, the young who narrowly mssed, the
22d umo, being chosen to Gil in the Academy Of Sciences
the chair Of Gay Lussac has just Published description Of
his invention and experiment have commenced the ansa
ton Of it for the columns Of the n,sgencs and shall for
ward by the American Of Wednesday next, from
Liverpool Henceforh are to have departures per
week.
PARIS, APRIL 4, 1851.
The week here has been filed with rumors re-
specting the painful passage Of the French Minis
try from transition TO defnitive state. LANJUI,
NAIs, DE TocoUEvILLE, ABBATUccI, DE MALLEvILLE,
DE BEAUMONT, and BARRoT are the names which
have been most rife, in connexion with those Of
BARocHE and FoULD. But these elements possess
SO little affinity with the President on one side, with
the Assembly on the other, and also with each
other, that all combination was found impossible.
They could not be even made to cOhere for half a
day; and the formation of Parliamentary Ministry
is now, to all appearance far from realization It
has ever been. No, nothing but the fear Of imminent
Socialism, with its concomitant horrors, can unite
in apparent temporary concord the discordant ele-
ments Of the Assembly and of the Elysee. There
are signs that this fear is rapidly acquiring the
force necessary to effect the union The organs OF
apares in the press sgnalize in Paris and through
out the departments the existence and progress Of
that disquiet, agitation, alarm, arrangement Of COM
merce, and cessation Of industrial pursuits which
are the precursors Of change. But sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof.
The week has been fruitful too in curious docu-
ments touching the revolution of l648. The pub
licaton Of Marshal BUGEAUDs letter, which il seems
took place without his family's consent and by a
culpable breach of confidence, has elected from
Gen. BEDEAU, the Constitutional, and Others arti-
cles Of hardly less interest. The most curious is
perhaps the account of the conference which lead
ers of the parties held on the 18th February in or
der to concert together the ways and means Of
avoiding collision by reason Of the banquet, and at
the same time save both parties from the appear
ance of retreat and from ridicule. II was agreed
that the banqueters should assemble on the 22d !;
that the public force should not intervene that they
should take their seats at the table, and at parti-
cular moment the commissary of police should en-
ter in solemn form, take his notes, and summon the
assembly to dsperse. Thereupon M. ODHoN
BARRoT was to rise, make short Speech protest.
ing against this abuse Of authority by Government,
and praying the company to Immediately and peace
ably retire, and declaring that in SO doing they were
yielding only to force. M. BARRoT, who was the
Magnus Apollo of the banquet, with other deputies
named, was then to go and harangue the people,
who, it was supposed, would be thronging the ban
quoting room outside, in order to prevent their be-
coming irritated beyond measure. The press was
to be operated upon by influential PERSONS in order
to prevent this ridiculous game which the great re-
formists were playing before the people from being
unveiled. On one side, the conduct Of the opposi-
ton to be treated by the press as moderate and
digni6ed; on the other, Government was not to be
accused of having weakly yielded. The events Of
the next week showed that these gentlemen could
not control the storm they had raised. The ar
rangements of these wire-puers were all overruled
when the day of action came by more sincere and
revolutionary reformers, who considered as serious
the game which was being played. Enough Of
politics.
Let me hasten to give you, in his own words, an
account of the ingenious experiment alluded to in
my last, by which M. LEON FoUcAULT has recent
ly demonstrated The phenomenon Of the earth's ro-
tation. This gentleman is one of the youngest
yet already Of the most distinguished scientific
men Of France. He has, there can be but little
doubt, very brilliant and us.rious career before
him. One of the veterans Of science, CAoNIARD
LAToUR, has, to be sure, just won over him seatin
the Academy but it is admitted that the respective
ages of the candidates entered as very considera-
BILE element into the results of that election. "M.
FoUcAULT can aOaif," it was said she is yet
young" In support of his claims young as he is,
it was urged that il was FoUcAULT who first de-
monstrated that the velocity Of light is greater in
air than in water, by which the coup de grace was
given to the Newtonian or corPuscular theory Of
light and the undulatory theory finally established
that he had made, in connexion with M. FIzEAJ,
remarkable observations in optics; that he FIRST
fixed electric light; and, lastly, the beautiful ex-
pertinent which all Paris is focking to the PAN
theon to see, and which is being repeated all over
France and Europe-the subject Of the following
memoir:
EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE
EARTHS ROTATION ON IT'S AXIS.
The notion Of the rotary Of the earth has
become general It has vctoousy passed from the do
main Of science into that Of vulgar deas that would
superAuous to seek to establish il by additional testimony
Nevertheless whan il is considered that the principal argu
ments in support Of this drawn from the obser
walton Of celestial phenomena, will perhaps be disposed
to accord attention to the results Of experiment which
dpenses with the necessity Of scanning the heavens and
permits the fact Of the earths rotation he deduced from
mere household experiment. As upon the broad with
shores in sight, the hemsman bis eyes fixed upon the
compass takes cognzance Of every variation in the Of
his ship the nhabant Of the earth may make for himse
by means Of the pendulum sort Of compass, which, set
brary in absolute space will by its apparent motion, re-
cal to him the actual motion of the globe which supports
him. When the magnetic needle, which does not 10
point toward the NORTH appears in drecton it is