The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-12-11
Foreign Correspondence OF the Republic.

Important Potes in the Assembly Nslo Postal dr.
rangsment betlDsen the United States and Franes-
Visibility Of MoLsctlIes-Aa Immense Building
Other Improvements Long and Hard Vinter
EIpecfed-Ihe Mint Of PGTis-1Re Lottery Of
Lingots-A Suicide IN Consequence Other En-
ptTienees-A ISiaI Of Skill befioeen BGrbrs--A
french Superstition IN regard 10 The Number
Thirteen.
PANS. Nov "a, 1851.
As you will have learned by the intervening
steamers, the proposition of the questors ofthc As
sembly to place at their disposal such an army as
they might judge necessary, lost by major
ity against il of los This was fortunate for the
tranquility of the country, for the President would
not have submitted to such an encroachment upon
his prerogative, and the officers Of the army of
Paris were unanimous in determination not to per-
init him to be shorn of any Of his constitutional
rights. The project has been consigned to OBJ
livion; and the warlike qucstors have revenged
themselves by posting an extra force at the doors,
charged to examine the tickets of those who apply
for admission with redoabled strictness and ten
fold scrutiny. The result has been that several
editors and correspondents, accustomed for years
to enter without any of these formalites have been
obliged to beat retreat, having left their tickets
at home In some forgotten waistcoat pocket. Who
would have thought that this bombastic bill would
have ended in such utter ridicue and confusion of
faces
The Mountain, having unanimously sided with
the Bonapartists in voting for the restoration of
universal suffrage, and having split upon the pro-
ject of giving the Assembly army to ITSELF have
since returned TO their former position, of uncom-
promising hostility 10 the President. In the dis
cusson TO take place to-day upon the bill elab-
Grated by the Council of State, entitled. "Propos-
ton upon the responsibility of the President and
his Ministers" they will coalesoe with the two frac
apffh
extraordinary the one formed of late years be-
tween two political parties in Massachusetts. You
will learn the result by the sub-channel wire. II
passed, the Presidents hands tied behind his
back All possibility OF revision OF the consti
tuition is at end, and the Presidents legal re-
election is out of the question. A simple majority
in the Chamber may pronounce the President TO
be suspect" which by this bill is made to be of
the same effect as if he already impeached.
The power passes1to the Assembly, which thus be-
comes the Executive, and at the same time invested
with the right 10 dispose of the army. This is the
most direct attack yet made by the Chamber
upon the prerogatives OF the President. There
ia one ground of hope, however, and that is,
that the bill, if carried, will have owed its tri
umph TO coalition, and that the fractions
composing it will quarrel among themselves
upon the first attempt, by either, to reap the
twenty nine months to pass without drawing up a
bill upon the responsibility Of the Executive, which
by the constitution, they required to do
soon after May, ls49, possible. They now
bring it forward filled with clauses adapted
to present exigencies, with articles calculated to
suit events, which to be casting their shadows
before with dispositions made especially for Louis
Napoeon's case, with requirements based directly
fear Of the crisis of 1852, that it is nothing bet
ter than "law of circumstance" and is no more
worthy OF serious comment than an &c post fact0
law, or any law which, while pretending to be
founded on general principles, is aimed at an indi
vidual case, or aany one person 1t threatens to lead
to direct conflict between the President and the
Assembly, open rupture between the Executive
and Legislative bodes and is, therefore, one Of the
most dangerous propositions yet offered to the
Chamber for their acceptance or rejection.
In the Moniteur of yesterday appeared decree
from the President, countersigned by the Minister
of Finance, fixing the rate of postage on letters
from France destined for the United States and
passing through England. The hand of Lord Nor
manly, working in the interest of the Cunard
steamers, is curiously evident AT present there
three different modes of conveying letters from
France to the United States, and three different
rates.
- single lelteS from Peris to New York by
the Franklin and Humboldt costs IL cents to Havre
and 81 cents sea- carrage-in all, 33 cents.
I'd. single letter from Paris to New York by
the Cunard line costs 80 cents to New York and
FIVE cents at the city post office therein all, 80
cents.
Sd. A single letter from Paris to New York by
the Collins line costs 10 cents to Liverpool and 81
cents sea -duty-in all, 81 cents.
Nothing is altered in this arrangement by the
new regulation, except the tax by the Cunard line,
and after the lst of December next, is reduced
from thirty TO twenty six cents, which, with the
five cents levied at New York, makes the whole
postage thirtyone cents-the cheapest of the three
modes of transport The American Government
easily equalizc these various charges by re-
ducing the sea tax by the Havre line to nineteen
cents making, with the French inland postage,
thirty one cent?; and by reducing the sea- tax by
the Collins line to fifteen cents-making, with the
transit duty to Liverpool, also thirty one cents
This would put the three lines par, as far as
the mails concerned. Unless this is done, the
whole mail from Paris for America will hereafter
go by the cheapest route.
At the last sitting of the Academy of Sciences a
very remarkable paper read. 1t present
ed by u well known engineer, Nj. Andraud, who
has made many public experiments on compressed
air as a substitute for steam on railways give
you resume of the contents of this paper Ii is
entitled AEroScopie or the Visibility of the Mole
cues of the Air Some of the deductions made in
n medicinal point of view, are in the highest degree
curious. M. Andraud proves that, by avery simple
continuance, the air is rendered vsibe BY taking
piece of card, coored black, and piercing it with
fine needle this interesting fact is established If
look through this hole at the sky, on fine day
or at strong lamp, having ground glass, we see
a multitude Of little transparent globes moving in
the midst OF confused nobulostes. These little
globes, some of which are more transparent than
others molecules of air. Some of them are sur
rounded with a kind of halo These latter, says ri.
Andraud, are the elements of OXYGEN, whilst others
elements of aZote. After continuing the ob
servation for time, shall see small
points detach themselves and disappear in falling;
these, Gays M. Andraud, atoms of carbon.
This phenomenon Of vision, it is essential to re-
mark, passes within the eye itself; the mole
culcs of air which are observed arc those which
float in the liquid, which occupies the anterior
part THAT organ According to the author of this
paper, the discovery is not interesting merely as a
phenomenon, but may be applied to important pur.