The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-07-22
LIF { IN PARIS.
PApIs lime d Is

~ "
PARIS, June "a, 1853.
Dismissal of Gen. Espinasse-Te Return Of
N. Hetri, former Project Of Police-7he
Court at 81 Cloud-Dtparture Of The En-.
peror for Plombiere- PREPARATIONS at the
Camp Of Chalon-Death Of AIRY iSche6er-
Restoration Of the Rubens Collection The
Weather-7he Bots de Boulogne-Embel
lishments Of Paris-The promising State OF
the Crops-M. Pickens, Our Minister to
Russia. !
70 the Editor of the National Era
Emperor Napoleon has at last learned by expe
riepce that military men are not the most fit to
fill all the offices of the Government; their large
organs of destructiveness are indisputable, but
they are rarely endowed with the necessary
ability for conducting the intricate affairs of
State Gen. Espinasse was, few days since,
! thanked, las the French politely express a dis
missal from tffce,) received the additional title
of Senator, and an annuity of 10000 francs,
for the various blunders made by him during
his short administration as Minister of State.
M. Delangle, an eminent member of the bar,
and thorough business man, has taken his
place. Report says, and it is to be hoped with
truth, that the unpopular plan of General Espi.
nasse, to turn all the property belonging to the
benevolent institutions into State stocks, will
not be carried out. 1t is likewise whispered
that M. Pie.ri, the former Project of Police.
will be recalled and reinstated.
The Court has returned from Fontainebleau.
and is now at st. Cloud, where the Empress
intends remaining till the return of the Empe.
ror from his favorite watering place, Plombiere,
where he expects to 60 in the course of few
days, after which they will together visit Brit.
tany.
Great preparations are in progress for the
annual concentration and practicing of troops
at the camp of Chalon, where the Emperor will
spend few days on his way back from Plom-
biere.
The political news is still without moment
The French press, by way of amusing the
general reader, fills it's uninterestipg columns
with ridiculous view of the weakness with
which the English press treats the existing diff
fculties between themselves and Brother JON
athan. The French evidently would not object
to an encounter between those two great and
powerful nations.
Another eminent French artist has recently
departed this life. The lamented and famous
AIRY ScheAer was poetic artist; his compost.
tons are beaming with feeling, and are of the
most accurate delineation, but Scheffer unfor.
tunately lacked colorng. The art of painting
at present seems greatly to consist in producing
startling effects, by dashing colors one over the
other. Landscape painters, in particular, sac.
ri6ce drawing to the production of striking
coup d'pl, and they lay colors on the canvas
with trowel.
Speaking of paintings, reminds me of my
recent visit to the Louvre, to see the restored
Rubens collection. The pictures of that emf
nent artist in the possession of the French
Government have all been placed together and
thoroughly cleansed with the greatest possible
success, and they now look as if they had but
Just been taken from the easel, and the colors
are a. bright as they we're when first painted.
To make the operation more striking to the
eye, strip on each canvass has been carefully
preserved with the old varnish, giving that por.
ton Of the picture the effect of being yelled by
transparent tissue.
The weather has been exceedingly oppres.
sive; at present, however, the temperature is
most agreeable. La Patrie ian evening pa
perl gives the temperature of the principal
places in Europe and Africa every day. It is
interesting to learn the degree of heat or cold
there has been on the same day at st. Peters
burgh, Algiers, or Florence, &c. On the 2lst
instant, which was very cool day, the mean
temperature of Paris was 65, in Lyons Is, in
Madrid &C, in Vienna So, in Lisbon 81, in St. |
Petersburgh so degrees Fahrenheit. We have
again had the thermometer up to 963, and
though one.fourth of the population of this
great city has dispersed, the streets are as
crowded - ever. The great influx of stran.
gers sojourning here at this season of the year
gil up the vacuum, and the theatres, cafe
chautants, and public gardens, are thronged by
that floating population. Il
The Bots de Boulogne continues to be the
aristocratic resort, and its appendage, the Pre-
Catalan, is certainly the most bewitchipg of all
places in the world. tits impossible to describe
he fairylike beauty of that place on q grand
fete evening, when it is blazing with Jets Of gas
lights gushing from every blade of grass, and
he trees gracefully festooned with myriads of
,olored lamps, representing fruits and flowers
# every shape, size, and hue. Those brilliant
yas flames are also mingled with jets d'eau.