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the country , to send a detachment of its members to support an amendment before the Council of State , whose members depended on the Government , and were n ominated by it . " There the question rests . It is said that the Government , uneasy at these struggles for independence , will cut the matter short by postponing the measure till next session . This evil disposition of the Corps Leg islatif may give you an idea of the deep and general discontent prevailing in the country . If the very creatures of the breath of the Government , and devoted to their creator , murmur , what must it he with the country itself ? Trade , too , is making no way just now : that is a fact patent and positive . Nothing has been done , no operations have been undertaken since
the month of January . In short , the progressive dearness of everything has produced something resembling a commercial crisis . The raw materials increasing in price , the manufacturers decline to purchase . Then , again , shopkeepers finding their rents doubled and tripled , try to take it out of the consumers , and they do so at their own cost—the consumers disappear ! I don't speak of the working men who can get no lodgings at all . The Independance Beige recently stated that there had been 45 , 000 notices to quit given on the right bank of the Sein * and 2500 on the left bank ; making , in all , an ejection of some 70 , 000 families . In that fact alone you will perceive all the elements of a crisis ; only , instead of bursting at the present moment , this crisis will smoulder for a ye ar or more , and then it will burst with a violence to which we shall have
had no parallel . If trade , if industry , if labour goes ill , yet , as a setoff , the fury of speculation and of stockjobbing is still raging to a degree of frenzy . Everything becomes the tool of gamblers , the plaything of schemers , the spoil of jobbers . It is a maddening paroxyism , a " possession" of the Devil , if I may be permitted to use that gentleman ' s name in connection with schemes so rotten , and rascalities so
short-lived . Every day we have a rush of new schemes : —a telegraph to the sun , a railway to the moon , a " concession " to h—1 and back again , ( if they will let us come , which I much doubt ) . It is a ceaseless straggle who shall get first hold of Bonaparte , or De Morny , or Persigny , with the latest job for a " concession . " You have remarked the concession of 20 , 000 hectares ( about 43 , 000 acres ) in Algeria to a Swiss company : a new concession of a railway line has been since given to another company of the same country
But the worst is to come ; that disgraceful speculation of Louis Philippe and llothschild in the corn market , has been renewed on a large scale , by the same men , with the substitution of Bonaparte for Louis Philippe . Let me explain the nature of the speculation . Paris draws its provision of grain from the plains of La Beauce which extends almost from the gates of the Capital to Orleans . The product of La Beauce may 1 ) 0 estimated roundly at twenty-two millions of hectolitres . The three individuals above mentioned , have
agents in the different producing markets , and buy up the grains at any price . The farmers were delighted at the opportunity to raise their demands , and began by selling at a rise of about two francs per hectolitre . Once musters of nil the grains , our three fbrcstallers wait for the pressure , and then regrate at Paris at about two or three francs profit on each hectolitre . This makes for the people si total difference of from four to five francs per hectolitre , on the nominal price ; but en revanche it realises to these patriotic gentlemen a total haul of from forty to sixty millions of francs . ( 1 GOO , OOOL—240 , 000 / . )
The Empress is still out of health , and confined to her bed . All the proposed , fetes and trips are , countermanded . As Hoon as she ; is able to bo moved , who will go to St . Cloud with her " august husband , " to pass the rest of the season in that retreat . Her mishap '" created the worst impression in Paris . The noodles were astonished to hear of the miscarriage , before they had heard of the " interesting condition , " and have tried to make up for lost ; time by inventing new ticandals . A very general , I do not say reasonable , opinion prevails that Honaparto is nothing but a simpleton («» jobard ) and that his wife 1 ms played him a trick .
M . do Montalembert has again appeared on the scene , pronouncing a long protest before the Committee of the Budget against the decrees confiscating the estates of the House of Orleans . The question now was the stump charges on the sales . JVT . do Montnfeiubcrt enlarged considonibly on the violation of the great principle of " respect of property . " " What constituted the strength of the existing Government at tlio thno of the . coujtd' / itat of December was tho terrors of in-opm-ty , threatened by Socialism ever since 1848 , and flying to the coup d'Jlat for safety . In attacking , therefore , tho ' principle of property , ' tho Government
has falsified the very principle upon which it originally declared itself based . It does nothing more nor less than Socialism ! " His argument on this topic was so warmly and so pressingly urged , that M . Schneider , ex-Minister of Bonaparte , and President of the Commission , was obliged to name a sub-commission of three members to examine the proposition of M . de Montalembert . This sub-commission has made a report , iu which it declares that it entirely approves of the position of M . de Montalembert . Here again is another slap in the foce for that Burlesque Majesty , which styles itself Napoleon III .
With regard to the translation of the ashes of . Napoleon the Great to St . Denis : it had been proposed to leave the body at the Invalides , and to take the heart to the tomb of the ancient kings , but old Jerome protested indignantly that " as long as he liv ^ d , he would not suffer the remains of his glorious brother to be mutilated . " As soon as he had delivered this angry protest , Jerome abruptly left the Council , and since that moment the affair has not again been mooted .
Some more arrests have been made this week ; but as that sort of business is now pretty well understood , they have produced no effect . En revanche , one of our friends , M . Mounier , of Tarascon , destined for transportation to Cayenne , has contrived to escape from Port Lamarque at Toulon , on the very eve of shipment for the Colony , and precisely in a similar manner to the escape of Louis Bonaparte from Ham in 1846 . Only , instead of disguising himself in
workman ' s clothes , M . Mounier adopted a soldier ' s uniform , and so passed out quietly enough among forty or fifty real soldiers , who formed the guard of the prisoners in the fort . It was time to escape . The next day his companions in misfortune were embarked for Cayenne . This embarkation was not effected without resistance . Our unhappy friends refused to a man to maroh to the quay , and they were all carried to the ship , man by man , handcuffed . Two hundred criminal convicts were shipped with them for the same destination . S .
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CONTINENTAL NOTES . The remaining continental news of the week may be packed into a moderate compass . The official version in the Monite ur of Sunday last of the Imperial mishap is as follows : —Her Majesty the Empress , who for the last two months has been enceinte , and who has been unwell for several days , miscarried in the evening of April 29 . In other respects her Majesty ' s health is as satisfactory as possible . A decree appoints fifty-five special Imperial commissaries to replace the abolished Inspectors General of Police , and to inquire into and report upon the public spirit and public wants in the departments . M . Donoso Cortes , Marquis de Valdegamas , Spanish ambassador at Paris , died on "Wednesday evening . Ho had been an advanced liberal till the revolution of 1848 , when he suddenly became an extreme partisan of absolutism . He was a very distinguished man , of unblemished character , and unimpeachable public and private integrity . Hia death is a loss to Spain , his opinions notwithstanding . Tho King of the Belgians left Brussels on his royal round of calls ( wliich of course is emphatically pronounced by official journals to be nothing but a friendly and private visiting tour , " for arranging family affairs ") on tho 2 nd inst ., slept at Cologne on tho 2 nd , passed tho night of tho 3 rd at Brunswick , and reached Berlin on the 4 th . Ho was expectod to remain in tho Prussian capital till tho 8 th or 9 th inst . His modest Majesty of bourgeois Belgium ,
has wisely requested to bo relieved from the paraphernalia of boredom usually attendant on the steps of travelling royalty . Ho is to proceed to Vienna by Silesia , and return by Dresden , where the Duko and Duchess of Genoa have arrived on a visit . The Congress of Sovereigns about to meet at Vienna , ( for strictly domestic and family purposes , of course ) is to include tho Kings of Prussia and Belgium , tho Emperors of Russia and Austria , tho King of Bavaria , and the Duke of Saxe-Cobourg ! It is not difficult to guess whoso representative tho last-named Principiculus will bo of interven
on tho occasion ; but it scorns a superfluity " - tion " in tho affairs of Absolutism on tho part of our constitutional throne , that Prince Albert should bo represented by his brother , and Queen Victoria by her undo . In the meantime the " mediatised" IEomo Secretary will do tho dirty work of royal complicities at homo , and of royal demands abroad , by tho mild and strictly constitutional processes—not of espionage , but of surveillance . All this is very pleasant , no doubt , as long as it lasts . Nothing , we repeat , like tho " Solidarity" of thrones and dynasties . Thoy are all duly chronicled in that Charter of Humanity , the Almanack de . bfotha .
Tho Cantonal Council of Ticino has replied to tho Federal Council of Switzerland , rebutting tho charges of Austria , denying 1 all complicity with tho Milan insurrection , protesting : against tho wholesale expulsion of tlio peaceful Ticindfe citizens from Lombardy , and tho blockade of tho frontier by tlio Austrians ; ami assorting tlio right of tho Federation gonorally , and of each of tho Cantons severally , to resist ; any attempt to invade or tamper with tho right of asylum . Tlio Now Zurich Qazetta statos , that a telegraphic despatch had been received by tho Federal Council from Colonel Bourgeois , tho Commissary on tho frontier , announcing that tho Auatrians had established a military post near Stabbio , on a territory which ia considorod as belonging to Switzerland . Tho trials , by court-martial , of tho persons arrootod in tho lato insurrection of tho Austrian and priestly party at
Friburg , and of others implicated in , the conspiracy , are now proceeding . . . As was expected , the committee of the Sardinian Cnamber , to whom was referred the bill for lending 400 , 000 francs to the Lombard emigrants , naturalized in Sardinia , and despoiled by Austria , has u nanimously reported in favour of the measure . ; . It is affirmed in letters from Florence that the Austrian occupying army of Tuscany is about to be reduced by 2000 men . , From Vienna we learn that the pork-butcher who arrested Lebenyi has been knighted . The Prince of Montenegro has arrived in Vienna , to pay his respects to the Emperor .
„ .. , _ , __ ,. ^ . LudwayTieck was buried at Berlin on Sunday last . The hearse was followed by the carriages of their Majesties and Royal Family , and by those of the most eminent personages of Berlin . Among the mourners were Alexander vonHumboldt , Count Redern , and almost every person distinguished in literature , arts , and science .
The Ministerial crisis in Spain appears to have been got over for the present . How long the JVtinistry will keep together is problematical . Ho Spanish Ministry can be honest , and at the same time in the good graces of the still all-powerful Queen-Mother Christina . It was reported that the new Minister of Finance , Bermudez de Castros , who is rapidly decreeing vigorous reforms in his department , had resigned , and that M . Ay llen had declined the portfolio of Foreign affairs . But for the present these rumours remain unconfirmed . M . Salamanca , the arch , jobber , has had a sharp
correspondence , if not a duel , with General Concha , in consequence of some strong expressions of the General in the Chamber , against the shameful railway jobberies which , had been conceded to the former as the ag ent of the Queen-Mother . # By a decree of tne Roman Inquisition , dated April 2 % Macaulay ' s History of ISngland is placed in the index of forbidden writings . The same distinction is awarded somewhat tardily to the Scripture lessons published by the British Government in 1835 for use in Irish national schools . What does Cardinal Wiseman say to the interdict upon Macaulay ?
A St . Petersburg journal has published an article roundly abusing the recent city deputation from London for their adulation of Louis Napoleon , and hinting at the French Emperor in no gentle terms . As all Russian papers are under severe censorship this article has created some sensation . The Turkish question is scarcely less hazy than ever 1 Some reports describe Prince Menschikoff as reserved and inflexible , others as yielding and conciliatory since the arrival of the French and English ambassadors . Some letters state that the French ambassador has yielded on the
question of the Holy Places ( which now resolves itself into the right of admission by a back door , or side door , _ or front aoor , into the Chapel at Bethlehem ) , and has advised Turkey to yield to the demands of Russia , as to the appointment of the Patriarchate ; others that he has protested firmly against the demand of Russia to have a new and special firman in . her favour , assigning to her the absolute protection of the Sanctuaries . Some reports mention the cessation , others the continuance , of the armaments . All that is certainly known is , that matters are outwardly quiescent at Constantinople since the arrival of Lord Stratford and M . de hi Cour .
The new bank at Constantinople is on the point of being established . It is founded by Greek and Armenian capitalists . While Russia is making so much ostentation of her solicitude for tho Greek Church at Constantinople , it was thought she would take that opportunity to express her disapprobation of tho now ecclesiastical law on which tho Church of Greece founds her independence of that of Constantinople . But on tho contrary , tho synod of Russia bos just written a most friendly letter to the Archbishop of Athens , begging him to confer tho rank of archimandrite to a ltussian priest belonging to tho chapel of tho Russian Legation in Athens .
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MORE ABOUT " TABLE MOVING . " Interest on this subject is everywhere on tho increase ; everybody is trying an " experiment . " Even the British Cabinet , it is said , concluded a council l ) y solemnly forming the electric circle , and setting tlio council table on tho whirl . The following letter on the subject has been sent by an American gentleman to Galignani ' s Messenger ;—" I have seen in your journal , as well as other ' s , various accounts of moving tables by animal magnetism . As all those accounts are either inaccurate or inadequate , I take tlio liberty to make a few statements on tho subject . Tho phenomena of moving tables by a power supposed to bo animal magnetism havo been familiar to tho people of this United States for tho hint two years . Those phenomena consist not merely in moving tables , hats , and chairs , by placing hands upon them , but in tho far more interesting ' and wonderful fact , ' that when charged by the hands they will move in obedience to tho will . ' It is this latter circumstance which Hcoins to bo overlooked in tho partial and imperfect experiments which havo been made and reported in Europe . This moving of tables has boon connected in America with what ore callod ' spirit rappings . * and was , in fact , the preliminary stop to thoso extraordinary developments . For tho prosont I havo nothing to say of them . Those who aro curious to obtain information on tho Hiibjoctcan consult a vory clover London book , ontitlcd Li ghts and Hounds , writton by nn Englishman , who has boon in tlio Unitod States , and who has collected the faota in relation to it . But as to tho ' dancing tables , ' 1 can present eomo facts which may bo interesting to your readers . On tho evening of Saturday , April 30 , I witnessed , at tho houHO of an Amorican gentleman in Paris , a oorioB of experiments , of which I will give a briof account .
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442 THE LEADER . [ Saturday , — " ¦ —¦_^ ^— ^ f
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 7, 1853, page 442, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1985/page/10/
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