NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 455, 6 January 1871, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

The late King of Siam has left twenty five widows and eighty four children.

During the month of July, one hundred and fifteen persona were killed in the central Provinces of India, by snakes and wild beasts.

The French Republic was proclaimed at Pondicherry in India on the 7th October.

The Lyons correspondent of the Standard says :—“ Myself rather leaning, for the sake of France, to a restoration of the Napoleonic dynasty, I must tell you honestly I have not spoken to a single Frenchman, urban or rural, who shared my opinions, or who treated the very idea of such a restoration as anything hut a reproach to the intelligence of tne country. lam sorry for it, but my business is toll to the truth.” A decree of the French Govern ment orders the silver plate belonging to the Civil list to'be melted down and converted into coin. The difficulties of communication and the scarcity of paper have driven those ot the Paris journals which are still published to a variety of shifis. Some consist of a single page, printed on silk paper, copies of which, with the title and margin cut off in order to make them as light as possible, are despatched by I >al loon post, and ■ cca si onally reach their subscribers. The Gaulios, which prior to the siege was a broadside of four pages, is now reduc d to the size of a sheet of notepaper, almost as light as a feather. It is not printed on both sides-.hors indeed, is it printed at all. It is ditographeci, and consists of four shor€ and narrow columns, filled with writing so minute that to read it would he a sore tidal for one’s eyes Two numbers of it lie before us, each containing a “journal of the siege.” They impart no information which has not already been supplied from other sources, but as curiosities of j mrualism they are of considerable interest.

Accompanying the Nismos corps of Franc-Tirems, are two represefilitii ves of the Church Militant, a Catholic and a Protestant chaplain, both armed to the teeth, and looking as if they would prove active and serviceable leaders in the field. Already the evangelical gentleman has shown himselt a strict clisclipinamn. Meeting one of his men reeling along the principal street perfectly intoxicated, he then and there fell Jtow from his hat and arm the of the city he was dishonoring the corps to which he belonged, and, amid the approving shouts of the bystanders, dismissed him summarily and finally from his regiment. In the event of England being drawn into war, she would not suffer as Franco does in the present struggle through the scarcity of horses. According to the last census there were three mi llions of those useful animals in the Islands.

Despatches' from Tours announce that a young >rirl of that city is creating the most intense excitement hj imitating the example of Joan of Arc. Hundreds of enthusiastic persons have joined her standard. Her appeals for recruits are said to be singular! v patriotic and eloquent. The interpretation in English of the names of German commanders is sufficiently curious. For instance, Sfinenietz means a stone cutter; Falckeustein, the falcon rock, and Vogel Von Falckenstein, the bird of the falcon rock ; Manteuffel, man-devil, and Eulenburgh, the castle of owls In the Avenue de ITmperatrice at Paris, a large crowd was gazing upon the Fort of Mount Valerien. This fort is the favourite of the Parisians. “ If I were near enough ” said a girl, “ I would kiss it.” ‘-Let me carry your kiss to it,” rep.ied a Mobile ; and the pair embraced, amid the cheers of the people round them.