France.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 840, 20 August 1853, Page 4

France.

It is staled tbat the Empress has decided- ou not accepting the donation^ which the Senate is disposed to offer Her Majesty. A private letter from Toulon gives sad details respecting the recent departure of 200 political convicts for Cayenne. These unhappy prisoners uttered the most lamentable cries on going on board/and some were in such an excited state that they had to be bound, and borne in, that condition on board the vessel. , ( -. The Emperoi has commuted the sentence of

death passed on the individuals named Mercadies, Galzy, Delpecb,' Denis Carrier, Barthez, Gardy, Triadon, by court-martial on the 24th December, 1858, into hard labour ' for life. Those persons were engaged in the< insurrectionary movements which took place at Bedarieux after the coup d' etat in December, 1851. • t, . A communication by electric telegraph is now open, bet ween Paris and Bayonne. t , Some sensation has been created , among the friends of the House of Bourbon by the announcement that the Duke de Nemours is about to take a trip in Germany.,' in .which it will be arranged that he shall meet^and have an interview with the Comte de Chambord. Certain negotiations, which have been going on with a view to this meeting, have been brought to a favourable termination. Before leaving Venice last week, the Comte de Chambord was visited by a considerable number of Frenchmen, and among them M. le Bacour and M. Leon Masson, the former of whom was for a long time ambassador, and the latter a prefect under Louis Philippe. The increasing number of visitors who flock to the Comte de Chambord is not very satisfactory to the present Government. An imperial decree legalises the construction of a railway from Lyons to the frontiers of the canton of Geneva with a branch line to Bourges and Macon. A Submarine Telegraph to India. — We read in the Patrie :—": — " It is announced that an important project, which has excited the interest of the Government of the Emperor, is about to be realised. It is stated that, after a serious study of the matter, a Convention in which the different powers interested have' taken part, has just been concluded for the establishment of an electrical communication which will unite the European Continent with/Algeria by crossing the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The submarine telegraph which comes from England to France is to be continued by land, and, after crossing Nice and Genoa, will reach Spezzia at the bottom of the gulph of that name. The new line will start from that' point, aed after crossing the island of Corsica will pass by Saidinia to the coast of Algeria, near Bona. From that place, if it be thought necessary, it will be continued as| far as the Regency of Tunis. - The works' necessary for the accomplishment of the first part of this plan will be completed in two years from the date of the promulgation of the law. At the time the line will be prolonged by the shore of the Mediterranean in Africa as far as Alexandria, in order from that point to reach India and Australia. The direction of the submarine line has been established according to the last chart. The cable will lie at the bottom of the sea ; the Mediterranean, if a straight line had been followed from the Isles d'Hyeres, near Toulon, to Cape 1 Bourgaroni, on the coast of Algeria, would not have been practicable, as it has in its centre a depth of from 2000 to 3000 metres; but the points 1 chosen for crossing are much more favourable. From Spezzia to Cape' Corse the maximum depth is only 220 metres ; in the strait of Boniface, it is only 80; and from cape Teulada, at the, extremity of the Island of Sardinia, to Bona, on the coast of Africi, it is only 327. The average depth is much less considerable." The intention of removing the remains of the Emperor Napoleon from their present restingplace in the Invalided to St. Denis, will, there is little doubt, be realised ; and though Louis Napoleon has given no positive intimation of bis wishes on that head, it is very probable he has made up his mind in the matter. In the meantime a general pressure is beginning to be exercised, and petitions in favour of the removal have been prepared, and will be addressed to the Senate. The Emperor yesterday gave a private audience to M. Eugene Scribe, President of the Association of Dramatic Authors and Composers, accompanied by some members of the committee. At this audience M. Scribe called the attention of his Majesty to the clauses of the bill which cancels the rights of dramatic authors and composers, 20 years after their death, and solicited the Emperor to prolong that period, This interview has reference to the project of forming a permanent commission, without respect to political opinion, "but composed of the most eminent members of the literary profession, for the protection of their rights. 'It appears that the Commission of the Budget has pot adopted purely and simply the project of law relative to tbe budget of 1854. It has made some further reduction in the war estimates, which had already been diminished, and also a reduction of 1,000,000f. in tbe department of Public Works: and in other branches some charges of no great amount have been here and there retrenched. The budget, amended by the commission, presents, it is said, a surplus of about 3,500,000f., in place "of 1,300,0Q0f. The report on tbe budget will be presented to the Chamber tO'tnorroWf and if it show such reductions to have been really made, will no doubt be well received. It is said that the Council of State has fully authorised the Company of the Credit Foncier to lend 1,000,000f. to the Count of Chambord on tbe security of the domain of Chambord.