Foreign Miscellany.
The Masonic body of Paris was informed at its last meeting that the Emperor restored to it the traditional right of electing its Grand Master. This announcement was received with enthusiastic applause, and Marshal Magnan, who held his nomination by imperial decree, was unanimously re-elected by the delegates of all the lodges present.The consumption of ardent spirits in France is on the increase — a sign that the manufacturing classes are suffering. The best brandy, known in the trade under the name of Cognac, comes from the Chareates; the next in repute is Armagnac, from the Department of the Gers; next come Marmaude and Montpelier. Spirits distilled from wine come chiefly from Languedoc, in the Herault.
Among the recent aspirants for honors in chemistry has been a well-known Paris butcher, who last week won the prize, and was to be crowned with a laurel wreath in presence of the admiring multitude.--When his turn came there was a noise heard in the room, and it was declared that an unsuccessful candidate had blown his brains out. Enquiry was going to be made, when the butcher rose and said: "Calm yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. It was I; I sighed with delight. I am strong; I am a butcher."
The Aigledes Cevennes says that the worst anticipations of the breeders of silkworms in that district have been realized. The crop of silk is decidedly worse than that of last year. Some few growers have been fortunate, but taken altogether the result has been disastrous.
The Emperor Napoleon has ordered the reserved portion of the park at Fontainebleau to be thrown open to the public, and walked about for some time among the crowd, leading the Prince Imperial by the hand.
It is asserted in the London Army and Navy Gazette that the sailing vessels in the British navy will never be sent to sea again, there being two hundred and forty steamers in commission, manned by forty-five thousand men.
Two millions' worth of diamonds were imported into the United States the last year. So says a foreign writer who has been reading on the subject.
In the district of China ravaged by the civil war, the surviving population feed on the emaciated bodies of the dead for the want of other food.
The old Scottish pint held as much as two English quarts. This explains much that we have heard about "bees in the Bonnet."
The London bakers get fourteen cents for an ordinary loaf of bread.
The young quondam Jew, Mortars, whose abduction from his family at Bologna, and subsequent education as a Roman Catholic, have furnished such matter for discussion and remonstrance, has addressed an Italian ode to the Pope, on the occasion of a religious commemoration.
On the 5th ultimo a Shetland pony, Black Prince, died at Moresby House, in Cumberland, at the extraordinary age of forty-two years.
Lord Overstone's fortune, says the Spectator, is estimated at £5,000,000.
At a wedding in Paris last week, Mdlle. Pereire, the bride, wore a lace veil worth £4,000.
Mrs. Reddington, the wife of a militiaman, recently confined in the Lincoln Barracks of three daughters, has received a post-office order from the Queen for £3.
Kossuth's wife is suffering from a cancer. The Dictator scarcely ever leaves the bedside of his wife.
