DIARY OF A- LOUNGER IN' A FRENCH CABINET DR
March 3d. It is appropriate enough that the diplomatic body in Italy.should'occapy themselves solely with affairs of nuts* instead of affairs of state. Our ambassador at Florence lately wrote the scores of an opera ; and now the Comte de BOMBELLES, the Aus- trian ambassador, has just represented in his palace the Italiana in Algeri, in which his wife, the Countess, performed the principal part. Never, says the report, did a voice more sweet or more sonorous, a style more perfect, enchant the dilettanti admitted to hear her : the elegance of her costume, her beauty, her grace, the perfection of her voice, cannot be described. This lady, whom Madame de STAEL knew in her infancy, is represented in her works under the beautiful character of Ida. She is by birth a Dane.
— The Department du Nord has been thrown into great con- fusion by an immense number of summonses which have been is- sued to all the proprietors of property formerly belonging to Spain, pledged by PHILIP the Fourth, and now, by subsequent changes, forming a part of the kingdom of France. Every holder of such property (the number amounting to. forty thousand persons) is M obliged to appear before the 4th of March. There is of course a general panic in these countries; title-deeds are turned over and .over, and the lawyers have their hands full : in the mean time, all exchange of property is at a stand. These proceedings arc said to be taken at the request of the King of Spain, and arise out of some negotiations of indemnity. The matter is, however, involved in obscurity ; which does not diminish the alarm: -- The Courrier Francais of to-day contains a long letter in defence of M. de TRACY'S argument in the Chamber of Deputies on the subject of punishment of death. CHATEAUBRIAIVD, in his capacity of Ambassador at Rome, has addressed the Sacred College on occasion of the death of the Pope. He speaks of his former Holiness Pius the Seventh being " called to the side of the invisible Chief of the Church :" since which, he says, his master Louis the Eighteenth had also been called (not into the presence of the invisible Chief, but) to the sidelof Saint Louis: Surely the ministers of the golden- footectEmperor of Aga express themseh-es with quite as much reverence in their official papers, when they say that the Golden- Foot, wearied with the monotony of the world, has gone up to amuse himself in his realms above.
7th. The Bishop of Meaux, in his Lent address, whieh he has just caused to be printed, speaking of the spread of incredulity, says that the French grow worse and worse. He asks, " Were the men more criminal than we are, when, by the just punishment of Heaven, they were buried in the Waters- of the deluge ? Was there more corruption in Sodom and Gomorrah ?"—}le adds, that the mere sight of a priest, or of any other sacred object, makes the people to' gnash the teeth with rage. It may readily be supposed what all this tirade is to end in—thepress: it is the press that does it; it is the press which strips the priest of respect, and universally corrupts the morals of the nation. . 8th. It will strike the English tender as if great mark of deSpo tism, that no person can commence printer or bookseller France without a patent from Government. To. Obtain permission to print, has been and of considerable difficulty.; and
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up to' the fall of IfterAii it was almost impossible to get permis- sion to open a new shop for bookselling. The present Ministry has been more liberal ; patents have been accorded more freely ; and it appears from a debate to-day, that new regulations are about to be made respecting the boaselling trade. The Minister of the Inte- rior tells us, that in his administration he has made thirty new booksellers in Paris, and eighty in the departments. At present the number of booksellers in Paris is six hundred and fifty-five.
— The papers of this date are filled with a debate on a peti- tion against the existence of preaching missions, at present so pre- valent all over France. The missionaries are Roman Catholic Methodists; who throw the regular clergy into the shade by their vehemence and their activity. The Liberal party gained a kind of triumph : the petition was passed to the Keeper of the Seals. It was on behalf of M. ISAMBERT, one of the most distinguished ad- vocates of the French bar—our Sir JAMES SCARLETT. On the division, the two Centres, Gauche and Droite, voted each in a body, and the slight difference in number was only to be ascertained by telling them oft'. One or two stragglers at the ends were some- what mixed: with this slight exception, the Chambers exhibited the spectacle of one entire side voting unanimously against the other. In the Chamber the vote is shownby standing up. 9th. Over the whole of France, the Carnival is kept up With more or less gayety. On the Monday and Tuesday designated in England by the homely names. of Collop Monday and Pancake Tuesday, the different towns are traversed by cavalcades 'of quack doctors; ofelowns,•knights' in-armour, of carriages-filled witii chil- dren and infants, in all sorts of fancy disguises. The cavaliers who assume the part and guise of knights are not to be supposed particu- larly familiar with arms. One of them has given at Metz a fatal proof of his awkwardness; in handing cornucopim of bon bons into the carriages, one gentlernarechose to present it at the end•oflus spear: he left arrinfant dead'on the spot; and spilt the bon-bons. -- A scandalous scene has taken place at St. Amand. The curb not being willing to recognize civil marriages (by law suffi- cient), refused the last offices to an old man of seventy-five, M. DESCAMPS, until lie had turned out his conbubinehis legal wire for twenty-five years. When M. DESCAMPS` died, his body was forcibly, buried by eight or nine hundred persons; who. tool,: pos- session of the church : the cure (vicar) threw himself into a violent rage, and called on the mayor to clear the-church, but dared not enter among the exasperated crowd.
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