LATEST FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume VII, Issue 343, 26 February 1859, Page 2 (Supplement)

LATEST FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

(From the London Evening Express, 17th Dec.) FRANCE.

Paris, Thursday Evening.

You will not have forgotten the affair of the Count de Bondy, an ex-peer ot Fiance, and formerly Prefect for the Yonne, who, being a candidate for the Council-Geneial of the Indie, instituted a prosecution against several functionaries, charging them with the commission of unheard-of electoral frauds, in order to ensuie the election of the Government candidate. As I informed you in August last, the case came on for trial before the Correction Tribunal of Blanc. One hundred and eighty witnesses were in attendance, and M. Emile Ollivier, specially letained, had come down fiom Paris to support the Count de Bondy's case. In the hopes of hushing the matter up, the Government had procured a decree fiom the Court of Cassation changing the venue to Nevers, on the ground that "the publje peace would be endangered if the ease were to be tried in Blanc." The calculation was that Count de Bondy would shrink from the expense of conveying such an immense number of witnesses to a gieat distance. This expectation has, however, been disappointed. M. Emile Ollivier has gone to Neveis, and unless some new device has been invented to impede the couise of justice, the case must have been opened this veiy day, December 1 0. The principal defendants are M. Clovis Gandon, the Mayoi of Blanc ; M. Piene Daudet, a monk (known in religion as Brother Gauthier), the headmaster of the Christian School of Blanc; M. Theophile Demeisemann, a foieman in a manufactoiy ; M. Desnoels, a captain in the file brigade; M. Bejard, a government contractor ; and M. Martin, a police agent. I sent you in August last a long account of the charges made against them. It will suffice now to say, that the Count de Bondy accuses the Mayor (amongst other things) of having violated the lawful liberty of the electois by biibes, tlneats, and promises, of having violated the seciecy of the ballot by opening voting bulletins which were deliveied to him closed, and of having thrown bulletins into the ballot box on behalf of the electois who were not present. The captain of the fire biigade is accused of having brought his company to the poll with drawn swords, of having made them vote, and foiced many other electors to vote with open bulletins, and with having made use of a variety of fraudulent manoeuvres. The police agent, Martin, is accused of like manceuvies, and, moreover, of having grossly insulted the Count de Bondy. Demeisemann and Bejaid aie charged with having threatened to discharge their woikmon unless they voted for the Government candidate, and with having opened their bulletins aud pinned them to their electoral cards. Brother Gauthier, against whom ,the charge most heavily piesscs, is accused of having not only violated the hbeity of the electois and the secresy of the vote, but with having snatched the Count de Bondy's bulletins from the hands of bis supporters and torn them up, and with having by bribery, violence, threats, promises, and fiaudulent manoeuvres of all kinds, prevented electors from voting for the Connt de Bondy. He is especially charged with having written to all the fathers who had children at his school, threatening to send their children away unlets they came to liis house at a gyven hour, to proceed to the poll and vote for the Government candidate. I believe theio is no law to prevent a repoit of a trial of this kind from appealing in the Fiench papers. If the whple truth should come out it will bo very curious, but I doubt much whether it will not be suppressed by the machinery of private warnings. The Patrie gives a positive 'denial to a statement of the Nord of Brussels that it has received a private warning to discontinue its controversy with M.

Emile de Giiardin about the compatibility of liberty and the empire. Ido not, however, think that the Patrie will publish any more of M. Girardin's letters. AUSTRIA. [By. Submarine and British Telegraph.] Berlin, Pecember 13. According to confirmed intelligence, his Royal Highness the Prince Regent has conferred upon his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales the Order of the Black Eagle. The Jom nal de Constantinople states that the Ambassadors have been unanimous in censuring the arbitrary conduct of the Caimacans, in the confer, ences they have held on the subject of the Principalities. A collective telegraph despatch has been forwaided to them, containing strict instructions, and directing them to see that henceforth the suzerainty of the Porte is not contemned. A return has just come out from the head of the tobacco-growing department, M. Duranton, stating last years crop in Algeria to have yielded five million kilogrammes of that article, and an estimate of next year's yield at six millions. He pioposes a drawback or premium on the exportation to foreign markets of what is over and above the requirements of the south of France ; and in connexion with this subject, it is useful to know that tobacco is grown in the Palatinate, in Wuitemburg, and the Rhenish district of Bavaria, laigely for exportation. The first-named territory affords to sell the weed at Bf. or lOf. the 100 kilogrammes, and sends ont six million kilogrammes annually. The land fit for this cultuie brings a purchase-money of 5000f. the hectaie. Cotton is as yet a scanty crop in French Noith Africa.

A disturbance occurred at Genoa on the 10th, the annhersary of the expulsion of the Austrians from that city, in 1746. After a public service to celebiate the occasion, in the church of Origina, a crowd, consisting of workmen and Btudents, assembled, and began to move towards Poitoria. The nairowness of the streets through which they had to pass being likely to cause inconvenience to the public, a high police functionary presented himself, and requested the crowd to disperse ; but finding the ciowd little disposed to obey, he at length allowed them to pass one by one. They assembled again, however, in the Via Giulia, when a police force made its appearance, and refused to allow them to go any fuither. Here a riot ensued, in which a mason lost his life. An inquiry has been set on foot by order of the Government, in order to ascertain on whom the responsibility rests. The agitation which has prevailed for the last two months in the north of Italy is beginning to be felt in Rome. Secret societies, it is said, are redoubling their efforts, and there are " signs, impossible to be defined," which indicate that " something is at hand." Several of the symptoms which preceded the revolution of 1848 are observable. Both the Pontifical Government and the French General are excessively vigilant. The fortifications at Civita Vecchia are being actively carried on. Detachments of French troops are about to he sent into various towns aud villages in the neighbourhood of Rome, in order to be ready to repiess any coup demain.

Sweden has taken the unusual step of sending a special Envoy to the Frankfort Diet, and this pro ceeding, ostensibly caused by a late family alliance with the Germanic house of Nassau on the Rhine, is in reality meant to defend the rights of the Scandinavian Crowns against such encroachments as Denmark complains of.