Mobile was assigned to them; and they were
conducted in procession to the Church of the Gros-
Caillou; the archbishop delivering his blessing to the
multitude through whom he passed, and who received
it with uncovered heads and with indications of deep
respect.

The venerable astronomer, Arago, has refused to take
the oath of allegiance. He signified his resolution by
the following remarkable letter addressed to the Minister
of Public Instruction:

"Paris, May 9.

"Monsieur le Ministre,—The government has itself admitted
that the oath prescribed by Art. 14 of the Constitution ought not
to be required from members of a purely scientific and literary
body like the Institute. I cannot say why the Bureau des
Longitudes, an astronomical academy, in which, when a vacancy
occurs, an election ensues to fill it up, is placed in another
category. The simple circumstance would perhaps have sufficed
to induce me to refuse the oath; but considerations of another
nature, I confess, have exercised a decisive influence on my
mind. Circumstances rendered me, in 1848, as member of the
provisional government, one of the founders of the republic.
As such, and I glory in it at present, I contributed to the
abolition of all political oaths. At a later period I was named
by the constituent assembly president of the executive
committee; my acts in that last-named situation are too well known
to the public for me to have need to mention them here. You
can comprehend, Monsieur le Ministre, that in presence of these
reminiscences my conscience has imposed on me a resolution
which perhaps the director of the Observatory would have
hesitated to come to. I had always thought that by the terms of the
law an astronomer at the Bureau of Longitude was appointed for
life, but your decision has undeceived me. I have, therefore,
M. le Ministre, to request you to appoint a day on which I shall
have to quit an establishment which I have been inhabiting now
for nearly half a century. That establishment—thanks to the
protection given to it by the governments which have succeeded
each other in France for the last forty years—thanks, above all,
may I be allowed to say, to the kindness of the legislative
assemblies, in regard to me—has risen from its ruins and
its insignificance, and can now be offered to strangers as a
model. It is not without a profound sentiment of grief that
I shall separate from so many fine instruments, to the
construction of which I have more or less contributed; it is not
without lively apprehension that I shall behold the means of
research created by me passing into malevolent or even inimical
hands: but my conscience has spoken, and I am bound to obey
its dictates. I am anxious that in this circumstance everything
shall pass in the most open manner; and in consequence I
hasten to inform you, Monsieur le Ministre, that I shall address
to all the great academies of Europe and America—for I have
long had the honour of belonging to them—a circular which
will explain my removal from an establishment with which my
name had been in some sort identified, and which was for me a
second country. I desire it to be known everywhere that the
motives which have dictated my determination have nothing for
which my children can ever blush. I owe these explanations,
above all, to the most eminent savans who honour me with their
friendship, such as Humboldt, Faraday, Brewster, Melloni, &c.
I am anxious, also, that these illustrious personages may not be
uneasy concerning the great change which this determination
of mine will produce in my existence. My health has, without
doubt, been much impaired in the service of my country. A
man cannot have passed a part of his life in going from mountain
peak to mountain peak, in the wildest districts of Spain,
for the purpose of determining the precise figure of the earth;
in the inhospitable regions of Africa, comprised between Bougia
and the capital of the Regency: in Algerian corsairs; in the
prisons of the Majorca, of Rosas, and of Palamos, without
profound traces being left behind. But I may remind my friend
that a hand without vigour can still hold a pen, and that the
half-blind old man will always find near him persons anxious to
note down his words. Receive, Monsieur le Ministre, the
assurance of my respect.         Fr. Arago."

The publication of this letter was withheld by M.
Arago till the last moment, in order that his colleagues
might follow the dictates of their own consciences
unembarrassed by his example. Immediately after it
appeared, he received a notification from the Minister
of Public Instruction, that the government had already
determined not to require the oath of him—the President
had authorised the minister to admit an exception in
favour of a savant whose works had thrown lustre on
France, and whose existence he would regret to embitter;
and the publication of M. Arago's letter would not
change the determination in his favour.

General Changarnier has also refused to take the oath
of allegiance. In his letter, intimating this resolution to
the Minister of the Interior, he says:

"Persecution has not cooled my patriotism. The exile which
I have undergone in solitude and silence, which now you force
me to break, has not changed in my eyes my duties to France.
Were it to be attacked, I would solicit with ardour the honour
of lighting in its defence.

"The only French journal which I here see has just informed
me of the decree which determines the mode of taking the
oath—which is to be demanded of all military authorities. A
paragraph, evidently drawn up in order to be applied to the
proscribed generals, gives them a delay of four months. I have
no need of deliberating so long upon a question of duty and
honour. This oath, exacted by the perjured man who has failed
to corrupt me—this oath I refuse."

Mr. Edward Murray, a British subject, has been
sentenced to death, at Rome, with eight other persons,
for being connected with the supposed assassins of a
Papal officer three years since. Mr. Freeborn, the
English consul at Rome, has taken immediate steps
with the Papal government to procure a mitigation of
the penalty. In furtherance of this object a petition
has been drawn up and signed by the British visitors
and residents at present in Rome.

Accounts from Berlin state that the Emperor of
Russia arrived at Potsdam on the 16th, accompanied by
Count Nesselrode. The king and queen of Hanover,
and several of the minor princes of the Germanic
Confederation, were expected. The emperor's previous
visit to Vienna manifests the increased intimacy of the
northern alliance, for on quitting the young Emperor
of Austria, whom he tenderly embraced at parting,
Nicholas is reported to have exclaimed, "You know
there is now a bond for life and death between us."

The Berlin Klatteradatsch, the Prussian "Punch,"
was seized on the 17th, for publishing a caricature of
Louis Napoleon. The event is said to have made an
immense sensation.

A ministerial crisis has taken in Piedmont. The
Chamber of Deputies, on the 11th instant, elected
M. Ratazzi, "leader of the left centre," to be its
President, in place of the deceased M. Pinelli. The
election was carried against the d'Azeglio government
by the union of the right, or church party, with the
liberal opposition. On the 15th instant M. d'Azeglio
and the ministers of the interior and justice resigned;
and Count Cavour, Minister of Finance, was asked to
form a cabinet. But a telegraphic message from Turin
of the 17th states that Count Cavour and his colleagues
had retired, and that the Marquis d'Azeglio had been
intrusted with the task of forming a new cabinet.

The latest advices from the United States are not of
much importance. In Congress no particular business
had been transacted. The currency bill, the passage
of which was considered expedient by the administration,
was about to be taken up. Six towns in Erie
county had elected eighteen Fillmore delegates to the
convention; and at Rome the whigs, assisted by a
portion of the democrats, had carried the charter
election there by a majority of fifty over the regular
democrats. At Richmond, Virginia, nearly all the
democratic candidates were in favour of Buchanan for
the Presidency. The health of Mr. Henry Clay, one of
the most able statesmen in America, which has for some
time been precarious, has been pronounced hopeless.
Kossuth still continued to excite great enthusiasm
among the New England people, who freely attended
his meetings, the price of admission in some cases being
from one to two dollars each person, for which a bond
payable on the achievement of the independence of
Hungary was given, in addition to the oratorical
entertainment. At Charleston, on the 4th, there was a
numerous assembly, and on the 4th he visited Cambridge,
and dined at the house of Professor Longfellow.

The legislature of California has appointed a
committee to report upon the state of the country in
general, and upon the disposal of public lands in
special, in regard to the best means of advancing the
improvement of the state on a safe basis of agriculture.
This committee, impressed with the desire to see the
transient population of gold-diggers substituted by a
stationary one of agriculturists, made their report on the
22nd February, and it has been published by authority
of the legislature. The report proposes a donation
of 160 acres to each male adult that will become an