ich are attached the cords which move the
rudders; and from it is suspended the car in which the passengers are to
be placed. The inventor promises to construct a machine capable of
carrying up fifty persons. He acknowledges that the apparatus will be
bulky, but consoles himself by the reflection that there is no present
danger of the air being crowded. The whole weight of the machine and its
burden is to be so proportioned to the amount of hydrogen in the
balloon, that it will remain in equilibrium; an anchor is then to be
thrown overboard, when the machine will of course rise; when a
sufficient height is gained the anchor is to be weighed, and the
equilibrium being again restored, the machine will be stationary; and it
may then be propelled and guided by the wings and the rudders. Such, at
least, is the belief of one of the editors of _La Siecle_, who was
present at the trial of the model, and who indulges in the most glowing
anticipations of the future success of the invention.

Rossini is said to be secretly superintending, at Boulogne, the
production of a musical work to which he attaches great importance. He
passes every evening and a part of each day with the famous tenor
Donzelli, in revising this work, which has not yet been made known to
the public, and which, it is said, will soon be performed at Boulogne.

Armand Marrast is engaged in writing some very curious memoirs
respecting the events of the years 1848 and 1849. It is said that they
will contain verbatim extracts from a report made to him and to General
Cavaignac, by M. Carlier, on occasion of the election of Louis Napoleon
to the Constituant Assembly. M. Carlier goes into many details of the
habits and customs of Louis Napoleon, and of other members of his
family.

It is stated in the French journals that in consequence of the confusion
existing between the maritime calculations of different powers, and the
unfortunate occurrences to which it sometimes leads, the naval powers of
the north--Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland--have entered into an
agreement to open conferences on the old question of a common meridian
for all nations. France, Spain, and Portugal, it is said, have given in
their adhesion to the scheme; and a hope is held out that England will
come into the arrangement. The most advanced opinion on the Continent
seems to be in favor of the selection of an entirely neutral point of
intersection--say Cape Horn--which it is said would have