Peters.

"I received from the Minister of War, General Bernard, who has been very
polite to me, a ticket to be present at the _Te Deum_ performed yesterday
in the great cathedral of Paris, Notre Dame, on account of the birth of
the prince. The king and all the royal family and the court, with all the
officers of state, were present. The cathedral was crowded with all the
fashion of Paris. Along the ways and around the church were soldiers
without number, almost; a proof that some danger was apprehended to the
king, and yet he ought to be popular for he is the best ruler they have
had for years. The ceremonies were imposing, appealing to the senses and
the imagination, and not at all to the reason or the heart."

The king was Louis Philippe; the little prince, his grandson, was the
Count of Paris.

"_Paris, September 29, 1838._ Since my last matters have assumed a
totally different aspect. At the request of Monsieur Arago, the most
distinguished astronomer of the day, I submitted the Telegraph to the
Institute at one of their meetings, at which some of the most celebrated
philosophers of France and of Germany and of other countries were
present. Its reception was in the highest degree flattering, and the
interest which they manifested, by the questions they asked and the
exclamations they used, showed to me then that the invention had obtained
their favorable regard. The papers of Paris immediately announced the
Telegraph in the most favorable terms, and it has literally been the
topic of the day ever since. The Baron Humboldt, the celebrated
traveller, a member of the Institute and who saw its operation before
that body, told Mr. Wheaton, our Minister to Prussia, that my Telegraph
was the best of all the plans that had been devised.

"I received a call from the administrator-in-chief of all the telegraphs
of France, Monsieur Alphonse Foy. I explained it to him; he was highly
delighted with it, and told me that the Government was about to try an
experiment with the view of testing the practicability of the Electric
Telegraph, and that he had been requested to see mine and report upon it;
that he should report that '_mine was the best that had been submitted to
him_'; and he added that I had better forthwith get an introduction to
the Minister of the Interior, Mons. the Count Montalivet. I procured a
letter from our Minister, and am now waiting the decision of the
Government.

"Everything looks promising thus far, as