The special correspondent of The Times at Lyons, writes as follows on Oct. 1: Amid the various placards adorning the walls of Lyons I observed one yesterday, evidently not official, invit ing all persons whose previous studies had qualified them to discuss the ques tion of the national defence to meet at a certain public saloon at 1 o’clock. Thinking that it would be interesting to hear the results of the studies of the gentlemen thus appealed to, I de termined to be present, more espe cially as I was fortunate enough to have the escort of a highly respectable and zealous citizen, whose acquaintance I had made within the first hour of my arrival in Lyons. If I venture now to allude to an incident so purely personal, and to the consequences which have sprung from it, it is be cause they illustrate the present con dition of Lyons more forcibly than any other description which it would be in my power to give. The occasion to which I refer was during the intense excitement in front of the Hotel de Ville on the 28th, when the crowd was pressing against the National Guard, and General Cluseret had taken momentary posses sion of the building. At this critical juncture I observed a gentleman watch me narrowly, and was about to move away from his too inquisitive gaze, when a woman came up and asked him where the battalion was in which her husband was serving. He turned quickly round and replied, “ I don’t know; but no doubt this citizen can tell you ’’—referring her to me. My answer dissipated any doubt he might have entertained as to my nationality, and he called up a captain of the Guard and requested me to give an account of myself. As a horrid ring

began to form instantly, and I found myself the centre of threatening eyes, I begged him to come into an adjoin ing cafe, and was fortunate enough not merely to dissipate his suspicions, but to find in him a most agree able and obliging companion, so anxious to impart information, and so ready during the two following days to be my guide, philosopher, and friend, that I felt bound in honour to tell him my reason for being so inquisitive. 