2 MAY 1868, Page 3

Are there really, as is stated positively in the newspapers,

two thousand million rata (or other rodents) in France,—or about 10,000 to the square mile, and more than fifty to each living soul in France ? The difficulty as to this thrilling account is as to who took the census? Do the rats themselves make returns? If not, we fear there are no means of including them in agricultural statistics. If it were true, it might be rather formidable. Fifty rats, disposed to be aggressive, are the match of one full-grown man, still more of a woman or child ; and we scarcely know, if this statement were true, why they should not change the dynasty at once by a plebiscitum like that which put down Bishop liatto, and which would outnumber that received for the Napoleonic dynasty by at least fifty to one.