The Express. — London, England, 1851-12-25 00:00:00

-- gut xpreiso• TO COKKIKSPONDENTS. A • 'v.... Yoh, lb. llowololro moor f orm , . ie. o 6, •-•o sway Tazo..y owl friday 04[3, to La t too w. A ire.... I. .ire....•outel foe Exprow."LoseWlTewitit peter, • t - .. Box-tot le.atne4, Two CC , a a It. Aw t DION WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. r - • Ss. RIO. • g • - Moiskal. 4116 LONDON, THURSDAY. DECEMBER 23. Le.nn retstititaTost has (as announced in last evening's Espr . eas) resigned hisliost as Secretary of State for Firing!' Affairs, and Earl OitmattLLE has Darn appointed in his stea.l. A vacancy has thus born created at the Board of Trade. Du the 'tad of December we stated that a scrims ditfa rture had arisen in the Cabinet,—that the cal feud bctwtro Lad PALltraitliN and Lord GUYS ' broken out afresh. and that Lord lons itesszt.t. would hate to &chic between his two subordinakm. 'rho dirk'. net at that time had sprung up it cons, owner of the answer to the Fins deputation. in which Lord PALMERSTON seeM to wit at defiar.co the absolutist court of the I I cast of Europe. This circumstance, adding to the irtitati.m of Austria, at a moment when the mart of Vivant' refused to recloise Lord Wt..-r -1101ILLANti, --all ultra-tory as he is,—ati ambassador, impelled L,nt its to tun ,tion the policy of keep. is' up au antagonism with Austria,—even for the wake of sharing popularity with kosstrit. Lord 61111 . 3 objutions appearea to us captious at the time. Aad no, it is understood, they appeared to the Print Minister. Tian came the news of the Parisian 4 .ap .; 'tat, silencing, like u clap of thunder, all minor murmur ings and cumplaints. A new subject of anxiety, and topic of interest and discuseion, was thing to those who had to direct the policy of the coun try It was soon no secret diet the head of the . Foreign-081m deprecated any hostility to Louts NArol.LoN, and that Lord PALMER-4'ON con sidered a l'rench Imperial Cabinet an ally that might be usefully placed against the new Hull- Alli imee. We believe it to be t gunny certain that the Court of Windsor or of Buckingham Palace took an opposite view ; that it disap proved of Lord l'atsfeeisTON'S language to the Finsbury deputation, as insulting to Austrian and Ilussian connexion, and that it equally depte este d any close. or any even insincere alliance with the two Jahr of France against the leagued absolutism of tl.. Contint it. Earl Gime participated in these freshens, and became their exponent in the cabinet. And o e must confess, that however disliking his lord ship.- pr. le re nee of Seine .vit/ENEERG to Kos,U 111, we tulle join in the repugnance w hich Loris NACOLLoN'S oonauet has excited against him, and do not think that any minister, representing the opinions of Eng lishmen, would be allowed to sanction or flatter acts of si.ch stv.trant tyranny and usurpation—acts, too, as decidedly destructive of all constitutional princi ples any ukase of the Cent. NICHOLAS could be. Another circumstance then occurred. it is said, veil much to complicate l.ord PALNIEttsTON's posi tion. This was the discovery by Louts NAPOLEoN's pollee agents, employed in the arrest of CAVAIL:NAC and I'IIAN4.‘UNIEU on the night of the 2nd of De cember, of a Yoluniinous correspondence, in which the British government or its representative, Lord NORM %\M. hail very freely recorded its admiration of, and hopes in, the republic, and the utter contempt in which it held the pretensions and character of Louis N trots:Lie. Here then was the intim lIIX of England and of its Foreign-other comp:tidy destroyed in the councils of that very lamer, on whose alliance it relied to oppose other powers. Lord ;Wesreentetallo was nut worse re eeive el by the Austrian Emperor nt Vienna, than Lord Nowt ANIIV was sure to be at the Illyske ur the T o ll e e i, s. lord •Pc tat Knave ec's position was thus rendered utterly untenable be the imprudence of one of hi. chief agents, and we tielieve his lordship's re tirement from office was more Isis own act thau that of hi- colleagues. We may take another opportunity of appreciating Lord PALSIECoroN's diameter and career as a states man. Ile has run a long course, neither an inglo rious nor an unsuccessful one ; uml did we consider, cc should we discover, that he has been sacrificed to any tenderness for, or to any fears of, the desp ale marts of Austria and of Russia, we should be unii le alarmed for the difficulties likely to assail his -.wee ssor. If, as the Times represents, Loud PALNILItsToN has been ejected from office for dis pleesing Prince ScilwAßZENniatli, and for not eipiesing Lolls NACOLEON,—is it thereby implied that his successor is to ally with Austria, with Russia, and with l'russia against the government of France? Any such policy as this would selincly be acceptable to the Englis . h public. 'nut imblie condemns !.nets N.teoteox and his lib' t tieide acts. but it condemns likewise the treachery mod tyranny of the Austrian Emperor. England, too. is able to distinguish between a nation, cud the dynasty width chance may impede upon it. And we are not going to fall once mere into the blunders of the last century, and abet an alliance. of German and Russian despots against France, because France does not happen to wear legitimist livery. We may, and must, condemn the acts of Loris Nat.oceose ; but it is by no means for the purpose of setting up a royal competitor to him. England is not alksl upon to strain a nerve or expend a six. pence to set a Bin titioN or an that:a:vs on the throne. Both have been quite as treacherous and hostile to us as ever the HoNAC %ICUS have been. And we cues have no wish but to see France pros perous, content. and tree, under whatever rule or dynasty it may choose, withuut ourselves putting forward any predilection or advice in a matter so peculiarly and exclusively the business of the French people. Our wishes are to see Franco free, prob• peroue. and happy. It is preamble that attempts will be made to get up the old anti-Galilean spirit, and to ex cite a Beixarmirelihobia through the country. Such a ore would be eoneenient, for facilitating every plan of expenditure on the part of the got-ern ment and for'' bucking economy." Nu doubt we shall be toad that our coasts are exposed. our military force null. and that we are at the merry of the French army embarked on board the Boulogne fishing-boats, unl, .s millions arc voted to put the country in a state of detente. to swell the army to a war-footing, and to equip a channel fleet to ward off imaginary dangers. Whit thousands may thus be spent for the sole end of alarming and provoking the French—who will not be slow to make counter armaments and s how corresponding fears,—are we to court the alliance of the Austrians and Russians, as we did before' But as neither of those powers can move a regiment without raising funds, England must come forward with these, if not in the old shape of subsidies, at least in the new form of loans. We should thus have the fears and the burdens and the alliances of ItiOti. 11409, and 1810 back again. with the necessity of raising 100 millions annually in licit of 30, and those even nut eufticing. We have, therefore, carefully to look into what alliances and what policy we are going. If the pul.iie be not alive and well-informed, the country may drift into a very dangerous and unnatural position. If Lord P.tLAttlesiVN was at times the Quixote of liberalism, there are o.irse Quixote's to be found. We do not say this of Lord GlicNritte, of whom the public know but little—and that tittle chiefly . in connexion with the Great Exhibition. His appointment has apparently originated with the Court. The circumstance of the Foreign Nlinister being in the Iloureof Lords will pro bably make Lord dons Russet'. the mouth-piece of foreign policy in the {tense of Commons, no disad vantage in a great many respects. But the possibi lity of Lord P.U.SIERsToN in opposition, and abetting in the House of Commons Galilean friendohip and alliance, in contradistinction to an Austrian or Rus tian connexion—this. every one must see, would weaken the whig ministry, and destroy the whig party. beyond all the slender talents of the Gaels to uphold them. Various modifications of the Whig cabinet may— and probably will—be the ultimate result of Lord PAI Ill.lt+TON'S resignation. In all these changes the people have a direct interest in demanding that minor differences be overlooked for the purpooe of bringing into the public service the men moot likely t ad% once th%. weal. Tire poetical notion of Christmas-tide and its wee thyr bears but a slender resemblance to the London reality. The clear black frost. the sparkling stars at night, or the grey storm-clouds resting on snow of dazzling purity, it would be vain to look for. Our , modern London Christmas wraps him in the chilly pall of river mists, thickened with smoke and soot, ana picks his steps warily through muddy streets. To do justice to Christmas now-a-days, one must take a lesson from poor WlisoN, the landscape painter. A friend WWI complaining to him once of the cheer lessness of a foggy day in London, " It's a bed day," said DICK, " that won't do to make a 1 night of: let us have the shutters closed, and the candles and tumblers be brought in." We would nut, indeed, advise that Witsox's example should be followed an pied de la Wire. The liquids had better be kept for the evening. All that we mean is that customary ritual of Christmas —its more solemn duties of the forenoon, and its stately and jOyOUS festivity afterwards, had better be under stood _at once to be nightwork from beginning to end. And the solemnities of Christmas are so essentially of an in-door character as to make us pretty independ ent of wind and weather. The gloom without only enhances, by force of contrast, the brig htness within. Did we not fear to he accused of kitty, we might say that innocent mirth, and interchange of friendly gifts, and gossiping, recall of dear raemones of former days, hedged in by the dismal dirty fogs of London, arc the fittest :flowing forth of the glory above all glory first revealed to mortal eye in a 'dilapidated stable. One of our evening contemporaries is in the habit, duly, yearly, of telling his readers with a very serious face, that it is matter of principle with him on this day to abstain front all pole mical comments. Oladly would we follow his example did the hurried march of events permit. But incidents now-a-days trend so rapidly on the heels of each other, that if any one of them is left without its appropriate comment, it must be passed over altogether, unless one is content to drift so fur behind contemporary events as to be unable ever again to come up with them. But though even on this day we cannot entirely abstain from our week day's work, we may devote a little of our time and space to a Christmas gambol or rhapsody. One gnat beauty of Christmas is that to all—to the poorest and to the busiest, as well as to the wealthy and idle—it brit)" by a pleasing compul sion, a few hours, more or Icse, of' breathing time. In no former age of the world was thee privilege of be ing obliged to stand still for a little so much to be cherished as now. We live in a constant hurry. Railway travelling would he the type of our exist ence, were it not that while the rapidity of our business movements equals that of the locomotive, there are no stations in business life. We are kept in such a constant fame, and fret, and endeavour, that we have not time to be conscious we are living till life slips through our fingers altogether. The child in the song, ever chasing the rainbow that still recedes, is the type of us all. Let us, then. on Christmas, at least, pause for a few hours, and recollect that though great and attractive goods in prospect lure us on to this inces sant chase, we actually have some goods in our pos session, if we would only please to be aware of it. Political reforms are good, and sanitary reforms likewise, and moral refornis best of all; hilt though the morals and domestic habits and public conduct of all men stand in need of improvement, there is sonic goodness and some happiness among us. Let us in dulge in a good-natured laugh at the earnestness of our pursuit, even while we are certain that we will renew the chase the next moment. Old-fashioned Christmas had its "all-licensed jester," entitled to turn all that was grave to a juke. Let us be our own jesters. Nor will it be difficult to find warrantable matter of mirth in the events of the year now closing. Though the Christmas panto mimea should prove as dull as ditch water (as is by no means unlikely—seeing that the Lord Chamberlain insists upon having all tricks of the clown submitted henna:hand for his approbation, claims to decide whether he can be allowed to steal sausages and stow them away in his bottomless pockets) we have in the rapid shifting% and transmu tations of the Fast. Year matters more startling and grotesque thou ever 'clown danced or enacted. 'llw euthanasia of sanitary reform in the rejected water bill for the metropolis was a bolder transition from the sublime to the ridiculous than ever histrio nic burlesque ventured upon. And but for the loss of life with which it was attended. the change of a supple and complaisant and withal self-indulgent president of a republic, into a stern and pious mili tary dictator. is a poetical license transcending the most daring buffoonery of an AutirrormaxEs. Ci.LoN, the sausage-mat:Cr, was a grave com mon-place politician, cempared with Loris Naro- LEoX. The gnat Emperor of Ararat.% begirt with his Mamelukes—his Idea's ers and his Itanvinivs— yet trembling at the apparition of Mr. Parmoot wending through Styria with his umbrella and carpet-hag, and not to be pacified till the intrusive spectre was exorcised by the police, is fur more ludicrous than the monarchs immortalised in "Tom Thumb" or llombastes Furioso." The quiet evapo ration of Archbishop Wrsrst ix—the cuffing and scratching of the Lesh Defence Association, amid their vows of eternal friendship—the silencing of :hose Clapham belle which frightened the town from its propriety—arc burlesques of the farcical. At a graver season one might lament over these follies. and exclaim with OXENSTIERN about "how little sense. the world is governed with." And yet a deeper glance into the current of passing . events cheers its by showing that it is clear and irresisti ble, notwithstanding those unseemsly straws on the surface, some good— great good—has been achieved during the year. The fruits of the Indus trial Exhibition wilt be gathered in good time•. In M. JULE 4 JANIN'S sidrita, remarks on its opening solemnity he dwells upon nothing with so much unction as the confidence in the reason and orderly habits of the nation. minced by the non-appearance of any constraining force among the assembled mul titude's. May not the moral then inculcated have had its effect upon the good. and the wise, and the free-spirited of France. and be, in part, the occasion of what seems at present the deplorable result of the Presidential re-election? The vote was to de ride whether Lours Narotr.ox should or not be expressly allowed to retain his usurped authority. hitch juefgment gone against, who believes that fie would have peaceably obeyed? Force would have been required to give it effect. But French men have learned that arms can only destroy. not build up. May they nut be biding their time, con fident that dissensions among the usurpers, and want of means, and an awaking sense of their worthkss nes". near lead to a universal repudiation of their yoke, before which they must bow for lack of instru ments to work their rebellious will? We cherish the hope of seeing at no distant date the first peace ab!e revolution in France. There is a growing spirit of humanity and resolute I pacitie self-assertion abroad. Words have been spoken that can neither be forgotten nor unsaid. Opinions. principles have struck root which mere physical violence cannot eradicate. The retrograde movements of ISM cannot be lasting. Those who are old enough to have witnessed the over throw of the Great NAPOLEON—to have seen wzr own country transformed: from the England of CAS fIEKEAGII, SIDMOUTII, and their spies, and Spafields rioters. into the England of di-senting and catholic emancipation, of the re no-m bill, of corn law abolition, and of reasoning, elevated loyalty to our Qui:Ex.—need not fear that the world is ab out to turn back again ;be the present aspect of affairs never ao gloomy. And immoveable in this eheerful faith. we wish our readers a merry Chtistmas and many of them, confident that our wish will be fulfilled. A con n r , rox DENT, whose letter appears in another colunin, illustrates in a striking manner the extent to which free-trade principles have direct already came to influence and the polies of nations. Looking back upon the annals of dilontaey for the last fi ve years only, he finds that during that bria period no less than five inter national maties have been concluded (there it a sixth in the course of negotiation) for removing to a greater or less extent the impediments which fiscal legislation had placed in the war of commerce. Bel gium has thus liberated its trade with Holland on the one hand, and with France on the ether Hol land ith Belgium and the Zollverein ; Prussia with Hanover: and Austria with Sardinia. Again, four nations have met halt-way the advances made by THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 25. 1851. En aiod with a view to abolish the preferences given to native over foreign shipping—America, Holland, Sweden, and Sardinia. Lastly. reductions in the customs duties on foreign merchandise have been conceded in America, Turkey, Austria (to commence in February), the Zollverein, Norway and Sweden, Sardinia, and Spain. Every one of these international treaties, all these lowerings of , customs' tariff+, are practical recognitions of the soundness of the principles of free-trade. Whatever may be the theoretical views of com mercial policy entertained or professed by a ma i jority of the governments of Europe and America, their actions show that they . feel that protective duties, and exclusive immunities conferred upon their own merchants, manufacturers, and ship owners, do not benefit the whole community ; that the liberation (partial or complete) of commerce from such artificial trammels augments the national wealth, diffuses affluence and comfort more egnaily through society, and enables their citizens or subjects , to contribute more largely to the public revenue with less of inconvenience to individuals. It fares with free-trade as with freedom of all kinds. In the history of all civilised nations it may be remarked that a greater latitude of thought and action is conceded to the citizens, in proportion as wealth and education are diffused, even where old forms of government arc rigidly adhered to. In Eng- ' land we cling to a hereditary monarch, a pnvilegcd aristocracy, and an established church; but are property and personal liberty less secure, or is the expression of opinion less freck,in Englund than in the United States?. And so with free-trade. It is rapidly becoming the animating and guiding prin ciple of international intercourse, notwithstanding the retention of many obsolete forms of restriction and protection. Artificial regulations of trade—the short-sighted and mischievous laws meant to force it into unnatural channels—are being sapped and undermined. They will soon be little better than mere empty forms—conventional forms of expression upheld by the power of habit after they have ceased to influence men s opinions or actions. Already protection is in this country, and in the United States, little more than the ral lying cry of factions: an empty word to which even those who use it attach no distinct meaning. In the mouths of Lord STANLEY, and Mr. Insnaw, and Lord NIAL MESEWRY,“ protection " means readjustment of taxa tion, if indeed it is anything but a mere shibboleth, whereby their partisans may recognise each other— the word which they must give before they are ad mitted into the ti4ll meetings of their secret lodges. We would not be understood to imply that the empty cant and hollow phrases of " protection . ' are in nocuous. The most unmeaning conventionalities of language retain a power of doing harm so long as they arc allowed to pass current. Thus, for example, the nonsensical distinction between the liberty and the licentiousness of the mess was turned to good account by the tories of the days of CASTLEREAGH and SlD:norm, although even then no man was shameless enough to defend the gagging of the press in the abstract. In like manner, no intelligent and educated ltonian catholic regards the puerile inuminerits of his sect with anything but distaste ; • and yet, because they have not the courage to insist • upon their being repudiated, they are obliged to con , nive at their emasculating and demoralising opera tion. It is the same with the slang of "protection. It cannot much longer influence the broad general policy of this or any nation, but it is a convenient cloak for a multiplicity of swindling jobs. No compromise, then. ought to be made with—no quarter given, even to the words and phrases of" pro tection: The politician who uses them ought to be shunned and pointed out as a suspicious character. It is not without an object that he talks gibberish, any more than the professional conjuror does so. Ile has some sleight-of-hand trick from which he wishes to divert your attention by the volubility and redundance of his slan g. lle has some selfish and sinister job to promote. As soon as he begins with his jargon— whether it be at a cattle show or a dock meeting — button y our pockets, stand at a wary distance, and invoke the aid of the political police. THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. THE ELECTIONS. PARIS, WEDNESDAY MORNING. Yesterday the consultative commission met in the Palace of the Conseil dlltat, under the presidency of NI. Baroche. After the six youngest members had been called on to act as secretuics, M. Baroehe pro bposed to the commission to divide itself into seven ureaux, which should examine the votes given on the 20th and _'lst inst., according as the returns arrived at the hotel of the Ministry of the Interior. This proposition having been acceded to, the bureaux ' were then formed by lot, and the first of them at once proceeded to examine the votes of the navy, the only returns as yet forwarded to the commission. • These were as follows: Voters, 10,09d—oui, 14,820; non, 1,875 ; abstentions, .107. Some uneasiness was felt about the votes of Havre, but the result is a ma iority of 3,525 against 1,567 iu favour of the Prestdent. In 1818 Louis Napoleon obtained only 2,432 votes, while 3,407 were given for Cavaiguac. The Bishop of Marseilles has written a letter to the Cuurricr paper of that city to announce that he was against abstention, and had urged all his clergy to support the government. The Orinena Publiqew dues not publish the results of the poll of the 20th and 21st. It says that iu this it imitates the reserve of the Mot/deur, which waits for the sifted result of the consultative commission. The law of June 13, Itisl, for regulating the sugar duties which, according to the vote of the legislative assembly, was to come into operation on the Ist of January, has been put off by a decree until the Ist of June, 1552. It will be remembered that this law substituted for the old basis of types which served for the determination of the duty, a scale of valua tion, according to the saccharine richness, and the returns on being refined; and subjected to the excise duty refineries hitherto exempt. '1 he Pays reports that a decree is expected to appear in the .11taliteur, fur the indemnification of the damages sustained, in consequence of the revolution of February, by proprietors, manufacturers, and rail way companies. Various reasons are assigned by the Patrie and Constitutionne/ for the fall yesterday at the Bourse. It is said that the success of the President's election was foreseen, and put to profit by speculators before hand. The Constitutionae/ contradicts the report that some productive taxes were to be repealed. fhe Patrie denies that an income and property tax is to be levied. _ _ . The Constitutional, in referring to the hint it gave y esterday as to the conversion of the Five per Cent. Itentes, says that it only meant that this roes sure might possibly be taken when the country was settled, and order, security, and confidence restored. In consequence of the energetic note addressed by France to the Swiss government, on the subject of the Jews of Bile-Campagne the federal council met on the same day. and resorted to the dilatory measure of sending a federal eommissioner to Liesthal. On the 20th M. de Salignac, the envoy of the French government, would arrive in Berne, where he was charged to hold the most decided language. The Canstitatioßncl, in commenting upon the news front Morocco, says, in reterence to the report that the Emperor Abdelvahman was ready to treat directly with the French government without the , intervention of the consul at Tangiers. if the question is reduced to these terms, it will be easy to bring the Emperor to reason. But in all events the French squadron has only left Tangiers momentarily, and because the anchorage is not secure. It can re appear as soon as its commander has received the orders of the government for this purpose. Larochefoucauld, l)uke de Doudeauville, addresses a long letter to the G0:7...Hr tie France, which is the most outspoken composition I have seen in a news paper sing Dec. 2. He recommends the President to Mini an heroic duty in restoring Henri V. He says : " It would be dangerous for society as well as for the President to force the nation to seek itself a remedy to PO many evils, and to reclaim liberties, which it may momentarily sacrifice Mr the common interest, but which it will exact later. - _ _ M. Jules Simon, a profes.sor and member of the constituent nsKtubly of 1.645, has been dismissed from his chair. . . A scree appears reorganising the cadres of the gentlataurio, so us to multiply the officers, and to render the service more attractive to officers of the iiite."The ooei* of gendarmerie is composed of-11. the integtion to levy an income and property tax , or I 26 legions for the service of the departments and to impose a stamp-duty on the transfer of Rentes ;as Algiers; 2. The colonial gendarmerie; 3. Two bat- the eole object of these denials is to prevent talons of gendarmerie mobile; 4. The republican securities front falling at' the Bourse. For guard of Paris; 5. The Algerian voltigeurs; 6. Two the same reason it seeks to evade the necessity companies of veterans ; 7. The battalion of wpm's- which must come sooner or later of rasing a pompiers of Paris. loan. The project, however, which I announced- The number of persons arrested in the Basses to you of raising a loan of eight millions sterling Alpes is 850. is not abandoned on this account; it is simply The national guard of Pointy has been dissolved. postponed as a last resource, because the Several French insurgents have retreated, with- government hopes to see the ltentes rise daily in out disarming. to the territory of Piedmont. Troops consequence of the immense number of votes in I have been scut by the Sardinian government to cc- favour of the President, and the terms of a loan copy some posts on the frontier. Thirty-seven in- consequently become easier. In the meantime it is rsurgents reached Villa Franca, and laid down their reverted that the Ministers of Finance and, Public ' arms after having crossed the frontier. They were 11 orks are in treaty with a company that offers to committed to the lazaretto until the decision of the undertake the whole line of railway from Paris to government was known. The extradition of all Marseilles, with the condition of paying 210 millions j who have committed deeds of blood and pillage will of francs. be demanded by the French government. I hear, as a report, that the following changes are The Uoircrs states that the letters reported to soon to take place among high functionaries have been written by the Pope to M. de Montalem- Berger, prefect of the Seine, is to be made a senator, bert and the nuncio, relating to the events of Dec. and to be replaced at the Hotel de Ville by M. do 2, are apocryphal. Maupas, prefect of police. M. St. Georges, the di. The same paper sends the sum of 13/.,collected from rector of the Imprinierie Nationale, is to succeed M. carious zealots, to the Roman Catholic primate of de Maupris, and to be replaced by M. Iloilay, editor Ireland, president of the Catholic Association, to be of the Constitationne/. employed in combating the active propaganda of M. Leballeur de Villiers, one of the London French proteaantism. refugees, and nn editor of the Proserit, has been ar- A member of the municipal council exclaimed on rested in Brittany and brought to Paris. Ho had Monday at the Hotel de Ville, " Twenty years of come to France by way of Jersey with a false passport. prosperity and calm, and Paris will be the most At the Bourse, after considerable fluctuations, the splendid city in the world." The Prefect of the Seine Five per Cents. till 50e., closing at 10011. 85c.; the has ordered that the construction of the new Houle- Three per Cents. fell 10e., and closed at 651 r. 50c. card Mazas shall be immediately proceeded with. Most of the railways rose from 2fr. to Gfr. This boulevard was declared to be of public utility by a decree of July 9th, 1850. But only about three quarters of a mile . has yet been finished, mid there remains nearly a mile to be done. The Bou'evard Mazes will go in a straight line from the columns nt the liarrWre du Trone to the Pont d'Austerlitz. It will form a magnificent street, shaded on each side by a double row of trees, and will unite the quays of the Seine with all the leading thoroughfares of the metropolis. The handsome station of the Lyons Railway will be a striking object on this boulevard, and will become more accessible than it now is. De signs arc under consideration for two columns at the comers of the Itue do Lyons, to be surmounted by allegorical statues representing the cities of Lyons and Marseilles. Other works in connection with the new boulevard are also to be rapidly completed. The new street, the Rue Cardinal Lemoinuc, is to be car ried out as far as the Rue St. Victor. The Rue de Poissy will be widened and extended to the Quat de la Tournelle, and the Rue St. Victor will be widened as far as the end of the Rue Cardinal Le moinne. It is moreover seriously intended to carry into effect the scheme ventilated by Dr. Wron, some months since, of pulling down the walls of Paris, and extending the barriers to the line of the fortifi cations. c Millie. Marten, the daughter of the general com tlimaisndiiiinogriliinn;ltioieofneLfothliteheatan:ymoral fl s 'a a ris ies tv d n e s marr i ed . aides-de-camp at the church of St. Germain L'Auxerrois. (FROM AN OCCASIONAL COUISESPONDENT.) PARIS, DEC. 21. The newspapers of to-day ttPe chequered with . 6 returns." The substance of them will have been sent you by telegraph. Louis Napoleon is md— nay, he is Petal itself. The republic is ex tinetand the republicans hang their heads in despair. " All hope is lost." The tri-colored flag clings to its staff, drooping with shame. The whole metropo lis is clothed withsadncss. Louis Napoleon hides his head. He was out on Sunday, but strongly . guarded, and locked up in a close carriage like a criminal. Ile dare not look Paris in the face. Instead of the " re turns" being welcomed last night by the ringing of bells and the tiring of guns, they were received like so many bulletins of death. Never was silence more profound or more significative. Messieurs Sallandrouzc, Gausson, Plon, Charriere, Vittoz, Heider, Delicourt, and other tradesmen, may address the usurper as " prince"—as, indeed, they have done already—and congratulate him (in the name of shawls, carpets, brass-ware, chocolate, needles, sausages, and bronze) that his usurpation has been successful; but this is a trick as old and obvious as shoplifting. It is no more than justice, however, to say that though France, much more than England, is a " nation of shopkeepers," there arc hundreds of this class who have a detestation of Louis Napoleon as hearty as any republican's in the land. These arc the men who fought so bravely, as citizens and as National Guard, in the revolution of 1148 ; and who, when hat revolution was en felt itecompli, encou raged the new government to enact those just and liberal laws which have just now been trampled in the dust. A word as to the (wrier.. I have again and again visited their most populous quarters, and regret :hat I have no words to describe their sorrow. For When the news of the 2nd I teeember arrived in Rome, General Gemenu demanded a Te how from the Pope, which was not, however, at once acceded to, and has not hitherto been solemnized. The Moselle, charged to transport to Noultahiva the condemned conspirators of Lyons, Gent, Odde and Longomazino, sailed on the 20th inst. She was preceded by the Artemisa and Phoque, which weighed anchor some days previous for the Mar quesas Islands. The Pattie says It appears that the news of the events of 2nd December has produced on the pri soners of Belle Isle and Doullens a degree of discou ragement which it is impossible to describe. At first they would not believe it, and it was not until they had read it several times in the Monitor; that they could be convinced of the truth. It appears that the most resigned among them are MM. Guinard and ltaspail, who have manitisted a formal intention, if set at liberty, to renounce for ever all connection with politics." WEDNESDAY EVENING. The great sum of votes in favour of Louis Napo leon goes on swelling, and has, according to the official report, reached already the enormous figure of 3,500,000, out of 6,a00,000. Singularly enough nearly all the retnrns that have been made give the affirmative votes as nine-tenths of the whole. The following is the return fur Paris as pub lished to-day at the Hotel de Ville: In-ere-M. Vent rt. Go. • ntes. Yee. Na. PUl'l6 291,795 216,003 213,672 11'2,961 30,601 sc. tux .. 38,267 31,729 31,504 26,615 4,Bt' St. Leafs 63,967 46,808 48,139 37,495 10,935 Total.. 394069 297,230 293,b15 114%091 95,51 Yea. No. Indre }Lute N ivnne Aisne , I3,US9 .. 5,81.5 _ In the number of departments whose votes arc as yet imperfectly known 27 of the most important give 2,060,000 affirmative and 107,000 negative votes, or a little mute than v per cent. Among these depart meats are the following : Yes. No. Allier Gi,Ues) .. I,2tA) Charente Ch. r ludre-et.Luirc; 78,000 .. 4,300 Laudcs Marne-et-Lain 97,000 .. 5,000 Meurthe 91,000 .. 5.000 Meuse 49,000 .. 2,200 Nierre Nord Oise 94,000 .. 4,000 I'as-de-CAI:I6 Puy 114,000 .. 2,uoq Deux Suvres 1,341100 47,000 If we add to the proceeding results the partial re sult of the Bas-Ithin, we get : Yrs. No. 103,993 .. 9,4•i7 Total the negative votes being about 31 percent. The government has received the following tele graphic dispatch from the sub-prefect of Tonnerre: The elections have terminated in my arrondissement. Out of the S 2 communes of which it is composed 32 have voted unanimously, and 22 have only given one negative vote each. People worn down with age and sufferings, and old soldiers of the empire, who have not fur many years left their houses, had themselves carried to the place of voting in the midst of repeated cries of "Vise Napoleon! Vise le . Saveur de la France !" I shall not attempt to describe the enthw 'bun of the people around me ; the following Sores will speak more eloquently:—Number of voters, 13,873—1ie5, 13,178; No, 433; lost votes, 33. Comparison of the votes on the 10th December, 1848-11,667; majority in la il, 1,811. To•morrow you will receive the general list and re capitulation of the vote: by communes. Some few small communes have voted against Louis Napoleon; but the only considerable town, whose negative votes are in a majority, is Mulhouse. I called your attention yesterday to a decree in the Monitelie re-establishing the military divisions which had been before suppressed. The true mean ing of this is to provide commands and to furnish with increase 'if pay the numerous military suitors by whom the Elysk is besieged. The Moniteur is filled with promotions having the same object, which have the aim of the fulfilment of the bargain by which the services of the fumy have been bought. Nothing ran equal the gross greed with which such favours ore begged but the shame less ex poet facto bribery with which they are bestowed. General Eynard, military commander of the Allier, is signalising himself by a strict of inhuman decrees, which surpass, if possible, in wickedness, the deeds of Haynau. lie has published, at the foot ! of a long list of persons whom he accuses of having joined the insurrection, the following barbarous edict : . . the most part they are sober, industrious, honest, intelligent men, ready to make any sacrifice in the cause of liberty. They did not fight the other day at the barricades, bemuse they knew that with such odds against them, such a course would only be offering an invitation to the most frightful butchery. Their only demonstration was pacific. They joined in one overwhelming chorus of rice la 11,publapte, rice In Cuasillodiot, when the army of Louis Napoleon marched up the Boulevards ; but, beyond this, they preserved a wise passiveness. Yesterday I visited several of_their assucinfious Fralerarlics. I heard no word of revenge there, and saw nothing which indicated any more criminal feeling than resignation. They felt insulted, indeed, by having their favourite syMbhl taken from them, but looked upon the act as far too paltry to make a noise about. By the way, I observed that the fated triangle had not only been obliterated from the sign hoards, but that it had been carefully scraped from the coffee-cups ? What act of petty tyranny will he visited upon the ()terriers next no one can tell. If these associations (which, by the way, only differ from other public coffir-houses in that equal co-partners arc substi tuted for waiters) should be dissolved, secret societies will increase ltevond precedent. The ourriers must have their public places of resort, and these places must be conducted on their own principle, or else they will be compelled, in self-defence, to organise some kind of a substitute. There is no army large enough to prevent this. It is important to observe, in this connexion, that there are not a few soldiers of the line among the habilm's of these institutions. I was accustomed to sec from ten to twenty of them at an association in the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, all last summer; some of whom were officers, and all of whom were ardent reformers. Anarchists, no-property men, worshippers of the red flag—men opposed to law, order, and family— I saw none of. The race was never very numerous, and is now about extinct. This fact cannot, under present circumstances, be stated too often or too strongly. What the English understand by socialism, I have as little sympathy with as any one; and the idea of the state tampering with trade, and under taking to "organise labour," seems to me, as to you, like foolishness itself. The French, too, are coming round to this opinion. The cause of labour was never more injured than by the national workshops. The workman was wounded in the house of his friends. All that the mechanics of Franco ask now is to be let alone. They wish neither charter nor privilege. Their one demand is for free trade and fair play. Their associations (of which there are over a hundred in Paris) are at worst but little cor porations of stockholders. The wages and profits, instead of being equal, as at first, are graduated ac cording to the labour and skill of the ope ratives. Their rules arc simple, and their morals severe. Politics arc left as a thing apart. The chief government they trouble themselves about is self-government. The responsible managers arc respected throughout Paris for their integrity. Their competition with the old system is conducted in a manner above reproach. They are respected, above all, in their immediate neighbourhood. I know this from personal inspection and inquiry, and record it as an act of simple justice. In the political world, the members of these asso ciations are all liberals. It is safe to say that not one of them voted for Louis Napoleon ; and it is probable that many of them had the good sense not to vote at all. During all these troubles, they have kept at work, and set an example of that moderation and good sense which alone can save France from the abyss towards which she now totters. ITALY. ROMAN STATES. A letter from Rome, of the 13th, in the Pays, says:—.4 We are informed that Louis Napoleon has written an autograph letter to the general in com mand of the French troops at Rome, enjoining him to preserve order in that city, and more especially to protect the person and government of the Pope." Art. 1. All the delinquents above designated shall be searched atter with care, urresttd, and conducted to Mou lins. _ _ PIEDMONT. The Piedniontese Gazette publishes the new regu lations established by royal decree, concerning the i stitutions of secondary instruction. Every royal college, in which philosophy is taught, is under the control of a council composed of professors, who fix the plan of study and programmes for the y e a r , watch over the discipline of the school, &c. A cer tain number of inspectors is also named, who visit these schools, and report on the state of the dormito ries, the food, and general comforts afforded to the pupils. as also on the instruction given in the classes, and the conduct of the professors. Spiritual direc tors are also appointed for the religious instruction of the pupils. The Opinions publishes the following, dated Nice, 17th: Art. 2. Every person who shall afford an asylum to them, or lead them succour, shall be arrested and prosecuted as accomplice.' of the insurrection. Att. 3. The officers of judicial police and their auailia ries, and the is,tents of the public force of the deparuntut of the Alien, are held respousiffie for the execution of the pri sent decree. Geueral EYNAHU. Moulins, Dec. 18, 1831. _ Another edict closes the shops of three chemists and apothecaries, and deprives their families of the means of subsistence because the said chemists are' denounced as insurgents. The object of this decree is to punish the families of the insurgents: but the plea assigned is care for the public health, which re quires t ha t chemists should attend to their own shops; as it the assistants of such men were not as capable of selling drugs as their chiefs. j Little reliance is to be placed upin the contradic tions of the government papers to reports concerning A great number of armed French insurgents have re tired on our territory. The report of the deplorable sirs, perpetrated during the last insurrection in the Var, alarmed the population of our districts, situate along the frot.ticn.. They demanded and obtained troops to protect th..m iiTaiust attack. A detachment of tha Lith regiment of infantry, after leaning a few men at St. Martin du Vat, marched to Pogetto-Thenier, where it was to arrive this morning. On the other hand, 37 French insurgem,, im plorcdour hospitality, atter laying down their arms. T. the great Putisfaction of every lamest man, the int en d ant, M. La M armara, in conjunction with the military autho r i. ties, acceded to their request, on condition that th'y should remain in the lazaretto of Villairanen and undor tempo rary surveillance, until the governineAshould have made known its decision. Clean and comfortable beds were pr .- pared for theta and fur others who are expected. They were commanded by a professor from Park and speak in grateful and respectful terms of the laws of our country. FLORENCE, DEC. 18.--M. do Nlontessuv, French minister to tho court of Tits:Amy, ha, si,t out for Paris. ' During his absence M. Joachim Murat is appointed charge d'atfairea. GERMANY. The senate of Hamburg is carrying on an unequal contest with the Austrian military authorities in that city. These authorities hare arrested several citi zens of Hamburg un suspicion of complicity in d pht said to have lwen organised by an Hungarian cans gars. The Austrian commander-in-chief threatens to bring them before a council of war: tho senate claims them as amenable only to the laws of the city. The accused are still in the hands of the Austrians. ----- The Cologne Ga:otte, under date of the 21st inst., states that the rtsignation of the Minister.at-ifar, Von Stockhausen, made some weeks since, has beta accepted by the King. The Noe Prmsian Ga:ette confirms the statens at that neither Coburg nor any of the states of the Thuringian commercial and customs union will .end a reptesentative to the customs congress of Vienna. The Hanoverian first Chamber was informed is its sitting of the 21/th, that M. de llathiner had nominated to the post of Hanoverian envoy at tac Germanic Diet. A member of the Assembly and demanded whether the ministry was aware this politician had declared Art. 33 of the cm, tion null and void, and also, that as a member 4s equestrian order he had protested botbre the Bien against the organic laws. The interrrrnition remain ing unanswered, the speaker demanded its insertion in the proces-Yerbal. In the second chamber a motion was adopted, calling upon the government to give distinct instructions to its nevemay to maintain the independence of Hanover before. the Germanic Diet. It is generally known that for some years the go vernment of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha has beam en deavouring to bring about the fusion of the two duchies, which, acquired at dithrent periods by the reigning family, have hitherto preserved for the most part a dis:inct administration. A bill for giving the duchies a common constitution has been prepared by a mixed commi,ion, and already sanc tioned by the Coburg Diet. The same suevess was expected in that of Gotha, but in its sitting of the 19th the committee of this Assembly rejected the ministerial proposition by eight to tire votes ; there is therefore little chance of their being adopted at present. The Pit Jmnn(eoc Gazdte of the 20th declares it self authorised testate that the doeumentomrportinq to be a diplomatic note addres,ed to Mr.WeQer. I); Chevalier Hohmann, Austrian Charg d'AtKtires at \Washington, on the subject of slaver" . : in the United States, is apocryphal, and a mere invention of au abolitionist paper. BERLIN, Dec. 22. Baron Rothschild, from Frankfurt, is at Berlin.: ,r the purpose of obtainin in Pru"ia a license w t:ie " Germanic General Life Insurance Company," in which he is interested to a considerable extent. The new Prussian loan of sixteen milieus .4*th:tiers will be uttered at four-and-a-half per cent. inn r,st nt par, with one-third per cent. commission to the contractors. It has been remonstrated, that a I per cent. loan might have been negotiated at ninctv-Evc, which would have been more profitable ; but the to. vernment hopes, within a couple of years, to reduce the interest to four per cent. ; and even if this re duction, it says, should be delayed ten years, the sur plus of interest paid would nut exceed the present gain of price. The Austrian ambassador at the British court, Count Buol-Sehaaenstein, is reported to have received orders fur repairing to his post from Brussels. where he has been staying out of the way of the Kossuth demonstrations. PROSPECTS OF THE ZOLLVERETN. BERLIN, DTA.. r. In spite of the immense importance of pending affairs in France, the attention of the German pr,ss is occupied in a still higher degree by the crisis in German commercial policy. Austria has played its game with consummate skill. " A move or two more, and the game is ours," exclaims a leading Vienna paper. And it is perfectly right. if Prussia continues to conduct affairs us a mere game of diplomatic skill, it will be inevitably check-mat: d. It has no resource but to upset the board, and turn play into earnest. The gist of the matter is as follows: When Prussia formed the Zollverein, in cluding Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, it thou r, itself that it thereby gained full political predomi nance over the German states south of the Main, which have traditionally been regarded as satellites of Austria. Prussian statesmen were not a little proud of having thus apparently gained a march on the great rival. and the Austrian cabinet viewed the affair with no little soreness. Late events have proved, however, that Prussia's presumed political influence in the south was a mere self-delusion. The reason why Prussia did not succeed in chaining to its interests the southern states, by means of the Zoll verein, is, that it gave no thoroughgoing support to the principle of protection, on which the Zollvercin s tariff rests. Prussia assented to a moderate degree of protection as a mere compromise. But its half measures could never gain for it the confidence and sympathy of the southern inhabitants, who are, almost to a man, fanatical protectionists, and look rather to Austria as the stronghold of their system. Austria, fully aware of this, has not been slow to perceive, that it would really gain and hold by means of a general customs union, the political preponderance, which Prussia failed in establishing. It, therefore, eagerly caught up the project, whica had been broached by the National Assembly at Frankfort in 1848. 'When M. von Bruck's pro posal appeared a couple of years ago, it seemed to be opposed by difficulties so insuperable, and to be so visionary a scheme, that the Prussian government met it simply with a diplomatic shrug of the shoulders, and thought to have got rid of it lw a few remarks savouring of polite irony. The tart& systems in Ger many then stood on entirely different principles: in Austria. prohibition ; in the"Zollverein, protection ; in the Hanoverian Steuervercin and Holstein, purely financial; in the Hanse towns and Mecklenburg, free trade, or nominal duties. Since then, however, Austria has come over, and the Steuerverein has been bought over to the protective system ; in principle, therefore, the three larger groups already are united ; there no longer exists, on grounds of political economy, a serious obstacla to their being thrown into one group. Prussia has, of course, the strongest political motives against such a measure, which would be tantamount to its political annihilation. If it were once merged into one customs union with Austria on the p ro tective principle,ull manufacturing and commercial interests, dependent on protection, would place their whole re liance on Austria as the firm supporter of their lies / tern, and do all in their power to paralyse the indu ence of Prussia, whose convictions are on the side of 1 free trade. Austria, as representative of the Find ' ple adopted, would be the real diplomatic representa tive of the union ; foreign powers would treat with the Vienna cabinet, as the party from whom alone concessions were to be Fumed.; while Prussia. de prived of independent action in commercial policy, which, in times of internal and external peace, forms the most important feature of foreign relations.woald scarcely command consideration enough to 'Let? a place among the great powers. To this it cannot submit, unless it be prepared for politi cal suicide. But how will it 'avoid the appr‘sa:hiag danger ? It has freed the members of the from the treaties which bound them. The old •ar.ian ceases with the end of 1834. A new union may be formed; but all German states, including Austria, have the right to enter into consultation on the sub ject ; the members of the old Zollverein no longer fora anexclusive body; and the situation of affairs during the last twenty years is too much changed to admit of a simple renovation of the Zollverein. Austria has summoned a conference for the 2od of January, at Vienna, proposinF, that the German states, in as far as they may not be prepared to form at once a gem" cal customs union, shall pave the way by ing their tarittis and binding themselves by treaty to