The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-28 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY. EVENING, JANUARY 28, 1852.

indignant pleasure over the decay of religion in
foreign churches, and to trace it to the want of epis-
copacy ; but it is hard to turn his ayes to the
steady, constant, most unchanged witness of the
truth which the last three centuries have seen,—the
church of Scotland. Avarice, lust, incest, murder,—
every crime named and unnamed,—have marked the
infamous courses of bishops and priests of many
episcopal churches ; which of all the contemned pas-
torates can be branded with such a succession? Has
religion never known decay in episcopal churches?
If piety has withered because of the want of episcopal
orders, have the crime' which so outraged humanity
happened because of episcopal orders? Is the law of
reasoning different for both cases

FRANCE.

to mintribato to the service of the country. It is
willingly allowed to the legitimists that their pair►
ciplos are favourable to the grandeur of nations, but
they are reproached with sacrificing too much to ea
idea which they are nut prepared to realise, and
with immolating too easily the present and its perils to dis-
tant views and securities. I know so well as any ono the
weak point of this accusation, but no attentive *absent r can
deay its bearing ; it has notably lessened during the last
three years, and our perseverance in the same path will
completely destroy it. Tke ballot of the 20th December is
not open to the lame protests as several previous farts. It
places the starting point and the supporting point where all
right-thinking men must admit them. Soon after the re-
volution of rehruary I wrote to the Union de ours:,
" The instinct of the mosses is frequently--not always—
superior to the skill at' statesmen." 'f hat idea again struck
me on the 20th I) centher. This ballot, divested of eircum
stances on which I shall not now explain myself—this ballot
taken in its most general sense, attests two sentiments of
the greatest justness—that there is not for • great people
any prosperity without authority; nor any authority with-
out unity. All the safety and future prosperity of France
lies in this. Although lam very desirous to abstain from
recriminations, which others have been making fur
some time, it cannot but he allowed that diri-
shine and contradictions have played • deplorable
part in official and administrative regions. A small
number of persons who are nevertheless monarchical, have
applied themselves to rendering the re•establiskinent of the
monarchy impracticable, while the majority of republicans
have only lahoured to make the niiiiiitenance of the re- I
public impossible. Public opinion, out of the range of
elevated spheres. supplicated in vain ; these difficulties
could not be overcome bat from above, and the wishes of
isolated citizens arc powerless when superior inspirations
were wanting. The 2nd December, must, therefore, have
been expected ; it is as much the work of its victims as of
its authors. If, moreover, I call to mind a past which can-
not be forgotten, it is to have the right to say loudly to
those to whom I address myself--Continue to cause to be
everywhere heard the disinterested language of union anti
of patriotism ; remain equally loyal towards the powerful
anti the proscribed. Speak more than ever to parties of
reconciliation, to the government of moderation and equity,
and to the people of morality and order. I purposely omit
any mention of liberty; that word will be badly understood
at this moment. It will come in its day, and will naturally
result from these first conditions carried into practice with
sincerity.
The Courrier de la Gironde states that Chef
d'Escadrun Peyrotini is still detained in the depart-
mental prison. Those who have been admitted to
see him say that he in very much cast down, and can
scarcely be brought to believe his degradation. Mme.
Peyronni had bdt fur Paris, with the intention of
soliciting a pardon fur her husband from the Presi-
dent of the Itepublie.
A journal of the department of the Cher says that
about sixty persons detained in the gaol at liourges,
under an accusation of having been concerned in the
recent insurrectional movements at Cowie and other
places, are shortly to be set at liberty.
In the Nievre, about sixty persons are about to be
tried on capital charges. The Journal de Nierre
expects that this department alone will furnish 1,000
prisoners for transportation to Cayenne.
The late adjudication of the Lyons to Avignon
railway has caused great activity in the iron foun-
dries in the department of the Loire. Furnaces
which have been disused for some years past are
now re-lighted.
The Courrier de Marseille announces the arrival in
that city of M. Antoine Bonaparte, en route for Italy,
where he is charged with a special mission by the
government of Prince Louis Napoleon.
The ministry of police is to be installed in the hotel
of the ministry of agriculture and commerce. A
committee is occupied at present in determining
the attributions of the new ministry.
The Patric says: 4.1 t is remarked that since the
Idisputes between the workmen and masters in Eng-
land, important orders have been given by foreign
houses to French manufacturers of machinery."
The Court of cessation has given a highly import-
ant decision. It has decided that when a department
is declared in state of siege citizens may be tried by
court-martial for offences anterior to the declaration
of the state of siege.
Lord Ilrougham read vesterday at the Academy of
Sciences a paper upon his optical researches, which
took more than an hour in the delivery. lie starts
to-day for England.
By virtue of a decree of the minister of the interior,
the general direction of the museums forms hence-
forth a distinct service in the ministry of the interior.
It comprises besides the museums of Versailles,
Trianon, and the Luxembourg, the inspection and
direction of the provincial museums. rho director-
general of the national museums is charged with
the service of the annual exhibitions of painting and
sculpture.
The Moniteur publishes the following. communi-
cated note :—" The minister of state is installed in
the Pavilion Mat min, at the Tuileries. He gives no
audiences, and only receives applications on affairs
specially placed under his direction by the decrees of
the 22nd instant."

The l'atrie says : " It is announced that a commis-
sion of revision will be formed at the ministry of war
to decide on all the sentences to transportation."
The Maniteur de l'Arav'e states that General Pel-
letier Descarrii,res is charged with the permanent
inspection of the depots de renaonte.
The Dowager Princess de Berghes died in Paris
the day before yesterday, aged 97.
The Duke de San Teodoro Carlos Caracciolo has
arrived in Paris from Madrid.

The minister of war will give a grand ball at the
end of the month.

A decree appears fixing the number of deputy-
inspectors-generat of prisons at five, and defining
their duties.

The Monileur publishes the decree relative to the
promulgation of the convention concluded between
France and Great Britain for the reciprocal guarantee
of the property of works of literature and art.
M. Dupin resigned tke post of Procureur-General
to tho Court of Cessation, in the following letter, as
soon as the decree of confiscation appeared:

To the President of the Republic.—l regret exceedingly
that, previous to the publication of the decree which I have
read this morning in the Mon iteur, you had not heard my
opinion with the same benevolence you have sometimes
manifested towards me. I should have tried to demonstrate
to you, not merely in the private interest of the children—
the greater part minors—of the late king, of whom I am
one of tile testamentary executors, but in the interest of
your own government, that those who have suggested that
measure are not acquainted with the facts, and that they
have disregarded all the rules of law and equity. In tact,
there is an extreme exaggeration (at least to the amount of
half) in the estimate made of the property of the Orleans
family. In law the decree violates in its essence the very
principle of property. This right of property was recog-
nised, after • solemn discussion, in the person of the late
king, by the 22nd and 23rd clauses of the law of 2nd March,
1832; and in the person of his children by the very acts
of the revolution of February, by the decree of the Consti-
tuent As.embly of the 25th October, 1848, and by the law
of the National Assembly of the 4th February, 1850, pro-
mulgated by your government, and authorised the loan of
20,000,000 f. on that property by your minister of finance.
Thu., public right, will, special laws, contracts, all have
recognised in the hands of the princes of the house of Or-
leans their right to the property which the decree of the 22d
January deprives them of all at once, and in • manner so
absolute that the sacred rights of the tomb, the burial
ground of Dreux, is not even excepted. If the constitution
of the 15th January was in vigour, the senate might be ap-
pealed to in virtue of the 26th article, which permits that
body "to make opposition to the promulgation of laws which
are contrary to the inviolable character of property." In the
present state of things, the only resource is to appeal to you,
prince, and to invoke your wisdom and the magnanimity of
your own feelings when they arc again consulted and more
deliberately listened to. But if these rigorous measures
are to be maintained, a great scruple arises from the depth
of my conscience. As l'rocureur-General to the Court of
Cessation for nearly 22 years, as the principal organ of the
law in that high branch of jurisdiction ; charged as I am
by the government to proclaim the constant respect to
right, and to require the reversal and the annulling of
the acts which violate the laws, or which constitute the in-
competence or the excesses of the government—how shall I
he able henceforth to exercise the same firmness if acts are
introduced in our legislation which are in contradiction
with those principles 1 1 feel myself bound, therefore, to
tender you my resignation. But I pray you, Prince, and
in an earnest manner, not to misunderstand my motives.
The resolution I have adopted has nothing to do with poli-
ties. As President of the late Assembly I rigorously kept
myself apart from peril. a and their fatal divisions, and
limited myself to maintain, as much as I indivi-
dually could, the legal and moral doctrines on which
the essential order of civilised society reposes. After the
, coup ttOrst of the 2nd December, against which it became
my duty to protest, as I have done, I awaitiol the judgment
of the people appealed to by you. After that solemn judg-
ment I adhered frankly to the immense powers which were
the result of that appeal, considering them as the strongest
guarantee that could be presented to preserve or re-esta-
blish those principles which a wild socialism had endan-
gered and menaced ; and, as a public functionary, my co-
operation was loyally given to you. But, at the present
moment, and on • question of civil right, and of private
rights, of natural equity, and of all Christian notions of
what is just and unjust, and which I cherish in my soul for
more than 50 years agjuri.se 'alate and as magistrate, I feel
myself absolutely called on to resign my fanctiona of Procu-
' reur-General.

Ile pleased, Prince, to accept the CIIITCIOIOII of my senti-
ments of respectful consideration: