The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-08 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

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PARIS, W IMMESDAT Ev=pro.

The Debate still insists that the Duchies who wel-
comed the delivering forme of Prussia and Austria,
supported by the troops. of the Diet, should pay for
the cost of their emancipation. It would certainly
be bard to rob a man and then make him pay the
cost of the transaction. This would be putting into
serious practice that rather hard rule at whist by
which the losers of the rubber pay an extra trick.
Denmark pay ! That would only be adding an-
other crying iniquity to all those to which force
triumphant has already compelled her to submit.
There is a limit where the right of the strong over
the weak stops ; that is, when the weak has nothing
more to lose. It is acknowledged on all hands that,
financially speaking, Denmark is ruined. Even M.
de Bismarck will find it impossible to draw money
from an empty coffer. Is it wished that the Diet
should pay 1 The Diet is excluded from negotia-
tions after having been excluded from the war. It
would be hard to make this body pay its own
burial expenses. Must Prussia and Austria pay
for the powder burnt on the Bider 1 Austria
and Prussia entrench themselves behind an
argument which seems unanswerable. They
have not as yet announced any design of
keeping any portion of the conquered territory.
They sacrificed thousands of men to free the
Duchies, not out of interest or ambition, but be-
cause Germans were oppressed by Danes ; but
there is a term to all such generosity, and they
cannot be expected, after having fought, to pay
also. Europe for the last year has allowed
these two powers liberty of action, and it has
nothing to reply to these arguments. The
Duchies, did not free themselves ; they waited
until the Germans came to their assistance.
They provoked and awaited intervention. They
considered themselves slaves of the Dane, but did
not rise to shake off the yoke. They found it more
convenient to let their German brothers bring
them liberty without having the trouble of
struggling for it ; they thought it better to be
conquered by an organised military force. They
should pay for this liberty thus bestowed by foreign
hands. Let them pay, for their recriminations
touch no one. France keeps her sympathies
for other misfortunes. This is the strain in which
the Debate writes this morning.
The Duke de Moray is always running about to
races. He met the Prince of Wales at Ascot, just
as it was a serious question of joint intervention in
favour of Denmark. Now he has stumbled over
the King of Prussia and IL de Bismarck st Baden,
and the /tedipcndanee says that the prime minister
having offered a bouquet to King William, his
Majesty graciously handed it to the duke. This
little comedy was played on the high road at a time
when people here are troubled at the idea that the
Tuileries has given to the cabinet of Berlin a
carte-blanche, and when an interview between the
Emperor and King is spoken of, notwithstanding
official denial, which does not mean much. It is
now said his Majesty will go to Germany to fetch
the Empress home, and that he will then be met by
Frederic William.

Sinister rumours are on the wing with regard to
the state of Mexico. An evening paper says it
will wait for the next mail to appreciate the posi-
tion. One bears of a certain despatch sent home by
Bazaine, mulching the withdrawal of the French
troops before more troubles commence, Maximilian
to be left to the foreign legion.
Sea-bathing first and then shooting still con-
tinue to render the Bourse a kind of wilder-
ness. Shares seem to rise and fall in the dead
season from no ostensible reason. Most of
the trade which dabbles in speculation, with
gun, gaiter, and game-bag, all of the latest
fashion, is in pursuit of partridges or idling its
time through the stubble to be seen of admiring
peasants. Yet large state loans are spoken of,
and Austria and Prussia are said to want money
to pay for their lately gathered laurels. M. de
Bismarck has applied to M. de Rothschild for an
accommodation, and the latter has given the
minister to understand that he cannot aid him in
any financial operation which has not first received
the legal sanction of a parliamentary vote. One
can imagine the Jewish banker standing up for the
Prussian constitution, and taking the part of the
majority which refused on more than one occasion
to rote supplies which an irritable minister might
employ in rendering the throne too strong.
But would not M. de Bismarck, now that
be has accomplished the work of the
Nationalverein in the Duchies, wrestled with all
Europe, and tripped up Austria, get anything
be likes voted at Berlin I It is evident that the
great monetary power, if what the Paris Bourse
says be true, thinks that Bismarck may again find
the Prussian Commons refractory.
Spain, too, wants money for public works and to
balance her budget, but she had best wait until the
government financial writer in the Constihitionnet,
M. Auguste Vitu, has shown, as he says he is pre-
pared to do, how she can pay her debts with con-
venience to herself and advantage to her creditors.
Perhaps the able advocate lately sent out by the
English bondholders may have some weight with
the Spanish chancellor of the exchequer, and clear
the way for the piece of advice which is to drop
from the authoritative pen of M. Vitu. With
Turkey the want of money is becoming chronic, and
notwithstanding wholesome reforms, a reduced
seraglio, and an unpaid army, the Sublime Porte is
to be in the market again. Italy, too, in spite of
all official denials, is gradually opening her palm
and stretching forth a suppliant hand, offering in
return the railroads of the state to the Lombard
company, and national goods to another company.