The Express.
London, England, 1852-03-09 00:00:00

lectcd at the rate of 61.16.. 81d. per cent. fee one
collected at the rate of 94 3e. 31d. i a tax
nearly certain in its amount foe one vary-
ing to amount with the seasons, and falling
heavily in proportion as the harvest was deficient
and the country not prosperous 1 a tax, taking as
much or more per head from the very poorest man
as from the very richest ; a tax which it is not safe
for the state to rely on, and which when most wanted
might be from stern necessity resigned.
Looking at Lord DERBY'S announced scheme,
therefore, solely as a means of raising a revenue, dis-
carding for the present all consideration of the effects
of duties on corn to limit the supply of food, and to
starve some portion of the community—discarding,
too, all consideration of their monstrous injustice as'
well as cruelty—a wilder and more mischievous
plan could not be ptoposed. Indirect taxes
of any kind are only tolerated because they
exist, and were they now to be inflicted they would
cause such a derangement that society could scarcely
outlive it. Business has gradually modelled itself
to the restrictions of indirect taxation, but Lord
WADY proposes new duties and new restrictions—
proposes to interrupt and derange the whole foreign
trade of the country, aye, and the agricultural too,
now fast settling iuto prosperity—and proposes to do
that which has only become bearable because society
has grown into it. Ever since 1523 the tendency
has been to repeal, lighten, or abolish custom-house
duties; Lord Merle, once the Hotspur of politicians,
is to reverse that course, and make society go back
on its steps. lie is to extend and sharpen Customs
duties by levying them on food, of which even Lord
LivrapooL was ashamed before he died. Against
Lord Dituir's proceedings science is arrayed as well
as feeling and justice, and he will not find the people
such slaves as the Germans and the French, though
he aspires in his way to bo a SCIIWARZENBERG, a
MANIEUFFEL, or a Louts NAPOLEON.

FRANCE.
(BY SUIIMAItEkiI: TELEGRAPII.)

PARIS, TCISDAT MORNING, 8 o'CLoci.
/4.lault, Deputy, is named President of the
Legislative body.

PARIS, MONDAY EVENING.
The most salient feature of to-day's news, if I ex-
cept perhaps the complete silence of the official part
of the Moniteur, is the visible preparation of the
public mind, by semi-official organs for the proclama-
tion of the empire. With this view M. Amedie de
Comm has penned an article in the Public, of which
he is editor in chief, and which has absorbed . the
Jfuniteur Parisien. At the end of this ominous
composition ho informs his readers that " the en-
thusiasm of the people makes it the duty of Louis
Napoleon to conquer by the acts of his presidency a
place between Louis XIV. and the Emperor Napo-
leon I." The numeric adjunct to the emperor's name
is noticed as tho more significant, as M. do Cesena
has been, since Dec. 2, what M. Grimier de Caasag-
pax was before that epoch, the prophetic herald of the
Prince President's decrees. In connection with this
demonstration I invite your attention to the first of
a series of banquets to be given for the inauguration
of Louis Napoleon's bust in the 38,000 communes of
France. I leave von to compute the expense of this
enormous multiplication of the President's features
in marble, which has been imposed upon the muni-
cipalities of France. But if the idea originated with
the lady-sculptor who has procured the lucrative
monopoly of issuing such an extensive edition of her
own work, she deserves credit, if not a fortune, for
the ingenuity with which she has contrived to tax
Franco for the benefit of her own pocket and the
glory of Louis Napoleon. The present ceremony
took place at Sonnets, in the Seine-et-Oise, and was
followed by a banquet, at which several patriotic
toasts were drunk. M. L. Couture des Troismonts
proposed the "Bonaparte Family" in an eloquent
speech, in the course of which he said :
The august ceremony which now unites us will, in the
course of a few months, be reproduced in every one of our
38,000 communes of France. It is, then, important that
we should not mistake its veritable character. Wherever
it may be celebrated, you will bear the seven million and a
half suffrages which have maintained our beloved prince
' at the head of the state, constantly spoken of ; but von will,
perhaps, not fiod it noticed that that is for the fifth time in
fifty years that the people have personified their sovereignty
in the Bonaparte family. Gentlemen, we should only
judge of the surface of things if we were not to see that the
true force of Louis Napoleon, that which is destined to hut,
is less in the number of " Yes," which were deposited in
the urn Oh the .oth December, than in the five Napoleonian
elections which, at a distance of fifty years, have found the
sons in accord with their fathers. Velum, gentlemen, we
see su•b a fact--when on five different occasions the same
family has been invested with the mission of governing the
state, we should be blind, indeed, not to perceive in it the
manifestation ors new political law—the establishment of a
new tradition and a new legitimacy.
In other words we are told that since the uncle
was chosen three times and the nephew twice by the
suffrages of France, the Napoleontan dynasty may
now be considered as legitimately established. Thus
the inauguration of the bust is seized as the fitting
occasion to prepare the public mind throughout
France for the usurpation of the imperial sceptre.
Meanwhile the health of the Prince-President is
given out by La I}anee Napoleonienne as offering no
further motive for alarm. On Saturday ho got up
early, worked with the council of ministers, had a
long interview with Dr. Vents, and drove out after-
wards. Yesterday ho was present at a steeple-chase
at Ville.d'Avray, and afterwards attended a grand
banquet, at which the Council of State assembled in
their new liveries.

The Sleek says that several Swiss staff officers
have received orders from the Swiss government to
return to their country.
Of the two elections which remained to be known,
that of Milhau (Aveyron) has been decided in favour
of the government. M. Kolb Bernard, the candidate
of the uidependent conaervtives at Lille, has retired
from the contest " in the interest of conciliation and
pacification, thus leaving a free field for the election
of the government candidate, M. Itichebe.
It is said that the session of the Corps Legislatif
and Senate will be opened by the Prince-President
in person, at the Tuileries.
As I previously stated, the budget will bo pro-
mulgated by decree before the convocation of these
bodies. It is pretended that the expiration of the
delay for the collection of the provisional taxes neces-
sitates this usurpation of the chief office of the
leOlature.
Last night at half-past eleven a large body of po-
litical prisoners, destined for transportation, were es-
corted by detachments of lancers and gendarmerie
mobile from the Fort d'lvry in several vans with
their baggage to the terminus of the Havre Railway.
On arriving at Havre these unfortunate victims of
the coup tend will be embarked for the penal colony
of Lambesea, in Algeria. Notwithstanding the late-
twee of the hoar several spectators gathered about the
Place de Havre, but, in the presence of the strong
military force, they abstained from all demonstra-
tion.

The standing rules for the organisation of the
Senate, which, in the ordinary course of things, one
would have looked for in the Moniteur, are published
to-day in the Debate. Theare signed by Marshal
Prince Jerome Bonaparte, President of the Senate.
The principal points have been borrowed from the
regulations of the old Chamber of Peers. They
define the duties and powers of the grand re-
fcrendary (now General Hautpoul), which are under
the authority of the president of the Senate,lto watch
over the safety of the Senate, to direct the police of
the palace, the gardens, and the dependencies; to
prepare plans and estimates relative to the repair of
buildings and the undertaking of new works found
to be necessary; to prepare the budgets, and to give
directions touching all expences; to supervise the
treasurer and all other accounting officers; to ex-
amine vouchers, register the decrees of the President
of the Republic, granting dotations to senators; to
deliver certificates of identity and passports, and to
regulate ceremonies. The chaplain, architect, libra-
rian, military commandant, director of the adminis.
tration, apd chief usher of the Senate, arc all placed
under his direction. The rides also define the duties
of the secretaries and other officers. No ono can
hold office under the Senate who is not a born or
naturalised Frenchman, if he is not of age, or if he
is more than 70. After the installation of the Senate
every candidate for an office will be subjected to an
examination, to ascertain his fitness. The state mes-
sengers arc to be chosen in preference from superior
officers on the retired list, who have been deco-
rated, and for all the other pests officers of
different ranks ; retired non-commissioned officers
and privates will also have a preference. No
officer of the Senate can be dismissed without a re-