The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-08 00:00:00

FRANCE.

WILDNIOIDAT Evesriso.
The Mmutcur contains the following letter from
the Minister of the Interior to the Prefect of tho
Seine :
Paris, Jan. 6.—Monsieur le Trefet,—Tho emblems most
worthy of respect lose this character when they only meal
evil days. Thus these three word*, Liberty, Rquality,
Fraternity," form by themselves a touching device ; bur, as
they hare been only seen to appear at epochs of troubles
and civil war, their coarse inscription upon our public
budding* saddens and alarms the passers-hy. 1 therefore
beg you to efface them. It would be at the Malt' time pro-
per to restore to the monuments, places, streets, &c., their
popular names, which have been preserved by familiar usage
through all changesof ntgions. No historical remembrance,
glorious fur France, ought to bo excluded. The Petals-
National is to he called anew the Palais-Royal; the Ace-
ilemie.Nationale de Milano. the Grand Opera; the Theatre
de la Nation Thefitre Franyais ; the Rue do la Concorde
Rue Royale, &c. I beg you to make to me, in the same
spirit, a report upon the goal goes changes which you will
think proper to propose to tne.—A. ua MUCNT.
It is needless to add that the changes prescribed
in the foregoing letter will be effected throughout
France in all those departments where the generals
and prefects have not already. taken the initiative.
A decree appears for opening to the Ministry of
the Interior a credit of -1,832,91i7fr. on the budgets
of 1ti.12, 18.13, and 1841, fur the completion without
delay of several lingof electric telegraph. The
mostimportant are as follows Paris to Mar-
seilles ; the telegraph now stops at Chalons.
2. Paris to Bordeaux, and thence by Toulouse to
Celle. 3. Paris to Strasbourg.
Last night the President of the Republic went to
the opera in state. The front of the house in the
Rue Lepelletier was brilliantly illuminated as on the
night of a masquerade. The house of M. I tusautoy,
the tailor of the President, ut the corner of the
street, wits illuminated, and a transparency showing
the figures 7,-173,431, surmounted by the letter N,
was arranged over the door. There were no other
illuminations. The Rue Lepelletier and great part
of the Boulevards were occupied during the evening
by strong bodies of gendarmerie, cavalry
and infantry. 'the President took his scat
in the centre compartment of the state
box prepared. for the occasion. The two compart-
ments on either side were filled with general
officers, and officers of the President's house-
hold. The delegates from tlw departments occupied
the pit stalls. The corps diplomatique in court
dresses sat in the largo boxes on the right and left
of the stage. 'the general officers of the garrison of
Paris were in the second tier of boxes. The balcony
stalls were chiefly fillei with mayors and their ladies.
The Princess Nlathilde sat in the box usually occupied
by the President. There were not many ladies present,
but among the few were the Princess Callemaki and
Countess Nlolke. The pit was entirely filled with
officers, non-commissioned officers, and private sol-
diets. Besides the gilt bronze' cage over the Presi-
dent's canopy, there was an immense eagle painted
on the proscenium, living in a blue sky, its eyes turned
towards the sun. the drop scene between the acts
(painted expressly for the occasion) represented an
allegorical figure of France, with the motto, " Vox
populi, vox hi." When the Emperor went to the
opera it was customary to play on his entrance
"La Victoire est a nous," and the march of "The
Caravane de Caire." 'These airs were played on the
present occasion. The opera was the " Proplu'ie,"
and the ballet " Vert-Vert." The President stayed
till nearly the end of the bullet. On leaving the
house a crowd aSBCMI,!Cd in front shouted loudly
" Vire Napoleon," but his carriage afterwards pro-
ceeded along the Rue lApelleticr, and along the
boulevards amidst a dead silence.

The head of the Piesident's private cabinet gives
notice that he is expressly ordered not to occupy
himself with the great number of demands for au-
diences and places which he receives daily, with re-
quests to submit the same to Prince Louis Napo-
leon. The demands for audiences ought to be ad-
dressed to Oeneral Roguet, the President's aide-de-
camp; those for places to the competent ministers.
Moveable columns still scour the Herault in every
direction. bringing in prisoners. 300 have taken,
refuge in the mountains, where, having neither
food nor shelter, their suffering is extreme.
Nuthiug could prove more distinctly that the
triumph of Louis Napoleon is not a subject of na-
tional joy or thanksgiving than tho nature of the
state show at the Opera last night. Instead of being
cheered by a free public, the President could only
dare to taste the pompous gratification of his ambi-
tion to assume a regal state, in the midst of armed
satellites. Nut a soul was admitted to the spectacle
of this pageant with the exception of the diplomatic
corps, who are not in the employment of the state.
As for the splendour of the decorations and costumes,
where the whole representation was so entirely des-
titute of moral dignity, the royal pageantry on the
top of any twelfth night cake that was cut up the
same evening was quite as edifying a spectacle.
The general meeting of the Consultative Commis-
sion to hear the reading of the constitution, has been
put off To-day the 30 members of the administra-
tive section of the commission met, under the presi-
dency of M. Baruch° ; but the business of the sitting
presented no public interest.
The necessity of playing off one party against
another, in order to get rid of the pressing solicita-
tions and greedy importunities of each in turn, drives
the government to have recourse to instruments of
the most opposite nature. Thus I am positively
assured, from a quarter in which I place perfect re-
liance, that the pen of M. Proudhon hashes:li enlisted
by M. do Moray, to write a series of articles against
the (fairest and the party of 3fontalenbert,
who are found to b• insatiable in their
appetite for power. I pointed out some time
ago the necessary decline of the influence of the
Jesuit, as soon as the new power was sufficiently
consolidated to dispense with those. partisans whose
fanaticism was a puissant lever for elevation, but
is now found a pestilent obstacle to its action. Thus,
as the Assembh'e Nationale is encouraged to attack
the exorbitant pretensions of the army, laid to extol
the superior claims of civilians, the fertile dialectics
of the former editor of the People will bo brought
into action to curb the arrogance of sanctimonous
hypocrisy. Louis Napoleon mutates his uncle in no
feature more than in his shifting choice of diverse
instruments • but he is much more embarrassed in
dealing with their claims, because hecanspeak tonono
as a master, but must be the slave of all, as a wizard
of the spirits ho raises. M. Proudhon is at present
a prisoner in St. Pelagic. His new publication is
to appear in the form of a weekly review.
There is an article in the Opinion Publique on the
late decrees of the Emperor of Austria, which pre-
sents tlw novel feature of an immense blank space,
from which we are to infer that certain portions
had been objected to by a censorship.
The censure has allowed the AssemblAc to publish
another of those articles, written with a certain
appearance of freedom, which are supposed to be
inspired by %I. Guizot. With an earnestness worthy
of a cause not altogether hopeless, it does battle on
behalf of representative institutions, and argues that
the constitutions of the consulate and the empire can-
not be accepted as models for France in 11452.
It ventures to remind the Peed& lit that Napoleon
did not despise the assistance of tho creative ability
of the patient end laborious Skye.; in the formation
of a constitution. 'flue ingenious mechanism of
siey,...s proved a failure, in very many respects, and
chiefly bemuse it tended to render useless the genius
of Napoleon. Rut, after the first consul ent rgetically
threw off so much of Sieyes week as fettered his
own energies, there still remained in the complex
machinery of a " tribunal," a senate, and a legislative !
assembly, an idea, though feebly expressed, of a re-
presentative goverunient, opposed alike to despotism
and to demagogy. The people, fresh front the hot,'
rem of the convention, were not then displeased with
this illusory constitution. They saw that the first
consul had restonsl the executive power, and re-
formed the administration, and were for the moment
satisfied. Hut this state of things was essentially
provisional, and Napoleon, while he admitted in
principle the necessity of representative government,
never attempted, and would have been inconsistent ,1
with hinewlf; had he attempted, to have established !I
it with all its conditions. Having thus disposed of
the pretensions of the constitution of 1802 and 1804 I I