The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 7, 1858.

In answer to the signals from our coils they returned us
this morning at 8.40 accurately to Greenwich time, u
directed, the pre-arranged landing signal.
The complete instruments which were on board the
Niagara for speaking cannot possibly be adjusted for some
days.

anxious that the [exercise of this power shall b
extremely large, and we may be sure that thee
Emperor will carry it as far as is consistent Kith
prudence—perhaps farther than his Ministers may
recommend.
The provincial journals have hitbuto enjoyed
greater degree of liberty than those of Paris, and
the consequence is that some of the boldest of them
have obtained subscribers beyond their proper die.
tricts—even in the capital itself. lam informed that
they are no longer to be allowed this privilege of
freedom, for which assuredly no justifiable reason
could be given. The Minister of the Interior, m.
Delangle, has, I hear, in a circular to the Prefects of
the Departments, directed that they shall henceforth
be more strictly looked after, and that in particular
they shall be prevented from telling tales of the Ern.
peror's private life, and from making from his
Majesty's published works, or histories of his uncle,
extracts contrasting with his present policy; likewise
that the acts of local public functionaries shall cot
be made the subject of their censure.
It may not have escaped your recollection that in
a former letter I announced that it was the intention
of the Count de Chambord to hold a reception of is
followers in a German town. Since then the Prince
has been waited on at Frankfort by many of his
principal adherents in this country ; and more re•
cently another and larger batch has been to pay lent
homage at Cologne. The French Government has
made one of its newspaper organs proclaim that it
views these demonstrations without displeasure,
inasmuch as it knows the party, of which Count de
Chambord is the head, though socially distinguished,
to be politically dead ; but the fact is, that the Go-
vernment is really annoyed at a claimant of the
throne thus giving, after years of apathy, signs of
life—and it is endeavouring with some uneasiness to
ascertain if the Legitimists have on foot any scheme
likely to be dangerous to its stability. I even hear
that it has already given a hint to certain German
Cabinets that they would do an agreeable thing to
the Emperor in refusing to tolerate Legitimist de
monstrations in towns near the French frontier.

The conferences on the Danubian Principalities
have, on account of the Cherbourg affair, necessarily
been adjourned for a few days. It has oozed out
that in one of the most recent of them the English
Plenipotentiary, supported by his Austrian and
Turkish colleagues, succeeded in carrying another
point to which his Cabinet attached importance—
that of preventing the two united principalities of
Moldavia and Wallachia from having a common flag.
Each is to have its own flag, and though they are to
be allowed to bear the name of " united provinces,"
each is to have a separate government and separate
hospodar. A sort of council common to both is, to be
sure, to be formed for the settlement of certain
Whirs, but that council is not to be elected by the
people. I have before remarked that the importance
of this Moldo-Wallachian affair is not appreciated in
England, but it will be when papers on the subject
shall be presented to Parliament ; and then the saga.
city, tact, and firmness of Lord Malmesbury will be
demonstrated.
French bishops in their pastoral letters, and even
in their sermons, sometimes use language which is
rather startling to ears polite. In one of this morn-
ing's journals I find a pastoral from the Bishop of
Orleans. who has the reputation of being one of the
most moderate and most intelligent of the whole
bench ; and I see that in the midst of much abuse
of political panics not friendly to the Church he calls
the dead and gone Robespierre a " frightful scoun-
drel." The epithet may be just enough, but .s
it
prelate-like ?
The Government has taken another step towards
putting down the assumption of titles and aristocra-
tic names by persons who have no right to them.
It has directed that no passport shall be granted to
any soi-diaant count, marquis, baron, or De, who
cannot, it' required, produce proof of his right to the
title or the prefix. Passports have,
it appears, been
largely employed by the people who figure under
false cognomens—first, because the police, and
mayors, and other granters of such documents,
readily inscribed therein any name or title that was
given to them ; and next, because, when the inscrip-
tion was once made, the passport itself was a sort of
proof that the name or title was lawful. Very great
uneasiness exists amongst people of wealth in all
parts of France at the manner in which the Govern-
ment is acting in this matter; for there are hundreds
of thousands of these who, from puerile vanity alone,
not with any intention of fraud, have disguised!'
plebeian origin under an aristocratic name. This
circumstance, by the way, is a striking proof of the
extreme folly of democracies. The French are a
perfectly democratic people ; they have no he
House of Peers, no privileges of any
attached to birth ; they adore equality," and set it
high above liberty ; and yet these equalitarians are
delighted when they are authorized to put a piece of
red ribbon in their button-hole to distinguish theta
from their fellows. These haters of aristocracy
assume aristocratic designations with such milm•
deuce that a law is required to restrain them.