The Express.
London, England, 1862-06-06 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(nom ova (mat

PARIS, TIIIIRSDAT EViNING.

Prince Napoleon, who has arrived in Paris from
Italy, had a long conference with the Emperor this
afternoon. The prince met the Marquis de Lava-
lette at Marseilles. _ _

General de Montebello leaves for Rome on
Saturday.

its for Mexico are preparing at

Cherbourg.
There is a rumour that while the Emperor is at
Vichy this summer the Empress will pay a short
private visit to England.
I mentioned some time since that M. Belmontet,
poet laureate and deputy, had given notice of a
motion that France should call upon England to
pay some fabulous number of millions of franca,
which he alleged was owing as the surplus of a fund
made over after the battle of Waterloo to satisfy
the claims of English subjects for damages suffered
by them in France during the revolution. lam
happy to say that there is small prospect of this
claim rising to the rank of a " question." In the
course of a preliminary discussion before the Council
of State, MM. Billault and Baroche very clearly
showed that it was quite unnecessary to go into
accounts half a century old, since, according to the
treaty of 1818, the fond was transferred to Eng-
land d forfait, that is to say, as a gross sum of
liquidated damages conclusively paid on the one
hand and conclusively accepted on the other as a
full and irrevocable settlement of the affair
between the two governments. Nevertheless Count
de Flavigny, the ultramontaniat member, pro-
poses to support M. Belmontet's motion before
the Corps Legislatif.
French jurisprudence seems to have set Woolf
the task of aggravating the constitution of 1852,
and taking away, by successive interpretations, the
miserable shreds of liberty which it left. In the
affair of the Courrier du Dimasche it has just been
laid down that newspaper property is not saleable
without government permission. M. Ganeeco, the
editor and principal proprietor of that journal,
after having been warned, banished, and imprisoned,
came to the conclusion that he could not safely
continue to be a journalist in Paris on any condi-
tions whatever. He resigned his editorship, and
sold his share in the journal to his brother pro-
prietors for the considerable sum of 85,000 fr. M.
de Persigny refused to accept the resignation of
the obnoxious writer, for the obvious and odious
reason that it was morally easier for him to act
with severity towards a man already in bad odour
than towards a new hand. The tribunal of Paris,
presided by M. Benoit Champy, has decided in
a suit for specific performance by M. Ganesco
against his vendee', that, by the refusal of the
minister to sanction a change in the editorship and
the resignation of M. Ganesoo, the Courrier
du
Dim:oche has " waned to be an existing journal,"
and that the contract for the purchase cannot be
enforced. I believe the decision to be legal, but
it is an immense surprise upon newspaper owners,
who fancied they had a property. It is not only
a change in the editorship which puts a newspaper
at the mercy of a minister, but a change—whether
by death or sale—in any one of the proprietors.
The Deka; Siete, and Constitutionnel, which are
worth millions, may find themselves to-morrow in
the same case as the Courrier du Dintanehe. The
injustice of this state of things is so glaring that a
change of the law is inevitable. But with regard
to that immense farce, universal suffrage, I doubt
whether the most iniquitous consequences that sub-
se7vient courts can be made to draw from existing
texts will ever be remedied so long as this govern-
ment lasts. On the contrary, the lucre:teed liberty
granted to the press and legislative bodies makes
the government cling all the more convulsively to
its cunningly-devised machinery for rendering the
representation of the people a nullity. The Coun-
cil of State, in dismissing the petition of M. &tan-
celin, an ex-representative of the people, yesterday
solemnly laid down the following four propositions :
—l. Candidatures recommended by government
may be announced by unstamped handbills (all
independent candidates muststamp their addresses),
and may be posted to the exclusion of those
other candidates in places reserved for the adver-
tisement of acts of public authority. 2. Candi-
dates recommended by government may be pro-
claimed by beat of drum by the municipal authori-
ties. 3. Polies officers may seize the addresses of
independent candidates in the hands of those
appointed to distribute them, until they (the
police) are satisfied that the addresses have been
duly deposited at the parquet, according
to law. 4th. When the parquet refuses to receive
an electioneering address, this refusal (although
illegal) does not vitiate the election unless it is
proved that the result of the vote was thereby
affected in an appreciable degree. These four pro-
positions unblushingly sanction unfairness and ille-
gality, to the prejudice of every candidate not
patronised by government.
The Bourse to-day was quite neglected, and secu-
rities of all descriptions remain with scarcely any
change. Rente rose sc. for cash and fell 10e. for
account, closing at 701 r. 30e. and 70fr. 35e.

A letter from Rome of the 90th ult. says :
" Mar. de lii:vode presented himself at as early hour yes-
terday morning to the Pops. He is not osly Minister at
Arms, but the most witty visitor at the 'Patio's, and the
author of innumerable boa mots. • I have the hewer,' he
said ou entering, • of announcing to your holism, that the
Spanish flee has arrived at Rome by the railway.' It was
is that maser that be ushered into the Per's preemies
twenty-Ave Spanish bishop, wearing mermen, beta, larger
ea larger than the classical one of Basile oe the deg%
lima with green, sod having exactly the form of a beat.
The expression of Mgr. de liVrode was too at
to we
the
taste of the Spanish biehops, who sulked, sad did tie
attempt to coma their ill•humear."