The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-23 00:00:00

whole way from the vicinity of the railway station
to the hotel of the prefecture, where Louis Napoleon
was to alight. As soon as the Prince left the railway
carriage, /L Bret, the Prefect of the Rhone, came
forward at the head of the mayors and municipal
council, and presented to him the keys of the town
on a golden salver, at the same time addreedng him
as follows:
Monseigneur,—l have the honour to present to your Im-
perial Ilighnese the keys of this town, the soma that were
Fated to the Emperor. The inhabitants will be most
to peeve to yea their cordial eentisseats and devo-
s to your eaute.
The Prince replied that he was happy again to
visit a city which had given so noble and so memo-
rable a reception to the Emperor, and that he was
much pleased with the favourable sentiments ex-
pressed towards him.
In speaking of the arrests for seditious cries which
have occaaionally signalised the progress of the Pre-
sident, I have already suggested the probability that
the legal cry of " Viva la Republique" had been
deemed seditious. I now learn from positive infor-
mation that at Beaune several cries of " Vivo la
Ripublique" were raised in tho square near the
church. Three gendarmes instantly rushed npo
the group front whence the cries proceeded,
and dragged one man off to prison. Events
of this kind have long since ceased to excite
surprise. It is so perfectly well understood that the
government is above all law, that individual efforts
to stem the torrent of despotism are regarded es
simply ridiculous.
A good many symptoms of an uneasy feeling aro
now, however, observable in the provinces. The
Hotel de Strasburg, at Commercy, has been closed,
in oonsequence of expressions disrespectful to the
President having been uttered therein. Two per-
sons, of whom one is a physician, have been arrested
in connexion with this measure of repression. The
Prefect of the Puy-de-Mote has closed six wineshope
at Aubieres, the village where General Jaquemm
made such a ferocious speech the other day.
A farmer, named Laurent Fergues, was lately
arrested by tho gendarmerie of Trolls (Gard) upon
the charge of having insulted some members of that
force in the execution of their duty. While being
conducted to prison ho attempted to run away, and
being hotly pursued by the gendarmes, turned round
and picked up stones to defend his person.
Upon this demonstration of resistance the gendarme
shot him dead udon the spot.
The Asse,nlWe defends itself very successfully against
the charge of being too favourably disposed towards
England brought against it by the Sleek. Although
the political party represented by that journal is in a
very low plight at present, it may be well to note occa-
ionally the light in which we are regarded by M. Gut-
sot and the fusionists. The 'Dumb/0e says : " Since
the Sieele leads us to the subject of England, we will
assert that in the whole French press there does
not exist a journal which wages a more determined
war than ourselves against the pretensions and en-
croachments of English policy. We have a pride in
doing justice to her great men, in speaking of the
Duke of Wellington as we would speak of the Duke
of Marlborough. But, instead of smoothing the
way, as the Steele and all the revolutionary journals
arc doing for English policy upon the continent, we
oppose it energetically. We incessantly endea-
vour to enlighten the country upon the schemes
of England in Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. We
constantly show how England favours revolutionary
intrigues upon the Continent in order to set up her
own influence there and to destroy that of the go-
vernments. Upon the question of industrial and
commercial interests wo are as intractable as upon
the political question. We aro not of those who
would sacrifice French to English interests. We
defend our coal and our iron with the same ardour
with which we should combat the policy of Lord
Palmerston. Our patriotism, in a word, is an en-
lightened patriotism, and not that of a guard-room."
A French ship, the Orenouille, of Marseilles, has
been set fire to and pillaged on the western coast of
Madagascar. The captain and several of the crew
were massacred. One of the sailors is detained as a
prisoner by the King of Maabc, who resides to the
south of Nossi-116. No further details arc known of
this outrage,which will doubtless lead to severe re:ri-
bution on the part of France.
A general meeting of tho sutar manufacturers of
the departments of the Aisne, Oise, and Summo will
be held at St. Quentin on Saturday, to petition the
Prince President to modify, in many important par-
ticulars, the rcccut ArgutAttons or the sugar trade.