The Express.
London, England, 1855-01-18 00:00:00

JANUARY 18,

FRANCE.

'' :I'_-t.

•
(1120 X 111111 conanstroxossly or Till DAILY =WC)
PlllllB, EVININO.
It is not our, to resompliP the different accounts of
tliso Russian movement 'in the Dobrudscha. The
statement from Vienna in the Moniteur that the de-
Oakmont which had crossed the Danube on the 7th
amtl.Bth, and recrossed the river and entered Ismail
en the 10th, may be thought to oonfict with the
telegraphic news I transmitted to you dated Brailow,
12th, according to which a formidable Russian form
was marching upon Baltjik, which is not far from
Varna. This observation, however, and it seems to
rot not an unimportant one, is to be made. Till
this morning the liforsiteur has lissa altogether silent
with regard to the new Raman invasion
at Turkey. The announcement of the retreat of the
" detachment" in question is a confirmation of the
original news which you were the first to announce
London, and which has never yet been officially
given. The news from Brailow of later date than
that in the ihmiteser comes from the same source as
the communication of some days since, which was
doubted, and now turns out to have been true. So

tar there is a presumption in favour of the latest in-
telligence. It is, moreover, to be remarked that
there is an evident interest at Vienna with reference
to the obligations of Austria, by the recent treaty, to
suppress a fast of this kind as long as possible, and
to diminish its importance when known.
The house of Fould, Oppenheim, and Co., was
robbed to-day in an extraordinary manner of five
lingots of gold, worth 120,000 f. A partner in the
bowie was accompanying a hand-cart drawn by two
porters, containing several lingots, which had been
sent to a sworn assayer's. By collusion, it is sup-
posed, between the porters and the robbers, some
planks of the cart were taken out, and the five ha-
rm abstracted.
The Emperor and Empress honoured the first repre-
sentation of Scribe's drains of " La Czarine "
this evening, with their presence at the Theatre
FranQais. Their Majesties (says Galignans) were
received with warm demonstrations by the public on
their entrance, and also saluted with acclamations on
their departure.

At the Bourse the rents rose 30a., closing at 67.70,
nearly the highest prioe of the day. The loan is
now known to amount to 1,792 minions, and many
subscriptions from the departments have not yet
been sent in.

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DINING.
Yesterday (continues the same correspondent) the
Societi Generale de Gastronome, of which M.
Emile de Oirardia is a leading member, opened
their monster restaurant, the Diner de l'Espo-
region, in the Rues Lepelletier and Laffite. The
event marks the commencement of a sew era in the

science of dining in this the great centre of the
culinary art, and I shall therefore send you some
details, although I am deeply sensible of the inade-
quacy of my pen to do justice to the subject. Your
special correspondent, upon whose domain I am gene-
rally careful not to trespass, will no doubt consider
the "dinner" as one of the "annexes" of the Exhibi-
tion, and will in due time send you an elaborate pic-
ture to replace my hurried and imperfect outline.
The directors of the "Great Exhibition Dinner" are

not the inventors of a new system. They merely
profess to improve upon a recent experiment, which
has been attended with unexampled success. It is
very possible that, u in the cue of gunpow-
der, the steam engine, and numerous other great
discoveries, the credit of the invention may be given
to those whose names are associated with its univer-
sal diffusion, while the real inventors are forgotten.
In the course of last summer one of the many jour-
nalists whose occupation was gone in consequence of
the great political revolution of 1851, out of the
abundance of his leisure and mental activity, con-
ceived the idea of a dining establishment upon a
scale never before attempted, which should combine
the advantages of the table d'hote with those of a
restaurant, at a fixed price. He was a man of small
capital, but he had faith in his project, and found
friends to supply him with money to carry it out.
You must_ have heard of the Diner de Paris,

on the Boulevard, at the corner of the Pas-
sage Jouffroy, the first restaurant of the
kind in question ever opened in Paris. The
retired journalist was the founder of this establish-
ment. He started from premises something like
these. The conveniences of a table d'hote are a
variety of well-cooked dishes, a handsome, well
warmed, well lighted, and well ventilated dining-
room, and the cheerful buzz of society at the very
moment in the twenty-four hours at which mankind
is most disposed to be cheerful, combined with a
moderate rate of payment. The inconveniences are
the fixed hour, and the necessity to a certain extent
laid upon you of making acquaintance, however
slight, with the strangers who may happen to sit
near you. At the restaurants, at a fixed prioe,whieh
have long abounded in Paris, a dinner at a moderate
—often at a very cheap—rate, selected at
pleasure from an infinitely varied bill of fare,
may be had at any reasonable hour. But
the frequenters of such places too well know
that, when soup, fish, entrées, hors-creuvres, roasts,
game, vegetables, salads, desserts and wine, are given
for 2 trance, the stomach has small rejoicing when all
is swallowed. Even if the viands may not be of
second or third rate quality (as for the most part they
are) they must of necessity, in the majority of
instances, be spoilt by overcooking, because the cook,
who is expected to have everything in season always
ready, can never tell when any particular dish may
be called for. The main idea of the Diner de Paris
was to have but one bill of fare for the day, as at a
table d'hote, but to have during the ordinary dining
hours a constant succession of the same series of
dishes. The bill of fare was conspicuously posted up,
at the door, so that every customer might
pause at the threshold if he saw any-
thing prima facie not pleasing to him, and
a promise was made that a first-class cook, whose
attention would not be distracted by sudden calls
for any dish that a man might fancy out of a list of
three hundred, would send up to table nothing but
the beat things of the season, and those cooked to as
great a nicety as if ordered for a fixed hour. The
new system pleased the Parisians. All last summer
the vast saloons of the Diner de Paris were thronged
with diners at 31 francs each, which price included
a bottle of yin ordinaire, or half a bottle of better
quality. The success of the parent establishment
speedily encouraged speculators to start others
of a similar kind. Within the last few
months we have seen the Diner de Com-
merce, the .Diner Europeen, the Diner Uni-
verse!, and some others—all rather cheaper than
the Diner de Paris, and at the same time as good, or
nearly so. Now comes M. de Girardin's scheme for
dining the well-to-do million on the same system, but
on a mach grander scale. His argument is this. There
are in Paris thousands of natives and foreigners
who dine daily or frequently at first-class restaurants,
where, without any particular luxury, they spend 16
francs for their dinner. If we can, by a grand com-
bination and judicious outlay of capital, give this class
of society the same dinner for M., shall we not surely
attract them to our table? Bach is the substance of
a prospectus circulated in Paris for some months past
An important part of the project is that the
undertaking is divided into shares, at the low
rate of 25L a share. The directors offered the
tempting terms of a free ticket for one dinner to
every shareholder, and a contract to take the shares
at par (in dinners) whenever the holder might wish
to eat them out. The opening of this giant estab-
lishment has been postponed from time to time, and
people began to think it would never open at all. A
few days ago the 25f. shares were at 16f. discount,
and many fortunate purchasers are now proceeding
to eat five splendid dinners for the ridiculously small
sum of 10 francs. Yesterday it was positively an-
nounced that the Exhibition dinner would open
at four o'clock. The two entrances were be-
sieged by long queues of people long before
the hour. I myself went at seven o'clock and saw
numbers turned away. A formidable footman, in
gorgeous livery, six feet high, told me four thousand
people had dined, and that there was not a single
vacant plane in the establishment I was going away
in despair, but fortunately the idea struck me to try
the other door. I obtained admission into a gorgeous,
saloon covering an area at least as large as that ot,
Lincoln's-inn HaIL After waiting a few moments,aa
elegant chamberlain, in black, with a golden chahh
found me a seat on a velvet cushioned chair. I was
served with extraordinary regularity with a delicate

dinner. Every dish was perfect in its hind, end
quite hot. A very hungry man might pedal,
have objected that there was a want of a piece 7,
risiatance. Bat I will net pronounce an opinion
against the liberality of the establishment on a fleet
trial. The wine was excellent, but the grand featm,
of the thing is the miss en scene, the brilliant light,
the numbers who sit comfortably without crowding
and, above all, that recommendation which the bee;
restaurants in Paris want—good ventilation. Theo
are numbers of private rooms, and another lulu,
dining room upstairs, which I did not see. Th,
waiters are elegant men, resembling " gentlemen', ,
gentlemen" of the first water. A little footman of
14, in smart livery, appeared to have nothing ,i to •
do bat to touch his hat to °orders and gees, end
excited much amusement by the diligence with
which he performed this duty. There were bet few
ladies present on account of the crowd, bat after & few
days they will doubtless appear in great numbers.
This afternoon the approaches to the monster temple
of gourmandise were even more crowded than yes.
terday.

GENERAL CANROBERT.

The Monifeur of Tueedai has the following in its
official part :

" By an Imperial decree of the 13th January, Nu.
the Emperor, upon the proposition of the Minister
of War, has conferred the military medal upon If.
Certain Canrobert (Francois), General of D:visise,
aide-de-camp of his Majesty, Commander-in-Chief at
the Army of the East.

" Thisgeneral officer counts 28 years' service, 17
campaigns, and three wounds, two of the latter hp.
ing been received in the Crimea."

THE SOUND DUES.

(Plow THE CORUSPONDINT OP THE DAILY ICEEE4
COPENHAGEN, his. 12.
The more frequent the opportunities that I hayed
talking to intelligent Danes on the subject of the
Sound dues, the more convinoed am I that if the
question were brought forward in a proper manner
by the nations most interested in the abolition of the
nuisance, and proposals of a tangible nature offered
to indemnify Denmark for the financial loss, the pre.
sent liberal government would not be found nevi'.
ling to treat on the subject. It is not so much the
money value of the toll that is complained of, as the
I delay and danger of accidents ih that narrow chan.
nel, where moreover fogs are very prevalent and the
coast low. A memorable case of delay came under
my own observation, which, though I admit it my be
a very extreme case, may be worth recording. goy
years ago, and before the general introduction of
steam, I had occasion to visit a Baltic port, and took
a passage in a British brig from Hull. On our
arrival at Elsinore we were of course obliged to lay
to and be overhauled. Some doubts being expressed
by the authorities as to the correctness of the mani-
fest, we were obliged to anchor for the night, in
doing which we exchanged signals with another
vessel belonging to the same shipowners, which
had arrived hest before us and was going
through the bound with the same fair wind
which had brought us to Elsinore. The next
day, when our ship's papers were cleared, we
' found that the wind had chopped round to the south,
and was blowing so fresh right in our teeth that it
' was deemed impracticable to get up the anchor.
That southerly wind held on without intermission for
three weeks, and we were still lying at anchor at
Elsinore, when one morning we were surprised at
seeing our consort slashing up with the wind, and
making the most of it, for she was under double
studding sails. She had actually been up to St.
Petersburg (or rather Cronstadt), discharged her
cargo, taken in a fresh one, and here she was more
than half way back to England!
The view I took of the American question, as com-
municated to you in my letter of the sth inst., is
confirmed to my mind by statistics, and I here venture
to repeat that Mr. President Pierce's threatened
interference ought to be looked upon with suspicion,
for the flag of the United States is interested in the
navigation of the Baltic only to a most insignificant
extent—less than per cent!
The statistical tables of the Sound lists, for the
year 1854, not being yet officially published, I will
take those for the two preceding ones. Out of 21,586
ships of all nations that passed the Sound both
ways in 1853, only 96 were American, and but 76
in 1852 out of 17,563. Therefore the aggregate
share of their flag in the Baltic trade during those
two years amounts to 0.44-100 of the whole. But it
must also be remembered that all ships passing the
Sound count double in these statistical tables, for they
are counted for one when they go into the Baltic,
and again when they come out, so that the actual
number of American ships passing the Sound in 1853
was but 48, and in 1852 only 38.
It being important in the present early state of
the question which is " looming in the distance," but
must soon be brought under serious consideration,
that your readers may form an adequate idea of the
relative interests of the maritime nations in general,
and the preponderating participation of the British
flag in particular, I make no apology for sending you
the following tables, with the official figures :
LIST OP THE SHIPS OP ALL NATIONS THAT PASSED THE

SODND IN THE TEARS 1852 AND 1853.

-- ---- ---
Flag. 1852. 1851 Average percentage
of the two ran.
1. British
2, Norwegian 3,020 3,393 16.48
3. Preuian 2,319 3,487 12 28
4. Swedish 2,100 2,107 10.50
6. D etch 1,691 1,875 970
6. Danish
7. Russian
8. Mecklenburg
9. Hanoverian
10. French

Lübeck
11. Hamburg
J}1.16
Bremen
12. Oldenburg

All other; (ihelia:

ding the Amiripn) 135 183 0.81

Totals
BOUND LIST FOR THE TEN TEARS.
1844-1853 inclusive.
1844
1846
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
18.52
1853

Average of the ten yean.. 18,762 ~

Although, asl said before, the tables for 1854 have
not yet been published, they have been made up, and
having been favoured with a sight of them. I am en-
abled to give you the following particulars: The
'total number of ships that passed the Sound in 1854
was only 16,469, showing a falling of 5,000 vessels as
compared with the year before, and 2,300 less than
the average of the previous ten years. Such a result
is not to be wondered at, and is the natural conse-
quence of the war and the blockade of the Russian
ports. The greatest falling off is in the number of
British ships (2,600 or more than one-half), the Rus-
sians (1,052), the Prussians (400), and the Danish
(300). The number of American ships was only 18,
though figuring in the lists for 36, as they cleared
at Elsinore on entering the Baltic, and again on
leaving it.
According to the Danish budget for 1853-1854,
which is available for our present consideration, u
war was not thought of when it was framed, the re-
venue from the Sound, Belt, and Holstein Canal
dues was estimated at 2,081,000 Danish rix dollars,
of which about a million and a half, or 130,0001., are
derived from at Sound dues alone.
This sum divided amongst the average annual
number of ships during the last ten years (18,7544
would give the sum of 81. for each ship each way.
But it must not be forgotten that about three quarters
of the Sound dues falls on the cargo, and not quite
one quarter on the ship, and as by far the greater
part of the American navigation up the Baltic belongs
to what is called the carrying trade, that is to say,
carrying cargo fer account of Russian or English
merchants, the whole weight of the Sound dues that
fell on the Americans in 1852 was the petty sum of
1921., 1521. in 1853, and only 721. in 1854. With
such insignificant interests at stake, for which more-
over they have the advantage of a well found chain

of Witham all throtigh the dangerous parts of the
disoael, it cannot seriously be supposed that they
will risk a war with Denmark, or if they do, that
they mast have author and hitherto secret motive
ale a hostile demonsteatioe. A clue to this paler/
gm ty perhaps be farad in the offer of the United
Biates to mediate Itetween Russia and her opponents,
why however is not likely to meet with any sinus
seesidsration on either side.
Ent the above tables show us which are the
oonona really interested in the abolition of the
joond does. It appears that England absorbs
asstly our .fourth of the whole Baltic trade, Norway
oadlwedea together another quarter, and Prussia
sad Holland together a third quarter. If those
governments, therefore, were to come to an under-
studingon the subject amongst themselves, and then
map
ajoint reveal to Denmark for the commute.
tied of the Sound dues, there is certain) y no reason
to expect that such an offer would be rejected. Let
- haps that some influential and patriotic member
will be found willing to bring the subject under the
sotto, of parliament, and that the Chambers of Cost-
moue in our principal ports and manulerturing cities
moidd support the demand for a revisioo, and, even-
tual"! the abolition of these most obnoxious Sound
dust, there can be little doubt of, especially if the
question be taken up with spirit by " the fourth