The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-14 00:00:00

FRANCE.
•
PAW, TVISDAT Evemixo.
We arc informed to-day by the Petrie that ott the
occasion of the President'. visit to Strasbourg there
will be neither banquet .Inm Oficial speech. The.
Prince is to be accompanied by General do St.
Arnaud, Minister of War, Count Turgot, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, and M. Lefebvre Durufl.,, Minister
of Public Works. The details of the preparations
making to receive the l'resident at the various points
of the railway to be inaugurated lie scattered
through the columns of the various depart-
mental
organs. The completion of this enter-
prise is, it must be confessed, worthy of being
Ord with all splendour, whether we consider
-its commercial or strategic utility. As soon as that
portion of the eircu'ar railway at Paris is completed,
which is to connect the termini of the Havre and,
Strasbourg railways, good may be conveyed without
loading or other obstacle from the port of the At-
lantic to the city of the Rhine. As to the strategic
point of view the importance of the new railway,
whether for attack or defence, is equally obvious, sad
the number of troops which France could in a few
hours concentrate on the Rhine must become a
serious matter of reflection to all who are interested
in preventing the map of Europe from being changed.
Lefebvre-Durufle, Minister of Public Works, has set
out already for Strasbourg in order to. inspect the
line of railway previous to the President's trip, the
moment of whose departure will not be definitively
flied before the return of that minister.

The itinerary of the President, in his progress
through the southern departments, which is to take
Follows
about September, is understood to be fixed as
follows: From Bordeaux the Presidents to go to
Toulouse, Montpellier, and Marseilles, and to return
to Paris by Lyons. Between Bordeaux and Tou-
louse the Prince is to stop at Agen and Montauban.
From Montpellier to Marseilles he will follow nearly
the line of the Languedoc Canal.
Several companies are in the field for the grant of
the Bordeaux and Cette Railway. This affair will not,
however, be settled just yet, but will be decided be-
fore the President's voyage to the south. A fusion is
talked of between the principal members of the coin•
peting companies.
M. Arago, the celebrated astronomer, has predicted
that there will take place at Paris, within the next
few days, a terrible storm, which will last 2i hours.
The Parisians to-day aro all occupied with descanting'
upon this meteorological prophecy, and there pre-
vails a general belief among the lower orders that
this famous storm is to take plitet tq-ziorrow, Loge.
' then %all an earthquake, and the end of the world
is fixed for Thurftluy. This is seriously the belief of
many house-porters whom I have seen this morning,
and appears to be spread throughout the capital.
The black mustering of thunder clouds this after-
noon has come to verify in some degree the predic-
tion of a storm; and there really prevails at this
moment throughout Paris a sort of panic respecting
the metereological phenomena which arc supposed to
impend. I know not from what source the people
have got it into their heads that M. Arago has made
this prediction ; but the name of the astronomer is in
every mouth, as as authority for the general super-
stition.

The President sent yesterday for the servant of
General St. Arnaud, who horsewhipped some of the
navvies for throwing stones at his master lately,
while riding in the neighbourhood of Vichy. The
Prince commended the soldier for his spirited eon-
' duct, and, giving him a 500 franc note, told him
as soon as he had completed his term of military
service to come to the lilyis:c, and that he (the Pre-
sident) would take care to provide him with a suit-
able post.
It appears that those who arc not contented with
the present government find means to disseminste,
by the agency of hawkers, publications calculated to
make their political opinions partaken by the popula-
tions of the provinces. The government has begun
to °coin, itself seriously with this question.
The minister of police, I understand, has addressed
to the prefects a circular respecting the hawkers of
books and printed publications, exhorting them to
ut strictly into execution the laws and demos. re-
tive to such itinerant vendors of literary wares. M.
a Maupas demands in this circular a statement of
all the authorisations issued by the prefects to
hawkers during a given time; and orders that in
future no publications are to be sold in this way
which are not furnished with a stamp attesting the
rests of the authorities.

The Marquis d'Audiffret presented the report of
the Senate's committee on the budget in one of the '
last sittings of that body. It appears from this do-
cument that the rentes before 1814 only amounted li
to 63 millions ; the disasters of 1815 increased them
Ito 193 millions. During the Restoration there took
place a reduction of 31 millions. During the reign
of Louis Philippe there was an increase of 24 mil-
lions, so that on the 24th of Feb., 1848, the rentes
amounted to 186 millions. The revolution increased
them to 229 millions; and they now amount to 209
millions.

The Superior Council of Public Instruction opened
its session yesterday, under thu presidency of M.
Fortoul, the Minister of Public Instruction and Wor-
ship. The proceedings will be watched with great
interest, owing to the general unpopularity of the
decree of April 10th upon education, and the preva-
lent hope that material modifications will be made at
the suggestion of the council.
The event of the opening of the session is thus
noticed by the Munitewr :
The somas, which is to lad s aiseth, will bo principally
devoted to drawing up the puggramates of instruction in
letters and sciences in th• locks. sa ths bases fixed by the
decree of 10th April last as dm of atedbes. A mixed
coausinsion. composed of of the Klaistsn of War,
Flamm, teed Marius, sad sepiesating the Polytechnic,
St. Cyr, neat, sad naval rink peipased a month since,
in esidearties with the impahaelemeeel et public in-
stabilities. the prespausses of the seismal&
d=iscu(
is 1r This camienlim kw shown by the
and malt OW labsess, the liberal and literary spirit which
sew aelmees ass who ere the mot deeply bapreesed with
the isperlumee et paelke sad preetteal studies. The adais-
tiriel dieeke OM* In Ma bad already pointed eat the
true *kb et the deems of 10th April. The speedy pal'
Wiest delta peeepramme will shew that the arab, seem-
ed as/ So midder_ .es the Maki lalielesesee et the Mem
of the Pelase•rmilea'e mm ast lee 1111111 bull to praline is
the pubis embeds whiseme Illseasy Walther than to in-
treiaso Om wash dm,. es ass soled for by our
weld Wily. _ _

The ifilesiteur contains a decree of the minister of
the interior and agriculture and commerce, which,
after dating that it is important in years of abund-
ance to take measures for supplying the deficiencies
of bed harvests, and that, with regard to provisions,
and especially coni, quelltio. us of the highest import-
ance exist, appoints a corn commission in his minis-
try, composed of MM. Heartier, Drouyn do flays,
Baron de Seville, Cartier, Gauthier, Delamarre, and
Moony de Mornay, with M. Foubert, head of the
übsistence department, for secretary.
A telegraphic despatch from Toulon announces the
departure from that port, on Saturday, of tho screw
line-of-battle-ship Charlemagne, having on board the
Marquis de Lavalette, French ambassador to the
Ottoman Porte, M. Benedetti, first secretary, and M.
Sefels, an attache of the Turkish embassy at Paris.
The Charlemagne will proceed direct to Constanti-
nople, where she is expected to arrive in six days.
Tho Bank of France has decided that a branch
bank shall be established at Toulon, and has directed
M. Gautier, the vice-governor, to make the report,
preliminary to its creation.
At the Bourse the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. fell
15, and closed at 103.5 ; the Threes fell 25, and
closed at 72.15. Bank of France shares rose 2010
with the exception of ltonen, which rose 10. Most
of the railway lines were lower to-day. Orleans fell
30; Strasbourg and Lyons, 5 each ; Bordeaux and
Cette, 2.50; St. Germain maintained yesterday's
quotations.