The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-19 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 19, 1852.

iirstlng vessiwal no hide newspapers to-day
millhimitt.wiaf at dlio pad-aims as to dm cause of
y. I received for assert that orders
i2Mrre;i from M. de Maupas to mad all the
journals received from abroad to the ministry of
police. Whether this extraordinary obstruction of
lintergenee hem continue, or is merely an exceptional
measure, I have no means of knowing. In all cases
it implies a brazen-faced defiance of the public, and
I contempt of their convenience. Thousands of people
are to-day prohibited, by this not of despotism, unex-
ampled at Vienna or St. Petersburg, from reading
the taws of Italy, Belgium, Germany, and
England. For some time past great irregularity
has been experienced in the di
stribution of foreign
the greater part of which, particularly those
ronelgium and Switzerland, are kept back till
their intelligence is out of date. I mentioned a day
or two ago a semi-official article of a menacing cha-
racter directed against those foreign journals which
are not included in the "base exception" of pane-
gyrist* of the rule of M. Louis Bonaparte. That it
seems was the cloud portending. a storm, of which
the newspaper-re:xis of to-day is possibly the first
taste. Evidently the system of terror, on which the
present government leans, is, instead of relaxing,
growing more intense. Discontent multiplies, and
in proportion must be multipled the pressure which
coerces all complaint. No class escapes the vexa-
tious activity of the government, whose iron
hand pinches in all directions, and smites
all who groan uuder the infliction. Bat of
all the fantastic schemes afoot, tho debasement
of the copper coinage is that which will
most completely depopularise the President, whose
effigy is to be spread by this means. What peasant
throughout France will ho brought to understand
lhow he can suffer aught but loss by being forced to
give up a penn weighs weighs an ounce, to receive in
tarn ono that only half an ounce. What
better argument against the government de facto
would the factions of pretenders desire to put in the
hands of all Frenchmen than this dwarfed copper
piece, whims is to penetrate everywhere. A govern-
ment that shows so little policy in its reforms is
likely, at no very distant period, to afford a gratifying
spectacle to its enemies by making use of the rope
allowed it in the manner they most desire. Hence,
there is little tendency towards fresh adhesions on the
part of important men. The gorses afforded out of
the public pocket to senatorial innecuresnee unenvied
by the prudent in proportion to tho smothered in-
dignation of the oppressed tax-pryer.
The Gazette de Frankfurt has been seized to-day.
The papers detained at the ministry of police have
been distributed in the afternoon.
Among the reports relative to the coming empire,
one his reached me to-day which deserves notice. I
have already stated that at the review on the 10th of
May the army is expected to proclaim Louis Napo-
leon emperor by acclamation ; that the President
would then make a speech, thanking the army for
their demonstrations of devotion, as the echo of the
nation's longing to see the supreme power settled
upon a durable base, but adjourning the
solution of the question. After the cere-
mony of this day petitions for the empire
are to be pushed in every quarter by the
prefects, to whom, by the way, M. de Pcrsigny ad-
dresses
this day a circular to set their zeal on the
alert. The same energy of propulsion by which the
mistral government canvassed petitions for the revi-
don of the constitution, is to drive the provincial
beads to sign petitions for the establishment of the
maim Not without an eye to the main chance did
dot framer of tho constitution make the Senate the
Interpreter of petitions. The wishes of the people,
soostrued by the feed courtiers of the President, pave
6e imperial way to hereditary absolutism with
Int ease. Whatever the head of the state wants
b done by the simplest mechanism—petitions inter-
'tested by the Senate. Of course this liveried corps
of paid patricians will represent the empire as the
unanimous wish of France. Thus was the
operation conducted under the consulate. An
appeal will then be made to the people. It will
be shown in this that no other government remains
for France but that of Louis Napoleon, which has
already received the sanction of universal suffrage,
at the hereditary royalty which has been thrice ex-
pelled. Tho question would be then put between
flee empire and the legitimate monarchy. Thus
would universal suffrage be made an engine for an-
aihilating the pretensions of the Orleans family, and
i 4 as the President doubts not, the result of the vote
were in his favour, it would be regarded as the defi-
nitive substitution of the Bonaparte family for tho
elder branch of the Bourbons, and as the consecration
of the hereditary principle in favour of the heirs of
the emperor. Such is the account given to me from
a credible source of the plan of the campaign for carry-
ing the empire, which seems based one bold and adroit
manoeuvre for crushing, with the same blow, the
rival pretensions of the Bourbon branches.
General Magaan appoints among the leading offi-
cers in the army commissioners who are charged to
prepare and execute the principal measures of the
fete of May 10. I understand that the general rated
at about £12,000 the total expense. On venturing
to give this estimate he was told, I hear, by one of
the commissioners that this fete ought to mark an
epoch in the soldier's life, and each man should con-
sequently receive an abundant ration. For this per-
rose nearly double the sum would be necessary.
Such is now the notion of military enjoyment.
A pretty general feeling of alarm pervades the
capital as to the upshot of the big day of May 10.
The families of citizens who yet quake at the recol-
lection of the appalling days of December dread the
excesses to which a soldiery inflamed by copious
libations and imperialist fanaticism may be, perhaps
by accident, betrayed. Several families, influenced
by these apprehensions, are about to quit Paris be-
fore the day of the fete.
The sixth annual meeting of the "Creches"
society of Paris has just been held in the Salle Sainte
Cecile. The Cardinal Archbishop of Bordeaux pre-
sided. This admirable charity, yet in its infancy,
was founded in Paris only seven years ago, by M.
Marbeau, and has more than realised the most san-
guine expectations that were formed of its success.
A " Creche" is a public nursery, where poor women
who gain their livelihood by working. away from
their homes may leave their children during the day-
time. Before the institution of these societies hau-
-1 dreds of mothers found themselves placed in the
cruel alternative of being obliged to devote their
whole time to the care of their infants, or of leaving
them for hours together in a miserably neglected
state, while working out of doors for daily bread.
There are now twenty:five " Creches" in Paris;
they arc ?pen from five in the morning till eight in
the evening. Babies of the tenderest age are re-
ceived, and the mothers can call at any time to
suckle them. Children old enough to be 1eft41.41:4
without the mother are properly fed,
and attended to by nurses of the establish-
ment. It is a rule without exception that
every child must be taken to its mother's home in
the evening. Medical attendance is provided, and
no sick children are admitted. Tho greater part of
the expenees are raised by voluntary contributions.l
But as that which costs nothing is generally little
valued, and as, moreover, the mother who is enabled
to go to her work by these institution* may reason-
ably be expected to pay something towards them, the
rules require every mother to pay ono fifth part of
the estimated expense of her child, or about 2d. a
day. In particular cases, where the mother cannot
milord this, the payment is dispensed with, but pri-
vately, in order that the mother may not lose her
self-respect. So useful have these establishments
been found that in 18.51 the 25 creches of Paris re-
ceived 160,000 children. M. hlarbeau, in his speech
at the meeting, said, with the just pride of a founder,
that whatever doubts might at first have been enter-
tained of the success of the principle, it is now de-
monstrated by seven years' experience in all climates
that children of tender years may be brought up
together in public nurseries, sad that the fact is a
new truth proved for the benefit of humanity.
Nothing can be more interesting than a visit to a
creche. There is one in the Rue St. Lazare,
where nearly one hundred little creatures
are daily. received. Tho most scrupulous
cleanliness is ensured by frequent visits of the ladies
patronesses, and this cleanliness has its good effect
not only in promoting the present well being of the
child, but in setting an example which the mother is
encouraged to follow at home. M. Marbesu stated
I that creches have spread from Paris to every part of
the world. There are eight in Vienna, and several
lat Milan. lam not aware that any exist in London,
but it can scarcely be doubted that the poor there
would find them welcome additions to the baths and
wash-houses.

I mark IS • serious bistoriced d 0...
following het d a recantation which tbe4vet.
prisoners laths south of France have been
sign by the, race commissioner, K. Quentin Ben-
ched, before clemency of the Pcsaident could be
extended :
Irr the&Wen then I eterpt with pe-
eked* the perms seamed MS 1/7 the Pelee President of
the Republic if the penalty of espehien dem Peres, to
which I was sandlemamed by the mixed sommiselen, mad 1
erimwow Is Imbibe es any mend meisty, sever again
esapy remit Wei peat* and to be effthrtal to the go
mamma whisk Prime never Iwnelf by the votes et 2eth
and 21st Dee., 1861. 1 ads minim to evaders as a person
under "sierveillance," te the seder. et the antheeisim
The oaths and promises to which the government
now professes to attach so much value are exacted
to an extent that becomes truly ridiculous. If it be
thought fit to set at nought the maxim that a pro-
, mime extorted by duress is not binding. surely care
should be taken not to impose promises which no
free men ought to make. What anomaly can be
more striking than a government whose daily boast
is that it rests upon universal suffrage, calling upon
any class of citizens not to interfere in politics? As
if it were not the plain duty as well as privilege of
every member of society, and a professedly demo-
cratic society especially—to take part according to
his leisure and capacity in public affairs.
Orders have been sent to several prefects in the
south of France to send no more political exiles into
Belgium, but only to England. Some few from some
of the provinces are to be sent into Spain, but upon
condition of proving their means of existence, and
undertaking not to reside near the frontier.
Two newspapers in the department of the Gironde,
the Journal du Peuple and the Courrier tie la Gi-
ronde, have been seized.
A leading article in the Public states that incen-
diary fires arc occurring in the provinces to an alarm-
ing extent. According to this journal, tho news-
papers have refrained from giving publicity to these
fires for fear of alarming the public mind; but the
fact has now become so notorious that all attempts
at concealment would be useless. It attributes these
fires to the socialists, who, finding themselves stripped
of their muskets by the firmness of the government,
betake themselves to fire as the last resource of war.
The Public, however, is evidently disposed to exag-
gerate the extent and importance of these fires in
order to enhance the merits of the coup Vied, and
probably, according to the logic of its party, to prove
the necessity of the empire. It is true that some
, state forests have been set on fire in the Haut Rhin,
and the prefect of that department has issued a cir-
cular upon the subject to the gendarmerie. But I
have no reason to believe in the existence of anycuch
systematic and widely-spread incendiary conspiracy
as the Public would represent.
The Moniker contains a decree by M. Bineau, in
the name of the President of the Republic, re-
ducing from 4 to 3 per cent
therate of discount
allowed to parties who pay in cash the customs
duties on imports when the sum to be received exceeds
6:lofr.,the salt duty, the duty upon indigenous sugars,
and the beer duty. This decree will take effect from
and after July 1, 1832.
It is said to be certain that the renewed com-
mercial treaty between Franco and Belgium will
contain a clause for putting down the literary piracy
of which French authors have so long complained.