The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-11 00:00:00

FaXPRE3B FROM PARIS.

(sort ous ow

PARIS, Tong Emma
There is something really grand in the attitude
now assumed by IL Emile de Oirardin. I have
often spoken disparagingly of him, because I think
him more of a sophist than a logician, and that he
is an eminently unsafe political guide to follow.
But I have always entertained great respect for
his talent, and now, more than ever, I admire his
courage. He left the press six years ago because he
found it impossible to write with any reasonable
degree of liberty. Now, encouraged by the decree
of Nov. 24, 1860, and the fair promises of the Em-
peror and M. de Persigny, he has resumed his pen
with the honest intention of giving an independent
support to the empire, and doing his best to prove
that it is not incompatible with a great deal
of practicable liberty. He is in possession of
a handsome independent fortune, and although not
sanguine as to the power of the press, which, on
the contrary, he has lately been running down in a
series of paradoxical articles, he writes, he says,
because to write is his nature, just as it is the na-
ture of the rose to blow. With all his eocentrieity
he contrives to say more apropos things of the inci-
dents of the day than any other writer, and upon
this reoent matter of the right of the journals to
comment upon the debates, his blows tell so heavily
that all his jealous writers are glad to quote him.
Last night he told the government to its beard that
he would not quietly submit to be drilled by offi-
cials who have small competence for their task.
A colonel who orders soldiers about is presumed
to know more than they do ; and there is a like
presumption in favour of the schoolmaster
who puts a foolscap on a boy's head. But he pro-
tests against the serious, conscientious, indepen-
dent, impartial, disinterested scholars who write in
newspapers being treated by functionaries like sol-
diers or schoolboys. That he will dam to do, " even
if it should be the last time that he should be per-
mitted to write in the Prase." He is determined,
at his own risk and peril, to give the government
an opportunity of trying in a court of law the
question whether a comment on a debate is a
breach of the constitution, and not a totally dis-
tinct thing from a report. Accordingly, in the
number of this evening, he gives a very full
analysis of the beginning of the debate
of yesterday, which touched upon the Ame-
rican question and the growth of cotton in
Algeria and Senegal. He postpones any reference
to the debate on Italy until it shall be finished.
As the Temps very truly observes, the govern-
ment may not indulge M. de Girardin by prosecut-
ing him, but may content itself with inflicting a
warning, and if he persists, may suspend or sup-
press his journal without triaL Nevertheless,
public opinion is so entirely in favour of M. de
Girardin that I think the government will be forced
not only to explain itself, but substantially to
give in.

A great scandal has just occurred in the offices
lof the Constitutionnel. That journal yesterday pub-

lished at the head of its columns the following letter,
addressed to M. Auguste Chevalier, deputy :

Paris, February 8.

Mosaieur,—The attitude which you lately have adopted,
and of which the evident object is to employ the powers which
you hold from me to dispossess mood the Orono° of the Co/tea-
-1
haionnel and the Pays, forces me to deprive myself of your
services. Having bean constrained by an irresistible inflo-
w= to appoint you political director of those journals, I
had nevertheless loyally accepted you. You, your protes-
tors and associates, however, organised a vast intrigue with
the view of overthrowing me. Manceuvres of that kind are
sufficiently baffled by being made known, and they fully
justify the measure which I am forced to exercise against
you. I, therefore, regret to announce to you th►t your
functions of political and literary director of those journals
have cessed.—Accept, etc.
VIOONT3 D'ANCHALD, Director-Gerant.

As might have been surmised, however, notwith-
standing the high tone taken in the above letter,
the "irresistible pressure" which forced M.
Auguste Chevalier upon the Constitutionner has
maintained him there and defeated the remonstrant
viscount with ignominy. To-day the Constitutions(
inserts a paragraph signed Bonifaoe, setting forth
that the Viscount d'Anchald came "surrepti-
tiously " to the printing-office at an undue hour of
the night when all the staff was gone
away, and ordered the above letter to be
printed, and that this morning a decree has
been obtained ordering M. A. Chevalier
to be reinstated, and, if necessary, by " an armed
force." As misfortunes never come singly, another
court has this morning declared that Viscount
d'Anchald was only appointed manager of the two
journals, the Cosistitutionnel and Pays, provisionally
during the necessary absence of Mires, and that he
must now resign his functions to the latter. This
peep behind the curtain is not calculated to incul-
cate respect for " government journals " in the
public mind.
The Duke de Levis, who left France in DM, and
has ever since lived with the Count de Chsuubord,
has just died at Venice. He was the recognised
leader of the legitimist party.
The Bourse continues firm. Ratites closed at
70.70., or sc. higher than yesterday.

WICATHER REPORT.-{THIS DAY.)

WZDIMIDAT, TMOLIT 11, 8 A.M.