The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-08 00:00:00

FRANCE.

(1,8011 TILI COMIIISPONDZIT 01, TAN DAILY 1111•11.)
PARIS, WZDNISDLT EVENING.

, __._.....-.
I learn from a credible source that the Emperor
lately told some general offioers that, unless anything
unexpected should occur to alter present arrange...
ments, a general assault upon Sebastopol
.would be
made on the 12th instant.

There are again rumours that General Canrobert is
likely to be superseded by General Pelisaier, and it
is now added that the Emperor has taken this resolu-
tion in consequence of statements contained in a
report from General Niel, the commandant of the
engineers. I cannot say how far these rumours may
be true. I know that General Canrobert has enemies,
and powerful enemies, at court,:but he has hitherto
been warmly supported by Colonel Fleury, and the
Emperor's long-continued confidence in him has cer-
tainly been ratified by his popularity with; the army
The first detachment of the artillery of the guard
destined to the Crimea was brought up yesterday to
Paris from Versailles by specie! train. Tne train
proceeded by the connecting railway round Paris to
the Lyons railway, and the detachment was at once
sent off to that city. Other detachments of artillery
of the guard are to leave to-morrow and Friday.
The Slid* has had a severe private warning for
its recent articles asking for more liberty.
The news of the formation of a Cabinet by Lord
Palmerston was well received at the Bourse, and
several orders to buy were given at the opening.
But many of these orders were withdraws when it
was found that Consols remained stationary. The
absence of Lord John Russell's name from the list
led to doubts whether the government would be able
to command a majority in the Rouse of Commons,
and it was conjectured that Consols were kept down
by the fear of a dissolution. The Rente, after opening
at yesterday's price, declined to 67fr. 55c., and reco-
vered to 67fr. 90c., closing with a fall of 20e. The
Orleans railway rose sfr., but the other lines fell
generally from 2fr. to 6fr.
The Assemblee has an article, supposed to be
written by M. Guizot, in which a most lugubrious
view is taken of the ministerial crisis is England.
Lord Aberdeen is represented as a martyr to blind
popular excitement, fomented by a reckless press.
There is nothing surprising, and certainly nothing
alarming, in this expression of opinion by the
Assemblie—even if we assume the entire truth of the
rumour that the article comes from the pen of the
distinguished, though by no means prescient or suc-
cessful, statesman to whom it is attributed. The
Assemble* has from the first supported the Russian
cause as far as it could venture to do by the existing
laws of the passe, and in now regretting the fall of '
Lord;Aberdeen does but lament the lose of a friend.
In its affected apprehension for the safety of consti-
tutional
government in England, because the pressure
of public opinion has at length broken up a ministry
which was unwilling or incapable to prosecute the
war with vigour, it does but labour in its vocation
as the advocate of the Russian cause. We read in
the article in question :
The Ministry of Lord Aberdeen has-not been judged ; it
has been simply abandoned, sacrificed. And it has been
sacrificed precisely to those clamours out of doors, to those
disorderly manifestations to which an appeal hu just now
been male (alluding to an article in the Times) as the sole
means of filling up the void which the late administration
had left behind it. It is In the name of this blind power that
plod Aberdeen's government had been forced to leave to the
arbitrement of war a question which, in our opinion, might
yet be resolved by the means and ways of peace. Still later,
in obedience to the same overwhelming influence, the Ist*
administration had to consent to en expedition which, at
the period when it was commenced, could not be viewed
otherwise than one of the utmost peril. It has been without
doubt the chief author of its own fall ; for it imprudently
delivered up a portion of its functions to that pressure from
w 'thug unaer the effortsof which it hu at length succumbed.
As is always the sue, after having yielded lit saw the
pewsr to which it had bowed its head turn on it, and
make it the expiatory victim of those faults and illusions to
which it had probably been associated, in spite of all its
efforts to the contrary. Behold, then, the prime cause of the
evil which all the world sees, deplores, and signalises to-day.
The Parliament, which had contributed to the faults of
undoubted commission, knew not how to defend the minis-
ters which 'till had its confidence. It got alarmed at the
accusations of which it was the object; and in place of
making head against the storm, it abandoned those with
whom, in justice and honour, it ought to have shared the
responsibility. Is not all this a deplorable forgetfulness of
the great and powerful institutions of England, sod is it to
be wondered at that such forgetfulness should bear its
fruits

"'The Assemble., in the outset of its article, dwelt
with much unction upon some telegraphic despatches
of yesterday, giving the names of important public
men who had not " yet" been prevailed upon to join
Lord Palmerston, and inferred with glee that Eng-
land was in such a state that it was impossible to
form a government It will be sorely disappointed
to find by the despatches of this evening that the
government is formed.
Several able divers from London and Paris have
just passed through Lyons on their way to the
Crimea. They were there joined by one of the most
experienced divers of that city.