The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16, 1852.

FRANCE.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION.

PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT.

FROM OUR OWN CORIRSPONDINT.
PARIS, THURSDAY, HALT•PAST NM,.
The constitution is promulgated, preceded by a
proclamation (given below).
The President is to preserve his present title;
he is responsible before the people, to whom
he can always appeal. He commands the
land and sea forces. He alone has the ini-
tiative of the laws. lie has a right to declare
the state of siege, save the referring of it to tho
Senate. Ile presents one message every year. No
accusation can be brought against ministers but by
the senate. They are only responsible for their
respective duties.
The functionaries take the oath of obedience to
the constitution and fidelity to the President.
In case of the death of the President the Senate
calls upon the nation for a new election.
The President has the right to designate to the
people, by a secret deed, deposited with the Senate,
the citizen whom ho recommends to the suffrage,
until the electim of a new president.
The President of the Senate governs jointly with
ministers.

The number of senators not to exceed one hun-
dred and fifty. It is fixed at eighty for the first year.
The senators are named for life by the President.
Their functions are performed gratuitously. How-
ever, tho President may grant a salary not ex-
ceeding thirty thousand francs.
The sitting of the Senate not to be public. It re-
gulates the constitution of colonies, and all that has
not been provided for by the constitution. It may
propose modifications of tho constitution, but any
modification of the bases laid on the proclamation of
Dec. 2 will be referred to universal suffrage. There
will bo a deputy to the legislative body for every
thirty-five thousand electors, elected by universal
suffrage for ten years, and receiving no emolument.
All adopted amendments to be sent, without dis-
cussion, before the Council of State, and cannot be
discussed if not equally adopted by this one.
The sittings will last thtee months.
Reports of the sittings by newspapers will bo con-
fined to the official reports of the proceedings drawn
up by the bureau. The president and vice-president
are nominated by the President of the Republic for
a year.

Ministers cannot be deputies.
Petitions may bo addressed to the Senate, but none
to the legislative body.
The President of the Republic convokes, adjourns,
prorogues, and dissolves the legislative body.
In case of dissolution, a new one to bo convoked
within six months.

The Council of State, composed of 40 or 00 members,
is nominated and presided over by the President,
who may revoke its members. They receive an
annual salary of twenty-five thousand francs. They
draw up the project of laws and discuss them before
the legislature.

There will be a High Court of Justice, without ap-
peal, before which will be tried all attempts against
the state or its chief.

The mayors are appointel by the executive
power.

The following is the proclamation of the President
of the Republic to the French people, explaining the
constitution :

PROCLAMATION OF Louis NAPOLEON, PRESIDENT OF
TICS IiF.FCBLIC, TO Tim Faxmrot num, v, PaomuL.
DATING TUN CONSTITUTION OF TIM 2ND OF Dzczx-

eta, 18.51.

Frenchmen!—ln my proclamation of the 2nd of Decom•
bee, when 1 loyally explained to you what, according to my
ideas, were the vital conditions of government (poweoir) is
France, I had not the pretension, so common in these days,
of substituting a personal theory for the experience of cen-
turies. On the contrary, I sought in the past the examples
that might best be followed, what men had given them,
and what benefits had resulted.

I have thought it reasonable (*gigue) to prefer the pre-
cepts of genius to the specious doctrines of men of abstract
ideas. I have taken as models the political institutions
which already, at the commencement of the present cen-
tury, under analogous circumstances, have strengthened
tottering society, and raised France to a lofty degree of pro-
sperity and grandeur.

I have taken u models those institutions which, instead
of vanishing at the first breath of popular agitation, were
only overturned by the might of all Europe coalesced
against us. _ _ _

In one word, I said to myself, since France makes pro-
gress during the last fifty year', in virtue alone of the ad-
ministrative, military, judicial, religious, and financial or-
ganisation of the Consulate and the Empire, why should
not we else adopt the political institutions of that epoch ?
Created by the same thought, they must bear the same
character of nationality and practical utility.
In effect, as I recalled to mind in my proclamation, it is
essential to aver that our present state of society is nought
else than France regenerate by the revolution of eighty-
nine, and organised by the Emperor. Nothing remains of
the old rigiete but great souvenirs and great benefits; all
that was organised under it was destroyed by the revolution,
and all that since the revolution has been organised, and
that still exists, has been the work of Napoleon.
We no longer possess provinces, or states, or parliaments,
or intendants, or farmers-general, or various customs, or
feudal rights, or privileged classes holding exclusive posses-
sion of civil and military employments, or different religious
jurisdictions.

To all these thing', so incompatible with its spirit, the
revolution applied a thorough reform; but it founded no-
thing definitive. The first consul alone re-established unity,
hierarchy, and the true priniples of government. They
are still in vigour.
Thus, the administration of France, entrusted to prefects,
sub.prefecta, and mayors, who enbatitnte unity in the plate
of directing commissions (the decision of affairs, on the con-
trary, being confided to councils—from that of the commune
to that of the department); thus, the magistracy, ren-
dered firm by the immovability of the judir., and by tha
hierarcy of the tribunals—justico rendered more easy by
the clear definition of attributions, from those of the Justice
of the Peace, up to those of the Court of Cassation—all this
is still standing.

In the same manner, our ►dmirable financial system, the
Bank of France, the establishment of the Budget, the Court
of Accounts, the organisation of the police, and our military
statutes, d►te from the above•mentioned epoch.

For the last fifty yeen it is the Code Nopotion that has
adjusted the reciprocal interests of citizens; it is still the
concordat that regulates the relations of the state with the
church.

Lastly, the greater portion of the measures which concern
the progress of industry, of commerce, of literature, of
science, and of the arts, from the statutes of the Theatre
Francais to those of the Institute of France, from the in-
stitution of " &noises" to the creation of the Legion
of Honour, have been fixed by the decrees of that time. I
It may, then, be affirmed that the frame of our 'facial
edifice is the work of the Emperor, which has stood firm,
resisting his fall and the shocks of three revolutions.
Wherefore, since they have the same origin, should not
his political institutions have the same chance of duration ?

My own conviction has been formed for a long time;
and, therefore, it was that I submitted to your judgment
the principal bases of a Constitution burrowed from that of
the year VIII. Approved of by you, they are to become
the foundation of our political constitution.
Let us now examine its spirit.

In our country—for the last eight hundred years monar-
chical—the central power has always existed by increasing;
—ltoyatty ihstroyed the great vassals;—the Revolutions
themselves tansyd to disappear the obstacles which opposed
the rapid and uniform exercise of authority. In this coun-
try of centralisation, public opinion has invariably referred
everything, good and cril, to the chief of the government ;

so that, to write at the head of a charter that the chief is
irresponsible, Is to lie (ewnti►) to public feeling. It is to
endeavour Is establish a fiction which has three times dis-
appeared at the wand of revolution.
The present constitution, on the contrary, proclaims that
the chief wham you have elected is responsible to you.
That ho has the right of appeal to your sovereign judgment,
in order that in grave (agennelles) circumstances you may
always be able to continuo your confidence in him or to
, withdraw it.

Being responsible,' his action, must be free and with-
out hindrance. Hence arms the obligation of his having
ministers who may bo the honoured and pow erfu
auxiliaries of his thought, but who no longer form a
responsible council, composed of jointly responsible
members (mensbres so:Waiter), • daily obstacle to
the special influence of the cnief of the state; • Council,
the expression of a policy emanating from the Chambers,
and for that very reason, exposed to frequent changes
which render impossible a continuous policy (*sprit sic
suite) or the applicatiuu of • regular system.
Nevertheless, in proportion to the loftiness of position in
which a man is placed, and iii proportion to his independence
and to the confidence that the people place in him, is his
need of enlightened and conscientious council. Hence
the creation of a council of State for the fu-
ture, the real (veritable) Council of the Govern-
nent, tho first wheelwork of our new organise-
tion—a reunion of practical men, elaborating projects
of law in special committees, then discussing them with
closed doors and without oratorical %Mutations in general
assembly, next presenting them to the acceptation of the
legislative body.
Thus the Government (pouvoir) is free in its movements,
end enlightened in its progress.

Now, what will be the control exercised over the
Assemblies ?

A t'hamber, which bears the title of "The Legislative
Body," votes the laws and the taxes. It l elected by universal
suffrage without the ballot (um midi,' do lisle). The
people, choosing each candidate singly, can the more easily
appreciate his merit.
The Chamber is composed of about two hundred and
sixty members—a first guarantee of the calmness of its
deliberations, for too often it has been seen, that in Assem-
blies the mobility and ardour of passions increase in pro-
portion to the number of members.

The account of the deliberations which is to inform the
nation of its affairs is no longer, u formerly, abandoned to
the party spirit of each journal. An official,publication,
drawn up under tho surveillance of the l'resident of the
Chamber, will alone be authorised.

The legislative body freely discusses the laws—adopts or
rejects them—but does not introduce those unforeseen
amendments which often derange the whole economy of a
system, and the ensemble of the primitive project ; and, fur
still stronger reasons, it does possess that parliamentary
initiative which was the source of such grave abuse, and
which permitted every deputy tosubstitute himself at every
turn, in place of the Government, and to present projects,
however unstudied or shallow.

The Chamber being so longer in presence of the ministers,
end prcjects of laws being advocated by the orators of the
Council of State, the time will not be loot in vain interpella_
tions, in frivolous secunations, and in passionate struggles,
whose sole object was to upset ministries in order to replace
them.

Thus, then, the deliberations of the legislative body will
be independent, but the causes of sterile agitations will have
been suppressed and salutary delays introduced into any
modification of the law. The deputies (ssandataires) of the
nation will maturely accomplish things of importance. I
Another assembly bears the name of Senate. It will be
composed of those elements which in every country create
• legitimate influence; such as an illustrious name, wealth,
talent, and services rendered to the country.
The Senate is not—what the Chamber of Peers was—a
pale reflection of the Chamber of Deputies, repeating, at a
few days interval,:the same discussions in another tone. It is
the depositary of the fundamental compact, and of the public I
liberties, compatible with the Constitution, and it is solely with
regard to the great principles on which our society is based,
that it examines all laws, and that it proposes new ones to
the Executive power. It intervenes either to resolve any
grave difficulty which might arise during the absence of
the legislative body, or to explain the text of the Constitu-
tion, and to secure whatever may be necessary to its opera-
tion (marine). It has the right to annul any illegal or ar-
bitrary act, and thus enjoying the consideration which at-
tubes to a body exclusively occupied with the examinatiou of
great interests, or the application of great principles, it tills
in the state the independent, salutary, •ad conservative
office of the ancient parliaments.

The Senate will not be, like the Chamber of Peers, trans-
formed into a Court of Justice. It will preserve its cha•
meter of Supreme Moderator ; for disrepute always falls on
political bodies, when the sanctuary of legislation becomes
a criminal tribunal. The impartiality of the judge is too
often questioned, and it loses all prestige with public
opinion, which sometimes goes so far u to occur° it of being
the instrument of passion or of hatred.
. _

A High Court of Justice chosen from amongst the high
magistracy, and having, as jury, members of the Councils.
general of all France, will alone repress all attempts against
the chief of the state and the public safety.
The Emperor said to the Council of State—" A Constitu-
tion is the work of time. It is imposiiblo to leave in it too
large a margin for ameliorations." Accordingly, the pre-
sent Constitution kas only settled that which it was impos-
sible to leave uncertain. It has shut up, within
insurmountable barriers, the destinies of a great people. It
has left for change a margin sufficiently large to allow in
great crises, of other means of safety than the disastrous ex-
pedient of revolution.

The Senate can, in concert with tho Government,
modify all that is not fundamental in the Constitution, but
as to any modifications of the fundamental bases sanctioned
by your suffrages—they can only become definitive after
having received your ratification.

Thus, the people remains master of its destiny. Nothing
fundamental is effected without its will.

Such are the ideas, such the principles, that you have
authorised me to apply. May this constitution give to
our country calm and prosperous days—may it prevent
the return of those intestine struggles in which vic-
tory, however legitimate, is always dearly bought ;—may
tho sanction which you have given to my efforts be
blessed by Heaven. Then—peace will be assured at home
and abroad, my urgent hopes will be (Walled, my mission
will be accomplished.

LOVIII NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
Palace of the Tuileries,
Jan 14, 1852.

WIDNENDILT MORNINO.
The Constittitiosset announces positively that the
constitution will be promulgated to-morrow.
M. Thouveual, formerly French minister at the
court of Athens, is appointed Head of the Political
Department in tho Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in
the place of M. Vieil Castel.
Tho Pays says that M. Mathi!, ono of the ex-
representatives sentenced to transportation, made his
escape as ho was being conducted from the fort
where ho was confined towards the transport-ship.
M. Martin and M. Nichot have been reprieved.
The Prince do Carini, Ambassador or the King of
Naples to the Court of England, has arrived in Paris
with the Princess his wife.
The Monitcur contains decrees appointing to the
staff of the Commander-in-Chief of tho National
Guard of the Seine five majors, four intendants,
twelve surgeons, three colonels, four lieutenant-
colonels, twenty chefs d'escadron, forty captains, and
four to form thojury of revision. The three colonels
are Persigny, Bacciocchi (the President's Aide-dc-
Camp), and do Nieuwerkerke.

Tho Moniteur also contains the decree which has
been previously announced for granting a full
and eompleto amnesty for all condemnations pro-
nounced in consequence of infractions commit-
' ted in the service of tho National Guard pre-
vious to the present date, either by the councils
of discipline or by the tribunals of correctional police
throughout the whole extent of the Republic.
Two decrees follow authorising the departments of
the Correza and Haute-Seine to assess themselves
for the execution of public works.
Dr. Veron writes an article in the Constitotionnel
to tranquillise the agitation of the public at seeing
the new power inaugurate its reign by a series
of dreadful persecutions and reckless innovations
destructive of all liberty. In the course of this
article Dr. Veron says that Louis Napoleon at ono
in the morning of flee. 2 wrote on the dossier con-
taining the proclamations and decrees " Rubicon." '
It seems probable that the members of the corps
legion:I!! will not receive a salary.
M. Firion, colonel commanding the state of siege
in the Bassm-Alpes has just published nt Digne a
decree announcing that within three days in the
houses of all who have taken flight to evade the
warrants out against them, soldiers will be billeted
at their charge until the law be satisfied; within ten

days the property of the fugitives will bo SCIUC3-
trated. Any individual convicted of having furni.hcd
aid in provisions, or money, or shelter to an insurgent,
shall be considered as an accomplice of the insurrec-
tion, and treated accordingly.

WEDNINDAT EVINIXO.
I have heard to-day from a perfectly reliable
source, a singular and highly important fact, but so
strange as to startle belief. But this is a time when
marvels are cheap; and if I had rejected all the re-
ports which have readied me on account of their ex-
traordinary nature, I should have omitted much that
has aim* turned out quite true. On the morning of
the coup efaut Monseigneur Sibour, Archbishop
of Paris, and a stedfast supporter of the moderate re-
publican party, is said to have addressed a
letter to M. I)upin, wherein ho offered him
the church of Notre-Name for the Assembly to
meet in. Tho isolated position of this cathedral
would have rendered it a highly valuable post if the
national guard or any portion of the troops had de-
clared in favour of the Assembly. The archbishop
also offered to meet the board of tho Assembly and
the representatives as a sovereign power, at the head
of his clergy in procession, at the principal door of
the church. M. Lupin returned no answer what-
ever to these overtures which, had they been ac-
cepted, might have given quite a different turn to
the events of the day. I regret to have to report the
sequel; but of its truth there is unfortunately but too
little reason to doubt. M. Dupin is said to have
betrayed the letter of the Archbishop to Louis Na-
poleon, and thus made his peace with the power to
which he had during the past year manifested eon-
@Womble opposition, and secured his maintenance in
the post of l'roeurcur-General of the Court of Casea-
tion, which is in the gilt of the President. lint the
dory of treachery does not end here. The letter is
said to have been sent to Rome, with a request from
the French government to the Pope to appoint a
coadjutor to supersede the present archbishop
is the administration of his diocese. This request
motived upon the ground that Illonseigueur I
liibour' in writing such a letter to the President of
the Assembly, exceeded the fuctions of his spiritual
power, and encroached upon the temporal authority
of the state. What may be the answer of his Holi-
ness to this request is nut yet known. But it is said
to be supported by all the influence of the Jesuits,
who heartily detest the liberal doctrines and inde-
pendent character of the Archbishop of Paris.
The diplomatic world is much absorbed at the
present moment with several questions of high in-
terest, among which the relations with England
and Belgium take the first rank. The ar-
maments and defences preparing on the other
aide of the Channel ore a subject of grave
attention with the government, as there is
reason to believe that the latter acts of Louis Napo-
, bon, and particularly the menacing tone of General
St. Arnaud's decrees, have not been well received by
the northern courts. In fact, yesterday, at the funeral
serlice of the Invalides in honour of the memory of
Marshal Soult the absence of the three representa-
tives of the great European powers was remarked
as a highly significant fact in the present juncture
of affairs.

The Grand Orient of France had named Prince
I Lucien Murat Grand Master of the Masonic Order in
France. The prince has accepted the office, with the
permission of the President of the Republic. The
last Grand Master of the Order was King Joseph,
the Emperor's brother.
M. Thouvenel has just been named chief of the
political direction at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in place of M. de Vieleastel, who has retired.
The Patric publishes a translation of the corres-
pondence between General Cavaignac and M. de
Moray, which appeared in the Scotsman. In conse-
quence of this indiscretion the following note is com-
municated to the Moniteur by the Minister of the
Interior: "The Minister of the Interior has seen
with regret appear in the newspapers the translation
from an English journal of a correspondence between
himself and General Cavaignae. Ile has had nothing
whatever to do with this publication, which can only
have the result of ar indiscretion."

l'ornin, ex-captain of the guards of Caussidiere,
together with several other prisoners at the pre-
fecture of police, have been transferred to the fort of
Hicetre.

By order of the prefect of the Nord the dlrilc
Linoise has been suppressed, for the same reason as
the Opinion i'ublique, that is, for leaving in blank
the parts cut out by the censorship. Everybody
knows that this is done with impunity by the Aus-
trian papers.
It appears that M. Vicyra, the head of the staff of
the commander•in-chief of the Paris national guard,
has called out a M. Laury, manufacturer of stoves,
and captain of a company of the Ist legion, for having
libelled him. The Constitutiwasel contains a decla-
ration of the seconds of M. Vieyra, which is curious,
for the part attributed to M. deMorny. The Minister
of the Interior, although far from partaking the
opinion of lawyers on duelling, disapproved of the
present challenge, as a superior officer cannot call out
his inferior without compromising the dignity of his
functions and failing in his duty towards the govern-
ment. M. de Morny therefore forbade Colonel de
Vieyra to fight, and as for the other, if he persisted
in his attacks, the prefect of police had orders to
arrest him.

Louis Napoleon was present last night at the Ita-
lian Opera. This is the first time the President has
presented himself in public at any theatre, as when
he visited the Grand Opera in state none were ad-
mitted without special invitations. Ho Caine in in the
middle of the first act of Maria do Bohan, and took
his scat without drawing forth any immediate de-
monstration from the audience. But at the end of
the act there was a cry of Debouf, and the greater
part of the spectators stood up, and some cried " Vivo
Napoleon! flee le President !" which acclamations
he acknowledged by bowing several times.
The court-martial at Bordeaux has opened in due
form. Its proceedings are accessible to the public.
A plan was put in by the advocate on behalf of the
accused against the competency of the court ; the ar-
gument was heard in the regular form, but the court
decided that it was competent. It is supposed, from
the circumstance of allowing incompetency to be
pleaded, that an appeal to the Gourt of Cessation
from the sentence of the court-martial will be al-
-1 lowed.

Several journalists are to be banished, but the list
will not, as I explained to you yesterday, be allowed
to appear in the Munitcur. I hear that /llessrs. For-
cede and Solar, editors of the Messager, M. do Iteims,
redacteur of the Ordre, and MM. Nettemcnt, de
Circourt, and Sala, reducteurs of the Opinion Pub-
lique, have received their passports, with orders to
quit Paris.
On their passage through Havre the prisoners to
bo transported to Cayenne were received with si-
lence and consternation by the people, who observed
with astonishment and grief that political offenders
were mixed up with convicts who hid broken their
ban.

Lamartine's " History of the Restoration " is not
allowed to be advertised for sale, in consequence of
its hostility to the memory of the Emperor.
A notice posted in the saloon of the Theatre Fran-
vain warns the public not to talk polities as they
walk up and down.
General Cavaignac has applied to the Minister of
War to bo permitted to retire from the army.
On the Hoarse the Five per Cents. rose 1.10, clo-
sing at 105.20. The Three per Cents. rose 1, and
closed at 70.25. Bank of France shares rose 40f.
Railways again rose; Havre, 45L