The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-02 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN 0011YESPONDINT.)

PARIS, TCESDAT EVENLNG.

This is All Saints' Day, one of the greatest public
holidays in the year. The shops are all closed, so
is the Bourse, and politics are in a state of suspen-
sion. The streets are crowded with promenaders in
winter clothing enjoying the sharp keen air of a
finer day than we have lately had. The evening
papers do nut appear.
The case of the Courtier du Ditnattche, alluded to
in the Times of Monday, is materially understated
by that journal, and the writer's misconception of
the true point conveys a wrong idea of the French
law on the subject. The grievance of the Courrier
du Diuuotelte is not that its suspension, instead
of following immediately upon its two warn-
ings, was delayed for a year and a half,
but that it was suspended twice in respect of one
and the same set of warnings. It is the second
suspension without any new offence having been
committed, which in the opinion of M. Gigot, the
advocate of the Council of State bar, was illegal. I
have no doubt whatever that M. Gigot is right. The
I coup d'etat legislation says that after a journal has
been visited by two warnings it shall be liable to
be suspended at the good pleasure of the adminis-
tration for "a period not exceeding two months."
The present Minister of the Interior construes
these words as meaning " any number of successive
I periods not exceeding two months"—an absurd
construction which no minister ever thought of
before, and which is contrary not only to the
manifest spirit but the plain letter of the law. The
question is too plain to bear discussion, and, elastic
as is the conscience of the Council of State,
I think it impossible that it can side with the ad-
ministration in the present instance. The wrong,
however, like most wrongs inflicted by French
government functionaries, is probably one without
a remedy. The Council of State may declare the
decree of suspension illegal, but it cannot indem-
nify the Courrier du Dimanche for the heavy loss
entailed upon it by the illegality. A French
minister may set all law at defiance, but an autho-
ritative declaration that he has done so, in the rare
cases where one can be obtained, does him no harm
and his victim no good.

The Rouen Chamber of Commerce made a report
iu April last, approving of China grass as a valuable
substitute for cotton, and expressing a hope that an
establishment for the preparation of the new
textile material might be formed in their city. At
that time the quantity of CLina grass submitted
to them was too small for a thorough investigation
of its capabilities; but latterly a second experiment
has been made on a larger scale, and the Almtitcur
assures us that it was completely successful.

The prizes for the late international shooting
match at Vincennes were awarded on Sunday. In
the list of laureats I observe the name of an
English gentleman, a Mr. Biggs, of Leicestershire.
He fired with a government Enfield rifle at the
longest range, 300 metres, and won a gold medal,
although competing with small bores.

Among the latest news from Mexico, given by
the Metsitettr, I observe the rather startling fact
that General Caatagny—the same who, when a
colonel, made the famous offer to the Emperor to
invade England to hunt for accomplices of Orsini
—on taking possession of the town of Monterey,
the capital of the province of New Leon, appointed
' a number of natives to various civil employments,
and issued a decree enacting that anyone refusing
to accept the place provided for him should be
punished by six mouths' imprisonment, "accord-
ing to law." The Temps regrets that General C:l4-
tag oy should have omitted to give the date and the
text of the very curious law on which his decree pro-
fesses to be grounded. Is it a law of the detestable
government which the French army went to Mexico
expressly to overthrow ? Is it one of the enactments
of the virtuous Miramou I Or is it a French article
imported into Mexico together with the indepen-
dence, prosperity, financial order, and numerous
other blessings which are understood to follow in
the wake of an invading French army 1 "At all
events," says the Temps, "the author of this mar-
vellous law, whoever he may be, has paid a charm-
ing compliment to the primitive simplicity of the
manners of the Mexicau people ; in France it would
certainly never be necessary to imprison people iu
order to make them accept salaried places."

The Madrid journals publish two very singular
royal decrees countersigned by ilarslaael Narvaez, and dated
27th October. The first orders that the professional educa-
tion of the Prince of the Asturias shall commence imme-
diately, and be continued in conformity with the develop-
ment of his faculties, the Queen reserving to herself its
supreme direction. The second appoints six military
°dicers, under the superintendence of General Antonio-
Sanchez Osorio, as the young prince's professors.
:CITRATE OF SODA.—The Fire-Marshal in New
York directs attention to the necessity of placing under
stringent regulations the storage, within the city limits, of
nitrate of sock. ilia report, just issued, says ' 'ntil re-
' cently the belief prevailed that the article ass a compare.
tine), wife one, so tar as its storage was concereed. The
calamitous accident, that have resulted from it have dis-
pelled this impression, and it is now a well.founded convic-
ting tbst not merely nitrate of soda, but saltpetre and nitrate
of potash are highly dangerous when stored in large quan-
tities. Nothing is more certain than that, when exposed to
the action of rapid heat, they will, es soon as brought into
combisation with any vegetable substance by fire, produce
instant explosion. As • matter of course the lar,:er the
quantity the greater the expansion, and the greater the
danger to life and property. —Am:rime paper.
Ter. CUBAN LABOUR QUESTION.--The Dictrio 41€
to Marina of the 9th of A iignit last contains a length
editorial article on the Cuban labour question, called forth
by • series of local communicatMus on the necessity of
changing the condition of agricultural labour, replacing the
principal agent thereof by aeotber which will be something
more than a simple machine. The article, although
admitting the oecessity for such a change. goes on to say
that the correspondent ought to know that " the evils of
society cannot be always so easily extirpated as those of au
individnal," and, io elucidation of the argumeet, shows
that if the present system of labour be suddenly altered, its
effects would be far from beneficial to those sought to be
benefited. The article then goes ononto prove that until a
proper system of foreign emigration be introduced, nothing
can be dope prectie illy with the question. The argument,
however, preemie the ides that • desire now prevails among
the higher classes of society in Cuba to abolish the vil-
lanous and utterly inhuman system of slavery which exists
is that island, and to substitute for it a tom of paid labour
which will be jest in itself. and which will commend itself
to the respect of mankind throughout the world.-2'itio
York paper.