The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-19 00:00:00

THE EXPR:

To practical politicians was opened the council of
state, to veterans and dignitaries, tbsleetiste. Whilst
even the impulsive activity of clo#lloo was to be
indulged by the harangues of time tfttienide.
In a word, to stop the career of liberty, yet satisfy
the risen generation that had grown up in it, was
the design of the French legislation of 1:99. What
rendered it more feasible was the small body
of eminent men. The revolution had de-
toured most of its children. The placing,
titling, and honouring from three to five hundred
men satiatied the educated classes in France, with
the exception of wine dozen or half dozen mutineers,
who like Madame DV. STALL of SENJAMIN CON-
STANT, could not live without the liberty of discus-
sion. CHENIFIL however, wrote his odes, and CIIA-
TLAr BRIAN Is,- —the SIONTALEMBEST of that day,—was
ready in the name of Roman catholicism to worship
any sceptre, even that of a military usurper, which
would not disdain to ally with the Crozier.
The political acts of %seemlier and January, ISA
and 18.12, area mere imitation of those of 1799 and
11190, without one of the necessities which excused,
or the elements which facilitated, the assumption'
of power by Nsrot.tate. In the first place, no ho-
nour, no pay, no hierarchy, could recompense the
educated C• 111111 for the loss of that constitutional
liberty, which left their minds, tongues, and pew,
free. France has now bad nearly forty years of free
education, free writing, free speaking. the multitudes
who eked that out by professional and intellectual exce-
-1 tion, form a mass of men throughout the country, for
'whom no police and no despotism could provile an
elfeetual extinguisher. The mind of the French is
seething with ideas. aspirations, impatience, and
anxieties, silk& military force and brute menace
may compress for a while, but which, like
steam, must gather strength in proportion to
the continuance and force of the compression.
The very people, the peasant in his field, the carpen-
ter at his bench, entertain political and social theories
which prompt them to acquiesce in a dictatorship
with some vague hopes that it may further their
views. Such hopes must speedily evaporate. As to
the socialist &whines, they require the utmost free-
dom of publicity, and all the efforts of the ex-
perienced, the intellectual, and the best in-
formed, to combat their perniciousness, and to
expose their absurdity. A government that pre-
cludes discussion, that allows such doctrines to
spread its roots under ground, and that trusts to
an illiterate priesthood to combat the new religion of
the operative and the artisan by mere monastic
authority—such a system, that gags the intelligence
of a country, and gives full play to its ignorance, can
lead to no end bust the onc,—an intellectual and moral,
as well as ic political chaos.
If the new and mock constitution cannot, like its
prototype of 1:99, conciliate the educated class, or
quiet the working men, how is it likely to affect the
mercantile and shop-keeping folks? To put the ques-
tion in another way, how is au army of :j09,009 men,
which feels that it has made a revolution and proved
its ascendancy, and which must expect some pecu-
liar advantages and recompense from them,—
how are such expectations to be reconciled
with the hopes of the draper and the
grocer ? Can the ambitious and leading spirits
of such an army be given epaulettes and promo-
tion without earnin them on some other field of
battle than the Boulevards? It' Louis N.troioos
attempts this, will not Loris somebody else outbid
him in the barrack mid the corps sic yard.' We
have heard a great deal of the communism of the
operative, who seeks to have a share of his mas-
ters capital. Is there no military communism, which
thinks it has a predominant right to have the better
part of the wealth and capital of the state? Is the
communist in uniform less exigent or more logical
than the communist in blouse? IVe can conceive,
nay, we expect the pretension of the French military
to be such, that it would be far cheaper and less
perilous to send them to look for free quarters on the
other side of the :Rhine or of the Alps, than to keep
the Pretorians m bodies of 09,009 and 100,000 in the
'forts of Paris or of Lyons.
These are questions more difficult to solve than
the getting rid of some six hundred deputies who
had made themselves enpopular by reaction, and
contemptible by turbulence. In the annals of crime,
it is not murder that it is difficult to commit most
successfully. 'lke difficulty is, how to dispose of the
murdered remains. Louis NAPOLEON has killed
everething in France—society, constitution, freedom;
and le has put them all into an imperial catafalque
to appease the manes by a glorious funeral. But this
will satisfy no one.
Every step too is fraught with danger. Those
councillors of state who are to prepare the legislation
of the country; those acnators, who, though chosen by
the will of the autocrat, must be as eminent
men as he can get, and must in self-exculpation
assume some show of independence; that legislative
body which, although it is forbidden to introduce a
law, will still be the elect of the people—such bodies
as these, however manageable by the conqueror of
Austerlitz and Marengo, will be unmanageable at
the time when it is meat important they should be
tranquil. Ills own conservative senate proved the
ready instrument for dethroning NAPOLEON. And I
his nephew will find LAFATETEES even in these as-
semblies of his new creation.

The government of M. LOIARTINE and LEDIIU-
R4LLIN Will yet be found to have been security and
order itself compared with this temporary barrack
edition of an imperial constitution that the hero of
Boulogne, and his illegitimate brethren, have im-
provised and imposed upon France.

FRANCE.

PARIS, EUTONDAT Brims°.
To-day the rumours which have latterly prevailed
about a probable change in the ministry were re-
newed. It appears that M. Fould, whose retreat is
still spoken of, wishing to bane it on an honourable
motive, is strenuously opposed to the sequestration
of the property of the Orleans, on which measure
the President is said to be obstinately bent. MM.
de Persigny and Drouyn de Lhuys are talked of as
likely to come in. Great efforts wore made to-day
to hold up the rentes at the Bourse. Vague rumours
were afloat conceining an interview between Louis
Napoleon and M. do Rothschild on the subject of a
Iloan. But the gnat capitalist is represented as rather
shyof the new power.
it is said that the four ambassadors are still to be
sent to the principal 'courts; but that the govern-
ment is waiting to watch the effect of the constitu-
tion upon the foreign powers.
It appears certain that for some reason, which I
have not been able to discover, M. de Maupas, the
prefect of police, is decidedly in disgrace. It is even
rumoured that he will be degraded to the inferior
prefecture of Versailles, now occupied by M. Arrighi
do Padouc, who is once more talked of as the proba-
ble saeoemor of Berger, prefect of the Seine. The
son of the latter, M. Amedia, Berger, you will have
remarked, has been gazetted as one of the new refe-
rendaries of the Court of Accounts. This promotion
is represented as a partial compensation for contem-
plated dismissal of his father from his sumptuous
post at the Hotel de Ville.
I have to call your attention to a feature in the
trial by courtsmartial at Bordeaux which has excited
considerable surprise. The MinistCre Public has not
applied to have the punishment of death pronounced
against M. Peymnni, who is placed on trial for
having headed the insurrection at La Marmande;
and assigns an the ground for not recommending
capital punishment the abolition by the provisional
government of that extreme penalty fur political
offences, which forms in fact the Stli article of the
constitution of 15448. Thus it would appear that all
1 the provisions of the latter charter arc not held to he
I invalidated by the constitution of January 14. M.
l'eyronni is a chef if escadniss, as well as an officer
of the Legion of Honour, and distinguished himself
much in Algiers.
It is announced that the President of the Republic
will give a grand ball at the Tuileries at the cud of
I next week.

Stories circulate in the whin*, and aro greedily
listened to, of the snubs ii.flicted upon the courtiers
of the new power, and even upon their ladies. The
other day Count Flahault paid a visit to M. Molt%
Upon the entrance of this diplomatic emissary of the
Tuileries two ladies rose and left the room. M. do
Flahault looked surprised, and asked why the ladies
retired? For the same reason," replied M. Mole.
sternly, "that I should have retired myself, had I I
not been fixed to this sofa by the gout." Here
is another piquant trait of the same kind. The
Counter Le Lion, on paying a visit to Madame de

Climelin. after the namq of the latter's husband had
Armed on one of the lists of proscription, wai re-
ceived by this lady of the house stending. The visitor
emus, at first, to have taken this formal posture as a
ceremonious deference to her influential position as
ono of the grandest ladies of the quasi-imperial
court. She condescendingly invited Madame do
Girardin to sit down, and asked why one who had
been upon intimate terms with her should use the
ceremony of standing up in her presence. " Madame,"
replied Madame de Otrardin very gravely, " I am
I standing up until you go away."
In connexion with the article which lately ap-
peered in the I'utrie, menacing the salons of the
Faubourg St. Germain with the displeasure of the
Tuileries, a story is told which has made some noise.
You are aware that ono of the most brilliant draw-
ing-rooni i of Paris, rind where persons of political
importance " most do congregate," is that of Mdme.
de Oontaut-Biron. At the commencement of each
season this lady sends a round of invitations to those
persons aho are admitted habitually to her society.
Among others, hl.de Slontalembert was invited; bat
he war at the same time informed that ho would
meet several personages who were not at all so well
disposed towards the new order of things as
himself, and were in fact decidedly opposed to
the cause in which he betrayed so much zeal.
Two or three days after this letter was written the
police paid a domiciliary visit to the apartment of
the lady in question. It in said that this affair,
together with the resolution taken by the chid
families of the Faubourg St. Germain to spend the
remainder of the winter in their chateaux, was the
origin of the extraordinary attack upon the salons of
Paris which appeared in the Poirie.
The Mottikur contains a decree directing that, in
consequence of the recent increase of the military
divisions, the number of artillery commands in the
divisions is fixed at eleven, ten for the interior, and
one fur Algeria; and that there shall be an artillery
school in each command. The report of the Minister
of War on which this decree is founded differs
from all that have preceded it, by being addressed
to the " Prince-President," and uegioniug, " Mon-
seigneur."
A decree has been published in the Bulletin des
Lois, suppressing the breeding stud of Arabian
horses at St. Cloud. The stallions and mares com-
posing it are to be divided among the other different
establishments of the kind belonging to the state,
with the exception of those which are no longer
wanted; and which will be sold according to the
forms prescribed by. the regulations.
A bitter sarcasm in the AnfoonWe Nationale of this
morning has excited indignation in the highest
quarter, both against the paper, and the negli-
gent censor who allowed the sentence to escape
his shears. Alluding to the oath of fidelity
to the constitution required from all public func-
tionaries' the Assembler says " The political
oath had been abolished by the republic. the con-
stitution of Jan. 1-I re-establishes it, doubtless for this
reason, that the oath must be a political guarantee
because it hinds the human conscience." Consider-
ing that the constitution of IS-14 was tone up on
Ike. 2 by the only man in France who had sworn to
maintain it, the irony of this allusion to the sanctity
of an oath is cutting indeed. The ..lanembi,:e pro-
fesses to have read with pleasure the clauses which
declare the Senate the guardian of the fundamental
pact and of public liberty. This, it says,
airs " some" of the guarantees indispens-
able to society and to every citizen. It ventures to
add that, seeing that the Senate will possess such
high powers, the composition of it will be very
important. It dues not go on to speculate upon the
sort of protection to individual liberty likely to be
afforded by a body of men appointed by the existing
dictator, and dependent upon him for a pension of
1,2001. if they behave well.
M. EugiMe Sue has left Paris for the Lake of
Geneva, where he will continue his literary labours.
MM. Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas have writ-
ten to their friends to say that should they be ex-
pelled from Belgium they will reside at Homburg.
The Patric states that all the ex-representatives
who are ordered for exile, and had not already left
France, have received their passports, and will be
conducted as far as the frontier by the agents of the
government.
M. Michel (de Bourgcs) has left Brussels for
London.

MM. Duvergicr de Ilauranne, Creton, Jules de
Lasteyric, Chambolle and do Itemusat, arrived
at the Hotel do Belle Vue, at Brussels, yesterday.
Most of the representatives sentenced to banish-
ment who -et remained in l'atis has left to-day,
either for Englander Belgium.
The military commission, acting for the insurrec-
tional affairs in the Jura has terminated its examina-
tion. It has sentenced several prisoners to trans-
portation for various terms of years--some to
Cayenne, and whets to Lambessa, in Algeria.
the papers this morning report numerous arrests
in the Haute-Marne, at Clermont, in the Herau .at
Troyes, Perigneux, and in the Loiret and the Cher.
At Marmande (Lot-et-Garonne), on Jan. 10, a de-
cree was issued by the chef tie Idaillon, Sarranton,
prohibiting the inhabitants from (Flitting their
houses after 9 o'clock in the evening. Any person
found in the streets after that hour will be arrested.
All cafes, public houses, and societies, without excep-
tion, are to be closed at 8 o'clock.
The President yesterday paid a visit to the legis-
lative palace to Inspect the repairs and alterations
going on preparatory to the reception of the new
legislative body. The court of honour, which was
filled up with the temporary sane de carton, is now
clear. _

At the Bourse the Five per Cents. fell 10c., closing
at 101 f. 30e. The Three per Cents. clos-A without
change at 60f. 24c. Bank of France shares rose 10f.
Railways were well supported. Rouen rose 22f. 30c.
The other lines varied little from yesterday.

SUNDAY MOZNINO.

By a decree inserted in the Maniteur M. Lefevre-
Durufle, Minister of Commerce, M. Porton!, Minister
of Public Instruction, and M. do Thorigny, formerly
Minister of the Intelior, are raised to the rank of
officers of the Legion of Honour. M. Duces. Minis-
ter of Marine, and Casubianca, formerly Minister
of Finance, are made ehesaliers of the same order.
The several committees of the Consultative Com-
mission hold sittings yesterday.
The Society of the Messageries Nationales had
applied for permission to form a fresh company,
under the title of Societe des Transports Maritimes
des Messageries Nationales. The Consultative Com-
mission sanctioned the statute proposed for the new
society.
MM. Laury and Vieyra arc to he prosecuted for
the duel which has resulted in a slight wound to the
latter.

The President has received the answer of the
King of Saxony to the letters of recal of M. do
Salignac-Fenelon, whose mission as envoy to the court
of Dresden is terminated.
M. ])uvcrgier de Hauranne quitted Paris on
Thursday for Brussels, with a passport fur England,
Belgium, and Germany.
The battalion sent from Marseilles against the in-
surgents of the Basses-Alpes has returned with seve-
ral waggons of arms taken from the column defeated
at Mims.

Eleven carriages containing prisoners arrived on
the 14th instant at Moulins, escorted by a detach-
ment of chewers. Another convoy of prisoners
was expected on the following day from La Feline.
A diligence laden with political prisoners arrived on
the 13th at Toulouse, escorted by a detachment of
hussars.

The steam frigate Canada, freighted with 468 pri-
soners, destined for transportation to Cayenne, which
sailed from Ifavre on the 10th, was obliged, by stress
of weather, to put into Cherbourg on the 11th. On
the 11th she continued her voyage to Brest. Three
companies of marines garrisoned at Cherbourg were
to accompany the transported to Cayenne.
A dommilary visit has been nude at St. Amend,
Ito the house of M. d'Alene, Ledru Rollin 's commis-
sary in the department of the Nord. M. I'illcttc has
been arrested at Blois. Several other arrests, too
numerous to particularise, have been made in the
Jura and other departments.
The Russian General Joiykolf, and M. D'Engel, a
councillor of the Emperor of Russia, have arrived in
Paris. •

SUNDAY EVENING.
One of the most important subjects that occupies
the attention of political circles ut the present mo-
ment is the probable sequestration, if not confisca-
tion, of the property of the house of Orleans in
France. It seems that the President still returns to
this sinister project with a pertinacity which may,
in the long run, bear down the opposition of more