The Express.
London, England, 1862-01-18 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

PlOl OUR OWN

PARIS, FRIDAY Evuixa.

On reading in the Moniteur that M. Charles Le-
vtgue has been appointed Professor of Greek and
Latin Philosophy, vice M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire,
resigned, some people have fancied that the latter
had just been dismissed like M. de Laprade at
Lions. The fact is that M. B. St. Hilaire resigned
at the time of the coup d'etat, refusing to take the
oath to Louis Napoleon ; and although, as in the
case of Arago, the Emperor offered to dispense with
the oath, he declined to hold a post dependent on
the new government His chair has been kept
vacant till now—possibly in the hope that he would
come back to it.

The explanations with which the Minister of
Public Instruction (M. Rouland) accompanied his
mint nomination of the learned M. Renan to the
Hebrew chair--which, also, had been very long
vacant—have quite failed, as he doubtless expected,
to remove the objections of the clergy and their
political supporters to the appointment. M.
Renan is the author of a translation of the book
of Job, which has been formally condemned by
the Pope, and it is notorious that his views of
Scripture generally are analogous to those held
by the English authors of the " Sways and
Reviews." The long hesitation which presided
the appointment after it was first spoken of,
shows that the government attaches great im-
portance to this new assertion of its indepen-
dence of the church. The Emperor's wish ap-
pears to be to diminish the influence of the clergy
and at the same time to preserve, as much as
possible, respect for the Roman catholic religion.
The bishops presume upon the catholic phase of
his policy to insult him and his government
whenever they find an opportunity. The notorious
Mgr. Parisis, Bishop of Arras, is now en-
gaged in a correspondence with U. Honked
about the practices of the religious orders, in
which be accuses the minister of all sorts of bed
faith, and exhausts against him the armoury of irony
and rhetoric which it must be confessed is well
furnished in his episcopal palace, as in those of the'
French bishops generally. M. Rouland threatened,
if the ooutroversy should be continued, to make
further disclosures, ►nd appeal to the public. The
bishop haughtily throws down the glove, and it is
now expected that • serious anti-ecclesiastical
campaign will be entered upon in the ooming ses-
sion of the Corps Legialetif.
After an extraordinarily mild commencement Of
January—l saw a jessamine in full flower lastweek
in a garden at Heinous Laffitte—winter has come
back again. We have 8 degrees of frost to-day ; and
there are indications of snow, which we have not yet
ems in Paris this year, although there was a heavy
fall is Lyons

The Timms opened with much heaviness, bat
silorwazda improved, and a large business was
done in the Rent* and the Italian Loan. The
opening of the Corps Lelislatif, ten days hence,

the Emperor's speech, and K
plans, are now the great subjects of s "Mon,
and constant purchases of premiums are .
the belief that they will exercise • favourable in-
fluence on the fends. The Rents rose 350. for cash
and 50c. for account, closing (notwithstanding a
fall of kin Consols) at the highest prices of the day,
89fr. 35c. and 1311 fr. 50c. Mobilier rose 8f r. 75c.,
and the Italian Loan 25c. The Eastern Railway
fell Mr., but most of the other lines were 2fr. or
Sfr. higher.
In November last M. Bondois, the tax gatherer
of Dompierre, was found murdered by the road-
side, his head, lungs, and stomach being blown to
pieces with slugs. He had been getting in money
iu the course of the day, and was known to have
had upon him upwards of 1,700 fr. He told a
village schoolmaster, in • joking way, that people
had been paying their taxes very well, and that he
was well worth rubbing. While he said this an
assassin had been waylaying him for several hours,
and, as he afterwards confessed, was nearly out of
patience, and was going home when his victim
came by. Curiously enough the stun of 457 fr. 80c.
was found upon the murdered man ; the murderer
bad contented himself with taking 1,254 fr. The
author of the crime was discovered by a most ex-
traordinary accident. The paper wadding with
which he had loaded his gun was picked up near
the corpse, only slightly burnt. On being un-
rolled it was found to be a piece of a child's copy
book. The schoolmaster of Dompierre recognised
the handwriting as being that of a little girl named
Maguier, and upon this indication her father was
arrested. He made a full confession, and is sen-
tenced to death.

Youlit's abancial
• spectaar
mat*