The Express.
London, England, 1852-05-13 00:00:00

the side tables. The President scarcely budged frond
his tribune, where he at driving to unbend his ari.
tural gravity, and force the serious lines of his courts
tenanee into smiles. He retired at two. The ball
was noticed as being of the decollete stamp,
a sin, indeed, which it was scarcely possible to
avoid, when more than fifteen thousand cards of
invitation were issued. The feature of the evening
was an incident which resulted from the ingenious
order of succession in which Chevet, the contractor
for supper, eontrived to feast so vast an assemblage.
The last battalion of suppers were determined to
wait no longer for their turn, and forgetting, in the
impatience of their appetites, all stricter rules of do.
corum, they charged into the banquet hall, and took
the supper-tables by storm. Dire was the scrambling
which ensued, and the last fragments of pickled
salmon and drops of Jacquesson disappeared as in a
whirlwind,
The President of the Republic gives a military
dinner to-day, of 800 covers, at the Tuileries. ia
the evening tho company of the Theatre Francais
will perform " Mdlla do la Seghtlre" and the
" Rendezvous Bourgeois," in the private theatre of
the palace. In addition to the military guests, 200
ladies have received invitations to this performance.
On Friday, the 14th, the prefect of the Seine will
give a dinner, at the 116 tel de Ville, to all the gone.
rals and colonels in Paris. In the evening there will
be a a soiri'e musicale instead of the ball which was
expected. The salle of the Opera of the Palace of
Versailles, which has been so seldom Been illumi-
nated, will be eo to-morrow, Thursday, from 2 to 5,
for the tnatinAe musicale, for the benefit of the cha-
ritable institution of St. Vincent de Paul, at which
the most eminent artistes, including Mdlle. Alboni,
now on the eve of her departure fur England, will be
heard.

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The municipal council of Toulouse has voted a sum
of 10,000 fr. for a ft,te, destined to celebrate the re.
placing of the eagles on the flag-staffs of the army.
The following is the number of crosses and medals
given on the occasion of the distribution of the
eagles : 4 crosses of grand officers, 15 of commanders,
40 of officers, 471 of chevaliers of the Legion of
Honour, and 1,671 medals. The amount to bo in.
scribed on the budget will be 3:13,7Y/fr. It was
observed on Monday that Marshal Jerome wore the
simple medal given to private soldiers. It is the
wish of the President that each of the marshals of
France should wear the same medal. It may be re-
inembered that the Emperor Napoleon, his uncle,
was the only grand dignitary of the Legion of
Honour who had the right to wear the cross of a
simple member at the same time with the insignia of
the Grand Cross of the Order. A single exception
had been made to this rule ; it was in favour of the
Archduke Charles, generalissimo of the Austrian
armies, an illustrious and brave officer, to whom the
Emperor had granted the honour of sharing in thin
privilege which no other had obtained.
I informed you about the middle of last Janusz,
that negotiations were to be undertaken with a view
to a marriage between Louis Napoleon and a
princess of Brazil. This match is now spoken of
again as highly probable, and the negotiations are
described as in an advanced state. The princess to
whom overtures of marriage are made is Marie.
Amelie, daughter of Don Pedro by his second mar.
riage with the daughter of the Duke do Leuchtens
berg, and, therefore, great-grand-daughter of the
Empress Josephine. She is now in her twenty.
second year.
The following is a translation referred to in my
letter of yesterday :
Paris, May 9.
" Monsieur le Ministre,—The government has itself ad.
nutted that the oath prescribed by Art. 14 of the Constitu•
tion ought not to be required from members of • purely
scientific and literary body like the Institute. I cannot
say why the Bureau des Longitudes, an astronomical
academy, in which, when a vacancy occurs, an election
ensues to fill it up, is placed in another category. The
Okapis circumstance would perhaps have sufficed to in•
duce me to refuse the oath but considerations of another
mature, I confess, hays exercised • decisive influence on my
mind. Circumstances rendered me, in 1848, as member of
the provisional government, one of the founders of the re-
public. As such, and 1 glory in it at present, I contributed
to the abolition of all political oaths. At a later period 1
was named by the Coastitsient Assembly president of the ex-
ecutive committee; my acts in this last-named situation are
too well known to this public for me to have need to mention
them here. You can comprehend, Monsieur le Ministre, that
in presence of these reminiscences my conscii ace has is-
pined oa me a resolution which perhaps the director of
the Observatory would have hesitated to come to. I had
always thought that by the terms of the law an astronomer
at the Bureau of Longitude was appointed fur life, bat
your decision has undeceived me. I have, therefore, M.
le Ministre, to request you to appoint • doyen which I shall
have to quit an establishment which I have been inhabiting
now for nearly half a century. That establishment—thanks
to the protection given to it by the governments which have
succeeded each other in France for the last forty years—
thanks, above all, may I be allowed to say, to the lundnen
of the legislative assemblies, in regard to me—has risen from
its ruins and its insignificance, and can now be offered to
strangers as • model. It is not without a profound sentiment
of grief that I shall separate from so many fine instruments,
to the construction of which I have more or less contributed;
it is not without lively apprehension that I shall behold the
means of research created by me passing into malevolent or
even inimical hands ; but my conscience has spoken, and I
am bound to obey its dictates. I am anxious that in this
circumstance everything shall pass in the most open man-
ner ; and in consequence I hasten to inform you, Monsieur
le Ministre, that I shall address to all the great academies
of Europe and America—for I have long had the honoured
belonginge to them—a circular which will explain my re•
from an establishment with which my name lead
been in some sort identified, and which was for me • snood
country. I desire it to be known everywhere that the
motives which have dictated my determination have
nothing for which my children can ever blush. I owe
them explanations, above all, to the most eminent sevens
who honour me with their friendship, such as Hum-
boldt, Faraday, Brewster, Melloni, do. I am anal.
• else, that these illustrious personages
not be mislay concerning. the great change wit=
this determination of mine will produce in my
existence. My health beg without doubt been much im-
paired in the service of my country. A man cannot have
passed a part of his life going from mountain peak to
mountain peak, in the wildest districts of Spain, for the
peep!»e of determining the precise figure of the earth ; in
the inhospitable regions of Africa, comprised between
Bougie and the capital of the Regency ; in Algerian car-
sairs ; in the prisons of Majorca, of Roses, and of Palmas,
without profound traces being left behind. But I may re-
mind my friend that a hand without vigour can still hold a
pea, and that the half-blind old man will always find neag
him persons anxious to note down his words. ROCtillt.
Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my respect,
" Fa. Ansuo."
The government has thought fit not to accept the
resignation of M. Arago, and to make in his favour
a solitary exception to the vigorous exaction of the
oath. This determination has been intimated to M.
Arago by the following letter from the Minister of
Public Instruction :

Monsieur,—ln excusing yourself on May 9, on the soon
of 111-health, for not attending with your colleagues of the
Board of Longitude to take the oath to the Prince Presi-
dent and to the constitution, you had authorised me to sup-
pose that you would not decline an obligation imposed
fie constitution on all public functionaries. YOUr
haw, which bears the same date, but which I received
et a Wes hair, does not allow me to entertain that
batesialifithent stopping to remark on the change
et wild' it is impossible not to be struck
wltYs eis rs terms, so little guarded, which I
VIM seepelted is nest with on this oceagioa from your kwa.
I stesiisrsd it my duty to take the orders of the l'neee
beime I accepted your resignation. The Preedent of the
Republic hoe authorised to admit an exception in favour of
• savant whose works have thrown hone on France, and
whose existence his government would regret to embitter.
The publicity given to your letter will not change in any
respect the resolution which I eonsider it an honour to
transmit to you. Receive, Monsieur, the assurance of my
distinguished consideration. li. FORTOI:L.
It appears that M. Arago purposely refrained from
making his resolution known until the last moment,
for two reasons, first that he might be spared tho im-
portunities of hie friends, who be knew would be
likely to dissuade him from a step which would oc-
coition tho sacrifice of his distinguished office, and
next in order that his colleagues might follow tho
dictates of their individual consciences uninfluenced
by his example.
M. Hubner, the Austrian ambassador, has left
Paris for the Centre of France, on a lea% e of two
months. It is reported that diplomatic Mations bo-
tween France and Austria are in a ticklish state
at the present moment, and that M. Hubner's with-
drawal from Paris is to avoid the possible necessity
for the quasi act of hostility of leaving France al-
together.
At the Bourse the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. fell
30c., closing at 99.95 ; and the Three per Cents. fell
30, closing at 70.40. Bank of France shares fell b.
Railways opened with firmness, but were soon af-
fected by tho fall in the funds. At the close, Orleans
had fallen 7.50 ; Strasbourg, 7.50; Lyons, 5 ; Bode,
Central, and Bordeaux, 3.75 each ; Itoueu, Mai seines,
end Northern, 2.50 each; Tours and Nantes, 1.25;
Versailles (right bank) rose 3.75. The other lines
' were without variation.