The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30.

IT was a most agreeable sign of the times when
Republican France offered the right-hand of friend-
ship and welcqrne to England, atter the Great Indus-
trial Exhibition of 1851. The two nations had
been engaged in friendly rivalry in the arts of peace
—in amicable contest who should display the most
brilliant products of civilised industry. The
workmen, the artists, the manufacturers of Paris,
of Lyons, of Lille, displayed their beautiful
and arti.tic products alongside the goods of Lon-
don, of Birmingham, of Sheffield, and Manchester.
The French cavilers poured out their choicest
works—the bourgeois collected their newest designs,
and searched their best warehouses for things rich
and rare enough to grace tho quarter devoted to their
country in the Crystal Palace of Industry in Hyde
I'ark, whilst their saran's cheerfully contributed a
quota of labour for action on the juries which should
decide to whi.l several nations and to which special
individuals the palm of superiority should in each
class be given. France had then no King, no Em-
peror. Ihe country was essentially ruled by the
people. It was the nation acting and speaking in
the persons of its silk manufacturers, its jewellers,
its silversmiths, its watchmakers, its porcelain
workers, its textile manufacturers, and its scientific
and active public spirits who joined us here in England
in our plan for setting up a World's Fair, to which
the people of all countries were invited to be exhibi-
tors or spectators, as might please them best. Bat our
French cousins and nearest neighbours in the brother-
hood of nations did more than this. Triumphant in
some branches of the friendly rivalry, and van-
quished in others, they showed their complete satis-
faction with the result by a display of generous na-
tional hospitality almost before unknown. The City
of Paris, in the name of its Mayor, invited the
authorities of Loado.l and the chief promoters of the
Great Exhtbition to become their guests during a
series of fêtes to be given in commemoration of this
meeting of France and England in the rivalry of',
the peaceful arts. In the most bounteous and open-
handed way, regardless of cost, the men of Parts
provided special trains for the land journey
between the two capitals, with a special service ot
steamers for the Channel passage, and by these
means a very large party of Englishmen, whh Earl
GRANVILLE and the LORD MAYOR at their head, set
out fur the French metropolis. Once there, a succes-
sion of entertainments awaited them. The historical

Hotel de Ville became the Berne of a banquet, balls,
and theatrical entertainments, the great waters of

Versailles and the many attractions of St. Cloud in-
vited English admiration—s huge military spectacle
in the Champ de Mars and a welcome in every
public building in Paris were ready to show how
heartily Frenchmen could act towards their foreign
guests. Altogether it was a manifestation of
national sentiment, which it is difficult to ad-
mire sufficiently, and impossible to praise enough.
It was a spontaneous outpouring of French hospi-
tality and goodwill, which Englishmen may well
treasure, as a great fact, tending to show the real
sympathy which exists between the two peoples.
Let us repeat that it was Republican France did
this. Why England did not at once return the
compliment, by urging London to invite P
asked, and none answered; but wldht the
notion was yet under discussion, the efegliralllealle
to disturb Europe and sweep the way for coavertig
the Republic into an Empire. Thisjournal wan ammo
the eery first to denounce the author of that State
coup, and there was at once throughout the country a
cry of indignation against the act which had pissed
France in the power • of the army whiled by
Lours NAPOLEON. In this country of free opinion
some thought the coup d'eltat an admirable thing, but
however they might differ from the views we loudly
expressed upon the subject, none could fail to mark
the distinction constantly drawn between the indig-
nation felt towards the author of the tragedy
of December 2nd, and the nation which suffered
by the doings of that blood-stained day. We
quarrelled with the self-made Despot, not with the
people he coerced. We lamented the constitutional
Government that was overthrown, but demonised
only its destroyer. It might suit the cowards whos
feared, or the parasites who profited by the new
order of things, to confuse as much as possible the
real state of the case. But no ingenuities of the in-
terested can change the facts, or blot out the printed
words now on record—words that attacked not France
or Frenchmen, but the man who took forcible posses-
sion of the one and the other. Following quickly
on the coup d'e,tat, came the troublesome but common
sense suggestion that the man who had betrayed
one nation was a dangerous neighbour, and one to be
held in suspicion, and to be on our guard against ac-
cordingly. The steps that followed need not again be
told. Defences were looked to;'some ships were called
to our shores, and men soon again felt the calm
which attends the; fulfilment of what is thought a
duty. Forewarned is forearmed; and Lows NAPO-
LEON'S civility to England and respect for English-
men will be none the less for the knowledge that
they are prepared for any contingency. Yet the
measures of precaution popularly demanded as proper
for the occasion were declared by certain very esti-
mable people to be not only improper but quite un-
necessary and—very alarming. They overlooked the
distinction existing in the case, and pointed to
in the journals. They persisted in regarding France
and Louis NAPOLEON as one and the same, and de-
clared that English sympathy with Frenchmen, and
English objections to the author of the coup d'&at,
were highly dangerous. Against the increased esti-
mates for ordnance and navy, however, not a single
Member of Parliament recorded a vote ! and the
aaly fruit of the agitation seems to be the very placid
document, so very extensively and respectably signed,
which was on Monday presented to the Emperor.
his this document some will doubtless object. Its text
is harmless enough, if we except the passages in which
a belle( is expressed that the people of France suspect
the people of England of feelings of an unfriendly
character, an. 3 the paragraph in which the press
misunderstood or misrepresented. The feeling of the
people of England towards the people of France has
for years past bee n most cordial. Their interests are
identical. No En glishman can wish to cut the
throat of a Gallic neighbour ; and the feeling of
Frenchmen towards Las were well illustrated by the
national invitation to Paris, which we began by
referring to. The City address is, therefore, quite
right when it says :
We believe ao such (ill) feelings exist on the part of the Seg-
all people towards the people of Francs- We believe the
welfare of both nations to be chant? interwove*, so well
a mutually advantageous and enten.lioll,toomettial iateg'
sous, as in • common participatio.'t a all Illal loran'
meats of art and science. Rejoicing in the ram** that
nearly forty year! have passed since the Jail salaafka al
hostilities between Franca and England, we regard ma son-
viction that European wars should be rersmahond only to
be deplored, for tit.• sacrifice of life and tremor* with which
they were attended—the hindrances they inte."Posso to all
useful enterprise and social advancement—the .‘Olll7 sad
unchristian feeling+ which they evoked in their pi
osVa's—
and the heavy financial burdens which they left hind
them at their ease—considerations which supply the moat
powerful motives to every individual in the European c qOt-
munity, to avoid, and to oppose, by every means in hit
power, whatever may tend to cause the recurrence of such
evils.
But if this expression of good will was to be sent
across the Channel from the people of England to the
people of France, should not the thousands and mil-
lions of the British nation have been invited to sign
it? And should it not then rather have been pre-
sented to the people of Franco through the Mayor
of Paris, who invited the dignitaries of the City of
London to the festivities of 1831, than to the Ex Pisitoe
who pat those people in duress? The opening of
the Declaration does not state that it was to be
presented to the Emperor of FRANCE. It has nothing
in its substance that indicates any intended deputa-
tion to Paris. hid all those who signed the docu-
ment know that Mr. Powi.e.a was to go with a select
party to the Tuilei see. to lay this list of English peace-
ful commercial adherents at the foot of the French
throne? Louts tfoLEON was, of course, polite.
and the report states that the deputation " were de-

lighted with their reception"—cot the less so. doubt-
less, for the civil invitation to dine with the
EMPEROR and EMPRESS. BONAPARTE, of course,
said he desired peace; but, then, after his broken
oath to the amstitution of the Republic,
his word must ever be taken only for what
it may be worth—even if it be not read by con-
traries. As a piece of civility, there can be no great
harm, if no great good, in the whole affair. If it
tends to convince a single unbeliever in our wishes
for peace it will be a good thing done; but many
will, perhaps, be inclined still to think that a
national invitation to a chosen party of the French
people—such as they sent to us—would have been a
more satisfactory proposition than this requital of
Republican hospitality by something very like adula-
tion of the EMPEROR. But, " All's well that ends
well," says one of BIIAKSPERE.B titles; and, tried by
this test, no one will complain of the concluding
paragraph of the City Document which has called
forth these observations. Most heartily do we coin-
cide with our fellow-citizens when they say, " We
conclude this declaration, by proclaiming our earnest
desire for the long continuance of cordiality and
good will between Frenchmen and Englishmen —our
determination to do all in our power to uphold the
same—and our fervent hope, that the inhabitants of
both nations may, in future, only vie with each other
in cultivating the arts of peace, and in extending the
sources of social improvement, for their common
benefit."

FRANCE.

PARIS, TUESDAT ETENT:co

The Moniteur contains s decree maintaining the
Count Argout, senator and governor of the Bank, in
his functions as president of the commission of sur-
veillance of the Csisses d'Amortissemcnt.

In an article on the present position of affairs in
the East, the ministerial Austrian Correspondence
contends that the Russian claims are no way tend-
ing to violate the independence of Turkey, nor at all
likely to disturb the peace of the world.
The Moniteur of this morning publishes every one
of the 4,000 names appended to the Peace Declara-
tion, which are thus secure of a page in history. All
France will speedily know who are the Englishmen
that have stood prominently forward as the advocates
of friendly relations between the two countries. The
Moniteur is placarded, by the care of the prefects and
their subordinates, in every considerable village in
France, and children will study English nomencla-
ture in its columns of to-day. Fortunately, and
much to the credit of the compositors of the 3foniteur,
the spelling of the English names is singularly
correct.

A telegraphic despatch, dated Marseilles, 28th,
states that the Egyptus has anchored at La Cistat,
but she does not bring any accounts from Constanti-
nople more recent than those received via Vienna.
On the 24th tho English squadron was still at Malta.
Another telegraphic despatch from Marseilles
announces the departure of the steam corvette the
Caton, having on board M. do Lacour, French
ambassador at Constantinople, and his suite. The
corvette sailed on the morning of the 27th. After
landing M. de Latour, the Caton will proceed to
join the Levant squadron.
A vague impression prevailed at the Bourse to-
day that foreign intelligence of an unfavourable cha-
iracter had been received, but I have not been able
to trace it to any authentic source.
It has been remarked that the Moniteur has not
published any of the telegraphic despatches from
Constantinople. The Conitau:ionnel, and other go-
vernment journals habitually suppress any part of
a despatch which they do not happen to like. For
instance, they omitted from the despatches of Saturday
last the fact that Prince Menchikoff had sent despatches
to the Russian consul at Jerusalem relative to the
Holy Places, and they said nothing of the continued
military movements in Odessa, or of the concentra-
tion on the frontier of the three corps dormer under
General Luders, the commander-in-chief of the army
of occupation in the Moldo-Walac.hian provinces. It
is worthy of notice that the despatches sent to the
Russian consul at Jerusalem immediately after an in-
terview between Menchikoff and Rifaat Pacha were
addressed to the consul " general," a desitination
lied for the first time in describing that functionary.
It is confidently said that the purport of these de- I
spatches was to order the consul to put the affairs of
the Holy Places "provisionally "upon the footing on
which they were prior to the mission of M. de La-
valette. _

It is positively stated that Prince Kourskin was
the bearer of an autograph letter from the Emperor
of Russia to Napoleon 111., which he delivered into
his own hands at a private audience.
A decree, signed by M. Fould, in the name of the
Emperor, is published to-day regulating the imperial
liveries, which are green and red, with gold embroi-
dery. Another decree, by the prefect of police, pro-
hibits all private individuals from using the imperial
liveries. I understand the occasion for issuing these
decrees was that the Emperor observed at Long-
champs sevetal carriages, and among others that of
Mdlle.ltackel, with footmen behind whose dresses
were undistinguishable from those of his own servants.
Lieutenant-General Count Gustave de Loewen-
hielm, envoy extraordinary of the King of Sweden,
and M. Kisseleff, envoy extraordinary of the Em-
peror of Russia, had audiences of the Emperor yes-
terday, to present the reply of their sovereigns to the
letters announcing the imperial marriage.

It is reported from Rome that the Pope has an in-
timate councillor, recently received into his confi-
dence, who strongly urges him, against the wishes of
the large majority of the College of Cardinals, to ac-
cede to Louis Napoleon's desire, and come to Paris to
crown him. This new confidential adviser is the
Capuchin Monk Recanati, who was made a cardinal
the other day. Little more than six moths ago
Father Recanati was introduced mysteriously into
the Quirinal Palace by the Pope himself, who ordered
an apartment to be prepared for the reception of a
" poor Capuchin." Cardinal Antonelli sagacious
from the fiat of the presence of a rival, humbly
inquired of his holiness the reason for this unusual in-
trodution of a new inmate into the Papal residence.
The Pope simply replied that Father Recanati
was a holy person, whose spiritual counsel he desired
to have. The wily minister, fain to appear contented
with this answer, took an opportunity subsequently
of letting his master see that he was not deceived by
it. On the occasion of settling with the Pope the
list of cardinals to be created at the last consistory
but one, the Pope told .him he would have no diffi-
culty in filling up. the blanks, as all Rome knew that
so and so, repeating the names, were to receive the
red hat. "You have omitted one," said the cardinal.
"% he ?" said the Pope, affecting surprise. " Father
Recanati." Oh! the poor man, he never thought of
such a thing." "Rome,however,talks of him as being
on the point of promotion," the cardinal persisted.
"Oh, well," said the Pope," if Rome points to him for
this dignity, he must be worthy of it,and we will name
him at the next consistory." He was named accord-
ingly, and people are now inquiring at the Vatican
when Cardinal Antonelli will be overthrown and
the " poor Capuchin" installed as minister in his
place.
The Court of Rome recently altered a paper, sent
for signature from Paris, in a manner which has given
great offence. In the patents of the new Bishops of
Coutaoce and Grenoble, the Emperor was described
as " Napoleon 111., Imperatorem Francerum." The
cardinals changed this sentence to "Napoleon,
Imperatorem Gallorum."
A scheme for naturalising bull fights, a la mode
d'Espagne, in Paris, which the lovers of new sensa-
tions confidently expected to see realised this year,
has received a death-blow from an unexpected quar-
ter. Torreadore, picadors, and bulls were all
engaged by the director of the Hippodrome,
who had calculated on the patronage of the Empress
fo.- an entertainment which she frequently witnessed
delight at Madrid. Out of deference to northern
prejudices, it was announced in the programme that
only be,ils were to be killed, and that precautions
would be ...Am to secure the torresdors from danger.
It mighterhape, have been difficult strictly to
adhere to thia condition, for I have myself seen a
man in the cireuk when irritating a muffled bull,
not intended to be slaughtered, knocked down,
trampled upon, a,-;(1 carried off the field senseless.
But all speculation on the subject is at an end, for,
at the moment when the _license was on the point of
being granted, the Empres,:eqUeSted that the affair
should not be suffered to proce.vd, as she would be
sorry to be the occasion of introu'u:ing Spanish cus-
toms into France.
The Medial are shortly expected bore from Mar-
seilles, and I believe a deputation from the Bible