The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-12 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, 1853.

FRANCE.

PARIS, Xemnsy Emirate.
A general meeting of the National Discount'
"Comptoir " of Paris is convoked for the 22nd, to
consider a proposition for increasing the capital of
the company by the sum of ten millions. The result
is looked forward to with considerable anxiety by
the weak holders of Credit 31obilltr shares, who can-
not resign themselves to the idea of parting with
I their securities at the present comparatively speak-
ling depressed price, and yet are wholly unable to
pay the coming calls. It is expected that the
cffinidoir will make advances upon these securities,
and so enable the allottecs who thought themselves
such great capitalists a few weeks since, when
their shares were ut some 200 per cent. pre-
mium, to wait patiently upon fortune for
some time longer. It is clear, however,
that, under present circumstances, the greater
the facilities of credit the greater will be the amount
of unsound speculation. The Bank of France has
for some time past been in the habit of lending
money upon the deposit of railway shares to the
extent of 61 per cent. upon their carve:it value, and
an enormous business has been dote upon that foot-
tug. But the money so borrowed has in but few in-
stances been employed in legitimate commercial ope-
rations. The almost universal coarse has been this.
The borrowers run to the Bourse, buy more shares,
many of them subject to calls, go back to the Bank
to borrow more money, then buy- more shams, and so
on in a continuous circle. Hitherto shares have
maintained their price better than the "rentes," but
whenever a considerable fall occurs the Bank must of
necessity throw an immense mass of them upon the
market to be sold for what they will fetch, and then
—the consequences may be easily anticipated.
A journal of Troyes publishes a copy of a despatch
from the Minister of the Interior to the Prefect of the
department of the Aube, announcing that there is no
truth in the reports that have been current that con-
siderable changes are about to be made in the ,".r-
-sonnet of the prefectures.
The Univers publishes a long article upon what it
calls " 'The Great Protestant Conspiracy organised in
Europe, and especially in Italy, by and under the
protection of England."
The C'onstilithon d'Auxerrc, professing to speak
from good information, says that the twenty-four
bishoprics suppressed in France by the Concordat of
1801, arc about to bu re-established, and that one of
the first steps t..ken in that direction will bo the
creation of a Bishop of Auxerre. A letter from Com-
piegne in the Journal de l'Oise asserts that the Pope
will certainly come to Paris to crown the Emperor,
and that, moreover, ho will pass some time in France
and reside in the palace of Compiegne. M. Gari-
baldi, the Pope's nuncio, is said to have received in-
telligence that the canons of St. John of Lateran at
Rome have voted an address, praying his Ma-
jesty Napoleon 111. to accept the title of First
Canon of their venerable church—the " head and the
mother of all the churches." The Bishop of Nancy,
accompanied by M. Helene, his Vicar-General, has
arrived in Paris to assume his functions as almoner
to the Emperor. The Bishop of Cabon left Homo on
the 27th, and has returned to his diocese.
The Order of Lazarist Priests, founded by Saint
Vincent de Paul, and which was authorised to exist
in France, by a decree of the 27th May, 1804, have
taken possession of the church and priest's residence
of Beauchamps, in the arrondissement of Montargis.
In addition to taking care of the parish, they propose
to preach in the churches, and assist the cures in the
districts.
It is reported that the Abbe Lacordairo, accom-
panied by several ecclesiastics and laic', is about to
make a pilgrimage to Palestine, to visit the holy
P laces.
An edifying controversy, but one certainly not
upon the order of the day, is now going on between
the Assembl4c and the Gaulle de France. The latter
journal contends that those who have been working
so hard to effect a " fusion" between the Count de
Chambord and the Orleans branch of the Bourbons
might have saved themselves the trouble, because in
case of the death, without issue, of the Count de
Chambord, the rightful heir to Louis XIV. would
not be the Count de Paris, but the infant son of the
Duke of Parma, whom it styles the Duke de
Chartres.

The Marquis Nicelai and M. Cullier-Perron, coun-
cillors-general of the Sarthe, have resigned. The
municipal council of Galilee (Tam) has been dis-
solved, iu consequence of the snail number of its
members that attended the ceremony of proclaiming
the empire. The municipal council of Cestree, in the
' same department, is about to be dissolved for a simi-
lar reason.
Workmen are employed in fitting up the Pavilion
Martian for the Princess Mathildt, the Palais Royal
for Prince Jerome, and the Elysee for Prince Murat.
The French government has just established at
Mons a consulship, necessitated Sy the commercial
relations existing between Franco and Hainault.
M. Tercelin-longot has been appointed to the office.
The Journal pour Hire has just fallen a victim to
a prosecution which is no laughing matter. This
paper, relyiug upon an exemption in favour of non-
political periodicals contained in the decree of Feb.
17, 1852, has hitherto been published without a
stamp. In September last the sump-office seized
8,536 copies of the paper, and seed M. Philippon,
the proprietor, for a tine of 55f. for each number, in
addition to tho price of the stamp. The tribunal of
the first instance has decided that the evident per-
sonal allusions of some of the caricatures in the
Journal pour Hire stamp it with a political charac-
ter, and M. Pltilippou is decreed to pay the enormous
sum of 470,000 f.
The returus just published of the production and
consumption of beetroot sugar from the commence-
ment of the season to the end of November, 1852,
show a great glut in the market. The quantity
manufactured has increased from 19 millions of kilo-
grammes to 36 millions, being an augmentation of
17 millions. If to this be added the quantity on hand
at the commencement of the season, the total comes
up to 45 millions. The sale and consumption has
only been 16 millions, leaving a quantity of 29 mil-
lions on hand at the end of November, or four mil-
lions more than at the corresponding period of the
previous year.
The ironworks of Bourges, erected at a cost of
more than 1,000;000f., were a few days ago sold by
auction, by order of the Civil Tribunal of that city,
for 210,000 fr. It was said that the purchasers were
Messrs. Gouia and Co., the bankers.
It may be remembered that some proceedings took
place a few months back before the Tribunal of
Beauvais in consequence of M. Ruze, lessee for a cer-
tain number of years of the right of sporting in a
portion of the forest of Compiegne, having declined
to refrain, by himself and servants, from exorcising
the right, notwithstanding Southall Consults had
conferred the privilege of sporting in that and other
forests exclusively on the Emperor. The technical
form in which the matter presented itself was as to
whether M. Ease should be allowed to appear, in
virtue of his lease, to answer a complaint which had
been made against his keepers for having, in spite
of an official intimation that he was to consider the
lease at an end, shot game in the forest. Although
his retension was opposed by the Administration
of the Forests, judgment was given in his favour,
and a day was fixed for going into the merits of the
case. This decision was appealed against by the
Forest authorities, and on Saturday the appeal was
argued at great length before the Court of Cessation.
The arguments were entirely of a technical character.
Eventually the court, on grounds exclusively tech-
nical, quashed the judgment of the Tribunal of Beau-
vale, and ordered the case to be referred to the Impe-
rial Court of Amiens.
Measures ha-,e been taken by the authorities to
put down tho paid claques in the theatres. "It will,
however, be difficult, if not impossible," says the
Recto der. TAi atre, "to make this reform as com-
plete and absolute as could be desired. 'the police
cannot always distinguish between spontaneous and
hired applauders. But it has expressly interdicted any
admissions before the opening of the doors, so as to
ye the house perfectly empty when the public
enters. Henceforth the claqueurs, deprived of their
private entrance, will he subjested to the common
lot, and this measure will certainly embarrass them
in the exercise of their industry."
At the Bourse to-day business was done in the
Three per Cents. at 80f. 90c., and closed for the ac-
count at 80f. 50e. ; Four-and-a-Half per Cents.,
1051: tifle.; for account, 105 f. 50e. Bank Shares. '2,845.
In railway shares : Orleans, New, 1,025 f. : Paris and
ltouen, 1,002 E ; Strasburg, and Bale, :305f. ; North-
ern, b7of.; Paris and Strasburg, 010 f. i Paris and