The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-21 00:00:00

energies, given to " weddings and rejoicings," when
the remainder of the land was reduced to •
state of comparative "single blessedness." It
was the same with Liverpool, Birmingham, and
other great towns. Sometimes the picture was re.
versed. Thus in 1789, a bad year for the whole
nation, the marriages in Birmingham were 903; but
in 1792, eo prosperous to the kingdom, they amounted
to only 606 ! The political riots of the time will
readily occur to the reader in explanation of the cir.
cumstance. But the truth is, the decline was not
caused by the riots ; for the increase of disorder and
celibacy were equally the effects of causes lying open
to appreciation. At that time a conaiderah;e number
of workmen in the iron districts depended for their
prosperity upon the manufacture of shoe-buckles. In
one of her caprices, Fashion had placed her ban upon
buckles: henceforth, she Raid, let shoes be fastened
with laces! The manufacturers of Birmingham,
Walsall, and Wolverhampton, appealed, by paitioa,
to the PRINCE REGENT. He promised hie influence
and example. On t. e strength of this promise
hundreds of persons invested their fortunes in
buckles. There was to be a state procession in Lon.
don on the recovery of GEORGE 111., and briAlee
were expected to beat strings oat of the field, and
become again the rage. But alas for all these hoped
the King went to St. Paul's in ties, buckles were non.
plussed, arid the manufacturers ruined. Herein,
probable, lies the secret of the politica disorders in
the midland counties in 1791-2, &c.

FRANCE.

PARIS,

It is announced that the Committee char,,,d ;Pith
investigation of the insurrections of June and; he 13th
of May has made considerable progress; but its
report, which will be a document of considerable ex.
tent, wili not be ready for eight or ten days to come.
It is understood that the committee has succeeded in
developing the causes of these two insurrections in a
satisfactory manner. The reporter of this committee
will be M. Bouchard.
The committee of finances has decided upon pro•
posing acme modifieation of an income tax.
The estimate of the number of haled and wounded
put forth in a semi-official form a day or two
since, in which the killed are stated at about
1,4n0, is now proved to be a most erroneous estimate.
" We could have wished (says Le Droil), a journal
having the beet source of information on such subjects,
that this number was correct. Unhappily it is not so;
but official documents show that the number of killed
and wounded among the defenders cf order only is
greater than that stated. We can now affirm that on
both sides there were more than 8,000 killed and

wounoeu.
The commission on the project of law as to the
press, held long sittings yee'erday and the day before.
M. Tassel suppoted the necessity of caution money,
which MM. Berryer and Pascal Duprat opposed with
much force of reasoning.
To-day the con mission will hear M Marie, the
minister of justice, as to his intention of adopting the
project of his prede-essrr. The minister of the in-
terior will also be heard. Several members have ex-
pressed an intention of putting questions to M.
Semis& as to the continued suppression of th.ee lead-

;- -
uig journals.
M. Pascal Duprat has presented a project of decree
to the commission, which contains, among others, the
following articles:
Art. 1. Every Frenchman, having civil and political
rights, shall have the right to publish his opicion by
speaking or by the press, complying with the fel:owing
conditions: 2. The decliration to be made before the publi•
cation of any journal, shall contain the name, residence, la
prolusion, of the chief editor. 3. All manweripts, signed
by their authors, shall be delivered to the printersorhe
shall be bound to produce them for any purposes of justice.
4. Proceedings may he taken at the same time against
the chief editor and printer for every article not signed, who
shall he liable to the same punishment that might have boa
inflicted on the author. 5. Every writer who shall adopt a
false signature, for the purpose of avoiding responsiblith
shall lose his civil rights for a terns not exceeding tire years,
without prejudice to any other punishment to which he
may be liable, His accomplices also shall be liable to the
same punishment. 6. When a journal shall have been three
times found guilty of publishing under false signatures, it
may be suppressed. 8. The chief editor shall always be is.
eluded in any proceedings against any other editor, unless he
can show that the article has been inserted without hi
knowledge. 9. All previous laws sto caut.on money,
the responsibility of the conductor of the journal an
abrogated.
This project is to be discussed to-day.
The Messayer Bays "We are assured, that with.
out any intimate concert on the question, France awl
England have reciprocally given notice to each other
of sending a squadron ot observation to the I3lack
Sea, to watch the movements of Russia on the Lower
Danube."

NAPLES.—We have received the following letter
from our Naples correspondent, giving further parti-
culars et the election of the King of Sicily :
3 CLY 13.—0 n Sunday last the Porcupine left for Paler-
mo. On arriving they found that the Chamber had been
discussing the choice of a king for several days *rant
coming to any decision. Wearied of this delay the naiad
guard surrounded the Chamber on Monday declaring that
until a decision was come to no one should be permitted
to leave. About midnight of Monday the bells annonneed
that a decision had been come to, and it was known
the Duke of Genoa had been elected king. On Tuesday
morning there was a continual firing from all the forts. The
Bulldog (English) was the first foreign vessel to hoist the
Sicilian fl ig, and salute it with 21 guns. The French foh
lowed soon after. The Porcupine left Palermo on Tuesday,
the 11th: as they were leaving, five line.of.hattle ship
(English) and the Uecate were entering. The French fist
leaves Naples to-morrow or next day.