The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-09 00:00:00

cumstance of l'hiens having recently
his determination oily to accept power on the express
condition that the business of the state should be
really directed by those who are responsible for it.
Referring to the violent attacks of some of the
English journals on Louis Philippe, for his inter-
ference in those matters which ought properly to
belong to his foreign minister, Ls Sie'ck says:
Behold, then, the fruits of Id. Guicot's doctrines ! In the
blindness of his seal as a courtier, he delares that the crown
musthave all the eredit of the good done in the business of
the state, and none of the responsibility for the evil ; as 'f it
was possible to divide the human conscience ; as if the right
of acting, once acknowledged, must not bring with it as ne-
cessarily the liability to blame as the right to praise. To
justify his strange doctrine, M. Gallant invoked the example
of Great Britain, where, he said, the crown could directly
interfere in the conduct of public affairs without being ex-
posed to the control of public opinion. What wall the Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs say now, when he receives from Lan-
don this new contradiction to his doctrines' The English
nation, with its rude good sense, and rough logic, protests
against the refined distinction of the rhetorical minister.
There where it sees, or thinks it sees, real and deci
sive action, it places serious responsibility, and rearm the
right of censuring that power whose personal influence
on other occasions it praises. How you must felicitate your-
self, continues Le Siecle, addressing the Guizot ministry,
for having thus placed on the head of constitutional royalty
a crown of thorns, and put in its hand a reed-sceptre to pre-
sent it to the insults of foreigners! What a service you
have done to France, in rendering the throne itself the ob-
ject of every diplomatic rancour ! How wrong the opposi-
tion has been in maintaining that your complaisance com-
promised royalty, your adulation betrayed it, and that a
ministry without real power is a buckler without strength
to resist!
A mystery still continues to hang about the alleged
protest of the French cabinet against the Cracow
affair. The direct contradiction of two quasi official
organs on the subject, mentioned in our correspon-
dence of yesterday, and the absolute silence of the
more directly recognised organs of the cabinet, ren-
dered it doubtful whether a protest had been sent at
all, and it was expected that the Dekts at least
would brzak silence on Monday, so as to remove all
doubt upon a question on which so much public
anxiety was felt. Not a word was uttered by the
Debats. The Epoque, however, commits itself to the
fax'. that a protest has actually been forwarded ; but
this is all that the ministerial journal communicates
to the public.
The financial and commercial crisis which has me-
naced the country, and, in connexion with it, the
question of subsistence, continues to engage mach
public attention in Paris.
Happily, owing to the abundant supplies of wheat
and flour already imported, all serious apprehension
of a deficiency in the most necessary article of subsist-
ence is removed. In the ten months ending 31st
Oct., there were imported into France 2,637,000
met. quintals of grain, and 30,966 quintals of
flour, equivalent altogether to 34 millions of hecto-
litres, composed almost entirely of wheat. This quan-
thy is equivalent to about eighteen days' consump-
tion. This large importation of foreign corn, four or
five times greater than the ordinary amount annually
imported in France, not being accompanied by a cor-
responding demand for native manufactures, has ne-
cessarily caused an exportation of specie, and a
consequent scarcity of money, but this, though
considerable, is far from being the only cause of the
present monetary crisis. The quantity of specie in
the Bank would still have been sufficient to have pre-
vented any derangement, hut that, simultaneously
with this, the balance held to the credit of the trea.
sury is reduced to 35,000,000, and even this amount it
is expected will have to be speedily withdrawn, owing
to the deficiency of the amount proceeding from the
taxes on consumption, a consequence which necessa-
rily attends the high price of corn. The usual amount
of specie in the Bank of France is 250,000,000 ; this
is at present reduced to 100,000,000, of which
80,000,000 are in Paris, and the remainder in the
chests of the provincial branches. If, as seems at
present inevitable, the Treasury reduce still further
its balance ; there are but three courses which present
themselves to'the direction—they must either contract
their discounts, raise the rate of interest, or negotiate
a loan with the Bank of England.
The Opposition press, in severe terms, charges the
government with want of foresight in passively suffer-
ing their embarrassments to accumulate, without pro-
viding measures of relief.
They have not, says the Constitutionnel, of Monday, come
upon them unawares; but the Ministers of Finance, of
Public Work., and of the; Interior, treated all the fears en-
tertained as chimeras ; they seemed to expect that tne die.
posable capital of the country was inexhaustible, and yet in
a few months the worst predictions were realised, and the
ministerial journals themselves were forced to declare that
too much precipitation had been allowed in sanctioning the
great public enterprises. It is now proposed to aid the corn.
panics; but it is more difficult to remedy than to prevent the
evil, and we have little confidence in the efficacy of the re-
medies proposed.

The Madrid journals and private correspondence of
the date of the let inst., were received in Paris on
Monday, the same mail bringing advices from Lisbon
to the 2.3 th ult.
The Isturitz ministry have been reinstated and M.
Pacheco had resigned. The difference which had
arisen between the Queen and the Ministry had been
settled by the intervention of the Queen Mother and
Count Bremen. Up to the latest advices from Lisbon no
decisive movement had taken place. Saldanha was
still before Santarem ; it was said that the Junta at
Oporto and the Marquis de Louie had urged ])as
Antes to take a decisive step or otherwise Cie cause of
the revolution would be lost.
The pro;ressista journal, El Expeelador, was seized
for the third time, on the 29th, on which the Eco del
Comercio observes that, until the press shall have
more security, it will be impossible to speak the truth
with safety. Such a persecution on the part of the
Government does it little credit. El Espanol havin.!
said that England would protest against the retracta-
tion made by the Infant l)on Enrique, the Heraldo,
the organ of the ministry, observes that its profound
conviction is that, before the spectacle of Spain,
more tranquil than ever, developing her institutions
in the shade of peace and order, and be-
fore the grave questions which have been
raised in Spain, England will change that coldness
which is observed to-day between the Cabinets of
London and Madrid, into that good and cordial un-
derstanding which ought to prevail between the
countries.
In reference to the Ministerial crisis mentioned in
our correspondence of yesterday, the Herald° has the
following :
We passed through a ministerial crisis yesterday which
for a moment seemed likely to compromise the existing
order of things. Every one is aware that M. Pacheco de-
manded, some days since, eonge to proceed to Cordova,
where he is a candidate for the coming elections. This
being refused to him he sent in his resignation, and left
without more ado for the province. The journals of the Oppo.
sition made so much noise about the matter, that her Majesty,
before accepting his resignation, thought fit to take council
with persons less interested in the affair than the ministry. In
consequence the Queen refused on Friday to sign her accept-
ance of the resignation of M.Pacheco, when presented to her
by the Minister of Justice. On the Saturday, the ministers
met and ratified their former resolution. On the Sunday
they held a council, at which her Majesty was present, in
which they exposed their re-sons for so acting, which may
be summed up in the following words, attributed to the
President of the Council :—" The ministers aro at the feet of
your Majesty but not at those of M. Pacheco." On the
breaking up of the council the ministers decided on sending
in their resignation. The Queen not wishing to decide at
once on so important a question, sent for the Marquis de
Volume, who, on the Monday, accompanied by MM. Tejado,
Cleonard, and Lopez Ballectoros, returned tothe palace. Her
Majesty having asked their advice, they replied as their duty
as loyal senators and men of honour commanded them, that
in the place of the ministers they would have acted precisely
the same. Her Majesty then sent for M. Isturitz, and signi-
fied that it was her will to follow the advice of her ministers,
and, after some demur, he was prevailed upon (as stated
yesterday) to retain office.

PORTUGAL.—Our Lisbon correspondent writes
on the 23rd from that capital, and proceeds as fol-
lows :

Supposing it to be true, and that Caul at once marches on
Santarem with the force now under his command (amount-
ing in that case to 2000 men), he will be enabled to hem
Das Antis, in so clasely as to cut off his supplies and reduce
him to a capitulation, as Saldanha cuts off all hope of any
successful sally on the side of the capital. Judging tram his
antecedents, I think it most likely that Cazal will make en
attempt at the reduction of Oporto, and thus neutralise, to a
considerable extent, the advantages he has gained. With the
exception of the above there is no military news stirring here.
I expect the Cyclops to sail in a day or two for Spit-
head, with despatches from Mr. Southerne and Colonel
Wylde ; after her departure Colonel Wylde will again
repair to the head-quarters of Saldanha at Cartaxo.
The Minister of Finanees addressed lately a long report to
the Queen on the subject of the public debt, the state of
credit, and the causes in which the present financial difli•
culties of the government originated. This repert is con-
tained in the Demi() of the 21st inst., and it is accompanied
by a decree creating an est shlishment for the maintenance
of public credit here, which is to be termed the " Bank of
Portugal." The decree consists of thirty-seven articles, and
its pros isions are of so peculiarly intricate a character, that
1 shall not attempt to analyse them, or to say more of the