The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-07 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY MORNING.
The Monileur contains a decree authorising the
Minister of Finance to return, by special agreement,
to the old Fampoux and Hazebrouck Railway, the
Old Lyons and Avignon Railway, and the Old
Bordeaux and Cette Railway, half their respective
caution monies

PARIS. SUNDAY Evnismo.
Yesterday, u 111. Bonhier de rEeluse was about to
enter the hall where the Legislative Body held its
sitting, he was stopped by a huissier, who refused
him admission. The hon. legislator protested, and
withdrew.

Dr. Becker, we of the condemned in the late trials
at Cologne, for political offences, endeavoured to
escape from the fortress of Weicksehmuntle (Dantzie).
He was, however. captured, and again consigned to
captivity.
The Moniteur of this morning contains a decree
nominating a commission charged to visit every part
of the empire, to inquire into the wants of the country,
and to report to the Emperor.
A despatch from Copenhagen, received to-day,
says :—" The elections for the Danish Second
Chamber took place on the 20th all over the king-
dom. Of the nine members elected in the capital,
seven belong to the opposition, and two only to the
ministerial party. The same result took place in both
country districts of Copenhagen."

PARIS, SATURDAY STRAIN°

The suicide of Count direerata, of which I in-
formed you yesterday, is the absorbing topic of con-
versation to-day. I mentioned that an affair of the
heart was the exciting cause of the act, which has
thrown such a gloom over the court of the Tuileries.
I am now told that unrequited love for Mademoiselle
Marthe, an actress of the Varietis, who four or five
years ago made her debut at the Gymnase, unhinged
the young count's mind. He blew his brains out
with a pistol yesterday morning, at his residence,
No. 13, Rue de la Vile l'Eveque, Faubourg St.
Honore. Immediately on the event being known
M. de Chasseron, his colleague in the Council of
State, and M. Pietri, Prefect of Police, repaired
to the scene of the sad event. They were
speedily followed by the ministers of state
Interior and Justice. The unfortunate youth's
mother, the Princess de Baciocchi, had gone to a
country-house in the environs of Paris the day be-
fore, and Prince Jerome Bonaparte went thither to
communicate to her the awful intelligence. Count
Camerata, notwithstanding his extreme youth, had
been appointed a maitre des requetes in the'Council of
State, and a brilliant official career was before him.
The official part of the Moniteur is unusually fer-
tile in decrees. The first and most important con-
tains the expected creation of a new batch of senators.
Yon will observe among them several of the names
that I signified to you by anticipation. The Duke de
Valmy is not among the number ; and the expecta-
tion of his friends that he would not renounce his
splendid retreat at Florence for 30,000 L • year and
the livery of a senator in Paris is thus confirmed.
The following is the list of the new creations :
M. Ferdinand Barrett, Councillor of State and ex-
minister; the Marquis de Boissy, ex-peer of France;
M. Bret, Prefect of the Rhone; M. Chapnys de
Montlaville, Prefect of the Haute Garonne; M. Ds-
riste, Councillor of State • Capt. Dore, of the Navy;
M. Duca, Minister of 'Warm.; the Marquis d'Es-
; the Marquis de Gabriar, ex-Minister Pleni- I
potentiary • M. Larabit,
.Deputy of the Legislative
Body ; General of Division De Lalaing d'Aupen-
arde; the Viscount &dean, Prefect of the Boucles du
Rhone; M. de Thorigny, Councillor of State and ex-
Minister; the Duke de Treviso and the Baron de
Varennes, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary at Berlin.
The next decree makes several appointments in the
Council of State. The first name n that of M. dor-
nutlet, who is thus restored to his former position,
having been dismissed last year for drawing up a
report against the confiscation of the property of the
Orleans princes. It is said that he owes his restora-
tion to his intimate connexion with the Jesuits.

The third decree fulfils the expectation long enter-
tained that extensive changes were about to be made
in the prefectures. Among the dismissed prefects is
M. Ornano, of the Yonne, celebrated not only for
his proclamations but for his poetry; and it does
not yet appear that any compensation is provided for

Fine hundred and sixty-four mote parlous of poli-
tical offenders are announced to-day.
The Monitewr, after quoting a paragraph from a
London journal to the effect that France had re-
fused to join with England in sending a fleet to the
Dardanelles, on the ground that she wished to do
nothing at the payment moment which might give
umbrage to the northern powers, affirms the state-
ment to be wholly without foundation.
_ _ _ _

The affair of the Countess de Urns was yesterday
decided against her by the Tribunal of the First
Instance. I mentioned yesterday that her husband,
who the Imperial advocate stated a week ago was
not to be found, had received an order to quit France.
This fact was communicated to the court by the sub-
stitute of the Imperial advocate, who produced the
following letter from M. de Solna to the Imperial
Promote:

At dm moment when I us about to (knit France I learn
flat Madam d• Selma, my wife, has without my authori-
sation. applied to a nowt of law, for the purpose of estab-
lishing bar nationality as • Frenchwoman, • title which
doss not being In bar. I have the honour to inform you
that I dindesay "rainy: wife's application. As the son
and sonedo•• td• I am • brnoe we'll, and I
dam to ,on tut I no intention to tak• steps to
natmalim avail, in a Frenchman. It follow, that Madame
de dine domand can have no useful result, since is no
ease mm in dim a different nationality from mine.
_ _

I as mashie to explain what influence has induced
M. de Solms, against whom an a?parently hostile
measure of extreme severity has just been taken,
thus to play into the hands of the government for the
purpose of maintaining the prima facie illegal expul-
sion of his wife. M. de Selma has long assumed the
quality of a Frenchman, which he now repudiates,
both by voting at elections, and by placing
his name on the lists of persons liable to be
drawn for the army. It appears, however, that
although born in France his parents were
foreigners, and the law in such a case enables a man
to elect whether he will be a Frenchman or not. The 1
government counsel asserted that M. de Selma had
never made the declaration requisite by Art. 9 of the
Code Napoleon to establish the nationality of a per-
son born in France of foreign parents. Madame de
Solms produced no proof to contradict this assertion.
M. Berryer, who rose to reply for Madame de Solms,
was interrupted by the court, who directed him to
hand in his observations in writing. No report of

his argument has been made public. The judgment
of the court recites that Madame de Solna, an Eng-
lishwoman by birth, had not proved her husband to be
a Frenchman, while he, on the contrary, asserted
that he was not. It therefore &missed her applica-
tion with costs. It is worth noticing that the French
law imposes heavy penalties upon any one not being
a Frenchman who presumes to exercise the electoral
is
franchise, and it certain that M. de Solara has on
Iseveral occasions voted for Louis Napoleon without
being objected to.
The Municipal Council of Paris has authorised the
Prefect of the Seine to cede to the state a circular
piece of ground ten metrre in diameter, at the end of
the avenue of the Luxembourg, for the erection of a
monument to the memory of Marshal Ney, on the
spot where he was executed.

PARIS. Fanut Evixrco.
The Moniteur contains the following important
explanations from the French government, concern-
ing various political questions which have lately
agitated the public mind on both sides of the channel :
" The ifoniteur would not suffice to contradict all
the erroneous reports which are in circulation, prin-
cipally in foreign journals. However, there are
certain errors which the government considers it
a duty. not to allow to gain credence. Thus the
public journals have announced that Austria had re-
fused the mediation of France and England in her
differences with Turkey ; that Franco had joined
with other powers in making representations to the
British government relative to political refugees ;
that she was negotiating at St. Petersburg a conven-
tion relative to the Holy Places ; that the Emperor
of the French had himself transmitted from the tele-
graphic office a despatch to Vienna, on the occasion
of the attempt against the life of the Emperor of
Austria ; and lastly, that the Emperor had written
a confidential letter to the Federal government rela-
tive to the complaints addressed by Austria
to Switzerland. The truth is, that in the dif-
ferences between Austria and Turkey, the
mediation of France was not offered, and con-
sequently could not have been refused. With
regard to the refugees, France reckons on the
straightforward dealing of the English government,
having no doubt that it will fulfil towards her all the
duties of good neighourhood. But she has not
joined in any collective step, if indeed any
such proceedings have taken place. With respect
to the Holy Places, friendly explanations may
have been exchanged at St. Petersburg, but
the negotiation on that point opened with
Turkey must follow its course to Constantinople.
It is necessary to say that in the afflicting circum-
stance of the attempt on the Emperor of Austria's
life, the communications between the two sovereigns
have been conducted by the ordinary mode and accord-
ing to the ordinary forms. The Emperor of the
French, penetrated with horror at so odious a crime,
handed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs an auto-
graph letter, which was presented to the Emperor
of Austria by the Minister of France at Vienna. As
to Switzerland, the councils of the French govern-
ment to the federal power, dictated by the desire to
contribute to the maintenance of good relations be-
tween the Helvetic government and the neighbouring
powers, are marked by a sincere sentiment of kind-
ness,- but they have not been produced under the
form supposed."
In reference to the charge against foreign journals
as being the originators of the reports now affirmed
to be false, I may remind you that one of the most
important of the above statements—namely, that
Austria had refused the mediation of France and
England with regard to the Turkish question was
first circulated here by the Constitutionnel.

GERMANY.
PRUSSIA. _

BERLIN, MARCH 3.
A proclamation, announcing the demise of the
reigning Orand Duke Augustus of Oldenburg, and
the accession of his son Peter, promises on oath, "to
maintain rigidly the constitution, and to govern in
conformity with constitutional principles and the
laws." This voluntary declaration is worthy of ac-
knowledgement, because it is not unusual for Ger-
man princes, on succeeding to the government, to re-
pudiate the pledges of their predecessors. The health
of the new Grand Duchess is, unfortunately, in an
alarmingly precarious state.

A Bremen newspaper states that in the sitting
which the Federal Diet at Frankfort held on the lst
inst the Plenipotentiary of Liechtenstein moved that
the iumembly should support the Austrian note pro-
posed to be addressed to England on the subject of
the refugees. This must surely be meant for a joke.
The potentate who thus pretends to intermeddle with
English administration governs a territory ef 63
square miles, with 6,351 subjects.