The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-08 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, WEDNESDAY EVENING.
The Bourse has been the worst that we have had
this week. With the exception of the Strasbourg
Railway, in which there has been the insignificant
rise of I fr. 25c., every description of security in which
any business at all hes been done, has fallen. The
Threes closed at 78fr. 35,1., being a fall of 55c. Some
people say, to account for this continued depression,
that the leading speculators are in the country shoot-
ing, and produce returns showing that in 18 years
out of the last 20 there has invariably been a fall in
September, arising purely from Languor. It is,
however, scarcely to be doubted that uncer-
tainty respecting the Eastern question again
weighs upon the market. The news that Lord
John Russell's vacation in Scotland was disturbed by
a telegraphic summons to London, naturally leads to
the supposition that the English cabinet must con-
sider the present state of foreign affairs as serious.
It is also to be inferred from a paragraph in the
Moniteur of this morning that the French govern-
ment has something more to occupy its attention
than ordinary vacation business. Properly speaking,
there has not been since the establishment of the
Empire any such thing as a cabinet in France. The
ministers are wholly independent of each other, each
one receives his instructions separately from the Em-
peror in person, and usually, when they meet
in council, the Emperor presides. The Monileur,
however, this day informs us that, during the
Emperor's absence at Dieppe, the ministers have met
several times a week at the house of the Garde des
Sceaux. Some of them have also been sent for by
telegraph from the departments, and at the last
meeting the Ministers of Justice ; Foreign Affairs ;
War ; Finance; Marine ; Agriculture, Commerce, and
Public Works ; Public Instruction and Worship, and
the President of the Council of State, having the
rank of a minister, were present. Of course the
corn question may well be supposed, in at least an
equal proportion with Turkish affairs, to have occu-
pied their attention. Upon this there is scarcely any-
thing new to be said.
The population of Paris is perfectly quiet, eating
its relatively cheap loaf with thankfulness to the
Emperor, and implicitly relying upon his will to
prevent a further rise. I am bound to say, judging
from the expressed opinions of the masses and the
lower class of tradesmen, that if, in maintaining bread
by artificial means at an under price, the
Emperor runs counter to-the principles of political
economy, he does not shock the conscience or the
understanding of his people. They look upon the
bakers as their natural enemies, think it quite right
that they should be forced to trade at a loss, and are
utterly impervious to arguments showing that the
public must ultimately suffer for the violence done
to trade. I was told yesterday by a tradesman ii
the faubourgs, who evidently believed the story, that
43 " accapareurs" of corn had been arrested, and that
in all probability " their heads would be cut off." A
report that M. Darblay, one of the principal corn mer-
chants in Paris, had been arrested has been continually
spread during the last month, and is almost uni-
versally received with favour. It is said, and not
improbably, that parties connected with the govern-
ment circulate this false report, knowing that it will
, be popular. Notwithstanding the assertion of the
Putrie that the decree prohibiting the natural rise in
bread was a purely Parisian measure, there is no
doubt that extraordinary freaks of authority have
been committed in the departments. It is known
that the bakers at Versailles, Montmorency, and other
places in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital,
have been forced to adopt the Parisian tariff. The
Journal de ['Aisne, of the sth, says:
The markets of Seilsons and of La Fore serve as regu-
lators of the price of bread for the town of Laois. On Satur-
day a fall took place in these two places, but the price
of bread, which is dependent on the price of corn for the
preceding fortnight, would have undergone a rise on this
day of 40c. on the i kilogrammes, had the prices of the
fortnight been acted on. This would hays produced a bad
effect in presence of the fall in price which had taken place
en the 3rd. In consequence the Prefect, imitating the
example of the Prefect of Police of Parse, has taken on him
to reduce that advance of 40c. to 20c., assuring the bakers
of the difference being made up to them afterwards.
On the other Land, the Consalutionnel cites an
act of the Prefect of the Tarn and Garonne, to show
that the principle of non-interference with com-
merce, proclaimed by the Monileur yesterday, is re-
cognised by the provincial authorities:
The Prefect of the Tarn-et-Oaronne, has just issued tho
following order:—" Considering that M. Leepine, Commis-
sary of Police of the canton of Liftmen's, has several

times neglected his duties and disregard& the instructions
of his superiors; and that, in particular, cot Augu.t 21, at
the market of Latrancaise, he acted contrary to the
formal orders of the authorities, in interfering with the free
sale of corn by drawing up three pewees rertwea tie said
market against certain sellers woo asked far u,ei; corn a
higher price than the preceding quotation; and cun►ider-
tug that it is important to prove clearly to the populations
that the government is resolved at the same time to respect.
the liberty of commerce and to repress fraudulent
manoeuvre ; and as the proces•rerbaur alluded to show that
there was a total absence of all improper acts on the part
of the sellers, and that they only took advantage of the
unnecessary alarm which had been excited by speculators
in corn; the prefect, taking these things into consideration,
decides that the said M. Lespine is hereby suspended from
his function."

In this cue the Commissary of Police has been
made the scapegoat, but he, no doubt, thought he
was acting for the best, and his interference ;with
the market of Lainincaise is a striking instance of
the general prevalence of the impression that a " pa-
ternal goverument" is competent to regulate the re-
lations between buyers and sellers.
The Cimatitutionnet says : "We learn that the
Emperor and Empress will return to Paris on Sa-
turday, and again set out about the 15th for their
long announced journey to Boulogne and the north
of France."