The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-25 00:00:00

ART UNION of LON H)N, IftervrpOrafrd by li
Korot Charter.—The oatirrlntion lig elan 1114 Irttaw.—
pRIbIfoLDER rri,l enttlird to SVIACT Oar HIMSELF a
Wo Mk of ART. ..Fret fore. Every Itatterrib,r will have f Poch
gators t. e choice of one of two line erpartop, "Toe Burial ut Ito.
rual," by V It pa. aft•e F. Y. Vickpaafilt, A R.A., or "The cilia rf
Luru'la.," by J. T. Willtaore, after W. L. Lanett; and •
volume of wood roftravt, p by naloret unapt. Mart:atlas Gold-
puttee paw of "Toe Traveller." TIP of Umatilla.," fa hoar
I ~,Lay4. GEORGE GOLOUI. Honorary
44 Vint Stood. LEWIS POCOCK. f ittrelifiefr

maintain it against all erasers and competitors for
the present, in the hope that it may one day turn
favourable to his protege, the Count of PARIS.
The motives which arc assigned for the PRESI-
DENT.S declining to accept the conditions laid down
by M. BARROT arc, first, he doubts that M. BARROT
is able by personal or other influence to procure the
abrogation of the obnoxious clause, and his conse-
quent re-election • and secondly, his belief that the
legitimists themselves arc inclined to favour his re-
election, and to give over that active hostility, which
M. DE CHAMBORD prescribed some time since.
The decided split between the ORLEANISTS and
legitimists, in consequence of the efforts made to
create a fusion, and the strenuous, though unsuc-
cessful, attempt made to allow the Oni.Esss princes
to return to } ranee, have again divided the partisans
of the two dynasties. And the result must neces-
sarily be the prolongation of what they consider the
provisional reign of LOUIS NAPOLEON as chief of the
These are curious examples of men of all parties
somp,elled year after year to postpone their
principles—to accept and support in practice
a system of government to which in theory
they profess themselves averse. The fact is,
that in France at present each class desires a
sovereign or a government of its own. The remains
of the nob/else, or of the gentry who partake of its
tendencies and traditions, and the clergy, look to the
legitimist prince, as to the best source of power, the
richest fountain of honour. The merchant, the
notable, the man of the middle class, educated and
wealthy, would prefer a prince less guided by the
traditions of the past. Such men, though not warm
in their political attachments, would still vote for an
ORLEANS, if such an act was unaccompanied by
trouble or by risk. But who would be a martyr for
citizen royalty? The ex-Kings of France will find
no Earl of DEtty,'Exrws"Eit to lose his head for
them, and scarcely an ArrENt‘taiv to lay down his
mitre, or a BOLINGBROKE to sacrifice his portfolio to
them.
But the people, too, are sadly in lack of a sovereign
of their choice, and seek and desire as anxiously for
a government in their interest as ever did aristo-
cracy, landed or monied. There is not a working
-n in France who is not socialist enough to say, in

past times the gentry have had a government to
favour, feed, and patronise them; the manufacturers
and the shopkeepers have had the same. Can we
not have a government to befriend and employ, to
give us capital and support, the means of comfort and
our share of wealth?
But the first requisites for a popular hero are ad-
dress and success. And 11.LoulS BLANC had neither.
The people wanted a hero, a leader, but have found
none. For they decidedly do not want a hero
of the NAPOLEON stamp. They do not want to be
led to glory. What the French people aimed at in
the first great revolution was denied them first by
the clergy and the noblesse. These orders the
people cast down forthwith. Then foreign
powers started up to crush their desires, and
the French conquered and put down foreign powers.
And thus in vindicating rights they found glory,
and were satisfied with it fur a generation. But to
what the French people now deem their rights the
upper classes act as a bar, and against the upper
classes there ferments a fanaticism and a frenzy which
have nut yet found a leader or a guide.
The peculiarity of Louis NavoLEos thus is, that,
he represents the wishes of no class. He is the hero
of none, save of a few historical imperialists, who
persist in worshipping a name. Scorned by the
legitimists as an upstart, disliked by the
middle class for his want of the household
virtues, mistrusted by the people for his illi-
beralism and his obsequiousness to the more
dominant classes, without offspring to continue a
dynasty, should a sacrifice be made to establish it,—
all these circumstances leave Louts NAPOLEON with-
out any thorough. stanch, zealous supporters, and it
is, nevertheless, these circumstances that constitute
his strength, and give him the best chance of renew-
ing his tenure of the presidential office. For
though first in no class's estimation, he is
second in the estimation of all. Each would
prefer hint as a ruler or a candidate to
any other, even to the prince of the party, with
which they may be acting. And this alone has
ensured and will ensure Louts NAPOLEON a suffi-
ciently long and certain hold of power to have
enabled him to prolong it for life, did he apply him-
self with skill and disinterestedness to the task of
government. He has not been wanting altogether
address. Ile is known not to be wanting in
courage. And he has made far less blunders than
his personal enemies in the Assembly. But, like the
TMERSES and the GLIZOTS, however adroit in the
struggles of party, and however firm to maintain
order and guide a police, he is as ignorant and care-
less of the science of civil government, of which, in-
deed, no sovereign or statesman of France has shown
the least cognisance. Each seems but anxious to
' live out his time. To the height of a truly great,
liberal, or economic idea in domestic policy, not one
of them seems capable of reaching.

FRANCE.

PARIS MoNDAT EVENING.

The Archbishop of Paris is acting with much
energy go/ain't the Jesuitical clique of the Univers.
I hear that he has summoned MM. Louis Veuillot
and Dulac, the lending rcdaeteurs of that ultra-
montane organ, to his cabinet, and warned them that
if they published, on the subject of the " pastoral" of
the Bishop of Chartres, any letter, no matter from
what ecclesiastical authority, he should enforce the
strictest measures of correction against them, and
interdict the distribution of their journal throughout
his diocese. M. Veuillot having asked whether these
remarks would apply to a document by which the
Bishop of Chartres would submit his case to the
Holy See, was answered in the affirmative. The
Jesuitical papers of the provinces whip up a great
froth of polemics on the subject of the old suffragan's
useault upon his metropolitan.
Today the Assembly resumed the adjourned de-
bats on the interpellation relative to the expedition
against little Kabylla.
The pure and simple order of the day was voted
by 378 against 269.
Then the Assembly proceeded to discuss the inter-
pollution upon the dissolution of the national guard
at Strasbourg.
M. Chauffour accused the government of taking
this measure because Strasbourg was distinguished
by its attachment to republican and democratic insti-
tutions. He then proceeded to read the proclama-
don of Louis Napoleon to the Strasbourgians in 1838,
withal I have already given.
Y. Wail's() said that the officers of the national
Ord had held illegal deliberations to pass a resolu-
Bon impugning a decree of the government, which
ordered that no reviews of the national guard should
take place on the 24th of February. The conduct
of various companies on duty on that day had been
disorderly, and spread alarm.through the city.
Jules Facie made a long speech against the disso-
lution, for some strong expressions in which he was
called to order. The sitting was not terminated
when the post closed. _ _

[Br 101trie TetirraPb.)

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 25, 1851.

be informed of all that takes place with the view, if
need be, of preserving the Swiss territory from all
attacks.
The Ggzetta di 3lilan, a semi-official journal, has
broken the silence imposed on the Austrian journals.
It denies the report that 40,000 men were to be
added to the army in Lombardy as a reinforcement,
and says that it will only be augmented by a few
recruits, who arc going to join their regiments; but
it still confirms the news that Austria is forming
a military cordon along the frontiers of Switzerland
and Piedmont, attempting to give a colouring to this
of being merely intended to suppress smuggling. I
"Thus cordon (it says) is purely financial, and is
merely intended to protect the custom-house posts.
It is to organise this service that a superior officer
and an employ,: of the Ministry of Finances have ar-
rived at Milan This new force will be organised on
a militaryfooting, and its relations with the military
force, strictly so called, and whose assistance it will
have if necessary, will be determined." This is not
very clear. Thi:re will be a force of custom-house
officers, according to the Gazetto, composed of
soldiers, but which will not be, strictly speaking, the
military force. What is clear is the formation of the
, cordon, call it what they will. It is merely possible
that Austria may have in view the prevention of
smuggling, of which she may anticipate an increase,
in consequence of the Anglo-Sardinian treaty, which
favours the importation of English manufactures.
However this may be, it behoves us to ascertain on
what footing this force will be organised, and whe-
t ther we are to have custom-house officers or an army
on our frontiers.