The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-31 00:00:00

to the price of the French ditto, which are now
quoted at 116-117, and which have been not long ago
as high as 120. Verb. sap. The only markets for Ho-
mans is Milan or Paris, but any intelligent broker
might bring them into Capel-court.
As a trifling indication of the Pope's anxiety to
bring his states into better unison with the other
of
civilised communities of Europe, the great clock
the Quirinal Palace marks the hours no longer in the
old-fashioned and exploded system of 24 hours con-
tinuous, but in the double duodecimal used on
your side of the Alps. It is an humble effort to teach
his ltomans the " time of day." The houseroofs are
all white with snow, an unusual siht here : a remini-
scence of Christmas to us of the Nogrth.

FRANCE. TILE Wurnza.—STortms.—Accounts
reach us from all parts of Frtince of the severity of the sea-
son. The hurricane which visited Bordeaux on the night
of the 22nd extended to Toulouse, and made equal ravages
in that town and neighbourhood. We do not learn that
any person was killed, though several were injured in dif-
ferent degrees. The rain fell heavily, and the Garonne rose
sensibly. A letter of the 21st, from Saint Jean de Luz,
gives a sad account of disasters on that coast, from the vio-
lence of the weather at sea. Abut a fortnight before eleven
vessels sailed from Bayonne, bound on different voyages, the
weather being then favourable; but the gales coming on, five of
them, after sustaining the fury of the wind and waves which
afterwards arose, and continued fur seven clays and nights,
made their way into the port of Passages in a shattered con-
dition. One, belonging to that port, was still missing, and
feared to be lost. The three first that came in had been
struck by lightning and greatly damaged. Three of the re-
turned ships were able to start again on the 20th for *Havre,
their original destination. On the 21st all the fishing-boats
belonging to Socea went out, but were overtaken by a
storm, and placed in imminent danger. One of them was
driven on a bank, and instantly dashed to pieces ; another
was seen from the shore in great distress, but was saved
by a boat manned by forty bold sailors. When brought
in, the crew of the fishing-bo .t were exhausted with
cold, hunger, fatigue, and despair, having 100 all their
sails and oars. A letter from La Rochelle states that, dur-
ing the 22d and 23d, a heays gale was felt on that coast.
The streets of that town were transformed into perfect lakes,
chimneys thrown down, and trees torn up by the roots.
Several vessels, among which ate three English, are sail to
have been wrecked on the Isle de Re. A ship avid a lugger,
coming from Bordeaux, are also among the number. Two
government steamers and one hund.ed men were sent firm
Rochefort to assist the Clulteaubriant, a vessel of from 1,000
to 1,100 tons burthen, which had gone on shore near that
port. It is feared that many more casualties will be heard
of.—We learn from Cherbourg that the rain, which
commenced on Sunday, had not ceased to fal: on Wed-
nesday.—Several parts of the town of Rennes are :nun-
dated, and at the quays the water is within less than a
metre of the top. In the night of the 22nd there was
a violent thunder storm, which lasted nearly three hours,
and which was attended by heavy squalls of wind, which
shook many of the houses to their foundations. The light-
ning was very vivid. The rain fell in torrents. On Sunday
morning, as a diligence was proceeding on its journey near
Verdun, a man was discovered frozen to death on the road.
Ills dog was lying on his breast as if to warm him, and it
was not without much resistance on the part of the faithful
animal that the conductor could remove the body to a house
near the spot.
In levelling some ground last week at Bec-Hellouin
(Seine-Inferieure), there was found a leaden box containing
some bones, and bearing the following inscription engraved
on the lead :
Ossa illustrissima D. D. Mathildis
Imperatricis infra majors alum reperta
2 mart : 1654, in rodent loco collumta
Bode mense etimno.

Matilda was daughter of Henry 1., King of England and Duke
of Normandy. She was the widow of Henry V., Emperor
of Germany, and mother of Henry 11., King of England and
Duke of Normandy. She died at ouen, in 1167, and was
buried in the church of the priory of Notre Dame, where her
tomb bore the following epitaph :
Ortu manna vim major, sec maxima Partu
Ilia jatet Ilenrici fills enema Purees
According to the Chronicles of the Abbey of Bec-Hellouin
her remains were removed to that abbey, and buried near
the altar.
Two Lyons gentlemen, returning a few days back
from Paris by the diligence. had alighted near Arnay-le-Due
to walk up a hill, when suddenly several wolves issued from
a thicket by the road-side, and for some distance followed
the travellers, who were without any mea..s of defence. At
last one of the gentlemen conceived the idea of smoking a
cigar, the light of which had the effect of soon driving off
their unpleasant attendants. The travellers reached the
diligence without further molestation.
We gave last month an account of the trial, before
the Correctional Tribunal of Lille, of four persons em-
ployed on the Northern Railroad on a charge of having,
by their negligence, caused the dreadful catastrophe at
l ampoux. The defendants were M. Petiet, an engineer,
Hovelt, an inspector, and two mechanicians named
Bolu and. Duthoit. The trial, which lasted for several
days, ended with a judgment in which the tri-
banal declared that the cause of the running off the
rails, which led to such dreadful results, remained
conjectural, and therefore it acquitted all the defendants,
The Procureur-du-Itoi having appealed against the judg-
ment, the cause came again to a hearing on Wednesday last
before the Cour Royale of Douai, which, after a trial of four
days, has confirmed the decision of the lower court as re-
gards Hovelt and Bolu, but has found Petiet and Duthoit
guilty of homicide by imprudence, and neglect of the regu-
lations of the company. Petiet has been sentenced to a
fortnight's imprisonment, and a fine of 3,000 fr.; and Dnthoit
to the same imprisonment and a fine of 100 fr,
Considerable interest has been felt during the last
fortnight in the state of the Malaunay viaduct, on the Havre
railway, loaded as it is with the enormous dead weight in-
sisted on by the Pouts et-Chaussees, to prove its strength.
The various changes of the weather, consisting of severe
frost, thaw, rain, and now frost again, not having in any
way affected it, the works are considered to have borne the
trial victoriously, and any apprehension of danger that may
have existed has been removed.
STATE OF FRANCE.—The session which opens on
the 11th of January will, we need not say, offer a powerful
interest. Foreign affairs will occupy the principal part, and,
with respect to domestic questions, we see nothing but rail-
ways that calls fur the attention of the Chambers. Every
ono allows, or at least all sensible and impartial men
allow, that if it is desired to finish what has been com-
menced, less onerous conditions and more certain advantages
must be offered to the companies. A year back nothing but
profits was seen in railway undertakings, and these profits
had assumed in certain imaginations proportions beyond calcu •
lation. In fact, it has been impossible Tor many adjudica-
tions to take place; the companies which were to hurry
in to share amongst themselves the millions that were
flung at their heads, did not come forward. Each
made his calculation ; the profits vanished as if by enchant-
ment, and the charges frightened the moat intrepid specula-
tors. The greatest part of railway undertakings are suffer-
ing more or less. We will not at present enter more deeply
into this question ; but, to use the consecrated phrase, there
is something to be done. It will be said that we are defend-
ing here the interests of the bankers and capitalists, but we
care not for that. We believe we are defending the interests
, of the public, who want railways well constructed, well kept
up, well worked. As to hankers and capitalists, we have never
been able to perceive what the public or the statecould gain
by repulsing or ruining them. This, then, is the domestic
question which calls for an urgent solution, and which will
necessarily take its place in the legislative deliberations of
this year. Other questions, we are aware, hat, last year been
placed on the order of the day, such as those of postal
reform, the stamp-office, the tax on salt, &e. We ourselves,
i year back, were of opinion that some of these reforms
were ripe ; we were in hopes that the session of 1847 would
not pass over without that which has been attempted with
success in England being introduced—we mean postal re-
form. A bad harvest and the deplorable severity of the
autumn, force us to renounce the hope. With the charges
imposed on the treasury by the inundations and the dearness
of provisions, no one can think of diminishing the public reve-
nues. Every experiment would be rash. The financial status
quo is required by the commonest prudence. A crisis exists
lets profound, we believe, and less alarming than certain per-
sons arc pleased to represent it; but still the risk of augment-
ing it cannot be incurred by attempting experiments.
i Reforms, even those which appear Or: beet, have need of
one condition to succeed—namely, opportuneness. This
condition cannot evidently suit any reform this year. Let
us have patience, then ; the occasion will again present
itself. There remain foreign affairs. We need not call
attention to their importance. All Europe is still in com-
motion from the destruction of Cracow ; every one knows
that the Spanish marriages have produced between the
cabinet of France and that of England a discussion which
in a fortnight will become a public one. It will be a solemn
moment when both parliaments open, nearly at the same
time. That moment we do not dread ;we rather await it
I with impatience. There are people who imagine, and per-
haps hope, that these debates will separate the two countries
still more from each other, to render their rupture more
inevitable, more profound. We think and we hope the con-
trary. We are convinced that the facts will gain by being
known, that the diffisulties will become smaller. in the open
day of the tribune, and that the real interests of the two
countries, the causes and permanent reasons which tend to
bring them together, not having to combat but a passing
irritation and frivolous rancour', will easily assume the
upper hand.-Journal des Dbats.
PRESENT EXTRAORDINARY TO THE KING AND
QUERN or THE FRENCH. —A Bouquet de Gibier monstre d
la Soyer was forwarded from London to Paris on the 21st of
December, by the well-known gastronomic regenerator,
M. Soyer, of the Reform Club, and presented to their
majesties on the 24th in the morning, at the palace of the
Tuilleries. Their Majesties were delighted with the novelty
and elegance of the composition, and, after a long examina-
tion, the King ordered it to be carried to the apartments of
her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians, who was exceedingly
pleased with it, and afterwards the whole of the royal
family were summoned to see the bouquet. To give an idea
of the composition of this splendid innovation, the following
description, perhaps, will be interesting to the public : The
height of it was about ten feet, and wide in proportion;
the frame was richly covered with Christmas holly, laurels,
misletoe, and evergreen, with a great variety of winter
flowers. There were 22 head of game, consisting of larks,
snipes, woodcocks, teal, French and English partridges,
grouse, widgeons, wild ducks, blackcocks, pheasants, a
leveret, a hare, and golden plovers. The interstices were
lightly filled with wheat and oats, and the whole ornamented
with tn-coloured ribbons.
THE RIVAL DENTISTS.—Every amateur of mural

these rereatseenpairdedithil:tiseatgericisit'ohalfroehte:alf.ath2ioardstteg.etuhiuvezthui,..)si
been confined to the exterior
J
William Rogers, of Osanores celebrity, at del of 1.1, g
an in
f tie,
e
e
hs.
oat
Iv.
icdagreementalreadyo means,orsounded ire
literatureghbee
o thee
te ot
exotic,
c eut,:,,art sesepht
pa
eloi t oo
tr.hrot
ja
ma,
other
Paris
anle
Paris.
mustoa
sthf o.e indigenous,f
. artartificialbasoe f
They
in
those of the law courts, and were heard again on liatwuiraii
in the following. cause : M. Rolland, the butchei
also a celebrity in his way, although his fame and 14
appointment of royal purveyor to the British Que,
urper
ohßofavllaethobeede.enho.acqusecounidriendatoobhyre.mrulree
which he resides. In July last, M. Fattet took Se,
lord should not let any other apartment to a dentist; as
, does it 'appear ' that M. Rolland had any intention to break
his word ; but in spite of his good faith his tenant
M. Fattet, was soon involved in tribulation by an unlooked
for event. The tenant of the first floor, a Madame Delareches
Laguerie, had obtained the permission of M. Rolland to let
and.booienparofirsgatrdhttte:orrftthmwhita:npjtolaacq.atacemanteud.uEnonegliusihn,iamanilayssoisttangrtandeor
..eecomarm:acwriete;
Mine. Delaroce had been deceived ; the English huffily we
M.
s
William Rogers. Judgepetooh:fea hat iouo'r r'fpt.rtutirehtmoo'
first
laklittel:tht7fewsi.Me when
sts
slave du celebre Willi.m Roger's, veritable inmate,. des
Dents ()senores." M. Fattet, however, resolved to make
head against the storm. He healed an announce.
went in the following terms :—" Fattet, dentate,
in..
venteur des Dents O.,snores, previent le public de
ae
pas se tramper. Sea halms et cabinets soot au deuxiems
stage, 36.3, rue St. Honore." Nor was this all. He placid
at the door a man in the uniform of a hurear, to cited=
the applicants for the rs al Osunores that they were to he
obtained only on the second floor. el Jacquin, by way
of reprisal, did the same. If any person taint to the
house, whether for one or the other of the rival tooth-
drawers, or for anybody else, he was addressed by the
buzzer Fattet in the following way : " Monsieur, muster
as deuxieme," whilst the humor Jacquin shouted : " Mm
sieur, ne confcndez pa., c'est au premier. N'ayez pee
peur, nous arrachons sans douleur." All this was not
very agreeable either to el. Rolland or his other tenants,
and cones quently
,he gave M. Jacquin, " eleve du eelebre
William Rogers,' notice to quit. H. Fattet, on the other
hand, brought an action against M. Rollend, with a de.
mend of 10,000 f. damages, fur breach of contract in letungal
•
apartment to another dentist. M. Reiland attacked lEms
Delaroche-Laguerie garage ie, and to compel her to exe
34. Jacquin. These actions cone to a hearing .n Satur ay
before the civil tribunal. M. Jusseau, the counsel of M.
Rolland, pleaded in defence to the suit of M. Fattet the per-
fect good faith of hi, client, who had, he said, been deceived
by Mme. Delaroche in favour of M. Jacquin, who was in
reality only the prete-nom of M. Rogers.—M. shoudets,
the counsel of M. Fattet, demanded the 10,000 f., and
the immediate expulsion of M. Jacquin, who, he said,
was not only the prete-nom, but also the &mystique, of
M. Rogers, and had been placed by the latter in the house
solely fur the purpose of deinz .113.'1117 to M. Fattet.—M,
Vincent, the counsel of Madame Deleroche, said that his
client had also been deceived, M. Jacquin having con-
cealed the fact of his being a dentist, and represented him.
self as the agent of an honourable English family. H.
Poullain Deladreue, the counsel of M. Jacquin, declared that
his client was neither the cat's-paw nor the /errant of Mr.
Rogers, but a dentist operating on his own account. The
President of the Tribune], interrupting. M. Poullain, and
alluding to some production of H. Jaequan, said, " Yon call
this man a dentist ; why, he does not even know how to
spell." Addressing M. Jacquin hiartelf, she presid, et asked
what he bad to say to the declaration of Mad nue Delaroche,
that he obtained the apartment as the again of an English
family. Jacquin replied, "La famine, c'etait mos '—
" Have you not (said the president) be; n servant to Mr.
Rogers ? Have you not even carried in the street upon your
back a placard announcing the °senores teeth ?"—Jacquia
replied in the negative ; he had been, he said, a pupil of Mr.
Rogers. The next question elicited a reply winch convulsed
the court with laughter.—" Was it not you who stood at the
entrance of Rollaud'e house dressed as a hussar to conduct
persons to the first floor."—Jacquin replied, "Fattet
having placed a hussar on the ground-floor, I placed myself
there in competition. Beginning in business, gentlemen,
cannot afford to have a great number of persons in their
pay."—M. Fattet address, d the Courtin support of his claim,
and attacked Mr. Rogers, who was present, beinz made a
party to the suit with Jacquin. He asked him if he could
deny that the day he had vained kis action with him (M.
Fattet) lee had given a splendid supper in the apartment
hired by Jacquin, and regaled the company with a prodi-
gious quantity of claampagne.—Mr. Rogers said that all M.
Fattet had declared was false, that Jacquin had been his pu-
pil, as Fattet himself had been ; that he had nothing to do
with J acqu in's establishment ; and that if he had taken chasm
pagne there, that regarded ',Wady but himself. Mr. Rogers
admitted, however, that he had been frequently to Jacques's
apartmew, but said it was to take work to him to perform,
as he did to other pupils, with the exception of M. Fattet,
whom lie had turned away because he was a clumsy hand.
After much more recrimin ties, which excited great
nierrimew, M. Cremieux addressed the Court for Mr.
Rogers, who, he said, was a stranger to the proceedings
of M. Jacquin. 'The court, however, came to a decision that
Jacquin was merely the agent of Rogers, and ordered that
Rogers and Jacquin should pay all the costs of the suit, led
give up the apartment within three days. The demand for
damages against Si. Rolland was dismiss' d, and Madame
Delaroche was authorised by the court to retain in her hands
as an indemnity a sum of 1,600 f. paid as rent in &thence.—
Galimn
BE us
LGICM.—BaussELs, DEC. 29.—1 t azgamiin
from a statement in a ministerial print, that the
Exportation Society will be allowed to export goods ere& to
European markets, but on the two following conditions
Ist, to purchase the goods directly from menufacturms
merchants. by public contract ; and 2nd, to export ody after
orders received—that is to say, not to send out goods on com
signment. It was at first thought that the society would be
limited in its operations to the exportation of limns (the dis-
tressed state of the Flanders, the seat of the linen trade, being
the ostensible cause of the formation of the welet)) : but it
has been decided to allow the company to ext at all other
kinds of tissues, provided they be manufacture in the pre.
sent centre of the linen industry, as well as tithe' produce on
commission, at the risk and peril of the producers or the
purchasers. The head office of the directors will be established
in Ghent, but an agency will be opened at Antwerp. The
capital is fixed at 6,000,000 francs. The government will fur-
nish '2,000,000 towards that sum, and guarantee,during the first
three months an interest of 41 per cent. upon the remain-
ing four millions. In ease one-third of the capital should
be lost, the company will be dissolved, and the loss will be
suffered by the government upon the capital it has advanced.
The capitaL therefore, of t shareholders will he safe at all
innards. The affairs of the company will be managed by
directors, under the surveillance of a certain number of com-
missioners, one of whom will be appointed by the govern-
ment. It is proposed by some capitalists to form a ship
building company, and to trade in their own vessels en com-
mission. The capital is fixed at four millions of francs.
Their Majesties are expected to return to Brussels to-morrow
night, or early the next morning. It is asserted in well-in-
formed circles that the King will shortly leave for England.
The dinner to Sir Hamilton Seymour, the newly-appointed
minister at the Court of Lisbon, took place this afternoon.
It was panty attended.
SWITZEHLANI).—The frost has been so intense,
that at Neufchatel, last week, the thermometer fell to 21
degrees below zero of the Centigrade scale (174 below zero
of Fahrenheit). On the banks of the lakes the thermo-
meter stood at 20 Centigrade. We find also, by a letter
from Florence of the 19th, that the weather has been very
severe there. There had been a heavy fall of snow, and the
ice was so firm that skating took place daily ; two sledges
also were seen—a very unusual sight for the Florentines—
driving through the streets. Our correspondent describes
the frost at Florence as being of Russian severity.
ITALY.—Row..—Excessive cold, accompanied by
snow, has succeeded the inundations. The inhabitants, un-
accustomed to such a temperature, have suffered considerably.
A commission has been appointed to provide for their wean.
The Pope subscribed 2,000 scudi from his private pure. On
the occasion of a recent visit of the Pope to the church of the
Holy Apostles, the students of the University preen
themselves in a body, and made two requests--1. Thet
library might remain open on Thursdays, on which day t e
students had most time for reading ; 2. That two new pro:
fessorships might be created, one of political economy, sad
another of medical jurisprudence. The first request.wm
immediately granted, and the second his Holiness said he
should take into consideration. The first number of the
Contemporaneo, a journal in defence of the ideas of proem,:
appeared on the 12th. It is in large type, and published
every Saturday.
A letter from Leghorn, dated 16th inst., saTs :--1
An edict of the Grand 'Duke has been put up on the pnecipse
Duchy of Lucca, falling, according to the final act of the
Congress of Vienna, to Tuscany, the debt' made in that
mhseaounuardldisthholfttthh:,e town, denoting that the succession to
duchy, as well as all contracts for state or private possereienit
rector ctednt.rachtCodPesanarte;ieolrlPyresb"y
of Lucca, have nothing to fear, as it has been guaranteed 0)
Lucca will be reimbursed. The shareholdcrsihelf rpuethheeetabeSpeer.l
loan,ceDnake dian ofcontracted someEste. Years
since
by
letter to one of his friends in France, in which is the folio!
in g passage :—" The article which the journals hseeper_
SILVIO PELLICO.—SiIvio Pellico has addressed s.
liaised about my pretended journey (to the chateau ofeere;
Lsmartine) has deceived many persona. Alas
owl
from
haying the happiness of going to render homage to y
Irk
poet—far from basing the delight of seeing
scarcely able to breathe after taking the slightest exercise'
‘
the Grand Duke,_
if I were able to travel I should rather go into a
rm clr
mate than into France. Italy is in its habitual 'etete
much less agitated than some people wish it to be I?elatevrtoo"
is—those, I mean, who do not view it closely,
".d f bops
much importance to partial wrongs and Oilmen
Perfect contentment is nowhere to be found on the tae of the
einarwthh;lobhutehthereeeDioulnosstriesiertiota
less irreligion than elsewhere, with sufficient activity the
men's minds to cultivate as much as in other coustri_c___
sciences and arts. But, will the balance of power etlarlretyi
be preserved ? The great states seem to be acting t
were about to come into hostile collision, but wit the reseal
tad
be war ? Perpetual peace is an illusion in which p
Adieu, dear friend. Let us r.ray one for the other.
rt.
to
anyGEßMANY.—Thehowever,
nersitemr
odureweldl
anupodn
betiopnre, flecterredh;trvedm and'
less Wa—eubee,tehell
bible total annihilation of the very AMC of Pooland!
transformation of the so-called kingdom of P
Russian province, in January next, has attracted
ee, sttene
Hon of the Germanprees. The Cologne Go:ette,
el
In ol retlth:;l3'ub.:' e
instant, has the following remarks upon the subtj ct been"
it was not Cracow, at least it is Warsaw whi h