The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-09 00:00:00

FRANCE. • •
PARIS, SIINDAT Evz-viso.
The Muniterir of to-day contains a number of
changes in the magistrature.
'there is also a list of 26 persons, sentenced to
various punishments by the mtzed commissions, .to
whom a remission of sentence has been granted by

the Emperor.
In the Corps Legislatif, yesterday, amongst other
local business, a project of law woe adopted, grant-
ing permission to the city of Marseilles to contract a
loan of 2.000,000 francs.
A project of law for the establishment of an elee-
trio telegraph between France and Algiers was
presented.
At a private audience yesterday the Emperor re-
mired the Marquis of N illamarina, Envoy Extra-
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the King of
Sardinia, chargel with the remission of the reply of
his Sovereign to the letter of credence of the Duke of
Quiche, Minister of France at Turin.
Some important modification in the law of 1850,
regulating the use of the electric telegraph by the
public, are made by the bill which passed the Carps
Legislatif on Friday. The fixed charge of 3fr. upon
every despatch of twenty words is reduced to 2f.,
and the proportional payment according to distance
is reduced from 12 to 10 centimes per myriametre.
Several members complained that the redodien
would operate almost exclusively in favour of lam&
ties in the immediate neighbourhood of Paris, beam",
the fixed charge being diminished by one-third, while
the diminution in the proportional charge was bat
one-sixth, the longer the distance to be traversed the
dearer in proportion would be the despatch. Thoa,lat
a message sent to a distance of 2 myriametres the
reduction is 32 per cent., while for 100 myriamstra
it is only 20 per cent. To this objection it was re-
plied by the government commissary that the fixed
charge had hitherto pressed withespecialseverity upon
correspondencest short distances, and that all parts of
Francewould derive an advantage in this respeetfrom
the new measure in an equal degree with Pans. The
esminittee on the bill had proposed an amendment
in &Tour of towns which, being situated near to
emit other as a crow would fly, are obliged to pay
aossrding to the actual length of the electric wire
M be traversed, as in the instance of Nevers
end Dijon, which, although only 160 kilo-
metres apart, can only communicate by electric
telegraph through Paris, and are charged
as for a distance of 550 kilometres. It was urged
that if for political reasons all the leading telegraphic
lines converged upon Paris, it. was unfair to the in-
habitants of the provinces to tax their telegraphic
asomunication so very heavily in constnuence. The
mmentittee proposed that the charge in such cases
skald never exceed double the proportional rate for
the setts! distance. The Council of State however re-
jests' the amendment, and the committee agreed to
report in favour of the bill as it stood, considering it
at all events a boon, though not going so far as they
could have wished The views of the committee
were explained in the debate by Count de Saint
Hermine and the Count de Champagny. M. Boa-
jean, the government commissary, admitted the ano-
maly, and said that probably at some futons
time the system of telegraphic zones, as estab-
lished in Germany, would be adopted. The
subject was under consideration, and a decision
would doubtless be come to before long. But, for the
present, the government saw no pressing osesseity
for altering the principle of the law of 1850, and the
direction of the telegraphs apprehended that the else-
trio lines might be inconveniently crowded if toe
much encouragement were given to private
M. Bonjeau's arguments were somewhat ic:l3=
tory with each other, for, while he opposed the
amendment for fear of inoumbering the ts
legrapb, he said the towns in whose favour
it was pressed would probably be di►
=to avail themselves of it only to ;pi=
tied extent. In support of this latter
however, he cited a very striking example. A int
line of telegraph was lately laid down between
Calais and Boulogne, expressly to relieve those ports
from the hardship of corresponding by way at
Amiens, and the retinas of the number of despetehes
sent by the new line, are one despatch for the moth
of January, and two in February. In truth it
is unlikely that small towns in France, how-
ever glad they may be of facilities of communication
with Paris, can have any very frequent occasion to
correspond by telegraph with each other. But then
there is the lest reason to be afraid of the zone sys-
tem. In the course of the debate a hope was ex-
pressed by several members that the principle of one
uniform charge, without reference to distance, as now
adopted by the Post-offioe, might be extended to the
electric telegraph. This system is in actual operation
in Switzerlartiovitereoemeas ensofloo leagues there
is one uniform rate of if. hr 20 words, 2f. for 40
and 3fr. for 60, and the system is said to have worked
so well that the dim of Geneve alone sends on an
average 99 despatches a day, or 32,850 a year. Such
at bast wee the statement made in the Chamber by
IL Meanie: de la Siamese, bet the Count de Bryas,
the reporter an the bill, said the information laid
before the committee minarning the Silm
telegraph was not in accordance with this
eemmet. He observed that at all events the
experiment in Switzerland was of too recent a'
date to form a precedent, and argued that there wee
so analogy between a telegraphic message and a letter
asseetreet seat by eke, and that if a uniform rate were
of being advantageously adopted, it would
have n tried by some of the private companies in
England. It should not be forgotten, he said, that
while a dispatch to a distant place was being trans-
matted, communisation between all the intermediate
points was interrupted. The bill was ultimately voted,
es bills sow usually are, unanimously: By one of the
slams the Minister of the Interior is authorised to
great the sus of the telegraph for fixed periods at
greatly redaesd rates to chambers of commerce, the
syndicates of erns de change, and the syndicates of
commercial brokers, upon condition that their
despatches shall be immediately made public in the
form determined by the government.
It appears that the estimates of the cost of the
electric telegraph in the budget of 1854 amount to
2,245,130 fr., and the estimated receipts are one mil-
lion, leaving a balance of 1,245,130 fr. to be defrayed
by the state. The estimate of the receipts is based
upon the assumption that they will increase in a very
large proportion. In the last 10 months of 1851, only
9,014 private messages were sent in France, producing
78,04Y/fr. In the year 1852 the number of messages
increased to 48,105, and the sum produced by
them was 452,000 fr.
The Echo du Nord has received a warning from
the Minister of Police for an article containing
"attacks, as violentas unjust," against the legisla-
tion which now regulates the press.
The Marseilles journals speak of the seizure of a
sum of money collected by subscription on the Toulon
high road with an "essentially political object." Au
interne in a state of rupture of ban has been arrested
in connexion with the same affair.
The Press says, in its weekly commercial re-
view :

Commercial affairs have recovered their activity this
week, under the influence of fine weather. Stuffs, which
bare been neglected for so many months, wets the first
to feel the return of the fine season, and the shops are filed
with purchasers. Several of our large houses have within
these few days effected gales which excel the most favoured
days of list year, and they hope during May to make OD the
deficit of the month of April.
PARIS, SATIIRDAY EvExixo.
Contrary to general expectation, it appears that
the session of the Corps Legislatif will be prolonged
beyond the end of the three months assigned in the
constitution. In an article in the semi-official Pays,
which, moreover, is in complete accordance with the
declaration made yesterday by M. Billault, in the
Corps Legislatif, it is said, after an enumeration of
the unpassed hills, that
It is the firm desise of the Emperor to have all measures,
and, above all, those which engage the Treasury, discussed
with all the deliberation that their importance demands.
Time will not consequently be refused for a conscientious
examination of-the questions which they give rise to. With-
out doubt, if the ordinary session is not sufficient, theretwill
be neither hesitation nor difficalty in according to the re-
presentatives of the country the delay necessary for the cum-
ple te performance of their duty.
A telegraphic despatch received to-day from Mar-
seilles states that the corvette Pluton has just left
for Ovan with troops.
The Muniecur contains a decree apportioning
France into four divisions for the purpose. of the
" high mission " to be fulfilled by the commusioners
recently appointed.
The funeral obsequies of the Marquis de Valde-
gamas were celebrated to-day, with extraordinary
pomp, at the church of St. Philippe dm Itoule. The