The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-13 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, TRUISDAY, a P u.
The absorbing question of the moment is the diaso-
lotion of the Assembly. It appears likely to come
before that body in two forms. It will be produced
to-morrow upon the proposition of M. Rattesu, to
which I have frequently alluded, which fixes the
election of the new Assembly for the 4th of March,
and its convocation and the dissolution of the present
Assembly for the 19th. This will receive the
support of the government. The other project
is !hat of MM. Pagnerre, Barthelemy St. Hilaire,
Bixio, and Attaroche, which fixes the new
elections for the 15th of April, and the
convocation of one and the dissolution of the other
assembly for the 4th of May. The committee on
this project has resolved to postpone its report until
the Assembly will have decided on the former. It is
considered as certain that the former, which will be
supported by a minority containing most of the talent
and respectability of the chamber, will be rejected.
Although the latter will receive more :support, it is
thought that if the Assembly be not influenced by
some great manifestation from without, this latter
project will also be rejected by a great majority.
Of the ten organic laws which the Assembly ban
resolved to vote before its dissolution, not one has yet
been prepared even to be taken into consideration,
although it is now two months since the resolution to
limit its labours to those ten laws was adopted. The
first of them, the electoral law, is now under discus-
sion in the committee.

It is reported that government intends to propose
to the Assembly the liberation of Abd-el-Kader. with
permission to him to reside in the East, according to
the terms which he made on the occasion of his sur-
render to Gen. Lamoricidre.

The committee of finance yesterday heard a report
read by M. Etienne, on the credit of 2,720,000 f., des-
tined to wind up the affairs of the national workshops.
It recommends the adoption of the credit, with some
reductions, and proposes an additional article, ordering
the result of the winding-up to be published.
The bureaux wet yesterday to nominate a commit-
tee to prepare the bill on the state of siege. The
principal point under discussion was to decide where
the initiative of the measure was to originate—.
whether with the legislative and executive powers
conjointly, or with the former only. M. de Kerdrel
thought that the Assembly ought to confine itself to
voting a bill d'urgence on the m Ater, without seeking
to make what is called an :organic law. General
de Lsmoriciere, on the contrary, demanded that the
gieateat possible extension should be given to the bill,
both in the point of view of civil and of foreign war.
M. Base thought that the spot where the Legislative
Assembly was sitting should never be placed in a
state of siege. In general, the members appointed to
constitute the committee were recommended to be
most careful in defining :its real character and dura-
tion. It was also generally thought that during its
continuance the civil courts ought not to be suspended,
and that the military tribunals ought not to be Palled
on to judge any cases but such as were relative to
the situation.

Lord Brougham arrived at the Hotel Meurice yes-
terday.
M. Emile Thomas, the ex-director of the Ateliers
Nationaux, whose name was at one time so much be-
fore the public, arrived on the sth ult. at Guadeloupe,
on a mission of four months duration, to study the
queetion of the cultivation of sugar by French
emigrants. . . .

Gen. d'Ornano, a near relation of the Bonaparte
family, has been elected member of the department of
the Indre et Loire.

The Courtier de Lyon announces that the extra
duties on silks imposed by the German Customs-Union,
as a reprisal for the premiums ranted by the French
government upon the exportation of those manufac-
tures, were taken off on the let, on which day the
premiums ceased.
The Assemble'e Nationale gives the following as to
General Dufour, so well known as the leader of the
Swiss army in the war against the Sonderbund,
whose arrival in Paris we have already noticed :
The journey of General Dufour to Paris has been much
spoken of in some diplomatic salons. Some persons say that
the general has come to congratulate M. Louie Bonaparte on
his recent elevation ; others, better informei, attach much
greater importance to this journey. The Helvetic Directory,
whose diplomatic agents are exceedingly well informed, have
received certain intelligence that from this time to spring
serious military events will take place on its frontiers. Oace
that the camniugn of Hungary is finished, all the forces of
Austria and Germany are to be directed on Italy and Swit-
zerland, which Europe considers as the greet hotbed of in-
surrection; the neutrality of Switzerland will be respected,
but the powers will impose a change in the spirit of the Diet
and the Directory. In a word, the Sonderbund and the old
aristocracy of Berne will have the supreme direction of the
Helvetic government. It is not that the radical party, now
masters of affairs, do not appear exceedingly submissive bef re
Europe to such a point as to disperse the refugees in the in-
terior of Switzerland ; but that is not sufficient, and Germany
will not lay down her arms until alter a result has been ob-
tained. Also, a very precise note from Prussia is spoken of,
which claims, in virtue of the treaties of 1815, the princi-
pality of Neufchatel; a nose strongly supported by Russia,
which, it is known, has made herself a severe guardian of
these great European transactions. General Dufour there-
fore comes to Paris to learn what may be expected from
France in cam of a resistance on the part of Switzerland.
Bete/. ea this time and spring several hypotheses may be
reslised ;-1. The occupation of Tessin by the army of
Radetaki. 2. The invasion of Neufchatel and the German
cantons by the army of the German Confederation. In that
case, what will France do ? Tbet question is mixed up also
with the probable war of the Austrians and the Piedmentese.
It appears impossible that the Republic will leave the Ger-
mans masters of the pass of Suss and of the bridge of Bile,
and that might happen in the double hypothesis of a war of
the Amato Germans against Switzerland and Piedmont."