The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-27 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY

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FRANCE.
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PARIS, aLTVIDAT
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The Pattie of this evening nays, on the ministerial
ariess• :
Six, P.M.—The combination, in which M. Bil-
lank was to enter, had been resumed. It has once
mere, end now definitively failed. The negetintiene
with M. Submit are broken off. We are assured
that several of those who were destined to be his
colleagues have refused to take office with him. It
was their opinion that his name would not offer
sufficiently strong guarantees to the men of order."
If this news is correct, it seems likely that the Pre-
sident will form at once en extra-parliamentary
cabinet.
The chief scruples which have arrested the defini-
tive formation of the ministry have come from M.
Ducos, who was pitched upon for the financial de-
partment. This gentleman, who represented the
Gironde during fifteen years in the old Chamber of
Deputies, as a member of the opposition, and ap-
peared in the Constituent as one of the earliest and
most vigorous assailants of the provisional govern-
meet, has distinguished himself latterly chiefly by
hi elaborate report on the wasteful expenditure tit
Ledru-Rollin and his colleagues. Having been he
she old Chamber of Deputies on advocate for the ex-
tension of suffrage in favour of capacities, and voted
against the law of May 31, there would have been
nothing inconsistent in his joining a cabinet formed
for the repeal of that law.
With regard to reports current at the Bourse
yesterday about the Pope's illness, and even death,
the Constitationnel states that no telegraphic despatch
has been received on the subject. The report seems
to have originated in a lithographic correspondence,
which stated from the Osserratore Romano that the
Pope had been seized with a sufficiently serious ill-
ness for a triduum of prayers to be ordered to be
offered up for his health. The Osierratore, which
reached Paris to-day, does not contain a word on
the subject, any more than the letter of our Ituman
correspondent of the 20th.
In the official account of the doings of the Connell
of State, it is announced that this body had jest
entered upon the debate of the second reading of the
bill on the responsibility of the president and minis-
ters. Although there is no doubt of the bill passing
with the clause which assigns grave penalties to the
encouragement of an unconstitutional candidature,
as a high misdemeanour to be tried before the High
Court of Justice, the announcement of the bill hav-
ing been finally adopted by the Council of State
seems to have been premature.
The organs of the majority have a fling at Lord
Palmerston for his note to Prince Casteleicala The
Assemblee takes occasion to furbish up its old charges
against the English foreign secretary, beating the
round of Europe fur several years past, and won-
dering whether the cabinets of the powers w ill
pocket in silence such a stunning affront to the cause
of reaction, which they have all jointly pursued.
The ,i'Vbats cannot betide the note genuine, because
the Neapolitan minister has not immediately de-
manded his passports.
It is said that the disposable fortune of the
Duchess d'Angoulaie does not exceed one million of
florins (rather more than two millions of francs), and
that she bequeaths it to the Count de Chambord.

V"‘'.

Eva!rni*,

SUNDAY EVP:f ISO.
I announced to you yesterday evening, on the
authority of the Patric, that the ministerial combi-
nation, which I sent on Friday, resting on M. Bil-
lault as chief, was dissolved, because this statesman
was too liberal for the stomach of the conservatives
designated for his colleagues. Such a fact exhibits
in a striking light the difficulties with which a chief
magistrate, imbued with the most moderate tenden-
cies of liberalism, has in the present state of France
to contend. Fur if the name of Billault be re-
jected as not offering sufficient guarantee to
the "men of order," what reasonable bound can
be set to the tyrannous fastidiousness of a party of
order which will co-operate with no men who are
not the cream and flower of re-action and coercion.
Last year "the men of order" were less squeamish,
and were overjoyed to accept this same M. Billault
as their head candidate in the elections of the Saone-
et-Loire, where however the " red" list triumphed.
Is this not a striking proof of the increasing
exigencies of the reactionary party, when they re-
pudiate as a minister the num whom they embra
as a parliamentary candidate, iu whose prin-
ciples they can challenge no deterioration.
Oa the other hand, the retirement of M. lid-
lault is a fresh illustration of the impracticability
of the President's favourite plan of combining a
coercive policy with the returu to universal suffrage.
It becomes more and more evitlent that if the Presi-
dent seriously means to labour sincerely for the abro-
gation of the law of 31st May, he must break com-
hletely with the irarliamentary majority, and throw
imself frankly into the ground of the republican
party.
Billault having finally retired and taken his
place at last really in the railway carriage for
Nantes, more glad perhaps than his wife and family
who accompany him, to return to his provincial
occupations, the mast prominent personage left on
the stage of ministerial negotiation seems to be M.
Duos, the designated head of the financial depart-
ment in the recent combination. Yesterday, after
the rupture with M. Billault, M. de Persigny paid a
visit to this gentleman, and is said to have offered to
him, in the name of the President, the following
compromise: Louis Napoleon was ready to draw a
distinction between the policy to be declared in his
message and the policy to be acted upon by his
ministers. His message would still demand the
abrogation of the law of 31st May ; but the cabinet
might negotiate modifications of the law with the
parliament, and present a bill embodying these. This
offer is said to have been accepted by M. burns, whe
is to have for colleagues three of the late ministers,
Fould, norther, and Magee. It is added that the
portfolio of Foreign Affairs would bo offered to M.
Drouyn do I: Hues.
The tone of the Bonapartist papers against the
parliamentary majority was never more menacing
than at this moment, and in perfect harmony with
the following characteristic speech, attributed to
Louis Napoleon: " I a'onc can save the conservative
party, which thinks itself so strong and is so weak;
its destinies are in my hands; let it not push me to
extremes!"

The most difficult post of the cabinet to fill seems
that of the Interior. M. Casabianca is talked of as
destined still to figure in the new combination. Gen.
St. Arnaud's name seems withdrawn ; nor is Ferdi-
nand Barret any longer spoken of. M. Lacrosse is
mentioned as likely to arrive in Paris to-night, in
obedience to the summons from St. Cloud.
The Presse reports that all idea of forming a semi-
parliamentary ministry has been given up. The
President, it seems, is for the moment weary of the
toil of trying to reconcile people to sit in the same
cabinet. Billault retired disgusted with the sys-
tematic ill-will testified towards him by the " men
of order." Ills great difficulty at the beginning was
to find a minister of finance, and he no sooner
thought to have discovered one in M. Ducos, than
the other members of the cabinet became unruly.
The Assemblie gives, but without authority, the
following as the latest list in circulation :—St. Ar-
naud, war ; Lacrosse, marine ; Lavollee, finance ;
Targot, commerce ; Bineau, public works ; Ducos,
interior ; }toyer, justice ; Oiraud, public instruction.
I have to-day seen an important circular addressed,
under date of 16th inst., by M. Leon Faucher, to the
protects, calling on them to repress with all
the energy which the law authorises the first appear-
ance of disorder. "Nothing," it says, "is changed
as to the principles which served as a banner to social
order." It would be difficult to protest more empha-
tically than is done in this circular against all misin-
terpretation of the President's new policy as a step
in the socialist direction.
The President was not present to-day at the rae

in the Champ de Mars, a; had been eipeeted. The
weather was raw and cloudy.
It is reported that the resignation of General Car-
relet, commander of the first division, has been given
in and accepted. Successor to General Neumayer,
this officer, if report be true, has met with a similar
fate. He is said to have composed, some time since,
an order of the day so strongly in favour of legality
that the colonels of the garrison refused to post it up
in barracks, lest it should be interpreted as a hit
against schemes attributed to the Elysee.
General 7'.lagnan has recently adopted a measure
for the &knee of the capitat in case of A.,t,te,
which shows that the arrangementt of Chaogarnier
were capable of considerable improvement. Ile has
distributed the artillery, hitherto accumulated at