The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-15 00:00:00

FRANCE.

RESIGNATION OT THE ItIaISTRY.
PARIS, TULWAT EVINING.
I have this :moment (at six o'clock) received intel-
ligence that in the council held at St. Cloud the
resignation of all the ministers has been accepted.
The President announced that he had taken his
resolution irrevocably. M. Cartier also retires front
the prefecture of police. The President maintained,
in answer to all the arguments brought against the
complete abrogation of the law of May, that
this was quite possible. All the members of the
cabinet, without exception, held that if modi-
flcations might be introduced into the law, the return
pure and simple,to universal suffrage was not possible.
Under these circumstances, the President begged the
ministers to watch for the maintenance of order as
before, until he could devise a remedy fur present

difficulties.
An extraordinary agitation reigns among the
parliamentary. majority, whose members are sum-
moned to Paris by urgent letters ; and no doubt
M. Leon Faucher has not grudged the use of the te-
legraph for a purpose in harmony with his policy.
Five members of the Committee of Permanence have
signed a requisition for an extraordinary rneetin g of that
body to take place to-day at four o'clock, "en re'lat
yrocc de la situation." M. Daze, who arrived in
Paris yesterday, exhibits his usual animation and
energy on occasions when the dignity of the parlia-
ment and the supremacy of the legislative power is at
stake ; forming with his sanguine vivacity and chafing
bustle a strong contrast to his friend, the mute, pale,
lean Changarnier. These and M. Thicrs are almost
the only political personages of consequence in Paris
at this moment, and are observed in close cenference
at the Assembly, whose rooms are frequented in the'
vacation like those of a club.
The President had sent for no man of mark of any
party, and had made offers neither to Lamartine nor
Billault, nor any other person respecting the forma-
tion
of a cabinet. Hence it was supposed that the
present ministers would remain in office until the 4thl
Nov. The news in the Ilt'bata and .lesendsMel
respecting the positive resignation of mi-1
nisters last night, seems to have no suf-1
ficient foundation. M. Leon Faucher and his
colleagues will doubtless not abandon the helm until
I.ouisNapoleon has distictly declared his irrevocable
intention to demand the abrogation of the law of
May. This he is not likely to do prematurely. The
only result would be to precipitate the convocation of
the Assembly, which the Committee of Permanence
would not fail to move immediately were the Presi-
dent to announce distinctly his intention. The pre-
sent cabinet, should it remain in, must be consi-
dered as the mediators for the time being between
the parliamentary majority and Louis Napoleon,
ith a view to concluding some transaction by which
the Assembly may be invited, in the President's
message, to modify, instead of abrogate, the law of
May. But it may be questioned whether the
hundred ti
lipublican votes, which M. Girardi
is pm to bring over to revision will
be pai down for anything short of the entire
abrogation of the law, and a return to the
electoral law of March, 1549. The policy of the
President will be to temporise until the hour comes
for delivering Ws message. The ice has been
broken with regard to his intention designedly
to prepare the public mind for this grave change in
police. and to precipitate the passionate politicians of
the old Committee of Permanence into rash attacks
upon the executive, which will not fail to array
public opinion on the side of the latter. The
some manceurres will be resorted to which
distinguished the crisis in which Changarnier fell.
We shall hear again of imperialist plots, like that of
Allays, of reviews like those of Satory, of coups
rake and impeachment.
M. Chambolk will attack the Elysee with bitter-
ness and vigour inthe Ordre; M.Guizot will alternately
coax and threaten in the Assemblje Nationale, and
the ./Plsits will hold its tongue under pretence of not
aggravating the schism between; the powers. Louis
Napoleon has proved the strength of the
parliament to the uttermost on the Chan•
gamier question, and has not been thrown ; lie has
felt all their weapons and found none mortal.
cannot pare his commons closer by refusing If=
dotations; they cannot, without cutting their own
throats, refuse revision.
A delicate question of military law has been under
the consideration of the second council of war, pe►
sided over by Licut.-Col. Maneque of the 15th Roe-
went. A sergeant of the 10th chasseurs, going to •
public ball, met private Lagoade, of the same Kier,
staggering drunk upon the staircase. the seessout
ordered the private to make way, whereupon the
latter struck him. The minority of the council were
opinion that the Draconian tenor of the military
code which prescribes the punishment of death for
striking a superior officer was inflexible. But a ma-1
jority of 4 against 3 adopted the argument of coun-
sel for the defence, that when a non-commissioned
officer off duty mixes with his subordinates in a plans
of public diversion, he loses a portion of the prest'
of his rank. and, upon this consideration, the offender
was sentenced only to five years' imprisonment in
irons, with military degradation.
It has been erroneously stated in several of the
papers that the works on the railway between
Chartres and La Loupe were being actively prose-
cuted. They:are, in fact, momentarily suspended.
M. ])urns, the engineer, is making a fresh survey of
the line, with the view of avoiding the necessity of
making the projected tunnel near Loupe. The
lessees are under an obligation to open this section
lon July 16, and it is calculated that the tunnel could
not be made so soon.
Twelve political prisoners, part of the immense
number known as the " transported of June," who