The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-24 00:00:00

FRANCE.

—.•—
PARIS. THURSDAY EVENING.
The .1/oniteur publishes a decree modifying the
regulations of the Mortgage Bank established at
Paris, known as the Credit Foncier of France. It
declares that whenever the average quotation of the
Three per Cents. Rente has been for three months
together below 86tr., the Mortgage Bank can raise
for all future loans, to sfr. 95c., the annual sum to
be paid by the borrower, that annual sum to include
interest, running expenses, and sinking fund for
paying off the debt in 50 years. For loans of less
duration, the annual sum shall he determined pro-
portionally on the same bases. Whenever the Three
per Cents. ltente shall have been for three months
together at an average quotation of Mfr., the maxi-
mum of the annual sum already spoken of shall be
reduced to sfr. 45c., for loans of 30 years, and pro-
portionally less for loans of shorter duration. The
subvention of 10,000,000 fr. accorded to the Mort-
gage Bank established at Paris by the decree of
December 10, 1832, is :awed to 9,700,000 fr., to
ire paid successively in the proportion of the 20th
part of the loans effected. The remaining sum of
300,000 f. is to be appropriated in equal proportions
to the Mortgage Banks of Nevers and of Marseilles.
When the amount of the loans of the Mortgage Bank
shell have reached the sum of 230,000,000 f., the
maximum of the running expenses, fixed by Art. 71
of the statutes at 00c. for every 100 f., may be reduced
by the government to 43e. If by the Ist of January,
1837, the loans effected by the Mortgage Bank do not
amount to 200,000,000 E, the government reserves to
itself the power of authorising, concurrently with
the Mortgage Bank, other similar societies in various
Darts of France. And even if at the above mentioned
p, nod the aggregate amount of loans shall reach two
hundred millions, but there shall not have
been lent within every jurisdiction of an imperial
court of justice a sum proportionate to that amount,
government may still, concurrently a ith the Bank,
authorise other societies in those localities. Over
and above the 200,000,000 f. of bonds issued in execu-
tion of the convention of November 18, 1832, the
Mortgage Bank cannot affix prizes to sums it may
borrow, unless Kith the special authorisation of the
government. The statutes of the Mortgage Bank
are to be modified in conformity with the
present decree, hut should a general meet-
ing of the shareholders not give its approval withia
the space of two months from the present time to
the modifications thus specified, the Mortgage Bank

shall be deprived of the benitits arising trent the
present decree.
General Hugo, the uncle of the illustrious poet
and an eminent officer of the Empire, has just diei
at Tulle, where he had long lived in retirement.
General Wysocki, who in 1848-9 commanded the
Polish Legion in Hungary, left Marseillesyesterda
for Constantinople, accompanied by several officers;y I believe I may now announce on good authority
that several of the Emperor's most faithful. adherents
will, on the occasion of the new year, be at length
rewarded with titles. MM. Persigny and lie Morn
y
are to be made princes—at least their friends openly
proclaim them by that title. M. Troplong will also
be made a prince, but at the same time the office of
Arch-Chancellor of France will be revived in his
person. MM. Fould and Abatucci are to be dukes.
Of course Marshals St. Arnaud and Magnan will be
included in the creation. Ido not happen to have
heard what their titles are to be, but I take it for
granted they will be princes.
Some doubts appear to be felt whether it is in.
tended to strip the bishops of the appellation univer-
sally accorded to them of " Monseigneur." The
Mon/kw, in terms, says that " nobody " is entitled
to be so styled but French Princes and Princes of the
Imperial family, and it happens, curioubly enough,
that in the very same number of the .Ib,edo•ur the
bishops aro spoken of as " ..Ifesrierirs !es
Some think this intentional, and a commentary upon
the curt note in the other part of the official journal,
I confess I can hardly think so. According to all
received usage bishops are addressed as Monseigneur,
Monsignore, My Lord, and the attempt to deprive
them of the appellation would give great offence
indeed.

Vice-Admiral Le Predour has been appointed a
member of the council of the Admiralty, in the room
of Vice-Admiral Brunt, called to the command of the
Ocean squadron.

PARIS, ritIDAY EVENING.
The Muni(cur alludes as follows to the recent
military demonstration at Lyons : " The &dut Public
of Lyons gives an account of a sort of alert which
took place in that city, and which did not deserve
being mentioned. Some posts were doubled on false
information, certainly not calling for so many
precautions. In fact, no disturbance took place.
NVe are no longer in times when a handful
of rioters were sufficient to disturb men's minds.
The elements of such easy disturbances fortu-
nately do not any longer exist in France."
There is much confusion in the above note. What
is the meaning of false information not calling for
so many precautions ?" If the information was known
to be false it was of course no ground for " precau-
' tions " at all. But as long as the falsehood was unsus-
pected themore or less of precaution to be taken could
only be regulated by the nature of the informa-
tion given, and not by its accuracy. It was
not the .S'alut Public alone, but several other
Lyons journals that gave the account in question,
and mere than one of them claimed great credit for
government for having discovered a most horrid
though impotent conspiracy. It may very possibly be
that the whole affair was a concoction of the police,
but the fact that Lyons was in a great state of
alarm is undoubted. It may also be asked whether
the numerous arrests still going on are based upon
" false information." The Sulfa Public of Dec. 21 (a
day later than the number alluded to by the Multittur)
says: "Several arrests, of the number and importance
of which we are ignorant, were effected in the night
of Monday and Tuesday, and during yesterday. For
the rest, Lyons, after being for a moment very se-
riously alarmed, has now resumed its usual phy-
siognomy, and we may affirm that the se-
curity as well as the prosperity of the city,
so important at this period of the year,
will retain no trace of an alarm as suddenly created
as rapidly dispelled, and which will only have served
to demonstrate once more the nothingness of the
threats of some obscure agitators."
The Bourse was very much excited to-day, and a
fall of 55c. has taken place in the rente. The fall
was principally attributed to reports that Lord
Palmerston had been called upon to form a ministry,
and that the Moniteur would announce to-morrow the
entry of the fleets into the Black Sea. The Vienna
despatch received to-day announcing the " definitive"
en try of the fleets was more generally believed than
that from Trieste, with news of the same
date, stating merely that they were " about
to eater." Notwithstanding the generally depressed
state of the Bourse, Bank of France rose 10Ir.; Rouen
and Versailles Railway a, 5 fr. each; and Western, 2fr.
50c. There was a considerable fall in the other prin-
cipal lines. St. Germain declined 17fr. aoc. ; Rouen
and Northern, 10fr. each.