The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-11 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS. TOISDAT Eve erne.
The Moniker of to-day contents a decree of the
Emperor, promulgating the enareatioa cooolndeil
between the French government and that of the pritiol
cipalny of Reuss, fee the mutual guarantee of Um'
rights of authors and inalioal composers.
In the non-official portion of the Montlear theirs is
an article devoted to a consideration of the two re-
cent decrees approving of the isolations of the
municipal commissions of Lyons and Lorient, by
which a portion of the revenue derived from the
octroi is to be devoted to the alleviation of the con-
dition of the working classes by the liquidation I f a
certain portion of the personal tax (impot penonnel),
and that on furnished apartments at present levied
in those cities. A similar plan has already been
adopted in Paris, Marseilles, Strasbourg, and other
large towns, and with the most beneficial effects.
The event of to thy in Paris ii the ventilation of a
piece of news of sinister import, which, owing to the
gagging system of statesmanship now in vogue,
has not been generally known here until this morn•
ing. I speak of the government :bill for the repeal
of the glorious law proclaimed by M. Lamartine on
the steps of the Hotel de Ville on the 26th of Fe-
bruary, 1848, and the reestablishment of the
political guillotine. The Parisian public are to-day
for the first time made aware not only that this
incredible, inopportune, and suicidal measure has
been proposed, but that it has actually been accepted
by the Council of State. When at the end of last
week the fact of the bill being proposed was
rumoured among the very few who by accident were
the first to hear of the sudden resolve of a govern-
ment that habitually acts upon the sudden, it was
confidently predicted, that servile as the Council of
State from the principle of its constitution is, a sense
of self-preservation would stand in the way of its
sanction to a measure which, according to all his-
torical precedent, was likely at no remote time to,
number its promoters among its victims. The public,
however, learn at one and the same moment, subject
only to the remote possibility of an adverse vote
by the Corps Legislatif, that this law of blood
and vengeance has been not only conceived but
enacted. The effect upon the public mind is etupity-
ing. While the Bonapartists are astounded and dis-
mayed, all shades of the opposition rejoice in this
desperate bravado, as a proof of unsuspected weak-
ness. What greater proof, they say, cau we have of
the hollowruss of the stability and prosperity of the
fourth dynasty so industriously vaunted by its hire-
ling writers? If it be true that nine out ten of the
Freuch population are enthusiastic partisans of the
empire, if it be true that all the "old parties" are
reduced to despair, and if public prosperity and trade
be on such a satisfactory basis as was never be en
known, irhat occasion can there be for harsh
laws for the protection of government, which must
necessarily ;challenge unpopularity and excite
uneasiness P The general belief naturally is that the
secret police reports must have disclosed a vast
amount of latent discontent of which the public, de-
prived by the laws against the press of its mama
channels of information, has no idea. The new
penal measure emir aces a large increase of the
penalty to be inflicted upon any one saying a dis-
paraging word of any member of the imperial
family. Three years imprisonment and a tine of
3,00ur. may be the punishment of an idle jest uttered
in a café and reported by a spy.
A fresh instance of the audacity of the ultra-
montanists is at this moment exciting a great deal of
attention among the clergy. A priest of the depart-
ment of the Oen, the Abbe Laborde, has for nearly
years been in the habit of publishing theo-
pamphlets, directed mainly against various
ltvearite theories of modern casuists. He maintains,
for instance, that the church has no power to create
new dogmas, and that, contrary to the doctrine of
certain probobiliata, it is not lawful to choose between
two opinions, the least safe and the least probable.
It happens that, so lately as last year, his ecele-
aiaatial superior, the Archbishop of Auch, in
a public certificate, said of the Abbe Laborde
that he was " a man of good morals and
free from any kind of ecclesiastical censure," Since
that time, however, his works have been placed in the
" index" at Rome, and the Archbishop of Anch, with
blind obedience to an authority which in this respect
has never been recognised by the church of France,
has deprived him of his cure until he shall have sub.
milted to Rome. This is, I believe, the first time
that a French prelate has enforced the decrees of the
"index" by penalties. It has hitherto been common
emelt law in France that the decrees of the inquisi-
tion of Rome, of the holy office, and of the congrega-
den of the " index" were to be regarded with respect
no the recorded opinions of " learned doctors," but
bad no force of law unless promulgated by the civil
power of the country. A pregnant instance of the
eppbeation of this principle as to be found in the
Ind that the Abbe Lequeux, an archdeacon of St.
Dada, and a vicar-general of the diocese of Paris,
has never been disturbed in his functions, although
we of his works has been placed in the "index" at
Rome.

There is a report that a petition has been pre-
sented to the Senate for the recall of the exiled ge-
nerals, and that it has been supported by Marshal
Valliant.

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It is said that a homeopathic chair is about to be
established in the faculty of medicine, owing to the
influence of Marshal St. Arnaud, whi attributes the
saving of his life to the skill of a professor of this
hitherto illegitimate branch of the healing art.
The Paine says:
A letter from Constantinople, of the 27th ult., states that
there was then anchored near that city the Chaptal, French
steam corvette. the Austrian corvette the Carolina, two
steamers of the Russian navy, the Wasp, and Tiger,
steam-frigates, and, lastly. the ()Rums& SCIII&&312
at anchor before the arsenal. The French steam
corvette the C►ton had just quitted the port to
proceed to Salamis. The same letter states that
the act of taking off the blockade from the coasts of
Bar (Albania), had led to excebent resul,s. The rebels,
having returned to a sense of their duty, now admitted that
they had acted unjustly towards the Turkish government.
It was announced that a deputation, composed of the moat
distinguished in►abitants of the country, had arrived at
Constantinople, and was to be received by the Grand
Vizier. The English squadron was still at Malta on
the 3rd.

The Assemblie Nationale says:
We bear that the differences between the Court of Vienna
and the Piedmontese government are in the course of ar-
rangement ; there is, indeed, reason to believe that they are
already settled. The minister of Sardinia at Vienna, who
had quitted that capital en cove, but without any interrup-
tion of the diplomatic relations between the states, is to
return very speedily.
Closing _prices of Paris Bonnie this day :—Three
per Cent. Relates, 81.75 ; Four-and-a-Half per Cent.
Bente', 104; Paris and Orleans, 1,115; Paris and
Konen, 1,170 ; Northern of France, 930 ; Paris and
Strasburg, 935; Paris and Lyons, 967.50 ; Western
of France, 800; South of France, 672.50; Mobilier.
Bank Shares, 947.50.