The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-14 00:00:00

FRANCE.

':1

ALARMING STATE OF THB BOURSE.
PARIS, TEVISDAT Arreasrewli: -
The state of the &chas now become alarming
to the Imperial govern.*t, es well as to capitalists.
The long continued daily decline in the, prices of the-
Itentes,_so far from having been checked by the
extraordinary efforts of the government supporters,
or by the semi-official calls in the Conatetutionosel
for confidence in the Emperor's administration, has
been followed by a fall to-day in the value of all
the government securities far greater than any
that has taken place since the Emperor's return from

Compi4ne.
The closing prices this afternoon of the Three
per Cents. are oificially reported at 70f. 60c. for the
account, being a fall of 60 centimes on the last races
of yesterday • the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. are
quoted 104 f. 804., being a decline of 65 centimes on
the opening rates this morning.
Bank stock, railway and assurance shares, and all
other investments, partake of the fell, and transac-
tions for cash are effected on almost any terms.
The deep concern of the government is made
fully manifest by this morning's Mowileur, which
contains an article avowing that public opinion is
now almost wholly occupied with the state of the
Bourse, and with certain operations in which the
name of a functionary of a very elevated order is im-
plicated.
Mal notice has been published of the pardon
pasted by the Emperor Napoleon to 180 political
°treaders on the bth, and 203 on the Bth inst. By a
dune dated the 12th inst., the Emperor grants a
tamiaaisa of the sentences in favour of 80 others of
the rice class; making a total of 1,693 of various
=who have received the imperial clemency
the period of the coup deka.
The Turkish Ambassador has presented his cre-
dentials.

PARIS, THURSDAY EVIONING.
A contradiction of the very first class is given to-
day to a rumour lately current at the Bourse. The
Montleer says:
Forum thus put public opinion has been occupied with
the silmalism of the Bourse, and with certain operations in
in whisk Ib same of • public functionary of a very high
order has bass implicated. It is known the habitual tactics
of the muds. al the government consist in propagating
daily the mot aboard sad false news respecting its intentions
and acts, mad In wadi& in their despair, to discredit the
awn who sloe Is es genrnment the most useful 00-oparse
lbw. The Empwas !however, wishing to found tie la.
lasses of his adoolitisation on the respect inspired by So
=and awl. tanstienariee of ail dogma. has
end by nareum solidi bad reasbalbia ae
swabs& to reseals lie Wadi as to the name and edits
of lbws saran, sad anima ineestyratioss, eilikth have
ilsonhbad *mod issolostabie proof that th•Mi rumours
Ind no met of foundatios, and are the result of an odious
winatny.
As 1 invariably abstain from reproducing reports
sleeting private character unless I find them very
well authenticated, I have not hitherto mentioned
tb natter alluded to in the above note. There can,
hemmer, now be no impropriety in stating that the
exalts" functionary referred to is Marshal St.
Arms& who was said to have been subjected at the
Boom to a proem called " execution "—a slang
term, denoting the forcible closing by a stockbroker,
for his own protection, of a defaulter's speculative
account. it was further stated that an eminent
Hebrew capitalist had advanced 300.000 fr., to pre-
vent an exposure.
The state of the Bonne is now .the principal sub-
ject of discussion in all political circles. The article
in the Pays of esterday has provoked a reply from
M. Emile de Girsrdin, whose pen of late has been
lying idle, or devoted to merely speculative topics.
After observing that the Pays, while treating of the
fall in a novel point of view, suggests no means for
staying its progress, he boldly prescribes two reme-
dies, now mach out of fashion--economy and liberty :

There would be me efficacious, infallible Means of arrest-
tag tie fall in the public funds, and that would be to re-
estalia, by reforms, the equilibrium
betwas and anganiiitare, for so long
as this 6g shall fade established, clouds will
gime the Domes boa whisk thrift will be always ex-
t. ere the Inedeobsit ILL nit is what the pro-
posemosat and the seostiteent sinombly sever an
clinical, amid we know how Wag thy lasted, tad what was
the sad of then. The repablieso government, ost know-
' log how to seiloss its expeadiftwo, was obliged to angeseat
the texas. Tile day on which it Eserood tb selideed
teatimes it dowsed its own sowdowtoeties nod lA. It
. .

tbersby pat some into the heeds of the maim that it
bad before bedew The rootage was too easy he them not
to take it, and they did take it. Assuredly fear millions
five beaded thousand francs of 610116•011. slam
..to ono
beaked sad fifty senators mare se Ins rich, Is
not mash esistively to the amount of the taxes, which ex-
seeds feartasa kindred millions, sines it is eat the three
handeoddtpastel the budget, but it is a restage& selatively
to meet, the memest that credit takes emblems dthese
ezpeease swamis their utility, and denies Oak may.
Credit ikssibity sad returns slowly. The' upon
all traameisas er arkeer fall at the Bowes b imessaus. It
is like the ebb and Sew of the tide. The Bourse is le jour-
nals what the barometer is to almanacke that podia the
cheeps he the weather. Of what use is it to empress
the almeasek, or to subject it to the ea Bare,
if yea enact censure or supprom tbe Dwane-
ter ?Of Of what avail is it to " garotter " liberty
if you esanot " plotter " credit ? Credit, the child of
economy, is the brother of liberty. This is n forgotten
with impunity. To diminish expenditure and to extend
liberty would be an efficacious, infallible means of arresting
the It'll and producing a rise. Perhaps this course will be
taken some day, bat, as it is doubtful whether it will be
adopted at once, I only mention it here by the way.

M. de Girardin then proceeds to mention two
secondary means of an exclusively local character,
which he conceives would materially improve
the condition of the Bourse. The first is
the substitution of monthly for fifteen-day
settlements in railway shares. It may, perhaps, be
thought that this would only give a stimulus to un-
sound speculation, but M. Girardin avers that the
fifteen day settlement was an invention of the stock-
brokers for the purpose of putting deal)]e brokerages
and double carryings over into their pockets, and
that it is an enormous clog upon business. The se-
cond proposition is one that will make an immense
sensation upon " Change," if it should be supposed, as
may very possibly be the case, that Glirar. is not
without high warrant for putting it forward. He pro-
poses to break down the monopoly of the present
corporation of eipsna 4 Change, by creating
at once sixty new brokers. A measure of this kind
was, u you may remember, frequently threatened
in the early part of last year, and it was
very generally believed that the immense efforts
made at one time by the brokers to keep up the
funds, was owing to the fear of being "swamped"
if they did not succeed. There can be no doubt that
the present number of broken is wholly insufficient
to do the public business properly, and coin
plaints have continually been made of the im
possibility of getting orders executed. The
corporation of stock brokers was created
about fifty years ago, when the Bourse was
held under the peristyle of the Palais Royal, and
when their only business consisted in negotiating
Five per Cents. Their number was then 60, and
this number has never been increased. M. Gi-
rardin breaks out into a fierce invective against
this monopoly. " What," he exclaim', "is this
Syndics' Chamber that makes hidden decrees
of which we knew nothing but by. hearsay, decrees
which are nowhere placarded or printed, which are
made unchecked, and wkich more effectually than
the Grand Turk's mutes, execute every victim with-
out permitting hint to open his mouth ?" He accuses
the Syndics' Chamber of having caused the fall by
their resolution requiringthedepositof 160 fr. per share
before doing railway business, a resolution resulting
as he says from a sudden panic among themselves.
I may observe that M. de Girardin scarcely deals
fairly by. the brokers in this respect. The measure
in viestion was doubtless the immediately exciting
cause of the fall, but the root of the evil laid in the
number of insolvent speculators that haunted the
Bourse, blany people think that the check should
have been applied sooner; others, that it was done
too suddenly, but it is generally admitted that bad it
been long deferr,,td, a most tremendous crash would
have occurred. M. de Girardin, however, appearsto
think that universal dealing at the Bourse is as de-
sirable as universal. suiFrage. In the following con-
clusion to his article, he evidently hints the possibi-
lity of a coup d'etat against the stockbrokers:
The 2nd December, 1851, abrogau'd the law of May 31,
1850, suppressed, restricted, and se!ablished universal
suffrage. Does fba Pays Journal de tg:Vire think there
is naming to be done to restore the viewer't movement of
the funds, real property, and wages, arrested V the sudden
sad arbitrary measure of Bth November, 1852.
Remembering the large part taken by M. dd Cll-1
rardin in predicting the abolition of the law of May
31, the corporation of opens de Change may well
tremble lest he should be again a prophet. I should
mention that a part of his plan is to realise a sum of
thirty millions to the state by selling the proposed
sixty new seats at the Bourse for .100,000 h. each.