The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-16 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, SCNOILY EYI3INO.
The Mumittur of to-day contains a decree of the
Emperor regulating the commissariat department of
the marine.
The Emperor has granted o remission of punish-
ment to 19 individuals condemned by the recent
mixed commissions to various penalties.
The following deputies were Testerday elected to
form the committee for examining the bill for the
revival of the political guillotine, or, as it is called in
bland official language, the restoration of articles 88
and al' of the penal code: Viscount de la Guerrou-
ni,:re, M. Andre, Count de Flavigny, Evariste
voux, Colonel Reguis, M. Ferret, and M. Severin
Abbatueci.
The Moni(eur contains a decree re-organising the

commissariat of the marine.
The Princess Achille Murat, who has very re-
cently arrived from Florida, had a private interview
with the Emperor yesterday. She is the grandniece
of General W ashington, and married the eldest son
of King Joachim on July 30, 1826. She has been a
widow since his death in April 1846.
M. Muret de Bort, a member of the Chamber of
Deputies unler Louis Philippe, has just published a
pamphlet headed "On the Bank of France since
1647, and the Bank of England." His object tip-
' pears to be to reply to those who assert that the
Bank of France is Incompetent to supply the wants
of credit in difficult times, and that its action con-
tributes to augment the intensity of a crisis. So far
from this being the case, it is proved, he contends, by
facts that the intervention of the Bank is never so
active and efficacious uin difficult times. Thus in

1838, 1839, IslB,and 1847, when financial embarrass-
ments had been brought on by ill-considered enterprise
and undue speculation in preceding years, the Bank,
instead of diminishing its discounts, as it has been
accused of doing, extended them. In 1839, the Bank
discounted to the extent of 1,454 millions, being 482
millions more than in 1836. In 1847, when the con-
sequences of the mania of 1846 were universally felt,
the Bank increased its 'discounts from 1,498 millions,
which they were in 1843, to 1,653 millions. In 1848
the salvation of' public credit was entirely due to the
Bank. It was able on the sudden to lend 77 millions
to the state, it preserved a large number of eminent
firms from bankruptcy, and owing to its reputation
for wisdom and prudence, the extreme measure of a
forced currency for its paper was resorted to with
advantage. M. Monet de Bort makes very small
account of the new credit establishments called into
existence within the last few months, and combats
with great energy the prevailing delusion that riches
and prosperity increase in proportion to the aid given
to speculation. So long, he says, as the Bourse is
crowded with borrowers, who buy what they are
unable to hold, in the hope of speedily selling at a
premium, the most expenenced financiers will in vain
exercise their ingenuity, will in vain multiply. com-
binations, and graft institution upon institution to
stand between the borrower and the lender ; these
new institutions will be no more capable than the
Bank to advance capital which in reality does not
exist. He regrets that the Bank, yielding to a pres-
sure difficult to resist, should have departed from its
established principles by making enormous advances
upon railway shares and public securities. The Bank
was created to be a support to commerce and not an
auxiliary of the Bourse. In allusion to the state-
ment made by the governor of the Bank in his
report of January 29th, 1353, that the Bank
had advanced the enormous sum of 170 millions
during the last three months of 1832 to
.preserve the
money market from a perturbation with which it
appeared to be threatened, M. de Bort expresses his
profound conviction that, instead of " protecting the
money market," the bank ran the risk of provoking
a crisis, and that the public has cause to regret its
interference, and that all sound speculative securities
would at this moment have commanded higher prices
than they do, had the market been left to itself.
Bills were yesterday presented for the conversion
of the existing debts of the departments and com-
munes, and for the concession of the thermal estab-
lishment of Vichy to a company, with a view to its
extension and improvement.
One of the bills just presented to the Corps Ls.
gislatit contains a clause of great importance for
which the country is wholly unprepared. It purposes
' to add an article to the civil code, by virtue of which
deeds of gift, releases, contracts, leases, &c., will be
subjected to new stamp duties.
The Journal do Rennes says that several deputise
of Bretagne, in conjunction witha powerful companYt
are earnestly soliciting the concession of a railway
front St. Maio to Nantes. As far as the solicitation
goes this is perfectly true, but 1 have reason to be-
lieve that there is no probability of the railway being
made. The Emperor, it is now:positively asserted, in-
tends to visit La Vendee this summer, and being
very uncertain about his reception in that ticklish
district, it is very natural, with a view to popularity,
that he should not discourage the Brittany repre-
mentatives from holding out to their constituents the
prospect of railway. It is suite clear, however, to
those who know the country, that the line paring
through a purely agricultural district, inhabited by
the most boorish and indolent people in France, hot&
out no prospect of being remunerative for many
years to come. On the Hennes Canal there la no
traffic whatever worth speaking of.
The only journal that has a word of comment upon
the remarkable note in yesterday's Moniteur is the
Assembkk Nationak, which ventures to say
It is not possible for us to comment is befitting terms
upon this note. We will merely say that it is very onions.
It is serious in the first place on account of the project
announced, but still mots so from the tendencies which it

betr~aysse..-
When
the Emperor sent the ribbon of a commander
in the Legion of Honour to Rossini, he wrote a
highly complimentary letter, in which he expressed
a hope that the great composer would grsttfy him
and the world by writing a new opera. Rossini,
who since he has reposed upon his laurels, passes for
one of the most idle as well as the most independent
men in Europe, assured his Majesty in reply that be
was only a =laicism "by accident ;" that he had
never composed from the love of composition, but for
the sake of a livelihood, and that now that he was
above the world he desired rest. At the end of his
letter, however, Rossini offered to compose a mass for
the coronation. The Emperor's answer to this pro-
posal is not yet known.
We read in the niion:
Our letter from Vienna announce that the Count and
Countess of Chambord are expected for the fetes to be given
in that capital during the rtay of the foreign sovereigns.
King Leopold and the Duke of Brabant were to have
arrived on the 9:11, and the King of Prussia was expected
on the 18th. It is said, but this report requires confirma-
tion, that King Lis)polirs journey is not unconnected with
a projected marriage between the Duke of Brabant and the
Archduchess Marie Henriette Anne, born in 1836, daughter
of the late Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary. This
Prisons is extremely beautiful, and is strinkingly like the
immortal Marie Therese.
The General of the Jesuits, Father Roothaan,
died at Rome on the Bth of May.
At the bourse yesterday the previous quotations of
the various descriptions of government securities,
were steadily maintained. The final quotations were :
—For money : Three per Cent,. 81f. 80c.; Four-wid-
e-Half per Cents., 1041. For the end of tho month :
Three per Cents., 82f. • Four-and-a-Half per Cents.,
104 f. 30c.; Bank Stock, 2,725.