The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-21 00:00:00

DENNIARIE AND THE DUCHIES.

..... _ _
Letters from Hamburg of the 18th inst. state the
Assembly of Notables held their first meeting on the 17th.
Count Dille Braise addressed the Assembly, and alluded to
the conciliatory feelings of the Danish government as evi-
denced in the amnesty. A draft ofe, joint constitution for
the duchies in union with the Danish monarchy was then
placed before the Assembly. Another weeding was to be
held on the following Monday.

FRANCE.

PARIS, TVZSDAY EVENING.
The central committee of the Electoral Union held
yesterday a meeting to deliberate on the part which
the union ought to take in the petitionment
for revision. It was shown from the reports
of the district committees that the latter
had unanimously admitted the indispensable neces-
sity of revision, and expressed by a large majority
' the wish to see the Electoral Union present a petition
to the Assembly. In compliance with this wish the
central committee decided, by a majority of 170 votes
against 2 or 3, that the Electoral Union should circu-
late for signature a petition for the revision of the
constitution.

The committee to-day decided, by a large majority,
against adopting the same form of petition dr.
culated by the Bonapartist committee of the
Rue Neuve St. Augustin. Thus, the body
which showed the greatest zeal for the candi-
dature of Louis Napoleon, after it had been adopted I
by the nation, has separated itself definitively from '1
the Bonapartist movement. The legitimists are de-
termined, as you see, on opening a campaign for the
restoration of the traditional monarchy, under the
banner of total revision of the constitution. This, at
the first blush, looks rash, but the key of the legiti-
mist position is faction. If they fail in their coup-dc-
main for placing Henri V. on the throne, they will
keep open a retreat through fusion. and fall back
upon the candidature of General Changsumier, who,
as I informed you some time back, published his ad-
hesion to the fusionist party by attending the
famous dinner at Madame l'ozzo di Borges. You
must therefore look upon fusion as a blanket, held
out by Moh, Guizot, and compeers to catch the legi-
timists if they fall short of their intended leap over
the constitution. It stands to reason, on this account,',
that so long as the reconciliation of the two Bourbon
branches, which constitutes the real fusion, remains
unaccumplished, the candidature of General Chan-
gamier
can never be accepted by the Orleanist
rarty. Hence there is a tendency at present in the
Mt:twists of the regency and the party of the
Journal die D tat, to unite, the former abandoning 1
that disposition which they showed recently to fa-
your the doctrine of fusion, while the legitimists ob-
served merely a negative and obstructive policy.'
hence the concert which is visible at present in the
tone and plans of organs, as the Ordre, Dames, and
Me, vagec,witich were recently at daggers drawn, all of
which now support the law of May and the legal re-
vision of the constitution. The Bonapartist policy is to
produce, by agitation throughout the country, such a
stress upon the Assembly as will force it to embrace
revision and to make way for a constituent, in despite
of tho legal majority of three-fourths not being
attained. Iknec those parties which are most bit-
terly.opposed to the President, such as the ultra-
legitimists, wished to vote against the revision in
order that they might not furnish an excuse, by
swelling the relative majority, for breaking up the
ground of legality, and opening the door to a coup
tat. Now, the answer of M. Thiers and of the
whole Orleanist party to this argument is the more
worthy of remark as it shows how little reliance
can be placed by Louis Napoleon upon the support
of that party which constitutes his ahole parlia-
mentary strength, the 300 of the Rue des Pyramidcs
M. Thiers says: " Let us vote for revision, and get
as large a majority as we can in favour of ;1
but let us adhere strictly to the letter of the law, for'
that will give us an equally strong vantage-ground,
for dealing with all parties ; we can then show 1
the socialists how ardently the friends of
order desire the revision, vet, how steadfastly
we refuse it from respect for legality; there-
fore we shall have the strongest of all titles for
obliging them to observe the law of May; whereas,
if there be only a small majority in favour of revi-
sion, there will be no merit of self-denial visible on
our part in observing the legal course." The same
argument will be equally applicable in opposing
coups-tr'ene, from whatever other side they tame,
either from the Bonapartists or legitimists.
A division exists in the different fractions of the
legitimists as to the promotion of revision by the
petitions. 'thus the tidos asserts that now trio
dprincipal portion of the Assembly show themselves
isposed to entertain the question of revision' all
petitioning is needless, and can only reveal the in-
tention of exercising an external pressure on the
deliberation. On the other hand, the Opiaion Pledire
culls on all legitimists throughout France to organise
an immense petitionary movement, not only in tavour
of total revision, but of restoration of the traditional
monarchy.
Every sitting of the Assembly now opens with the
presentation of a mass of petitions fur revision. This
preliminary form having been gone through, to-day
the Assembly proceeded to discuss the interpellations
of M. Esquires on the treatment of the prisoners at
Belle Isle. A series of unnecessary hardships and
privations had been imposed upon men who were not
common criminals, but stood essentially in need of
intellectual occupation, from which they were de-
barred, books and writing materials having been
refused thou, and latterly even the tables which
served sonic of the prisoners for writing upon
having been taken away, on the plea that the planks
belong to the administration. In consequence of
their remonstrances against this monstrous oppres-
sion, 30 of the prisoners, among whom was Barks,
had been consigned to dungeons, put upon bread and
water, and obliged to sleep upon old straw, which
had been long lying in the casemates. Having
enumerated the privations as to diet, and other cruel
severities, to which the prisoners were subjected, M.
Esquires moved the appointment of a commission of
three members (he had no objection to them all
being selected from the majority) in order to proceed
to an inquiry upon the spot.
M. Leon Faucher maintained that the harsh treat-
ment to which the prisoners had been subjected had
been called down by their violent, menacing, aid in-
subordinate behaviour.

M. Benjamin ltaspail traced the rigours complained
of to the personal character of the director of the
prison at Ilcllcisle, who had excited the same com-
plaints at Ilaguenau and Vannes, where he had held
the same functions. Amid loud cries of „Question,"
M. ltaspail proceeded to show how at Vannes this di-
rector had caused a woman to be tortured. The
president, having taken the sense of the Assembly,
prohibited M. ltaspail from speaking further. M.
, Leon Faucher replied from his place, that the I
di-
rector's character had been cleared by a commis-
' sioner of the provisional government.
M. Schmleher complained of the restrictions im-
posed upon prisoners in their communications with
their friends and families. The prisoners were not
allowed to be visited by their wives. The Assembly,
on being consulted, passed, by a majority of 428
against 218, to the pure and simple order of the dar.
The postal treaty with Sardinia was then adopted.
The sitting broke up without any further occur-
rence of interest.

The Assembly appointed to-day a comnittee on
M. Faucher's bill for extending the powers of the
police at Lyons. The committee appointed is favour-
able to the measure.
The committee on the La Plata treaties examined
yesterday Captain de Montravel. The circumstan-
tial information furnished by this eyc-witness pro-
duced a strong impression upon the committee,
which resolved to confer with the ministers of
foreign affairs and marine before coming to a deci-
sion. The great majority of the committee are in
favour of the ratification of the treaties.

M. Fould, the Minister of Finance, set out last
night for Tarbes, to attend the sitting of the council
general of the Ilautes Pyrenees.
An important commercial reform was under-
taken by the municipal council of Paris at its last
sitting. It is proposed to establish in the new build-
ing which had been purchased for the Chamber of
Commerce for about 20,000!,, the Hotel des Commis-
sakes Prisettrs at the corner of the Rue Notre Dames
des Victoires, a museum for receiving and exhibiting
collections of every kind of foreign produce. The
Chamber also wishes to establish a public exhibition
of silks, similar to that which now exists at Lyons,
as well as of wool and other woven articles. Arrange-
ments will also be made, in order that the merchants
of Paris may be able to receive every information as
to the value of merchandise in the principal towns
lof France, and a roan will be specially appropriated,
Iwhere they can acquire every information as to the
latest maritime and commercial news received by
electric telegraph.
Mr. More O'Farrell, governor of Malta, arrived at
Marseilles on the 16th, by the Merlin.
The Munikur contains the following statement
with regard to the amount of duties on imports :-
1 " The total of import duties for April, 1851, is