The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-04 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 4, 1849.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY. 540 rag.
The Chamber finally voted to-day the law on the
naturalisation of strangers.
The &Me states to-day that at a Council of
Ministers held at the Elia* on the 20th ult., • note
was read to the Council, from which it appeared that
England pronounced in favour of the right of the
Roman people to choose its own government.
The same journal says, that at a Cabinet Council held
in London, it was decided to support Louis Napoleon's
policy at Rome, if the President engaged himself no:
to separate from England in the affair of the Hunga-
rian refugees.
The interrogatory of the forty-six persons accused
of being concerned in the legitimist conspiracy of the
Rue de Rumfort, was brought to a close on Friday ;
and subsequently twenty-seven of them were set at
liberty. The nineteen ethers detained provisionally
in custody comprise those who were proposed for dif-
ferent grades in the legion of St. Hubert, as also the
chaplain and surgeon-major.
The semi-official organs of the government have
announced a grand review at the Champ de Mars,
and a dinner and ball at the Hotel-de-Ville for the 10th
inst. But besides these festiviies, that anniversary
was to have inhered in a general amnesty, had not
circumstances prevented its being granted. It seems
that it is only with great difficulty that Louis
Napoleon has been induced to abandon this idea. The
chief reason for his so doing, or rather for postponing
the measure, is, that it would be unconstitutional, the
Legislative Assembly having alone the power to vote
it. Already the presidential and legislative powers are
sufficiently at variance without additional differences
being created. It is expected, indeed, that the
initiative taken by the President in submitting to the
council of ministers a plan for public assistance, at
the very moment when a committee is at work on
one presented a long time since, will lead to another
debate on the question of which must be the pre-
ponderant power.
The republicans do not wait for an amnesty to allow
them to present themselves as candidates for election,
but in a letter written by Ledru R Alin, dpropos of
the last affair in June, he and his friends offer them-
selves for re-election, thereby caning on the people to
quash the sentence of the Criminal Court of Versailles.
The Mcmiteur contains a report from the minister
of the interior, in which M. Barrot describes the state
of the 6th military division, and iu which he admits
that the state of siege cannot be maintained. This
military division, however, requires a more vigorous
administration than others, and therefore he proposes
to send M. Lacoste as commissioner, with full powers
to act in the matter.
The report is followed by a decree appointing
M. Lacoste, signed by Louis Napoleon. It is a mea-
sure which will raise a great cry in the press most
probably. It is a step towards greater centralisation
of the active governmental powers, and it erects a
portion of France as it were into a separate pro-con-
sulate, of which the chief is invested with full power.

said Goedeedse had declared that he could • procure for the ,
polies authorities several important papers which would lay
bare the treasonable plans of several of the leaden of the
democratic party • but required a promise from him (Herr
Hinkeldey) that the parties in whom hands these papers
were should not suffer by their diselesiog them. As prod
dent of polies he had made that promise, and sewed them
that he should not be punished. Upon hick the informs- I
tion was immediately rendered.
Upon being einnstiened by the President whether he
toosOeted himself empowered to do so, the President
of Pollee replied, Certainly ; I only do my duty in pro.
seising to let those go unpunished who moist me in discover-
ing the plans which are still being concocted between here
and Pads." He afterwards exclaimed with great violence,
" I am responsible only to my superiors in office."
I must remark here, that the English . practice of permit-
ting a man to turn '• King's evidence,' has hitherto been
unknown in Prude, and that the King alone had
the power of promising life to any concerned in criminal
accusations ; and sinee.the pubbeation of the constitution It
is very doubtful, whether this right mill exists, and if so, in
whose hands 1 Nevertheless, Herr von Hinkeldey has token
it into his own hands.
In reference to the extraordinary escape of the accused Ohm
from the house, and from the very room of the president of
the police, Herr von Hinkeldey explained that he was coin
pelted, by most urgent official bruin's.' to leave Ohm with
Ooedsche, neither of whom he found, when he returned
to his room.
Here is evidently, first of ell, neglect of duty and careless-
less on the part of the president of police ; and secondly, the
further offence, that he neither arrested nor accused the mas,
though he knew him perfectly well, who assisted the prisoner
to escape. I must add here, also, that Herr Ooedsche gave
the following explanations respecting the escape of Ohm ;
that when he found Ohm a prisoner in the house of Hin-
keldey, he reminded the latter that he had pledged his word
of honour that Ohm's safety should not be compromised, and
th it therefore he ought to oe set free; that Hinkeldey re-
plied, " If you will undertake the reeponsibility." and at his
request had then left him (Ooedsche) alone with Ohm.
I need not allude to the impression created by the conduct
and explanations of Herr von Hinkeldey ; many persons who
are the supporters of the ministry declare that he ought to be
dismissed at once.
After Hinkeldey came Herr Ooedsche. This witness,
after indulging in a long account of terrible conspiracies,
each of which was more remarkable than its predecessor, and
having uttered a tirade of such immense nonsense that even
Waldeck was compelled to laugh, was subjected to a close
examination. The witness showed himselt sly and cunning-
his replies were for the meet part indirect, and be ender,
voured at every occasion to return to his discoveries of fright.
ful conspired... To all appearance he is himself the soul of
the plot invented to sacrifice Waldeck. Out of the
many details of this examination, in which numberless con•
tredictions were apparent between the evidence of the win
nen end of the accused Ohm, and between the evidence
given at the present and at former examinations hy the
witness himself, I will only mention one fact, that it a letter
from Ohm to Ooedsche, which has been discovered, there
occurs the following ; " A letter will reach you from
we that handwritirg."
With the examination of this witness the proceedings of
the court tor the day terminated. Tomorrow the examine
don of the witnesses will be proceeded with. A number of
former deputies have been summoned as witnesses for the
defence ; many of them from the most distant parts of the
kingdom—one of them from the Russian hounder,; and
another from Trier. The well known figures of these men
; excited general interest.