The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-29 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, THURSDAY
The Moniteur contains a decree, conceding 20,000
hectares of land in the environs of Setif, Algeria, to
the Genevan Company, for founding a Swiss colony.
The government reserves the power of diminishing
the extent of this grant in the event of the company
failing to found a village on each zone of 2,000 hec-
tares within the next ten years.
Seventy-nine persons convicted of political of-
fences by the mixed commission receive the remis-
sion of their punishments.
The Moniteur publishes a decree of the Emperor,
founded on a report of the Minister of War, granting
a concession of 20,000 hectares (about 50,000 acres)
of land in the neighbourhood of Setif, province of
Constantine, to a companycomposed of the following
proprietors and capitalists at Geneva :—MM. Count
Francois Sautter de Beaaregard, Dr. P. E. Lullin, J.
M. J. Mirabeau, J. A. Fazy-Alleon, C. H. E. de
Teas, li. M. Bouthillier de Beaumont, de Bude,
C. A. do Loriol, and C. L. Sautter, for the pur-
pose of founding an agricultural colony. The
company, among other conditions, is bound to
form on each 2,000 hectares a village composed of 50
stone-built houses,for the accommodation of European
agricultural labourers, and to keep in repair all the
existing roads which may pass through the said ex-
tent of ground, and for the space of ten years to give
up to the state, without indemnity, any ground that
may be required for other roads, canals, or works of
public utility. The decree contains other regulations
for the division of the land among the colonists, the
quantity to be apportioned to each, and the terms on
which they are to have possession. All the colonists
' are to be natives of Switzerland.

M. Desjobert, a well known member of the
Chamber of Deputies, who represented the depart-
ment of the Seine Inferieure for upwards of twenty
years, died suddenly on Tuesday. He was chiefly
noted for the eccentric zeal with which he on all occa-
Sions opposed every species of colonisation. When-
ever Louis Ph►lippe's ministers took occasion to glory
in the progress of French civilisation in Algeria, M.
Desjobert never failed to mount the tribune to pro-
test against, the possession of that country. True to
his "ruling passion strong in death" he has by his
last will and testament bequeathed to the Corps Logis-
latif a number of anti•colonial pamphlets written by
himself.

A convention was some time since made between
Spain and France, authorising the latter power to
improve the navigation of the Guadalquiver, ohich
is both difficult and dangerous. News has arrived
that the French steam corvette the Newton, lately
ascended the river as far as Seville for the purpose of
making a chart of the river. This was the first
vessel of war ever seen at Seville, unless indeed his-
torians are wrong in treating the appearance there of
a Moorish fleet spoken of by Corneille, in the " Cid,"
as a poetical invention. However, that may be
all the honours of a first visit were paid
by the authorities at the city to the
Newton, and great cariosity to see her
was manifested by the population. There are
said to be 20,000 French residents in Seville, and
the improvement of the Guadalquiver is a matter of
great importance to their commercial interests.
M. Raepail, who is now safe in Brussels, denies in
energetic terms that he sued for pardon. " Not
only," he says, in a letter to the Asseaddie Nationale,
" did I never ask anything of the government, bat I
constantly, during the. whole period of my painful im-
prisonment, avoided everything that might have had
the appearance of the slightest concession." When it
was notified to him that the Emperor had commuted
the remainder of his sentence to banishment, he
was asked to What country he would desire that his
passport should be made. He answered Belgium,
and this has given rise to the supposition that he
had negotiated the conditions of his liberation. The
government would get more credit for magnanimity
if these instances of spontaneous clemency to politi-
cal prisoners were not so exceedingly rare. Only
two days ago General Goyon, in giving an account
to the Emperor of a mission of mercy, was compelled
to confess that he bad found three out of five of all
the prisoners he bad examined " obdurate," by which
he meant that they preferred to endure their suffer-
ings rather than humbly ask for pardon, and avow
themselves to have been in the wrong when they
supported the reputlic. Wbyare not the consciences
,of these men entitled to as much consideration in this
respect as a Cavaignac or Respell ? Their obscurity
only readers their conduct the more heroic, because
4they might submit to the required humiliation with
comparatively little risk of discredit in the opinion
of their friends.
A warrant of arrest was issued the other day
aghast M. Antoine, formerly editor of the Voiz du
Proserit, who was living at Valenciennes under a
state of surveillance. The police went to his house,
bat he, having probably got wind of their intention,
was not to be found. I have not heard the grounds
of the fresh accusation against him. In the affair of
the "foreign correspondents," the public prosecutor
' has not only appealed a minima for an increase of
punishment, but be proposes to renew the charge of
belonging to a secret society, which the Tribunal of
' Correctional ?o_lice rejected. He also proceeds de
novo against M. Chantelauze, who was acquitted.
Public opinion, crippled as the expression'of it is,
has pronounced so strong# against the system of
breaking open letters that it is not thought possible
that ,the Comet of Appeal can maintain the odious
doctrine of the court below. The letter and spirit of
the Code, and the avowed opinions of the govern-
menti of Louis XVI. and Napoleon I. are alike
against it.
Two of the former editors of the Peupk, MM.
Pille and Langlois have been removed from the
Belleisle prison to St. Pelagie. M. Pille was a mem-
ber of the Constituent Assembly. He has obtained
this favour in consequence of the great age of hie
mother who desires to visit him in prison, and cannot
go to Belleisle.
The Moniteur contains a list of 69 more " remie-
sions of measures of general safety taken by the mixed
commissions." There is not a single known name in
the list.
It has been stated by mistake that M. Proudhon
was one of the conceasionnaires of the Besancon and'
Mulhouse railway. The error arises from a confusion
of similar sounding names. M. Prudhomme, the ex-i
deputy, is the person interested in the railway.
A journal, called the Presse Religeuse, which he.
hitherto confined itself exclusively to religions top's',
announces that it has obtained leave to treat of
political questions. This is a fact of importance,
because the manager of this journal, the Abbe
Michon, is a staunch Galilean, and the permission
granted to him is indicative of a desire on the part of
the government to encourage an opposition to the
ultramontaue tinkers.
The Union, speaking of Lord Clarendon's speech
on the eastern question, says " They " the English
ministry, " see no reason to fear that the peace of
Europe will be immediately troubled. This is quite
simple. We are entirely of their opinion. It is, we
intention
at perfectly clear that no power has any
at the present moment of making any direct attack

on the integrity and independents of the Turkish
em-
pine; latt some of them are endeavouring,-with ability
and perseverance, to create and to aggravate situa-
tions which, in given circumstances, will enable
them to turn events to suit their own views."

The Moniteur says:
The Marquis Fabien Pallavicini has just been raised to
the dignity of Grand Offzer of theL.gion of II mour. The
Karquith. who was former!) Sardinian minister at thb court
of Berms, served France from 1807 to 1814 in quality of
aeditor at the Council of State. He was charged with se-
veral missions by the Emperor Nspoleon 1., to whom he
always remained faithful, and only left France after the
abdication of Fontainblean. On taking leave of his Ma.
*l7 M. Pallavicini received the Cross of the Reunion, but
ebb* ulterior circurustane would not allow him to wear.
It IS as a souvenir of that distinction so honourably
,ac-
Vthat the Emperor Napoleon 111. has wished to give
a: of the last servants of his dynasty a !calumny of hie
high esteem.
The °currier des Mere says :
We have related, under all reserve, the rumours which
have circulated in this town on the su'iject of the measures
taken relative to the arrival of the Emyereur du Brasil. We
ate now enabled to give precise information on this affair.
The truth is, that the French consul at Rio Janeiro ad-
dressed to the Minister of the Interior a despatch announc-
ing to him that an infernal machine had been embarked on
board the Empereur do Brasil, and that it was to
be taken to France, with a criminal object, by a German
named Kautmann. According to the orders transmitted
from the Prefecture of Police, the German and his wife
were arrested. But after the explanations given by him,
and after an examination of the machine, from which it ap-
peared that it was constructed with an innoceat object, he
and his wife were let at liberty.. The indications given to
our maul at Rio were true materially, but false only as to
the bearin; of them. On the whole tnis affair, which has
warmly excited public curiosity, his in itscif no gravity.
In it sitting of yesterday the credit fowler of
France authorised loans to the amount of 2,537,000 f.
The number of demands from Apia 20 to 26 were
306, and the total sum asked for 4,448,850 fr.
The Three per Cents. closed at 80f. 35c. for the end
of the month; and the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. at
103 f. 23c.

LATEST CONTINENIAL BOCRSES.—Antwerp, Wed-
nesday: Belgian Four-and-a-Half per Cent., 98 Five
Cent., 1848, 98}; Austrian Metallics, Five per Cent.,
84i ; Lots of 2306,. 848. Berlin, Tuesday : Loan,
Four per Cent., New, 99;; Four-and-a-Half per
Cent. 103;; Bank Shares, 100; Rhenish Railway,
88k. Brussels, Wednesday,: Belgian Four-and-a-
Half per Cents., 981, ; Two-and-a-Half do., 53 11-16;
lAustrian Metallics, Three per CAA., 311; Spanish
Ono per Cent., 23 7-16; Roman Five per Cent., 98 ;
Sardinian Five per Cent., 96; ; Namur and Liege
Railway Bonds, 96 ; Tourney-Jurbise, Four-and-a-
Half per Cent., 606; Deadre-Weer Railway Five
per Cent., 536. Exchange on London, 23.071.