The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-08 00:00:00

DECREE OF THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.

In virtue of Art. GO of the constitution, the High Court
of Justice declares Louis Napoleon Bonaparte convicted of
the crime of high treason.
Convokes the national grand jury to proceed without de-
lay to judgment.
And charges M. le conseiller Bcnouard with the functions
of Public Minister at the High Court.
Done at I'aris, Dec. 2, 18a1.
(Signed)—H.sanotax (President), DELAPALME, MO-
nr..tt: (de la Seine), PATAILLE, CAUCMY, Judges.
An official notice states that the Neapolitan go-
vernment has granted to importations into Sicily by
French vessels, which have called at intermediate
ports, the reduction of 10 per cent. enjoyed by the
United States and other nations.

At the time of going to press our dispatches of last
evening's dates had not arrived. A morning paper
published the following summary of the news re-
ceived by telegraph from Dover :

"PAPAS. SUNDAY EVENING.
" According to the government organs, not the
slightest indication of sympathy for the Assembly or
its leaders has been expressed by the public.
" The votes of the artillery are as follows :—For
Louis Napoleon, 2,441; against 43.
" Eighty-two individuals have been arrested by
the national guard of Belle Ville.
" The boulevards and the streets of Paris resumed
yesterday their ordinary. appearance. Crowds of
people, and numerous equipages, filled the streets.
The prices of nearly all the public securities have
risen. the shares of the Bank of France have risen
100 fr., and those of several railroad companies 25fr.
" Government accounts received from all the chief
towns of the deelpartments state that tranquillity has
been maintain
" In many towns not garrisoned by troops the po-
pulation remained calm, and it is stated by the go-
vernment that the working and other classes would
have united, if necessary, in supporting the cause of
order.

The insurrection of the valley of the Loire is gain-
ing ground. The insurgents have invaded several
cantons of the Allier, and occupied La Pelisse after a
conflict in which the gendarmerie sustained severe
losses. At Tournus they have taken the Motel de
Ville. Serious riots have broken out at different
points of the Saone-et-Loire, particularly in the
arrondissement of Chalon-sur Saone.
A decree appears in the Moniteur, placing the
Allier and Saone-et-Loire in state of 'loge. M. de
Moray, Minister of the Interior, states, in the pre-
amble of the decree, the above facts concerning th?
spread of the insurrection.
Cartier, former prefect of police, is appointed ex-
traordinary commissioner of th•governinent in the
Allier, Chcr, and Nievre. M. Maurice Duval is ap-
pointed commissioner extraordinary in Brittany.
Several changes are decreed in the prefectures. M.
Berard, former representative, is appointed commis.
rioner extraordinary of the government in Picardy,
and has reached Amiens, where the prefect resigned
powers into his hands. General Bois-le-Comte ad-
dressed the garrison.
I have not heard of any disturbance having oc-
curred in the course of yesterday. The shops re-
mained open till a late hour of the night. The
theatres were open as usual. The garden of the
Tuileries, the Palais Royal, and the Louvre were all
open yesterday to the public. The galleries and
passages were all open, and thither loungers took
refuge from the muddy pavement. But few
people were seen at night on the pathways of
the Boulevards. Distributors of the official news
ran about offering their wares in great abundance ;
I but few cared to buy them. It is difficult to form
any judgment of the state of the provinces. But
Lyons and the other great cities are represented as An occasional correspondent writes :
quiet. The valley of the Loire is admitted, even by PARIS, FRIDAY.
the government, to be in full insurrection. You will Not having—like your responsible corresponden
see that commissioners with extraordinary powers, —my mind for ever pressed upon by Post-office re•
have been sent to various provinces. Among these gulations, and running over the land and under the
M. Cartier, the former prefect of police, turns up as I water along the electric wires—l am enabled to enter
commissioner of the central departments in a with more freedom and minuteness into some of the
state of siege. Martial law will in all like- ; startling. events which have come under my personal
lihood be extended to all France, for a free press observation during the last three days.
will be suffered to exist nowhere. The National' Wednesday was a day of astonishment; yesterday
Guards, wherever they give the least trouble, will be, a day of agitation ; to-day is a day of terror. After
if possible, disarmed and suspended: and probably the momentary effect of its first announcement,
I the institution, which is neither popular nor in ac- nobody had felt very much alarmed at the coup
cord with the new phase of things, will gradually' detat. Paris was in a state of siege, to be sure; but
disappear. If I may trust the official accounts, the this state did not seem to inconvenience many, while
refugees at Geneva, upon hearing of the Paris revo- it save to all that real blowing to Parisians—some-
, ution, held a conclave, and determined for the pre- thing to talk about. To a chance traveller entering
sent not to ventur across the frontier. The parlia- Paris on that day, the impression would have been
mentor, party are at present paralyzed by the fear that a fete was being held. The Boulevards were
,of divisions in the army giving the victory to the occupied by no persons much more dangerous than
socialists. jfineurs•, and there was an appearance of careless-
' Ido not think that Louis Napoleon has much to I nese and good nature that was encouraging to all
dread from the dissolved Assembly at the present who had any tendencies in favour of peace and the
moment. The war lies now between the army and President. Nor were the military demonstrations

"The prefect of the department of the Allier, de-
clared in a state of siege, has published an address to
the inhabitants, declaring that the greatest rigour
would be displayed in repressing the brigands' who
disturb order. He exhorts all the friends of order
to unite in resisting any attacks.
"The Ministerial Oesterreichische Correspondenz
(Vienna) of the 3rd inst. declares % favour of M.
Bonaparte and his government. This paper says:

• - - _
One thing is certain—any power in France which pro-
mises to conduct that country from anarchy to a firm and
orderly state of of affairs, which promises to establish autho-
rity and to maintain the sacred foundations of social order,
may rely, not only on the gr►titude of all friends of order in
France, but also in all other countries of the continent of
Europe.
"The Weiner Zedung, too, has in its official part
an article eulogising M. Bonaparte, and expressing a
wish for the success of his measure."

[The substance of our correspondence will appear
in a later edition.]

in the Champs-Elysees and the Place do is
Concorde very alarming; the soldiers were
especially good natured, and kei t order with
the forbearance and discretion of a London
policeman himself. Ladies walked in the
midst of the crowd unmolested and almost " unpre.
tected," and the general opinion seemed to be that
the coupd'etat was " neatly done "—" politic "—.
" clever,' and--successful. Yesterday morning,
however, people looked less assured. 'the truth be-
gan to peep out. Everybody had looked blooming
and happy ; hut then the conventional " everybedy
had not included the " dangerous classes "—that was
very certain. Where were all the blouses, hearties
and bludgeons, that usually assemble on such octets
liens ? In garrets, in cellars, in wine shops; in
secret places of rendezvous, waiting the time tier no-
tion : and yesterday, some of these were for the first
time brought to light. The result way barricading
and the fighting of yesterday. It is not, however,
to ho supposed that there was any concentration of
their forces on the part of the reds, or that the
scenes enacted were a part of any concocted or or-
ganiscd plan. As far as I can judge, from all I can
learn, the real actors in the terrible tragedies of the
Boulevard Montmartre and the Boulevard des
Italiens formed but a small portion of the
wandering crowd, assembled like any other
crowd to behold and be amused. I was myself
an eve witness of a great deal of the fighting upon
the Boulevards—an eye witness of the field before
and after the fight—and I can safely affirm this to be
true. The attack upon the people on the Boulevard
Montmartre, for example, was utterly unprovoked.
I was not myself among the attacked party, but a
friend who had the misfortune to be one of the num-
ber describes the scene in strong terms. The people,
it seems, were idling about without any special ob-
ject—most front curiosity—none, it would seem, with
any hostile intention. The soldiers themselves were
conversing freely with the populace, and tke greatest
pod humour prevailed. On a sudden some person
from a side street tired a pistol—from a window, it is
believed. This was the signal for a general tiring on
the part of the troops, without the slightest warning
or preparation, and a rattling and deadly discharge
was opened upon the quivering and retreating mass.
Round after round poured upon them with total pre-
cision. Any of your readers who have heard bullets
whizzing about their cars, and seen them chipping
the stone pavement and stone walls, and flying
into houses amidst the elutter of broken glass, may
form some notion of the panic of the unarmed
mob. It is certain that very few fell with their
wounds in front. My informant was certainly not
prepared to make any such sacrifice. As he made
the best of his way from the scene, men were fulling
around him on all sides—ones, twos, threes—little
groups falling in heaps, and clasped together in dying
agonies. Leaping over their corpses, with that ter-
nide instinct of serf-preservation which knows no
pity, my friend succeeded in gaining the shelter of a
shop, followed, I may almost say. by a bullet, which
missed him by a hair's-breadth. Then came the
scene of desolation when all was over—the carrying
of the wounded to the hospitals, of the dead to—
Heaven knows where. The sad, sullen aspect of the
soldiery when their work AVM done had in it some-
thing portentous; and ninny a scared, spirit-broken
(merle,• who ventured to take the Boulevard on his
way home, might be seen regarding these symptoms
with mingled hope and fear. Some of the soldiers
who had taken part in the attack were subse-
quently met by the gentleman of whom
have spoken in a wine-shop. According to
their own account, they had ai little anticipated
the order to fire on the people themselves, against
whom they profes.sed not to have the slightest ill
will; but the order was given, sud it was their
habit to obey, and roil,: tout.
From my own position, at a house on the Boule-
vard, near the Rue de la I'aix, I had an opportunity
of witnessing much of what took place in the after-
noon upon the Boulevard des Italiens. A consider-
able contest was going on opposite the Cafe Tortoni,
from which it was incorrectly asserted that the first
shot was fired. As far as the eye could reach—
which is as far as the head of the Boulevard at tho
Rue Vivienne—the road was occupied by the dra-
goons, who continued for the course of half an hour
to charge the populace at intervals, and fire their
pistols at the windows of the houses on either side.
In my immediate neighbourhood it was remarkable
to witness the coolness with which even ladies ex-
paeal thenaselvea at windows and upon bal-
conies, notwithstanding the very obnoxious fact
that the sudden caprice of the officers of ono
of the squadrons passing to and fro—a caprice
which had had its example a little higher
up—might effectually put a stop to the display of
either courage or cowardice for the future. Even on
the pavement below, ladies, young and old, might bo
seen vying with each other, apparently, in approach-
ing most nearly to the immediate scene of action.
None of the spectators seemed alarmed; sonic wero
certainly excited; but the majority seemed rather to
enjoy the spectacle.
In the more peaceful parts of Paris, such as the
Rue de Itivoli (where the English seem to have car-
ried order and tranquillity with the other luxuries
of their travelling equipments), this gaiety and care-
lessness of consequence, within the sound of the guns
themselves, were peculiarly manifest. People wero
not walking or running, as on the Boulevards—they
were promenading and fiat/ninth if I may be allowed
to coin a word. 'lire last winter bonnets were
worn by the last winter belles; not a coun-
tenance looked discomposed, not a cravat was seen to
deviate from its propriety. Young English gentle-
men who had come abroad for their aniu.ement, and
rather preferred to take it at the expense of the
French than otherwise, were givieft each other lively
accounts of how recklessly and Nuccesstoy they lad
been disobeying the orders of sentinels an.] patrols;
and expressing their fears, not for the safety 4 the
country, of their friends, or of themselves, but %sat
the revolution would sot come to anything. A party
of English servants, grouped together under the gate
of Meurice's, amused me in particular with their
nonchalance, and the resignation with which they were
evidently prepared to bear the calamities of—their
neighbours. One of them told his friend in my hear-
ing that he had been with " another" gentleman to
see one of the barricades, and had been disappointed
—it was really'not worth the trouble. Poor fcllow,tho
tragedy was not " deep" enough for him, I suppose.
I need scarcely add more, I think, to give you the
idea that in the ttue Hivoli, at any rate, Paris is still
Paris the gay, l'aris the city of fetes, notwithstanding
an occasional squadron of Lancers, who may be seea
sweeping the streets, with a certain steadiness and
force that indicates them in earnest.
Leaving this smiling scene, I found myself shortly
after entangled in the maze of streets that lie between
the Boulevard des Bathers amid the Place de La-
fayette. Here there are no new fashions, no flunkeys,
nor young English gentlemen amiable and facetious.
Everything is solemn, everything is sad, everything
threatening. The very weather is putting on its
worst face. It is cold and humid here, while in the
Rue Rivoli it seemed quite fresh and invigorating.
Around every wine-shop groups are gathered to-
gether, who annoy the passing stranger—sometimes
curiously, sometimes menacingly—with the muttered
word " aristo," perhaps, or even some threatening
gesture. I hurry by, wondering whether it would
be preferable to be respectably shot on the Boulevards
with a regulation musket, or knocked on the head
miserably, in the Rue Lamartine, with a crow-
bar. As good fortune will have it, how-
ever, I am not bound to either alternative,
and pursue my way, in as easy and assured a manner
as I can, so as not to attract attention. The neigh-
bourhood in question presents a curious contrast to
the Boulevards—there is not a single soldier or
urgent de rule to be seen. Groups, which elsewhere
would be shot down without much ceremony, are
permitted to assemble and talk without interruption:
and yet this is a neighbourhood well known to the
authorities as the head-quarters of some of the red-
dart of the red. In one of these streets I notice
several persons in blouses, busily engaged with mal-
lets and chisels in uprooting some iron railings, and
knocking their stonework to pieces. It is nota very
noteable operation, and I at first believe them to be
peaceable workmen occupied in the discharge of their
ordinary labours ; but on a glance at the middle of the
road, where pieces of broken stone are laid across
with some regularity, I behold the truth. This is
the commencement of a barricade—of a barricade
destined, most probably, to be attacked and defended,
and ultimately taken like the rest. But why, it
may be asked, not stop the commencement of dens
erections, peaceably, and without waiting facile
final compn? A few oergens de cille would est-
tainly destroy the foundation of the barricade is

.••••—•-7
qneetv
been

The n
the bu
tair,ll9,

—As I
featly
perma
all th,

to mal
before
surve,
line of
other
Notre
the
'scale
the p
fleetly

upon I
single

ear to
ing
But, t
calm,
Notre
day,
the eh

Ooi
nits 0:
tonoul
street
order'
and ti
warty
be del

Thi
4, occu
I
gayo
much
Via

for tl
undo
obey.
I 1
litter
wour
Can
Roye

As
loon !
ditioi
deatt

fres two • , and might have destroyed thew that have
been erected elsewhere with equal deliberation.
The mean why such proceedings are not crushed in
the bad is best known to the authorities—it is cer-
tainly not for want of full and accurate information.
As the evening advanced the streets became pe
fectly tranquil. The troops had ceased to occupyr-
perMallegt Stations, and marched at intervals through
all the principal thoroughfares. Scarcely another
n was seen in the streets, where nothing but the
battened bullets strewn upon the pavement remaiued
to mark the scene of the conflict of the day. Shortly
Wore midnight I stood upon tke Pont Royale, and
surveyed the scene before me ;—on one aide the long
line Of lights as far as the Champs Ely's& on the
other the picturesque Pont Neuf and the towers of
Notre Ihune. A few stars are shining above; below
the river flows with scarcely a ripple. Everything
is calm—
not quite either, tor as I stand musing ova/
the parapet of the bridge, and watching the re-
&dive lights which glitter with phosphoric efest
upon the still waters, I hear the sharp report of a
single gun. I wake from my dreamy condition, set ass
tar to catch the next report, and tiud my heart heel.'
log with anxiety lest there is to be another tragedy.
But, thank !leaven. I listen in vain. All again in
calm. and waiting only till the deetoned bells of
N,,tn. Duna have proclaimed the flightg of another
due, I hind my steps toward my quiet home under
the shadow of the Luxembourg.
tieing up the Rue du Seine. I meet large compa-
ri,, of wldiers, the clank of whose heavy and mono-
tonmas tread makes the otherwise silent and deserted
tout doubly desolate and melancholy. The guard
orders me to keep away from the shaded side walk,
and take the middle of the street. Ido so, being no
roiartvr, and well knowing that disobedience would
be death.
Thus I repin my peaceful hotel, which I find
«occupied," not by hard-featured soldiers, but by
gay, talkative students, full of life, though chatting
much about death, and seeming to think that coups
d.'lo are as natural to Paris as wine to Burgundy.
To-day is truly a day of terror. All is changed :
ma the rue ltivoli has lost something of its jaunti-
ly... You may walk through streets by the dozen
W.:idler without meeting a smiling face. The Boa-
cards pres.ent a most dismal appearance, scarcely a
window above the rue Richelieu that is not riddled
thraugh and through with musket ; and occasionally
ash Mend wall or a portentous perforation, exe-
cuted very often with great neatness, marks where a
c-amine hull has entered a house. The road is occu-
pied with squadrons of Cuirassiers, drawn up in
battle array against the footpath, their formidable
horse-pistols presented against the passengers, who
creep along uttering scarcely a word, hardly ven-
turing to breathe. As fur any demonstrations, any
cheer. tither for Napoleon or the republic, they are
Out of the question. There is no spirit left among
the poets by. As for the conquering troops they
bate by no means a triumphant air. One big dra-
r,m, who looked like a very ferocious Bacchus, I saw
dominated and chatting familiarly with a grisette;
N. the rest, they arc all stern and all sad. They are
under orders, however, and are evidently prepared to
obey.
I have just met four wounded soldiers, borne on
litters through the Rue de la I'aix. They were
sounded, I am informed, in an affray last night.
ran it lie that the shot which I heard on the Pont
Royale was a signal?
As I finish, cries come to my car of Vivo Napo
Irn!" Any other cry, however, is considered se-
dition., said would be followed by arrest, if not
death.

SATURDAY._

Another den• has passed, and Paris is tranquil.
There can be no mistake : it has been declared tran-
quil by official proclamation; and certainly, for a city
in a state of siege, in some parts of which the inha-
bitants can scarcely shut their doors for the soldiers
in the streets—with earbineers encamped in the
Champs Elysic, and chasseurs with sharp eyes and
nadv rifles marching here and there on mysterious
mi-sions—with its shattered shop fronts and splin-
tiro& columns—its facades of mutilated marble—
its dcad and its dying —its broken windows,
not to mention its broken hearts—for a city so situ-
ated, Paris is very tranquil indeed. The proclama-
tions are true to the letter. Whether they have any
value beyond, is another question. Walk out into
the public places, and you will see a most marked
change since yesterday. Everything is looking
better, with the exception of the weather, which is
evidently prepared to be much worse—if that were
conveniently possible.
In the first place, one is permitted to drive through
the streets, and even to walk, without running the
(Lance of being brought down like a bird. The eye
bsks in vain for the dragoons of yesterday, with
thi it wet feathers, and their steel breast plates—dull
and grey like zinc, threatening rust, and looking
&sot six times as heavy as on ordinary occasions. I
blicre that there is not even a bullet left on the
pavement, so great has been the avidity with which
curiosity seekers have picked them up.
gullets, by the way, here remind me of rumours—
one having so much to do with the other, just at pre-
sent. and suggest that if the two were equally difficult to
pia up, it would be a great deal better for a great
many more or less harmless persons. This morning,
a- you doubtless know from other sources, there
have been most severe and solemn ordinances against
the circulation of false reports; so that to meet a
man in the streets and tell him any piece of news
%Lich you are not prepared to prove true—is to give
yourself up to be certainly and summarily shot. I
AM rather curious to learn how this decree will work.
h appears at first sight that, supposing the decree to
is effectively enforced, and that people have not very
much wiser tongues than usual,there must be a num-
b'. I 4 arrests. "r he ea**, I take it for grunted, are
t. td with spies ; and as for speaking in English,
that is by no means a safe resource, for since my
residence in Paris (only nine months) I have known
at least three Frenchmen who understand that
tongue.
In other ways, however, it is wonderful how
Frenchmen accommodate themselves to dream-

stances. A very few days' experience has enabled
to necept
aatai.l Dart of their existence. I speak, however,
kt it be I.,nembered, only of the wandering, idle
ma" of the Parisians--of the workers, as a matter
of mine. we know little. What may be behind
the indifference of today it is impossible to say,
though any one who has strolled up as far as the Rue
St. Martin any tune this afternoon may make a very
shrewd guess: All those anxious groups, all those
steadv determined looking soldier,, making no thea-
trical display, but tarnished, and muddy, and at
work. must certainly mean something. It is evident,
at any rate, that they mean to keep order; and from
the business-like manner in which they make tires in
the middle of the road to keep themselves—or their
dinners—worm, looks as if they expected to make a
tolerably long stay.
Everybudy, however, even in the vicinity of the
Bastille, is not on revolutionary thoughts intent I
came across a large crowd of persons more or lees in
a state of blouse .this morning on the Place de la
Bastille. This mast surely be a political demonstra-
tion, and might perhaps be a barricade if it was cus-
tomary to make barricades in open places. Where
was the guard? I approached presently with some
caution, and found a most good-humoured congrega-
tion of spectators amusing themselves with the
auttes—not of a socialist orator—but of a juggler!
This may seem an ordinary anecdote, but may it
not be questioned whether this ingenious person had
not been employed by the government to divert the
attention of the populace from bloodshed and barn-
cadet. If this be the ease, the new ministry
know the character of the French nation
better than I believed. Another fact in support of
this supposition is that the theatres are to be re-
Opened this evening. It would be a capital adven-
ture for any one who has not the misfortune to look
Ilk an aristocrat, to visit some of the smaller places
it of amusement on the higher boulevards—highor, be
observed, in a strictly literal sense alone.
Giving up that plan, however, as hazardous, and
atter all not very exhilirating, I return to respectable
rsths. Piueing again along the Boulevard des
tt4hen4, am amused by the fact that one of the
anuses that had suffered most from the peppering
and Salting of Thursday, was that of a company en-
titled the Frateraelle,' and exhibiting the inacrip-
too, Ars:inioce .Vateselk contr., Incendie et l'Explo-
sum. 1% to+ it that the military objected to the name
of the compirty, or that they could assure every
bode but themselves, on the principle of tailors and
hoot-makers, who are proverbially the worst clad and'
shod sun in the universe.