The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-13 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, FRIDAY Evesiao.
There is talk of an extraordinary cabinet council
to be held on the lath instant at the Elysee, to
which all the Ministers absent from Paris have been
summoned. The object of this ministerial meeting
is to prepare the framework of the President's mes-
sage for the opening of the session.
l)iplomatic circles are occupied with the question
of Cuba. The last American steamer from Havre
took out important despatches for the French chargé
d'affaires in the United States. A special agent is
to embark in the Humboldt in order to assist at
Washington in giving weight to the representations
of the French government in favour of Spain. Much
enthusiasm is said to prevail in Spain on this question,
and thewealthiest grandees ate prepared to set afloat
a subscription to forward the construction of naval
armaments in the Spanish !sorts
The Council-general of the Gard has voted for re-
vision in the ultra-legitimist sense of the Opinion
Peldigne.
Although the dust raised by the Orleanist candi-
dature for the presidency suddenly appearing in the
arena has been somewhat laid—not without dejection
to the more sanguine of that party—the abettors of
the scheme are too tough and inured to political con-
tention to desist discouraged from their arduous
enterprise. I understand, from persons well in-
formed as to the views of the Orleanist party, that,
after the last vote on revision, it is the intention of
the Prince de Joinville to publish a manifesto, dis-
tinctly proclaiming his candidature. The compara-
tively small effect produced on the departments by
the announcement of the pretensions of the younger
branch, and the uncertainty which prevails with re-
gard
to their intentions, have suggested the course
of issuing a manifesto as a last and decisive resource,
although this tactic will not probably be owned until
the critical moment. With this aim, M. Theirs is to
repair shortly to Claremont, and is only waiting for
the return of the Duchess of Orleans from Germany
to set out on his mission.
The democratic papers publish a declaration of
Ledru Rollin and others, dated tho 9th, giving the
most emphatic and explicit denial to the absurd alle-
gations
of the privileged press, which attribute to the
editors of the Voi.r du Proscrit, and the leading
'members of the central democratic committee in Lon-
don, an intimate connexion with the pretended
French-German plot. This document states that the
only editor of the /191: du Proscrit present in France
has been arrested, together with the persons whom
chance brought to his office at the moment of the
visit of the police. The list of subscribers and the I
accounts and commercial correspondence were seised
I under the pretext that the Votz deg Proscrit was the
soul and chief engine of the pretended plot. Mean-
while the provisional !Pripet of the paper was ar-
rested at St. Amend, and conveyed to Paris hand-
' cuffed ; and the sister of M. Chotteau. ther,rant, now
in detention at Douai for a press offence, was con-
ducted to the prison of Valenciennes, for resisting ,

the brutal attempts of the gendarmes to search her
person. Ledru Rollin and his colleagues declare
that their political acts have been confined to publi-
cations in the journal, which the French
govern-
ment is vainly striving to extinguish; that they have
never had the least relation with the "German Com-
mittee" of Paris, accused by the police of being one
,of the wheels of this pretended plot; and that they
defy the government to produce any impeachable
document emanating from them but the articles pub-
lished
in their paper. The assertion that documents
of importance had been seized at the house of
M. Ledru Rollin is a ridiculous blunder, for his
i habitation is in a country where the police do not
invade private domiciles at the bidding of a foreign
government—even supposing there were any com-
promising paper, which there is not, in his rooms to
seize. Finally, the more the French government
proves, by its persecution of the l'oiz deg Prose-rite'
its dread of the principles and policy advocated by 1
that journal, the more its editors will deem it their
duty to devote themselves to the task of providing
that policy with an organ. This task they
trust to accomplish in a few days. This statement
is signed by Dupont, Ledru Rollin, Delescluze, and
Itibeyrolles. Another document, signed by Bratiano,
for the Central European Committee, declares that it
is completely false that documents emanating from
the committee have been seized; adding, that if the
Parisian police have obtained possession of any com-
promising papers, such are the work of men who
have never belonged, far or near, to the committee.
It concludes by defying the French goverument to
publish any document establishing a connexion be-
tween the -European Committee and the pretended
French-German plot. A third document, signed by
M. Sausenau, for the Society of German Agitation
at London, equally repudiates the least relation with,
or knowledge of, the preteuded plot, and states that
the Germans recently arrested at Paris are, ex-
cepting two, unknown even by name to the society.
M. Leon Faucher took yesterday an extensive
ramble over the space embracing the site of the cen-
tral markets and the other projected improvements
of Paris. The Minister of the Interior has devoted
himself since his accession to office with laudable
zeal to the furtherance of these great works, which
will employ in embellishing the French capital those
hands which might, under a careless administration,
have been through the temptations of want enlisted
for its destruction.

M. Carlier's levee of foreigners swells daily. The
permission to ease the tedium of waiting half a
dozen hours by sitting down in the garden of the
prefecture is a boon greedily snatched at by the
martyrs of the new edict, so that a spare bench is
scrambled for with as much avidity as a spar by
wreckers. Some 6,000 muds of leave to reside are
issued between 8 and 4. But as there are about
80,000 foreigners in Paris the period of a week
granted for their appearance will probably be ex-
tended.

The trial of the persons accused of being con-
cerned in the plot of Ager commenced on Wednes-
day before the Court of Assizes of the Lot-et-Garonne.
The accused arc defended by Jules Fevre, Cremieux,
Bac, and lkstours, whom the democrats of the loca-
lity have lodged in a sumptuous hoteL
It was reported to-day at the Palais de Justice
that the chansbre de tensed of the Tribunal of First
Instance had ordered an inquiry into the facts con-
nected with the recent strange hoax practised on
workmen, which I mentioned as having taken place
at the barriers of La Cuvette, Menil-Montant, and
Grenelle.

The appeal of MM. Gent, Ode, and Longomazino,
and others sentenced in the trial of the Lyons plot,
will come shortly before the criminal chamber of the
Court of Cessation. The appellants will be pleaded
for by M. Martin de Strasbourg and M. liardouin.
The public prosecutor of the Tribunal of Correc-
tional Police at Carpentras has appealed to the Court
of Appeal against the judgment of the tribunal iu
the case of hose Tamisier.
The provincial papers do not bear out the alarming
reports spread in Paris with regard to the reappear-
ance of the potato disease. On the contrary, the
crops are represented as sound and abundant.
The metallic reserve of the Bank of France has in-
creased 21 millions in Paris, and declined of a toil-
lion in the branch banks. The discount accounno-
dation shows a falling uff, both in Paris and in the
departments, of # a million in the former, and 31
millions in the latter. The whole amount of bills
discounted in Paris during the week has been
34,866,323 fr, and in the departments, 61,237,464 fr.
On the side of the liabilities, the notes in circulation
have decreased 4 j millions in Paris, and 31 millions
in the provinces. The account current of the trea-
sury has increased a trifle over 1 million, the present
amount being 126,417,2361 r. Private accounts cur-
rent have increased in Paris 4,; millions, and fallen
off in the departments 3 millions, the amount of the
former being 97,318.161 tr., and of the latter,
20,308,362 fr. The whole amount of the metallic re-
serve isat present 621 millions to 326; millions of
notes in circulation.

The Journal do Haut-Rhin states that the Rhine
has overflowed its banks, and by carrying away a
dyke caused great damage. Several villages near
the banks of the Rhine have been inundated, and
the crops destroyed. The ravages would have been
greater but for the prompt assistance given by the
soldiers of the garrison of Neuf-lirisach, who by their
exertion turned the course of the water again to the
bed of the Rhine.

The 22nd annual horticultural exhibition of Paris
was opened yesterday in the Orangery of the Louvre.
The display of flowers and fruit Is very remarkable,
and the locale is fitted up with great taste. In ad-
dition to fruit and flowers, rare plants and shrubs,
vegetables, and gardening utensils of the most varied
forms may be seen. There is also a great quantity
of articles connected with the ornamental part of
horticulture, such as vases, rustic seats, fountains,
&c. In one part of the orangery is collected together
the principal works which have appeared in France
since last year on agriculture, horticulture, and
pomology.