The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-26 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY EVENING.

M. Buffet, Minister of Agriculture and commerce,
is appointed to the Ministry• of Public Works, ad in-
trrim, during the absence of M. Magee.
Six thousand extraordinary numbers of the Patric,
containing M. Delamarre's article, have been printed
for distribution in the provinces.
_ _ _

The friends of the Orleans family who intend to
be present at the religious celebration of the anniver-
sary of Louis Philippe's death, are on their way to
London. MM. de Montalivet, do Montebello, Comet,
Duchatel, de Salvundy, d'lluudetot,Cuvillier-Fleury,
and General Friunt are among the distinguished
personages who will take part in the mournful cere-
monial. It is probable that the motive for fixing
•ppoun London as the place of meeting instead of
(Unmeant, as was ut first proposed, is to avoid the
necessity of inviting the visitors to the palace after
the mass. Under present circumstances the family
desire to speak as little as possible on the subject of
the Prince de Juinville, and shrink from affording
their devoted but toe curious adherents the oppor-
tunity for a political conversation.
M.Thiers is expected in Paris on the sth of Sep-
tember. when he will doubtless assume the direction
of theJoinville party.
The councils of

it have now closed

their sessions, and the result of their deliberations on
the revision question has sadly disappointed the
El sic. The reports differ as to the exact number
of councils that have expressed an opinion on the
subject. According to M. E. de Girardin, who pub-
lished a list, to the accuracy of which I have seen
no authentic contradiction, only 140 out of the 361
have pronounced in favour of revision. On
the other hand. the utmost claimed by the partisans
of government is 187, a number exceeding only by
five the half of the whole. This lamentable fulling
off from the nearly unanimous demonstration pm-
dieted. augurs ill eur the success of the campaign
which commences this day in the councils-genera.
The ministerial journals account for the compare•
tively small number of the councils of arrondissement
who have recorded their opinion, by suggesting that
I many of them entertained doubts whether revision
was a matter within their competence, and therefore
thought it better to abstain from discussing it. These
idonlas are exceedingly well founded—or to speak
more correctly, it is beyond all doubt, that in strict-
' ness of law, neither the councils of arrondissement
nor the councils-general—which in this respect stand
precisely on the same footing--are competent to ca-
pers* any opinion upon a general, as distinguished
from a focal. political question. The executive go-
vernment has the power of annulling any de-
liberation of these councils upon a matter not
within their powers. What these powers are pre-
ris•ly is somewhat vague. and depends principally
I on die construction of two articles of a law of the
'22nd of June, 1833. The first of thew, Article 14,

enacts, " That every act and every deliberation of a
council-general relative to matters not legally ,
within its attributes is void and of non- i
effect." The second. which is the only enabling clause !
under cover of which political questions have in fact
been frequently discussed in the councils, is Art. 7,1
, whereby " The council-general mar, through its pre- 1
sident, address any demands which it may have to
I present in the special interest of its department I
directly to the minister charged with the depart-
' mental administration." Here the line is not very I
clearly drawn, because it is very possible that a
question of general political interest may also in an :
especial manner concern the particular interest of the'
department. Accordingly, although during Louis
Philippe's reign very many instances occur
of resolutions of the councils being set aside
as political, yet of late scars the law fell
iu a great measure into tfisuctude. The op-
position encouraged the councils to express their
opinion upon parliamentary reform. The govern-
ment connived at this, and in their turn sought
for support in the opinions of the councils-general
upon other political subjects. Thus a tacit under-
standing has lung existed by virtue of which tha