The Express.
London, England, 1862-03-25 00:00:00

OUTWARD BOMBAY MAIL.

The Indus, from Southampton on the 12th inst.,
arrived at Malta on the 22nd at noon, and left at
8 p.m. the same day for Alexandria.
The Vent* from Marseilles on the 20th inst.,
reached Malta on the 23rd at 1 a.m., and left at 7
a.m. for Alexandria.

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN SPAIN.

The Clamor Public., of Madrid has the following

Do. Miami Matastens. Du. amyl Albania, and Dn.
Niguel Trig% congaed in the pima of Granada on an
scetuation et having offended spinet religion, have just
beat condemned to eleven yaw of penal servitude.
The same lot has been awarded to Kern. Vasquez,
Lismits, and Nemo Reboil*, with the only &thrones that
their captivity is to be shorter by two years.
We frankly cadets that so clog a sentence has made a
profound isipootsion spits us, because it inflicts a wound
and injury on man whose offence contista in profaning a
Geed differing from that of the established religion. We
are well aware that the penal code in this instance, con-
tainable with the ancient l►ws of the kingdom, prescribes
the penalty of the meversit imprisonment (prisiori mayor)
on theft who endeavour to ►bolish or alter, directly or indi-
rectly, in Spain, the Raman catholic apostolic religion.
But it does seem to us that, looking at the spirit of the
age, and the tolerance which, in matters of faith, all the
governments of the world are showing, we could and oullit
to display lees rigour against those who, in their relations
with divinity, practise other wormhip under the belief, how-
ever mistaken, that heaven will thus be open to them.

And oar @off° w is increased when we consider what
would become of oorselves—ardent and sincere csdholics

u we are—if in other counts:es where fortune or midor-
tune should oblige us to reside, we were treated like the
unfortunate peewee who are groaning in Moe prison, d
Granada. For is it not a eoutradiction that the Spaniards
residing in England, France, Germany, mad IMO is Mr
roono, are able to worship the God of their fathers se their
heart and conscieoos dictate, although the dominant wor-
ship is &Hermit from ours ? while here, them who do not
conform to the established religion are persecuted, prose-
cuted, condemned, and martyred. Is it juit, is it credit-
able to us, that the fanatical seetaiies of the Kona should
' give us lessons of tolerance? What should we say if, ou
the plea of reprisals, our brethren living in protestant
countries were condemned to renounce their religion under
pain of being punished for exercising it with the brand of
the reprobate and the chain of the convict?
Christian charity, that charity which our Divine Muter
taught us, advises us to compassionate those who have their
eyes shut against the light of truth, and that we should
endeavour to regenerate them not with punishment, which
tortures and humiliates, but by means of example and per-
suade°, which may command the understanding. We
should be very glad if the government, appreciating these
brief observations with the intelligent spirit of the age,
and seeing in them no more than the frank and loyal ex-
pression of good intentions, should advise the crow, to
make use in this case of the most beautiful of its promo-
tires, and temper with pardon and clemency the inexorable
rigour of justice.

The Emperor and Empress of the French visited
the Italian Theatre on Saturday evening, to witness the
opera of Polish).
The Empress Eugenie intends, it is said, to take
up her residence at the end at the spring at the baths of
St. Sauvenr, in the Pyrineea. . .

The Count de Flandre completed hie 25th year
on Sunday, having been born on the 23rd of March, 1837.
The Duke de Brabant will complete his 27th year on the
9th of April next.
The Prince of Hohenzollern and family made an
excursion from Hyhve to Toulon three days back, for the
purpose of seeing the arsenal and other establishments of
the port. Ths boats of the Maritime Prefect were placed
at the disposal of the visitors, among whom were the In-
fanta of Portugal, wife of the young Prinoe of Hohen-
zollern, and the Princess of Hohenzollern, recently be-
trothed to the King of Portugal.

In the Belgian Chamber of Representatives the
other day M. Doley proposed to grant certain indirect In-
demnities to the reprematstives. One was that they should
each have a card with a photographic portrait, which would
give them a right to a free passage on all the railways in the
country. The proposition was not pressed to a vote.
The French Minister of State has decided that
a marble bust of M. Hillery shall be placed in the great hall
of the Institute, between those of Meted and Greer,.
The steamer Chester arrived yesterday in the
at. Katherine's Docks with about 200 toss of Ronan goods,
&e., far the international Exhibition, consigned to Messrs.
J. and R. M'emoken; and 100 tons from Lisbon), Naples,

and Cagliari, to the Italian oommiesionen. The Hatton
Obaytor, soother of ?deem. Griffiths, Tate, and Fisher's
Italian line of steamers, is now on her way home with shout
500 tons more for the same destination.
• •

The following were the Customs quarterly re-
turns of the ports io New Zeeland, aoomau to the hat
wirier, els. :—Auekland, 21,3191. ; Welliagtott, 8,7904 ;
New Plymouth„ 1,5641; Napier, 9.2931. ; Nelson, 5,806/, ;
Edon. 2021. ; Lyttletoe, 9.5781. ; Dawdle, 13,7641. ; Luse.
tearell. 1,173/. ; total, 66,6341. The oorreepoudiug quarter
In 18M the total was 45,789/. The e. irks for the Maul-
ers quitter, 1861, amounted to 130,0001 ; lo the correspond.
lag quarter la 1860 they amounted to 40,7851. only.

EXPRESS FROM PJ

SINGULAR TRIAL-ENGLISH LADIES
AND "DISTINGUISHED FOREIGNERS."

(MN 01Th OWN

PAWS, MOYDAY Enamel].
A trial of remarkable interest—and one parti-
cularly interesting to English ladies with a penchant
for foreign alliances—took place on March 21, be-
fore the Imperial Court of Paris, presided by the
First President, Devienne. In April, 1857, Miss
Clementine Thompson, an English lady, aged 20,
was married in England to a French gentleman,
calling himself Jean Joseph, Prince de Rebell de
Nil* de Totirondel, aged 68, since deceased. The
witnesses of the marriage were Lord Clarendon,
Lord and Lady Palmerston, and several

other persons of high rank. The husband
died a week after the marriage, and, as
it is alleged, in a galloping consumption.
A son was, however, born in Paris eight months
after the marriage, and this eon was registered in
' his father's names, at the Mairie of the 10th arron-
dissement. The widow, ever since 1857, has called
herself the Princess de Robin, and her infant son
the Prince de Rohan. In February, 1858, the
Prince de Camille de Rohan cited Madame de
Robin de Fdnis before the civil tribunal of the
Seine, to show cause why she should not be for-
bidden to bear the name of Robin. Madame de
Bohan de Fats pleaded that the prince, being
an Austrian subject, could not appeal to the
French tribunals on the matter ; but the objection

was over-ruled, the cause was tried, and the
tribunal gave • judgment prohibiting Madame de
Bohan de Nob; and her son from bearing the name
of Ronan, and ordering that the registration of the
child should be rectified. From that judgment the
lady appealed.
The appeal cause being heard before K Devi-
enne and other judges, K Berryer, for the widow,
argued, as a preliminary objection, that being an
Englishwoman the court had no jurisdiction over
her. This demurrer was, however, over-ruled by
the court, on the ground that although the code
lays it down that a French woman marrying a
foreigner only loam her nationality during the
marriage, the converse proposition does not hold,
and that a foreign woman marrying a Frenchman
is, in the view of the French tribunals, a French
woman, even when a widow. This interesting
point of international jurisprudence is, I be-
lieve, decided for the first time. Upon the
merits of the case M. Berryer was not
furnished with any positive evidence even to show
that his client's husband was a Bohan, much leas
that he war a prince. He stated, in • general way,
that for two generations the Chateau of Tourandel
had been inhabited by the ancestors of his client's
husband, Counts de Fdnis and Marquises of Tour-
angel, who, he alleged, were a younger branch of
the house of Bohan, and had fallen into poverty.
Bat his great card, and one which, if it had not

, .
been discredited by the judgment of the court,
would certainly weigh greatly in the controversy,
was a letter, which be read, addressed by
Charles L's Minister of State to the individual
who is now judicially branded as an intriguer and
an impostor.
On November 11, 1828, Baron de La Bouillerie
. _

wrote to the deceased husband of the defendant the
following letter :
The Baron de La Bouillerie, peer of Frame, minister of state,
intendant-general of the King's household, has the honour
to over the smurance of his most distinguished considera-
tion to the Count de Toorendel-Ventadour, and to inform
him that, oonformably to his desire, he has had the honour
of laying before the King his title of marquis, which his
Majesty has condescended to examine attentively, and which
appears to him to be most honourable. In ooneequence,
and in obedience to the King's orders, the Baron de La
Bonniest, returns the papers, at the same time win-
ing the count, on the part of his Majesty, that
his titles have no need to be renewed, seeing that they are
hereditary and perpetual, and that he could not have better.
His Majesty orders him further to assure the Count de
Tourondel-Ventadour that the title of marquis most
inoontestably belongs to him, and that he has a right to the
title of Duke de Rohan and de Ventadour, as being the
head of the younger bran& of that house, and he may
therefore use that title without authorisation. The Baron
de 1411 Bona leri e congratulates himself upon having been
able to do anything agreeable to the Count de Tourendel-
Ventadoer.

M. Lepecq, counsel for Prince Camille de Rohan,
described the deceased husband of the defendant
in terms that no one would suppose applicable to
the flattered correspondent'of Charles X.'s Ministes
of State, and the man who was recognised by that
monarch as Count de Tourondel-Ventadour, Mar-
quis of something else, and Duke de Rohan. IL
Lepecq said :
H. Ferris de Tourondel, when he went to England, had
no other name, and he then for the first time got the name
of Rohan inserted in his passport. At that time M. Pais
was " wanted" by the public prosecutor, who amused him
of a serious misdemeanour, namely, that of being a member,
if not the head, of a society formed for the purpose of
fabricating false and imaginary foreign orders. The result
of the trial was that M. Pais aline Rohan's accomplices were
found guilty, and hehimeelf only escaped for the very sufficient
reason that he died first. In January, 1870 i, Prince
Camille de Rohan received front his cousin, Prince de
Rohen Chabot, a letter in which the fact, of the usurpa-
tion of the name of Rohan by IL Paula were set forth in
the several instances of his passport, his marriage certifi-
cate in England, and the "act of birth" of his son
inscribed in the civil register in Paris. M. de Robin
Chabot, in stigmatising these facia, added, "If M. Pia.'
had presumed to take the name of Rohan Chabot 1 should
have sent him a writ directly ; it is not to be endured
that any impostor should be allowed to assume a name of
which there are many existing heirs." The fact is that M.
INnia fled to Jersey to escape the researches of the police.
There he assumed the earns of Rohan and lived upon
charity, which he received from the catholic chapels
of the island. Unfortunately for himself he con-
ceived the idea of setting up in his old business
of selling titles of nobility. An action was brought against
him on this account, and he got in such bad odour in the
Isle of Jersey that he was fain to leave it and go to London.
He was then 68 years old, and in a frightful state of misery
and disease. Nevertheless Miss Thompson, although only
20 yeas old, was dazzled by the name of Rohan, and not-
withstanding all the true information which she received,
consented to marry him. The marriage lasted xi: days,
from A pril27 to May 4, 1857. On the latter day the btu-
band died of a malady which is described in the registrar's
certificate as "prolonged consumption." Miss Thompson,
therefore, married a man at the point of death. 14•8111141-
len she became enceinte, sad was confined in Paris of a son
exactly eight months after the marriage, the premature
confinement being attributed to an accident.
Here the advocate was stopped by the First Pre-
sident, Derienne, the court being with him.
The Appeal Court, confirming the judgment of
the court below, held that Madame de F‘nis (nee
Thompson) had no right either to the title of prin-
cess or the name of Bohan, and restrained her from
using them. This is a terrible lesson to ladies who
aspire to marry distinguished foreigners.
There was a panic at the close of the Bourse for
which I have heard no other explanation than a
rumour of the death of the Pope. The Rents, diet
' rising from 70fr.bc. to 70fr. 15c., closed at 69fr.80e.,
with a fall of 36c. from the highest point of the
day and of 25e. from yesterday. The Four-and-a-
Half per Cents. fell 60c. Mobilier fell 2fr. 50c.,
and the Italian Loan 15c. Railways, though at
one time weak, in sympathy with the Rente, ulti-
mately recovered, and several lines left off from
2fr. 50c. to Mr. higher.

The Emperor's speech had little effect one way
or another. Although he does not specifically pro-
mise the withdrawal of the new taxes on salt and

-
sugar,--his statement that all financial questions
will be settled by "common accord in a spirit of
conciliation," is very generally understood as imply-
ing that these obnoxious imposts will be aban-
doned.