The Express.
London, England, 1862-03-01 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPEROR

AND THE catadszits.

Irsom on OWN

PARIS, FRIDAY EVINING.
I have never, since the establishment of the em-
pire, had to report a domestic event of such im-
portance as that of to-day. The committee of the
Corps Legislatif upon Count Palikao's dotation
bill has—in spite of the Emperor's most ill-advised
but most peremptory letter, putting himself in

direct collision with the commons house upon a

matter of money—reported against the measure.
The following is the substantial part of the report
of Baron de Jouvenel, the reporter of the cum-

mitres :

----- -
The peopled is to grant to General Cousin-Montaubat.,
Count de Palikao, an annual and perpetual dotation of
50,0001 r. Most assuredly the army cannot doubt either
your gratitude or your sympathies ; the army can-
not have forgotten the laws which you unanimously
voted on April 26. 1853, to augment the pensions of non-
sommissioned officers and soldiers; on April 26, 1856, to
augment the pensions of the widows of soldiers killed on
the field of battle ; on June 19, 1837, to increase the pay
of officers of the army and navy ; and on June 26, 1861, to
augment the scale of retiring pensions for both services.
Your committee, in presence of such facts, could not be
otherwise than well assured that it was reflecting your
wishes in spurning all parsimonious ideas unworthy of such
• nation as ours, and also unworthy of a great assembly
which has the strongest feeling in favour of every liberality
which can be justified by great service" rendered to
the country. But your committee found itself in the
present case 1t presence of • totally &Hemet
order of ideas ; it could not forget that you are
the guardians of the principles of our public law, and
that in this place you are compelled to submit the most
generous considerations to the authority of the law. Now,
what says our legislation on this head T Why, that the crea-
don of tnajonats (perpetually entailed property) is abso-
lutely prohibited. It is in the face of this interdiction,
deriving its source from the constituent principles of cur
new society, that the committee finds itself placed. It has
nothieg to do with the motives which may have actuated
the legislature in 1835 and 1849. But looking at the mat-
ter with the same sentiments which it serums to have
predominated in the Corp. Legislatif of 1857, when • grand
act of national munificence was sanctioned, your committee
had to ask itself whether the circumstances of the present care
are of that exceptional nature which is indispensable in or-
der to warrant such • departure from principle ; and especially
whether, in the present financial state of the country,
these circumstances are such as to justify • perpetual charge
upon the public debt of a character only to be found in
dotations of another epoch, and which, moreover, were
furnished mainly by territories conquered by our arms. It
has appeared to us, gentlemen, that, in order to conquer our
repugnance to such a measure, other conditions were impe-
ratively necessary. It should have been shown to us that
the crown had exhausted all the favours and dignities
which it has the power to confer, that the !sove-
reign authority, acting within legal limits, shor'd
have been in some tort impotent to give any
reward in a regular w►y, adequate to the greatness of the
service rendered. But this is not the case in the present
instance. The executive power has not gone so far as it
might have done without our aid, and that is a reason why
we do not think it right to break down the barrio's of
legality. Your committee, coming to higher considera-
tions, has inquired whether such a measure as now proposed
is not dangerous in another point of view. "Honour,"
lays Montesquieu, " is the principle of monarchical govern-
ment, and the treasury of honour ought to supplant other
!centuries." Let us means, this truly French doctrine in
our government. If the special character of certain
nations have enabled them to show us rivals in
material interests which we should endeavour to equal, if
not to surpass—let us regard with pride, and at the same
time with a resolution to show ourselves worthy of it, the
inheritance of grandeur and glory bequeathed to us by the
bravery and disinterestedness of cur armies. Let us
beware of adding the bad of pecuniary rewards to those
grades and titles which attract respect and popularity
when they have a noble origin and are nobly borne. Let
us fear to corrupt the principle of those chivalrous senti-
ments which at every period of your history have engen-
dered the most heroic virtues. Lot us not expose our
country to Woe, perhaps, its enthusiasm for military glory
when it sees that our annals grow rich only at the
expense of our budgets. If we pursued such a coons
we might, so to speak, decapitate our contemporary glory
by depriving it of that popularity which is its first and
great reward. Let us remember our ancestors, who at
Detain and Fontenoy marched heroically into the jaws of
death only to deserve the ayes of St. Louis. Let us re-
member our fathers who accomplished those immense
prodigies, those methodic@ of the republic, for a sword
of honour. Let us look around us, and endeavour to
count up the splendid actions, the chefs crwuvre of art,
the conquests of science, which have been rewarded
oaly with the ribbon of the Legion of Honour. While
proposing to you a resolution which we are prompted to
take by the highest motives, your committee feels •
profound and painful emotion. The Corps Legislatif will
share this sentiment in separating itself ou one point from
the wishes of the Emperor, almost on the day after the
ever generous confidence of the sovereign has restored to
us many of our most essential prerogatives ; but on • ques-
tion like this, which involves fundamental principle', with-
out touching any necessity of imperial policy, we have
thought that the independence of our language would be
the beet proof of the sincerity of our devotedness. The
accomplishment of our duty is the more easy, because your
committee, having been named by 182 votes against 34,
canaot have ►he least doubt that it faithfully interprets the
feelings of the assembly at large. On these grounds your
committee propose that the bill be rejected.
Let me record here my belief that the above do-
cument will stand in history as one of the most
important in the first decade of the second empire.
The above report, the rumour of which early
reached the Bourse, produced • disastrous effect
upon quotations. The Rente, after violent fluctua-
tions, closed at 70fr. 400. for cash, and 70fr. 65c.
for account, with • fall of Egk. and 36c. sfobilier
fell 16fr. 25c. In railways most of the lines were
15fr. lower.