The Express.
London, England, 1865-12-28 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(nod ODS OWN

PARIS, WZDNISDLT Eviuntru.
I hear it conjectured that there may be some
connexion between the interdiction of the Ind -
pendance Belge in France and the dissatisfaction
felt in high quarters here with Leopolds IL's in-
auguratory speech. It was expected of him that
be would have assumed a more humble tone, have
spoken gratefully and with bated breath of the pa-
tronising telegram sent from Compiiigne, and have
abstained from giving himself the airs of an inde-
pendent and self-abstained power. Several of the
journals speak in praiseworthy terms of indigna-
tion of the measure taken against the indipendonee
Beige. The Opinion Nationale says :
It has been attempted to throw a part of the !uprood•
bility for this sot upon the French press, which has often
complained, we are told, that foreign journals enjoyed
privileges which it had not. We protest, in the name of
the French press. against any interpretatioe of this mt.
It sever entered the head of any journalist either is Peals
or the departments to ask for or to wish the interdicting a
any foreign newspapers. We may have instanced the pd.
WSW. they enjoy by way of argument for our own essanet-
settee, bet neither we nor oar contemporaries ever desind
to do ham to others rs • set cd b Ile harm dose to iv.

—.... __......
whT.chhelTemps, af
gave roiting
yesterday,
sat::: Pubtie's explanation \-.,
Singular doctrine ! Bat one calculated perhaps, after all,
to please certain demowain—equality without liberty.
Lead my neighbour with fetters such as lam oompelled to
wear. Such is the ideal of certain stern levellers, who hate
all privilege. Oar ideal is equality in liberty. The mea-
sure against the indlpendasce affects ourselves indirectly,
for it deprives us of one of our standing arguments for an
amelioration of our own position. Looked at from the
point of view of the public interest, which is more im-
portant than our own, and even es regards the interest of
I the government, the measure Is profoundly regrettable.
The public ie deprived of a source of information to whioh
it wan accustomed, and is a certain degree, which we do
not desire to (suggest/he, it will be astonished and annoyed
—ivpreesioos which It is not for the interest of the govern-

meat to provoke.
Even Senator de la Gueronniltre's journal, La
France, joins in the chorus. It says :
The independance Beige is • serious and honourable
organ of the European prem. and we hope that N. de Laa
valetto will promptly revers* an act of severity which does
sot seem to us conformable to oar tastes or the nature of
the moderato policy which he represent'.
The Espirante du Peupie of Nancy has received a
warning for having stated that the disurderein the
Paris schools were likely to spread to the provinces.
It is understood that the Superior Council of
Public Instruction has in the main confirmed the
decree of the Academy of Medicine against the six
students, but has somewhat modified the ground of
it, and held out a hope that the expulsion may not
be perpetual.
The Bourse has again been bad. Rente fell 22ic.
for cash and 211 c. for account, closing at 68fr. 67}c.
and 68fr. 20c. Mobilier fell Ur. 60c. Italian de-
10c.

SPAIN.

The Temps has the following remarks upon
Spain :
Many persons have been long accustomed, in Europa, to
judge of the state of the Spanish peninsula by that of its 011.
pital,and this tendency has naturally been encouraged by the
Madrid journals, as it lavoured their pretensions to repre-
sent the universality of the ideas and upiratious of the
country ; hence have arisen judgments the most super-
ficial and most erroneoes. In reality, Madrid exercises bat
• very limited influence oo the general movement of meo's
minds in the kingdom of Isabella 11. ; the provinces live
and act for themselves ;if in the course of the numerous
revolutions which have succeeded each other for nearly half
&century on the other aide of the Pyraees, the provinces
have once or twice accepted the initiative of Madrid, in
meet cases they have themselves taken the lead and made
the capital submit to their victorious reactions. At the pre-
sent moment angry father pervade the northers provinces
against the inefficient government of Madrid, and their
efeets were seen in the last elections. In Navarre, Maas-
tnizgo, and Upper Catalonia, they caused the return of the
representatives of the clerical party, closely united to the
Carlist faction, and aiming at nothing less than the over-
throw of the reigning dynasty. At Barcelona, • wealthy
and bustling town, the irritetion has given rise to a separa-
tist agitation, which is rapidly spreading, and has takes for
its device—administrative autonomy, complete emancipa-
tion from the bureaucratic yoke of the capital, immediate
reforms, and, ss an ultimate resource, it the central govern-
ment should refuse these changes, the refusal to pay
taxes. Arragoa, which has never forgotten its
old traditions of local independence, is also inclined
to follow the example of Catalonia. At the same time
the government organs have contradicted current reports
respecting a Carlist disturbance at Burgos and democratic
troubles at Malaga, from which it may fairly be inferred
tht aprthensioos had been entertained as to the state of
those two towns. If to all these symptoms, the intensity
of which is constantly ineressiug, be added the fact that the
Fragment party, which took no part in the elections, is
daily assuming a more threatening attitude ; that the
Moderate party, properly so called, has declared an 101-
placable war on the men now io power ; that the intrigues
of the palace and the confessional are at work more
actively than ever ; that the army is reported to be
disaffected ; and that, according to rumours in circa.
lation, there have lately been in its ranks attempted
pronunciamentos, which were secretly put down ; if we add
further that the Spanish treasury is well nigh empty, and
that what little money it with great difficulty collects is
immediately absorbed by that absurd expedition against
Chili, we may well ask, without too much pessimism, and
although Spaio, the land of *menses, has already often
falsified the anticipations of the most cleu-sighted ob-
servers, whether the O'Donnell ministry will be able to
hold its groui.d amidst all those elements of dissolution
combined against it, and it is possible fall may not be the
signal for graver events. At this ment all eyes is
meet,
the
peninsula are fixed on the (*ogres sohich is about to
and everything depends on the attitude of that assembly,in
which, perhaps to its misfortune, as we have already said,
the government of the Duke de Tetuan will have so over-
whelming a majority.