The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-20 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, WEDNT.3IOI:f EVENING.
Fourteen of the fifteen bureaux have completed
their elections of members of the committee on the
Municipal Bill. Out of the 28 elected 17 are hostile
to the bill. There is, however, a great difference,
in the amount as well as in the kind of hostility
evinced by these 17, some of whom desire only modt-
ifications of minor importance, while others are for
abolishing the electoral law of May, and making all
I the mayors elective by the COMMUM s,WithOlit allow-
' ing the government the right of investiture.
fhe following are the members of the committee
on the municipal law who have been appointed:
Ist Bureau, MM. de Lasteyrie and EmmanuelArago,
against. 2nd. M. de Cronseiles for, M. de Lamy
against. 3rd. Prosper dc Chasseloup-Lauhat against,
Monet for. 4th. MM. Hem-tier and ltouher for.
sth. MM. Moulin and Mcluu for. 6th. Chum-
ranhet for, M. Dcsrotours de Chanlicu against.
th. M. de Broglie for, General Lamoriciere
against. Bth. MM. Favreau and Fa Bonnet against.
9th. MM. Betty de Lancastel and Frichon against.
10th. Lemayrac against, Dufour for. 11th. MM.
de Laboulie and Vatemesnil against. 12th. MM.
Michel de &urges and Savoze against. The
13th had not, at half-post five, completed its election.
14th. MM. Odilon Barret and ])enjoy for. hith.
Vernhette against, Grimault for. This gives a ma-
jority of 17 out of 28 members of the committee
already chosen against the bill, and hence a majority
out of the 30 forming the entire committee.
' The following were the most important speeches
in the debate which took place:

M. LEON FAVCIIER said that the bill pushed deeentr.di-
cation to the extreme limit admissible iu France. Many on
this occasion had attributed the superiority of England to
the independence of her municipal institutions. In Eng-
land, however, there was nothing which resembled even
remotely the French rural communes. Let them not prop
the cause of decentralisation en the example of England,
where every innovation had, on the contrary, a centralising
tendency. The municipal liberties of England dated from
the reform of Is3l, which abolished the abuses of the old
corporations. It was only since that epoch that the cities
had ceased to be exploited by a burgess aristocracy, and
been freely administered by an elective government. But
in tho rural districts nothing of the kind existed. The au-
. . .

thority charged with ordering the police, with maintaining
public order, and executing the laws was neither communal
nor of the parish. It was the sheriff and the justices of the
mace, both delegates of the central power, and appointed
by it. The parishes since 1831 had not even the adminis-
tration of relief for the pour, which was concentrated under
the direction of a sort of cantonal committee. Centralisation,
so much cried down in France. notwithstanding the ser-
vices it hail rendered, made rapid progress in Great Ittitain,
where each step towards good administration was marked
by the abandonment of some local privilege. lied
they had not just seen the torn"' themscii :Is demanding the
translation of a part of the burdens of the counties to the
public treasury. The fact was, that in England the long
practice of ryprcwntative government had imbued the
people with a taste for political life; whereas in France not one
eloctive function in ten of the many created by the Repub-
lic was exercised. Ile wss extremely surmised to hear
' many, who had voted the electoral law of May, now turn
against it. It was clear that the same electoral list which
served for choosing representatives in the Assembly ought
to apply to the municipal elections, because the principle of
a fixed domicile was at the bottom of both. As to the no-
mination of mayors, the system of their appointment by the
government had prevailed from 1831 to 1.818. and since 1818
the elect:ve system. The results of the first system had
been excellent; those of the second deplorable. Half the
embrimisaments of the government proceeded from the in-
subordination of the mayors elected in the rural communes.
As to the attributions of the municipal councils, the
bill gave these the freest scope possible, and only re-
served fur the government a right of control and
surveillance in matters of taxation. To destroy this con-
trol. which was the object of a consideraliV party, would
make a swarm of petty republics, without cirri a federal
government to bind them together. In that ease, their
municipal law would lie:gis ing civic rights to anarchy.
General Lamont et EatE.—Two kinds of principles arc the
h is," of the projects we are now considering—the organisa-
tion of communial interests, and the administrative func-
tions. The municipall couucils have three species of func-
tions—they decide, the y deliberate, and give advice. The
projects of law regulate appropriately thew• three points.
the meetings of the communal and cantonal councils must
not be public; but it should be otherwise of the meetings
of the councils-general and the councils of the prefts.ture.
The projects of law confer on the councils-general these
three kinds of functions—it is a happy Moto ation. The
cantonal councils are a good institution ; they will grow with
time ; they agree with opinions which it is easy to point out.
The sub-prefects must be 'continued as instruments of ad-
ministration; they will assist the operations of the cantonal
councils. The guarantees required from councillors of the pre-
fecture are too general and too vane; they should be made
more important if the presentation of the Council General
should also be required. The new regulation of the Cum-
Huns of the councils of the prtecture is a wise measure, as
is also the defining them more precisely. The Article 8 may
he objected to. The title of citizen is the relation of any one
to the city. The communal right is thus emir. 111 l idea with
the political right, lint it is it- leeie. NVe should, then, begin ,
by organising the municipal electorate. Thy registry of
citizens admitted would be sufficient. Each one should be
inserihyd by three different titles: first as having been born
in the commune in which he resides; then, after haying
quitted it, us having again come, to reside iu it. To be so
inscribed, a certain domicile should be necessary. And last,
so, being a stranger to the commune, basing comae to r•main
in it; and for this a longer term of msidence sl Id be
retmilvd. Universal suffrage may sure the country, localise
it is a principle in which the people have confidence ; the
elections of the Constituante are a proof of this. I require,
then, that the part which constitutes the electoral body
should he made the subject of a separate law. For the
nomination of mayors the present system is good ; it works
well, and seldom exhibits its imperfeetioas by the necessity
of revoking the mayors.
M. °MON DAKUOT rose to reply to the interpellations
addressed to him as to the part he had taken in the crustiest
of the cantonal councils. The misfortune of all slur con-'
stitutions (said he) is, that instead of profiting by the actual
power of the country and relying on it, we MOTs' frequently'!
hitherto have created artificial powers. What, then, has
happened? Frequent commotion', at each of which these
powers vanish like smoke. Su much melancholy experience
should at least be of some use to us. Our country offers
this grievous singularity-, that instead of those populous eons-
mune* which are found, for instance, in ancient Flanders
and the Unite.' States of America 29,000 of these communes
out of that is, more than three-Murals, have not a
population of 1,000. This thinness of population of our
communes has been a great obquele to the development of
the commercial spirit in our country. Now what is the
remedy ? Is it by mating some artificial power, or by
maintaining that which exists ?
In your correspondence from Constantinople. your
attention was lately drawn to the efforts of French
diplomacy to undermine, by acting at head-quarters
upon the Sultan and his ministers, the influence
which England is acquiring gradually in Egypt by-
Cairo becoming a thoroughfare to her Indian posses-
sions. It seems highly probable that the quarrel which
blazed out between Prance and England in 1810 may
be repeated in 1931, unless the government of Louis-
Napoleon be firm enough to resist the itch of France
to foment in the Egyptian government rebellious
tendencies against the suzerainty of the Porte.
The naval returns of England- suggested some re-
marks on the state of screw-steamers in France. It
may lie remembered that in France the first serious
attempts at screw navigation were made on board
the Napoleon, in 1543, by the zeal of the post-office
administration and they proved the value and Mi-
-1 penance of the new invention. Eight years have'
since elapsed, and would have beensufficient to create
a sufficient body of screw-vessels. And yet, if from
the list of screw-vessels he excepted some petty
advice-boats, of 120 horse-power, useful at most tocarry
a letter, and two or three won vessels, quite unfit fo'r
fighting, it will be found that French war-vessels
with screw-power are reduced to the Pomone frigate,
of 116 guns, and 220 horse-power, the machinery of
which was made by M. Mazeline, of Havre ; and the
Isly frigate, of 24 guns, the machinery of which,
made by M. Cave, has not been yet received. The
Charlemagne will be the only French screw-ship-of-
the-line fit to be at full work this year. As to the
Napoleon, the Austerlitz, and Jean Bart, the period
of their being fitted out cannot be foreseen. The
Committee of Naval Inquiry has been much occu-
pied with the question.
The Mimiteur contains an official contradiction,
given by the director of the National Discount Bank,
to the report that the Bank of France had refused to
advance to that establishment two millions of francs
on railway securities.
The funds recovered to-day. some firmness. The
Fives closed of 96.63, with a nse of 20 centimes on
yesterday.

THE NAPIITIIA EXPIA),ION AT SALFORD.--Jona-
than Lowe, the joiner, who was severely burnt by the
naphtha during the tire as hieh took place on the preadsel of
31r. S. White, Springfield-lane, Salford, last Fnday morn-
ing, and who was removed to the Manchester Royal Infir-
mary, died there the same evening. An inquest was held
upon his body before the borough coroner, on Saturday,
awl the same witnesses having been examined as were
examined before Mr. Rutter, on the inquest upon the body
of Mr. Hodgetts, the jury returned a verdict of "Am-
dental death." William Cliffe, the other man who was
burnt upon the same occasion, is still lying at the Infirmary
in a very precarious condition, inflammation having taken
place ; and but little hope is entertained of his recovery.—
Manchester Guardian.