The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-25 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, 6KreansY Evissiso.
The partisans of the l'rinee deloinville are netively
sounding the opinions of the friends of the hewn tr(
Orleans. The le.gitimists affect not to believe thatlis'
is • candidate for the presidency, and declare
thit
they will credit no evidence of the fact short of the'
iZe's own signature. I believe thi4 . will not lhel
wanting when the time shall bee adged ripe.
A sketch has already appeared of a manifesto said to
be now in the possession of the prince's friends in
Paris, who have carte blanche to make it public when
they may see fit. • In this manifesto the prince will
allude to the conduct of himself and the Dabs I
d'Aumale immediately after the revolution QC
,February, when they were at the head al
a fleet, and of an army of 100,000 men,--1
a force quite sufficient to attempt the re establish. '
ment of the throne ; but which they unhesitatingly
placed at the disposal of the provisional government,
out of their respect fur the national sovereignty. It
is well known that the Prince de Joinvil e often dis-
sented from Louis Philippe's policy, and it is believed
that, consistently with the delicacy due to the me-
nu-ire of a father, he will adroitly claim the benefit
of the political opinions of his youth.
In the month of July, Paris was visited by 8,380
foreigner-, besides those who came for a shisrt time
by pleasure trains. Of this number there were 2,516
English, 828 Americans, :737 Spaniards, 417 Italians,
393 Germans, 219 Austrians, 76 Badese, 131 Ba-
varians, 636 Belgians, 28 Bohemians, 9 Brazilians,
6 Africans, 81 Danes, 136 Scotch, 116 Irish, 1 Egyp-
tian, :13 Greeks, 12 Haitians. 26 Hanoverian", itti
Dutch, 4'4 Hungarians, 30 Neapolitans. 42 Nor-
wegians, 189 Piedmontese, 114 Poles, 64 Portuguese,
350 Primal's, 209 Russians, 81 Sardinians, 118
Savovardo, 70 Saxons, 6- Swedes, 442 Swiss, 72
Turks, and 70 Wurtembergers.
The notorious murderer, the cure Gothland, nearly
effected his escape from the galleys at ltochfort the
other day. lie hod contrived to possess himself of a
priest's costume, and was discovered before he had
quite finished dressing.
SCNDAY Evexixo.
For several days past it has been whispered that
M. Delamarre, the honker, and the chief proprietor
of the Patric, was laboriously preparing an article
in which he would throw an entirely new light upon
the great question of revision, and develops the'
practical details of a plan for reconciling the hopes
of the Elysean revisionists with the strictest ob-
servance of legality and the constitution. The semi-
()tibial character of the Patric, and the known zeal
of M. Delamarre in the service of the }desk., have
caused the advent of this article to be looke7d forward
to with very great curiosity. The article has now
appeared, and so far forth as furnishing matter for
newspaper controversy it will doubtless not fall short
of the effect anticipated. It treats of the most
momentous questions of the day in a confident, bold,
novel, but, I must add, ridiculous manner, which
would indeed be important if it could be supposed
to speak as the precursor of a preiect seriously con-
ceived by the executive power. For the credit of
the government, however. it is to be hoped that M.
Delnmarre is perfect lc candid in the earnest assurances
which he ;,-Les that they are not responsible for the
product of his own proeanid and independent medi-
tations. 11e protests that he is under no obligations
to any of the men now in any way whatever at the
headof affitirs, whilst MI the contrary the govern-
ment has twelves' signal services from him. He
declares—and it may lie worth while to notice the
precise words of this declaration, which are in italics
in the original -that the ideas which lie now pub-
, fishes have not layn communicated by him to any
MIIIIII4I. yr the yorrmard. M. Immure starts
from this pustulate —that, in spite of all efforts to
break the phalanx of the legal minority of 275, they
will remain inflexible, and that the revision will be
no farther advanced in November next than it was
ut the end of the recent debate. The next link in
the chain of his reasoning is that the constitution is
impracticable, to enforce which he uses at great
length the urguments which are now familiar. To
show the necessity that a solution of the difficulty
should lie found, he enters into widely discursive con-
siderations. founded upon the population of England,
Austria, and Russia, as compared with France, and
upon the state of education in Prussia. After having
stated the general and permanent objections to the
constitution, he alludes to the specific inconvenience
and danger which would ensue in 14432, if the con-
. stitutioind regulations for electing a new assembly
end a new president were to be strictly fol-
lowed. The powers of Louis Napoleon will ex-
pire on the second Sunday in May, and on
the same day a new president will be elected. But
this new president cannot exercise his functions until
the Assembly shall have scrutinised the votes, and
declared him duly elected. Some days must neces-
sarily elapse before the returns could be received
from all parts of France, and during that time their
would be an interregnum in the presidency. The only
power in the state would be an expiring Assembly,
whose own existence would expire on May 28th.
This dying Assembly would have to struggle with the
difficulty of Louis Napoleon unconstitutionally elected
by an ininiense majority--a premise which SL. Dela-
marry takes to be indisputable—and, further, sup-
posing them to dime the election of Louis Napoleon
invalid, they would be reduced to the alternative of
adopting a socialist president, or of provoking a re-
volution, by selecting one front among the candidates
lower dour on the poll. For M. Delamarre assumes
that, next to Louis Napoleon, a socialist would have
the. most votes, though not the two millions of votes
which would relieve the Assembly from the duty of
a selection. M Ihlamarre dues not feel free to
speak his whole mind as to the consequences
that would ensue front this state of things ; hr
contents 1 elf with ravening that some-
thing would take place which would be a fatal blow
to liberty. It is. I believe., correctly stated, that
owing to a lamentable ni o.s etaisses in the constitu-
tion, the interregnum in the liresidency above men-
tioned must take place. But, incredible as it may
appear, the legal remedy for the evil which M. 1)e-
-''enemy has discovered and brought forward with so
much parade, is no remedy at all; for, supposing it
adopted. Louis Napoleon would still be ineligible—
his powers would still expire on the second Sunday
in May, 1552, and there. would still necessarily be
an interval of some days before the election of his
successor could,be verified. The main feature of the
great scheme is, that the elections for the next As-
sembly should take place at the beginning of De-
eember next. "Take place," is the expression used,
although it subsequently appears that the elections
are to last six weeks. 'ln order to prevent the dis-
franchised of the law of the 31st of May from coming
to the poll, it is proteeed to divide France into mili-
tary districts. in such a manner that the elections
m
.•
ight be in every case under the superintending care
of an imposing military force. Then, the freedom of
election being thus secured, in order that the result
might be the full expression of the nation's will,
every elector is to be compelled to vote, under a
penalty of to/. This is really the whole plan. Be.
fore alluding to the many extraordinary come-
quenevs which M. lkiarnarre expects to flow from
it, let us examine the plan itself. The Assembly to
Ibe elected in December could not sit till the 29th of
IMay. Till then it would be not only powerless, but
it would have no corporate existence. It is obvious
that the want of moral power which is felt by all
elective assemblies after a certain time, when it
begins to be' doubtful whether the opinions of their
constituents may not have changed. would be objected
to such an Assembly from the first hour of its assem-
bling. Weighty reasons should be given for pro-
voking
.such nu objection by the unprecedented course
of electuiF a legislature six months before they enter
upon their functions. It may be admitted that the
excitement of nearly simultaneous elections of an
Assembly and of a president would be thus
avoided ; but so it might equally be if
the elections were fixed for February r
March. A minor reason of M. Delamarre's is,
the people having been disturbed in their usual oc-
cupations by the elections of the Assembly, would
be tired, and would not leave their homes again after
so short an interval as 43 days, to vote for the Pre-
*dent. This, however, might have been provided
br by his 10!. tine, without advancing the period of
the Aectidns. But it is clear that in all other re-
spects the legal effect of the scheme is altogether nu-
gatory. Whether the next Assembly shall be elected
six months, or six weeks, or six days before the ex-
piration of the mandate of the
.present one, their
powers and duties, and the relation in which they
stand to the President, remain precisely the same.
What, then, arc the benefits that M. Delaanarre
fumes? Tho that hi, that the present state of un-