The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-29 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, SATE:at/AT EVSNINO.
The decided opposition of the legitimists to tho
proposition of M. Creton has given considerable
acrimony to the polemics between this party and
the Orleanists. These reproach M. Bcrryer with
originating a policy which must for ever prevent
any union among the royalists, when in his famous
speech on the Creton proposition he asserted that
the Count of Chambord could not set foot in France
except as the first of Frenchmen. The Orleanists
want to know what possible rational objection a
party can have to the repeal of the law of banishment
against its chief. The dog which kept the cow from
her hay, certainly argued very much like the legiti-
mists. The princes of the younger branch must
remain expatriated, because the hour is not ripe for
the head of the family to claim his crown. Fusion
seems under such circumstances further off than
ever. The organs of the Orleanists proclaim an
entire rupture with the party of M. Berryer, and
declare that it is impossible for them to sup-
port the same candidate for the presidency.
The best chance for the Elyse° would seem
to lie in this irreconcilability of the diver-
gent branches of Bourbonism. But the organs
of the government are daily exhibiting more
and more contempt for the law, as the hour ap-
proaches in which the law will be found to present a
barrier to the re-election of Louis Napoleon super-
able only by force. The Constitutionsiel generally
contains an article daily in which it represents the
candidature or rather the election of Louis Napoleon
as the sheet-anchor of safety, whether legal or illegal;
and treats all scruples about the constitution as
no less absurd than fastidious prudery ill the
hour of shipwreck. It is really deplorable to hear
this unscrupulous tone echoed in the speeches of mi-
nisters. But the law is stronger, perhaps, than the
Bonapartista imagine; and the great majority of the
representatives, as well as of the councils-general,
that have pronounced in favour of strict legality is a
guarantee which ought to be regarded as much more
important than any illegitimate dream cherished by-
the executive power. 1 have sent you latterly
cries of dismissals of mayors and municipal councils
!noticed upon the most trivial shows of inde.
penitence; and the central authorities treat
municipal functionaries generally with pretty much
the same respect which the sub-prefect of Saumur
shows for the mayors of his arrondissement, to whom
he has sent round a formal circular advertising the'
loss of a spaniel. This notice tho sub-prefect for-
mally desires to be communicated to the public of
the commune after Sunday mass. The one-sided
administration of the law has been sufficiently evinced
by the toleration of the absurdest excesses of im-
perialism in the Paris press, while fines and im-
prisonment visit the least indiscretion of liberal
editors. It is no wonder therefore to hear, as we do
' to-day, of the little red flags which have from time
' immemorial been hoisted by the boats of St. Quentin
being torn down by the authorities, while a great
ensign, bearing in large letters " Louis Napoleon,
' Bien Public, Empercur," is tolerated at the mast-
' head of one of the craft.

The legitimist committee of management, consist-
ing of twelve members, comprising MM. Berrycr,
Pustoret, and others, has just held a sitting to deter-
mine the course of their party with regard to the
proposal of a candidate for the presidency. They
have decided, ou grounds which -I have given al-
ready from their organ, the Union, that they will for
the present abstain from putting forward any name.
They will wait to see how General Changarnier will
vote this time on the proposition-Creton. Mean-
while it is supposed that the general will vote, as he
did in March last, for the motion.
Lord l'almerston's speech at Tiverton is quoted at
full length by several of the papers. It seems to
please the French liberals better than the English;
but is the object of violent attacks on the part of
some organs of the conservative press, particularly the
Assemblee Nationak. This paper, which one should
think from the circumstance of its being conducted
by M. Guizot, would be better informed, makes the
most ludicrous blunders about English administra-
tion. It affirms seriously that upon the least dis-
turbance all England is put under martial law; and
that upon the famous chartist demonstration in 1818,
" tousles pouvoirs" were confided to the Duke of
Wellington.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Normanby re-
turned to Paris yesterday evening, from the south of
France.

SUNDAY EVENING
The chief feature of to-day is the appearance of I
immense decree, containing more than 700 articles,
in the Bulletin des Lois, regulating the whole naval
service, and destined to replace the old ordinance of
1826. This document is the work of M. de Chasse-
loup-Laubat, Minister of Marine, who ha. been re-
warded fur his industry by the cross of commander
of the Legion of Honour. The preamble alludes to
the report of the commission of naval officers ap-
pointed
by the President of the Republic when Ad-
mind Romain-llesfesses was Minister of Marine.
This report was first revised and modified by the
council of the Admiralty, and again by M. de Craess.
loup-Laubat. It describes the decree resulting
(ruin this triple examination as one fixing the rank,
tracing the duties, and marking the post of every
one on board ship, from the commander-in-chief to
the common sailor. It characterises the new rules of the
Naval Code, in which the sailor, side by side with
his written duties, and the sacrifices which the
country expects from him, may observe also the
paternal care taken to improve his lot as much as
possible, and may know of the certain provision
which, thanks to the Marino Fund, the envy
of other nations, is made for his old age
and for his wife and children. To harmonise
the rules of the service with the progress of
naval science and with modern manners and habits,
to sanction those usages which experience has intro-
duced and approved, to show every one his duty, and
to assign to every one his due share °Responsibility,
to the end that discipline may be strengthened, and
devotedness increased, are described by the minister
as the objects of the decree which the President has
approved.
'The three leading questions which will occupy the
Assembly on its re-opening, namely, revision, the
law of May, and the period to be fixed for the elec-
tions, are closely connected. The only chance for
carrying revision is to gain over a certain number of
republican votes by the abrogation of the law of
May. On the other hand, the date to be assigned to
the elections will depend on the motion for revision.
Now in order to see how the vote on recision will be
influenced by the changes contemplated in the elec
toral law, we must know whu, t 'lose sages will be.