The Express.
London, England, 1858-09-29 00:00:00

THE REGATTA AT BIARRITZ.

A letter from Biarritz, dated Sunday, says :—" At
three o'olock to-day the Port-Vienzwas crowded with people,
who came to witness abernethy the swimming matches, end
the interesting duck rams in the Teter. The swimming match
began at four o'clock, and, as usual, the brothers Peillot
(bathing attendants, well known to the habitue,. of
Biarritz, and famous swimmers), were the victors of
the day. There were 16 who competed, and had to swim
at a stretch from the famous rope, beyond which ordinary
bathers do not go, to the farthest rock in the sea. Th.,
all want to work manfully, and for some time got through
it swimmingly ; bat many of the most ardent at first,
as is frequently the case, gave in soon. The brothers Peillot
went on with the calm steadiness peculiar to them, and is
they were superior to all the others in streegth, on return-
ing they won the three prizes awarded to the three who
reached the shore first. These were 100 ft., ISOfr., and 60fr. At
half-past four, the Emperor and Empress, accompanied by
throe or four gentlemen and ladies, arrived. Sean had
been prepared for them, though, i■ conformity with the
particular recenumudatfon of the Emperor, no ornaments
or flags were to be seen. They sat on common chars,
like everybody elm. The Empress looked well, and as
graceful sad satiable es ever. She carried a small mac, on
which she now and than leant. The nuts! military bud
was in attendance, and played several airs, the first of which
was, of course, the old familiar ' Parton& pour in Syne,' and
the second the Spanish Royal March. The ducks were
thrown from hosts into the eta, and the swimmers hastened
after them. Some succeeded in catching the fright-
seed salami, and were snthinised rally cheered ;
others missed them in so grotesque a manner es
to cause guard laughter and hissing. The heath, the
rooks, and cliffs were crowded with spectators. The weather
was beentiful, mud the sport of the day, though not so moth-
tug as the bull fight, but mush more harmless, appeared
to greatly interest the Imperial party. An 6 o'clo ck their
Majesties left the Port-Mertz sad to • walk through
Biarritz, followed, as you may imagine, by great seewds.
While they were passim over a small wooden briar es
tire OIL a Spanish girt advanced towards the Empress
and presented a letter—probably • petition. " Hand it to the
palace porter," the Empress observed,and the girt set el imme-
dlately. The Mayors of Blunts, Bayonne, St.lata de Les, eel
• few other tonotioneries were among those who ettesded
their Majesties. Numbers of seam police agents, who,
though in plain clothes, an sully tutognieed, were Imaging
shout. They wore no gigue of sathaviey, though they plashed
bask the 'turd like ordinary petkaseen or gendarme'. Some
of the sucessces showed now and then symptoms of Imps-
thrice, and I could observe a few Basques who would be
delighted to be showed to ' pitch into them.' Them people
earned to wit► to he melded s formusg past of the Lurk'
suite."

The Duo of Malakoff baying received • mean
of aCbeehiesehiese ha the Riaperet, met lately, his gad,the
follower lehtpeghle Isegaieb telde belostiel neater :

iosttprit.===adlL
—Tow lish Napoleon 111. Tqll9l—

Veal nee Itsredeal. ;ma net abet Winner
es sees inns does pes a e.... d'orgslar.
The balloon et M. Godard, Jen., which, aa we
lasselened, Wit adtie when be zee& N. late perilous de-
ment neat et. Devi% bea been rearmed. It tell on the
tern die. Lernisna, ha the cotemnste et ?nay- kr Mont
(OW), awd wee mewl asi Woe ewe .1.

THE PRUSSIAN REGENCY.
-.--

most ova own 001111PONDIXT4
BERLIN, Harr. 26.
Althou h I have of late duly communicated the
various phases of this all-absorbing question es they
rred, so that the subject might seem exhausted,
there is still another and perhaps the most delicate
part of the whole case to mention—the main pivot,
indeed, on which the solution turns. I allude to the
' financial view of the question ' • and that is the Gor-
dian knot that hu not hitherto found its Alexander.
It seems, indred, but a most reasonable demand
that if the Prince of Prussia be appointed Regent
of the kingdom,he should be furnished with a liberal
allowance to enable him to keep up the dignity of
his position and cover the expenses to which he will
be naturally put as the vicegerent of royalty, u well
as to make an impressive outward show and appear-
ance, which is not expected of him when simply
heir-presumptive to the throne, and nearest agnate
of the crown. Hitherto the Prussian nation has not
been called on to pay taus to furnish a civil list for
the crown, or appanage' for the other members of the
royal family ; and you will in vain search the Prus-
sian budget for any such items. These expenses are
exclusively defrayed from the revenues aris-
ing from the entailed domains of the crown
(Kron-Fideicommisse) which are numerous, ex-
tensive, and valuable. The administration of
these domains, situated in almost every part of
the kingdom, but more especially in Silesia, East
Prussia, Lusatia, and Brandenburg, is ow tied on by
a minister with a title not known in England, called
the " Minister of the King's Household. As they
are the private property of the crown of Prussia, the
revenue arising from them is not officially published,
but there is good reason for believing that the annual
net proceeds derived from them, after paying all
the attendant expenses, amount to about 10 millions
of dollars, or nearly a million and • half sterling.
The King for the time being has the actual disposal
of this right royal revenue, and it is he who fixes
the amount of appanage for the Queen and the dif-
bract Princes and Princesses of the
.royal family.
From this source the Prince of Prague derives an
' annuity of a hundred thousand dollars ; besides, he
receives pay and other emoluments from the state in
his capacity of Field-Marshal and Generalissimo of
the Prussian Army, in addition to which he has
some private property of his own and the dowry of
, his consort, a princess of the grand-ducal House of
Saxe-Weimar, so that his whole annual revenue is
genetally estimated here at a couple of hundred
thousand dollars, equal to about 30,0001. a year.
This sum, though sufficiently handsome for the
first subject of the kingdom, and in a cheap
country like Prussia worth a good deal more than
a similar amount would go for in England, would
obviously, however, not be adequate to defray the ex-
penses of a regal establishment and keep up the pres-
tige of the Prussian court. The Prince therefore re-
quires the possession of the crown domains to be
transferred to him on accepting the office of Regent.
The Queen, on the other hand, as consort of the
incapacitated sovereign and naturally careful of his
interests, cannot be induoed to agree to such an
arrangement, which would transfer the disposal of
these revenues to another, and leave her husbrid
and herself virtually at the mercy of her brother-in-
law, and dependent upon his generosity for the
rmount of their annual income. This is the key to
one of the principal existing difficulties, and hence
the duration of the negotiations on the question of
the regency. All the others are only formal diffi-
culties which might be easily got over if the peen-
nary stumbling-block were once removed.
In the Prussian constitution not a word is said
about a civil list, and therefore it is beyond the
powers accorded to the legislative bodies to make an
exceptional case and vote one for the Regent of the
kingdom. Besides, it would be extremely hard to
tax the subjects for a second civil list, when the
means of liberally providing for one such are already
I hi existence.