The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-30 00:00:00

urrImPRD, li. ADDITIOZAW

to be abolished, will place at his disposal. There
is a rumour, strongly accredited in some quarters,
but questioned in others, that there will be a loan
of 350 millions besides ; so that the whole operation
would be tantamount to a loan of 700 millions.

The Bourse was very heavy, owing to the politi-
cal rumours and the talk of • loan. The effect of
the discounts by which the market was sustained
during the greater part of the month is now telling
the other way. The "bears" were all frightened out
of the market, and as the settlement approaches,
the want of their purchases to balance speculative
sales is very sensibly felt. Rents fell 20c. for cash
and 15c. for account, closing at 68.40 and 68.33*
Italian, 22+, closing at 44.75 ; Credit Foncier, 10f.;
Mobilier, after declining to 168.75, rose for the
close to 162.50, being an improvement of 1.25 on
yesterday. Comptoir d'Escompte fell 5f., and the
Northern and Lyons Railways sf. each.

PARIS, SUNDAY Emma.
The majority, before voting the unpopular Army
Bill, chose to make $ demonstration of inde-
pendence, and, to the astonishment of everybody,
it ran restive yesterday upon a question of six
months more or less forced celibacy. The bill pro-
posed that the men of the reserve might marry
without special leave within the last two years of
the total nine year. of service. The committee
stood out for three years. Marshal Niel, by
way of compromise, offered two years and a
half, but in spite of all his eloquence, the
chamber, by the extraordinary majority of 237
against 11, voted the amendment for three,
and that period must now stand part of
the bill. "No minister of the second empire,"
says the Temps, " ever met with such a check."
There is no argument against excessive armies
which more strikes French country gentlemen than
that they materially contribute to that want of pro-
gression in the population, as compared with other
nations, which has long been noticed and deplored
in France.

The statement which went the round of the press
some weeks ago that Madame Frigard, the Fon-
tainebleau murderess, had been confined of twins
in the Fontainebleau prison, turned out to be
one of those circumstantial canards with which
the French papers teem more than ever since
Draconian laws were enacted against " false
news." These laws are only put in force
against political news, and there is a class
of writers who ' exercise their ingenuity with
very great success in the invention of sensational
stories about well-known persons. Of this class
I. the paragraph which had undisputed possession
of the papers for a fortnight that M. de Lamar-
tine had become a mere digesting machine and
ate enormous dinners without the consciousness

of what he was doing. The correction that he is
in " robust " health is scarcely more true. But
his friends receive letters from and pay visits to
him, and he walks out daily in the neighbourhood
of his villa in the Bois de Boulogne. Hardly any
fact, not actionable, which the French journals
now-a-days give, can ,be relied upon, and
a great many of them are written with a
a view to laying the foundation of new "copy" by
the contradictions which they will provoke. To

this day I do not know whether it is true that
Madame Frigard confessed to the procureur-general
that she poisoned Madame Mertens with prussic
acid. The legal journals, which are something
more reliable than the others, said so ; but several
days afterwards there was a contradiction on nobody
knows what authority. On the principle, however,
of non big in idem, there is a certain amount of
reasonable presumption that a second story of
Madame Frigard's accouchement may be true. The
Droit publishes a Melun letter of Dec. 28, which
says :

The woman Frigard was confined of a daughter at 8 yes-
terday evening. She had a bad time. The infant was
born almost stilled, and the doctor was obliged to use
strong friction to keep it alive. The woman did not
evince the slightest tenderness for her child, nor did she
ask to see it. She chose the named of Louiss-Paulin, sad
by these names it was registered at the mairie. In pursu-
ance of a ministerial decision the child will not be suckled
by the mother, and has been sent to the Melun Hospital.
I presume that it is only on account of the
mother's state of health that the child is sent to •
wet nurse, and that the full period of the long
respite which it is the French custom to allow to
female convicts when they are in a state to become
mothers at the time of their conviction will be
enjoyed by Madame Frigsrd.

ALARM OP FIRE AT THZ LYCEUM THEATRE.—
Boni. confusion prevailed at the Lyoeum Theatre on Fri-
day night owing to an alarm of fire shortly before the
transformation scene. A smell of burning was noticed for
sometime, end on the fire bunting out some of the'
audience made a rush for the doors. Mr. Smith came for-
ward and begged of them not to leave their sesta, as the
fire was quite extinguished, but it was some time before
tranquillity was restored and the performances resumed.
FATAL BOILER ESPLOSION LT BARNSLEY.
About noon on Saturday •fearfal boiler explosion occurred
at Barnsley, which resulted in the instantaneous death of
one man, and serious if not fatal injuries to several others,
and a great destruction of property. The boiler was
attached to the steam corn mill of Mr. George Jackson, in
Peel-street, and was situated at the rear of the mill, and
in close proximity to several blocks of buildings. By the
force of the explosion the boiler was blown a distance of
some 00 or 70 yards, and fell with a fearful crash on the
root of the shops of Mr. Pepper, druggist, and Mr. Potter,
shoemaker. In It. course drove away the roof of
one of the neighbouring cottages, and also took off
a large portion of the Friendship
_lnn. The fireman,
named Laycock, was instantly killed, and a man named
Somerigill who was working in the shop with Mr. Potter,
was so aerecioaly injured that he is not expected to recover.
A woman named Catherine Conley and Mrs. Neiman, in-
habitants of houses adjoining, were both severely injured,
and two children of the latter were also scalded. The win-
dows of the Athenaeum and the property around the mill
are completely riddled. The damage to the property will
be very great. The large chimney of the mill was situated
within a few feet of the boiler, and had this been blown
down the consequences would have been more serious still.
The injured persons were removed to the White Hart Inn,
under the direction of Mr. John Blackburn, surgeon, and
the fireman, who was 30 years of age, and leaves a wife and
four children, was conveyed home in a cab. The accident
is said to have been caused by a defect at the bottom of
the boiler, which was completely blown out. The boiler is
a very old one, and was removed last summer from another
mill to the one at Barnsley.
GAS EXPLOSION AT • BANE.—On Friday morn-
ing, about half-past eight o'clock, the inhabitants of
Broad-street, Hereford, were much alarmed by an explo-
sion of gas at the branch of the National Provincial Bank.
A large quantity of gas, from some cause or other unex-
plained, accumulated in the safe-room,
M which is both fire-
proof and nearly air-tight, and on r. Cowtan, whose
duty it was. as junior clerk, to prepare fur the opening of
the bank, going with a lighted taper to the safe-room to
take out the books, the explosion took place. It shook the
building to its centre, demolished the safe, knocked Mr.
Cowtan down, singed his hair, and scorched his face, blew
out the plate glass window and fan lights over the door-
ways, and wrenched the massive outer doors from their
fastenings.
METROPOLITAN FRES HOSPITAL, DEVONSHIRE-
SQUARE, Cm.—The aggregate number of patient' relieved
during the week ending Dec. 211 was—Medhal, 714 ; oar.
&id, 418 ; total, 1.132: of which M 1 were new cases.
HEALTH RESTORED ST Du BARRY'S FOOD TO THE
ftromartt, nerves, loop, and liver of old sad young, caring, with-
out medicine or exposer, dyspepsia iindidestion), oonstipation.
Manta*, acidity, headset°, neuralgia. brderik nalldtation,
eleeplemnom debility. wasting, cough, mama, terms, ossemp-
tioa, low spirits. 00,000 annual cures which had resisted all
medicines, including that of his thinness the Pops. It saves
Any times its cad in other remedies.—Tins, lib., lc ad.: 112 b.,
Ets. : 241 b., 40a, or id. per meal.—Du Berry and Co., 77. Regent-
quadrant, London ; also Fortnum and Mason, Piccadilly, and at
It, Gracachurelpstreet ; 4, Clisa; M sod tit Oxford-tress
sad all poems ass chsesisla—(AdwirMeseleid.)