The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-11 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

THE NEWS FROM SPAIN.

Mem ova owl co]
PARIS, WIDNZSDAT Emma.
Our news from Spain—and it is difficult in these
calm times to pay attention to news from any other
quarter—is again to-day extremely jejune. The
official despatches, so manifestly fraudulent that the
discerning few now pay little attention to them,
jumble up confused statements from widely dif-
ferent points of the compose, so as to represent the
whole revolt as put down on the strength of a
mishap sustained at one point. The rebellion has
made its mark especially on three points far and
wide apart from each other—on the west on the
Portuguese frontier, in the neighbourhood of
Madrid, and in the east of Spain in the
district lying between Toledo, Valencia, and
the Andalusian frontier. There is a good
reason to believe that in the west the movement is
for the present a failure, and that the Avila insur-
gents were really reduced to fly across the Portu-
guese frontier and were disarmed. Estramadura,
according so the most reliable information, turns a
deaf ear to the insurrectional appeal. Madrid is'
no doubt tranquil, but se we cannot fail to remem-
ber it was for several days before O'Donnell, whose
rebellion in 1854 began in the provinces, raised the
masses in the Puerto del Sol, and after a day of
barricades marched triumphantly into Madrid.
The unanimous declaration of loyalty of a Chamber
of Deputies elected entirely without the participa-
tion of the " progressista," who abstained in the
anticipation of the rising which Prim has
now inaugurated, is evidently of no value. In the
east, where Prim is, there is no news whatever of
the progress made by the three columns which,
according to official assurances now some days old,
were expected to crush him. Prim is said to have
in his suite M. Carlos Rubio, the editor of the
Iberia, a journal favourable, as its name imports,
to the union of Spain with Portugal.
No despatches from Spain, telegraphic or other-
wise, have reached Paris to-day. This absence of
news clearly bodes no good for O'Donnell's go-

vernment.
There exists, I believe, a school of statisticians '
which maintains that there is no credible evidence I "
of any human being having ever attained the age
of 100 years. If they are right most wonderful and
inexplicable forgeries of registers must have been
committed, for the French papers among their New I
Yeiir's news publish with names, dates, and full I
particulars a list, a quarter of a column long, of 1
centenarians deceased in 1865 alone, many of whom I
lived not merely to be 100 but to the ages of
107, 113, and many figures ascending to 120. The
Moniteur of this morning contains an imperial de-
cree conferring the rank of a chevalier of the Legion
of Honour upon a priest who is at this
moment performing mass ; and the distinction is
obviously granted for no other reason r
than that the recipient of it is 100 years old. The
name of the new member of the coveted French
order of chivalry is 011ivier—no relation, as far as
I know, of the democratic deputy, now supposed to
be a candidate for imperial favour. The Abb4
011ivier was born in 1766, ordained in 1789, and
does not pretend to any other claim to distinction—
and this is one (whatever the value of it) which very
few indeed can boast of—than that of having, in the
humblest rank of the clergy, diligently said mass for
77 years without interruption.
The Bourse, after fluctuations of no great
im-
portance, closed with some firmness. Rents rose
lc. for cash and 10c. for account ; and Mobilier,
2fr. 50c. Italian was 10c. higher.
The news from Spain has little influence on the
market. The money article of the Presse says the
Bourse is "rather sympathetic tLan hostile
towards the movement."