The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-26 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDEVT.)
PARIS, FRIDAY EVENUG.

Although the expectation that the Monik"r
would deny the rumours of a new loan has not
been realised, the France and other officious jour-
nals affirm very positively that none is in contem-
plation, and I believe they are right—for the pre_
sent. But lam informed that M. Rouher will
shortly bring out some financial measures of a bold
and sweeping character. Among the most pro-
minent of these, if the hearts of those in high
places do not fail them, will be the aboli-
tion of the octroi duties and the imposition
of a stiff income tax, and greater burthens upon
house property. The Emperor is said to have de-
clared it a shame that a working man in Paris,
who earns 3fr. a day, should have to pay lir. out
of it for octroi duties upon his wine, meat, and
groceries. There will of course be a great outcry
on the part of the monied classes against the great
innovations on the tapir; but the Emperor looks
to the vote of the plebs, and I have not the least
doubt that M. Rouher's financial mission is to do
something startling, and quite out of the beaten
track.

It seems to be settled that February 14 is the
day fixed for the opening of the legislative session.
There is an impression that the session will be
unusually short, and will be followed by a dissolu-
tion and a general election in the autumn. The
policy of a dissolution would be very intelligible.
The "reforms" of January 19 would furnish a most
plausible excuse for an appeal to the country, and
according to all reasonable presumption, seeing the
steady progressive march of opposition during the
last six years, the Emperor would have to face a
much smaller minority of dissentient deputies in
1867 than in 1869.

A private letter states that Marshal Bazaine (who
intends to embark the last French soldier in
Mexico by February 3 at farthest) had sent one of
his aides-de-camp to Juarez to arrange a meeting
with him. If this news be true we may expect
shortly to see a marked change in the language of
the semi-official journals, which for several months
have been in the habit of speaking of the head of
the Mexican republic as an impotent charlatan de-
void of all root in the country, and only recognised
by a few brigands.
It is reported that the Jew boy Mortara, stolen
from his parents by the Pope's agents, and ever
since forcibly retained in the Pope's custody, to
the great scandal of the whole world, is to be made
a priest, and that now, at the age of 13, he has
already received minor canonical orders.
M. }Lavin, in a grandiose article in the Slide,
announces that he has opened a subscription, not
to exceed 50 centimes, for the erection, in a public
part of Paris, of a statue to Voltaire. The
At:emir Natitmal would sympathise with the'
idea were it opportune ; but of this it
doubts, and suggests, moreover, that the jesuits
may yet have influence enough with the govern-
ment te nip M, Havin's project in the bud. It is
not correct, as the Secle says, that the only statue
of Voltaire in Paris is the one in the saloon of the
Theatre Francais. There is one the size of life in
a niche outside the new Louvre, and a statuette in
front of the Hotel de Ville.
The Mgi/car reproduces the statement of the'
Italia that a considerable section of the Italian
Senate is against going on with the impeachment
of Admiral Persano.

The Bourse was again heavy. There was a
rumour which affected quotations, that Victor
Emmanuel had been shot at, but it is not con-
firmed.

Some of the Spanish journals state that M.
Morella, proprietor of the Hotel de France, at Madrid, and
Hard de Paris, at Valladolid, offers to supply 400,000
dinners a day at Paris during the Exibition, at lfr. a
head. They are to consist of soup and three dishes.

Pio Nono has received the complimentary-
homage of a visit from all the ex-members of the British
cabinet present in Rome this winter, excepting the Duke
of Arygll, whose absence from the Vatican, the corre-
spondent of the Morning Post says, has been remarked with
displeasure by his Holiness. Sir George Grey has had an
interview with the Pope, and received the thanks of his
Holiness for the facilitation. afforded by him, as Rome
Secretary, for the access of catholic chaplains to prisons
and penitentiaries in Great Britain.
The Scotch clergymen at Rome have settled
down contentedly in their new locality outside the Porta
del Popolo, where it seems likely that there will soon be
quite a protestant colony. The Prussian minister, Baron
D'Arnheim, on bearing of the expulsion of the presbyte-
rian clergymen and their congregations from the precincts
of the city, immediately communicated with Mr. (hie
Russell to offer the Rev. Messrs. Lewis and Williamson
the use of the chapel of the Prussian Legation in the
Caffarelli Palace. Those gentlemen tendered their
grateful acknowledgments for the baron's liberal
offer, which they did not accept on account of the diffi-
culty of arranging suitable hours for the services, as the
Prussian chapel already serves for two distinct protestant
congregations, the Prussian, or, properly speaking, high
Lutheran, and that of the Swiss Calvinists, who, having
no resident diplomatic minister in Rome, but only
consul, have no privileged legation chapel of their own.
And so the room over the roll, outside the walls, has
become definitively the head-quarters of the Scotch
kirk, both established and free, the minister of one
church officiating in the morning, and the other in the
afternoon.

" Much is said at this moment amongst artists,"
says a Paris letter in the Saba Public of Lyons, "of an
application made to the ministers of the Emperor's house-
hold by a number of painters and sculptors, complaining
of the decision of the jury for the Universal Exhibition.
The petition stater that out of 700 places allotted to the
French school 500 have been reserved to the members of
the jury, thus leaving only 200 for all the other artists in
the empire."