The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-23 00:00:00

RILITANNLL

TIMSIM, 3 ACK I : OR, THE RN • r. COURNE,
AND THE ELLS RI ISEHN TIIE KY.—Mr. and If re.
11 Or. 4114u:1100n Slcatem EARlaud.—And THE Wit-
EWA N SHOT', EVA

HIGH WATILIt AT LONDON MOWS.
TI DAY —Menthe. 51. 57ta Afternoon, eh. 19s.
TaMouow—llasias, 61. 41k Allernook 71. on.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 23.

19th of January, announcing new liberal mea-
sures which he had always disapproved, and pro-
bably disapproves still, but will nevertheless sup-
port with all his strength next November, if such
are his instructions. In short, the Minister of
State is the chosen interpreter of the oracles of
the Empire ; but he knows no more than we do
from one day to another whether his master means
peace or meditates war. Personal government,
pure and simple, uninterrupted, uncontrolled,
exists in all ita force in France to-day. The
EMPEROR deserves the thanks of Europe for
. _ _ _

having dispelled any doubt of that enormous fact.
That men of business in France are beginning to
be aware of it appears from the uncertainty and
apprehension that prevail in the midst of all the
peaceful trophies of the Champ de Mars.
France is ill at ease ; dissatisfied with the
present, anxious for the future. She knows the
cause of this languid fever of despondency that
lays her prostrate, but, such is the decay of her
public spirit, she has not the moral courage to
shake it off, and " let us oat, drink, and be merry,
" for tomorrow we die," is the watchword of all
but a few incorrigible enthusiasts whose patriotism
pines for something nobler than the Circean plea-
sures of what was once the capital of the Revolu-
tion, and is now the Cythera of Europe. And
the EMPEROII—tho student, the thinker, the exile
in England—still fails to perceive, or forgets, that
the strongest monarchy is that in which " the
" king can do no wrong," because his ministers
are always responsible to a free parliament, and •
free parliament always responsible to a self-
governing nation.

Is England, where order and stability and con-
iiience, which are the life and soul of industry
and trade, have been found not entirely incom-
patible with free institutions, personal govern-
ment has few admirers, except those who think
all countries incapable of freedom but their own.
But is it not surprising that in France there should
have been found men of business and of intelli-
gence so deaf to the teachings of experience and
of history that, after the disasters and disgraces
of the First Empire, after the wit atblitewl,,el and
the confessions of St. Helena, they rushed into the
arms of Imperialism to escape the perils of liberty
and the difficulties of self-government? The
Second Empire, although by no means an unmiti-
gated or untempered system of arbitrary power,
is, after sixteen years' duration, far more arbi-
trary and far less liberal than the Government
which the first NAPOLEON on his return from
Elba proposed to establish, and which, in his me-
ditations at St. Helena, he regretted that events
had not permitted him to found. And there
are actually Frenchmen living at this time
of day who are afraid of liberty on account
of its agitations and disorders, and are not
afraid of the hazards and excesses of a
personal government. No doubt the Mexican
catastrophe bas made some converts even
among the docile and devoted majority in the
Corps L6gislatif. But even now that majority
listens with angry impatience to the honest admo-
nitions of the very few independent members who
had the courage to predict the disasters they could
not prevent, and cheersthe Minister of State when
he insists ontheir complicity, and counta on theirun-
questioning and unreasoning approbation through
good and evil report, and through all the follies and
disgraces which their servile acclamations sanctioned
in advance, and are ready to ratify when it is no
longer permitted to disguise or deny them. M.
Rotuma is perfectly justified in claiming that
lamentable majority as more than the accomplices,
as the instigators, of the policy he is commissioned
to extol, even in its failures and calamities,
with that brazen and sonorous rhetoric of which
he is a master—the rhetoric of a DANTON of Im-
perialism. What confounds us is thatasevereign and
a statesman of the Emperor NAPOLZON's experi-
ence and capacity should believe that the future of
his dynasty is well served by such unscrupulous'
advocacy and such uncompromising adherents ;
that with a sou to succeed him he should deli-
berately prefer a Chamber of dependent nominees
to a Chamber freely and faithfully elected by
the constituents of a true national will. Certainly
if ever a man should pray to be saved from his
friends, it is the Emperor of the FRENCH. Had
he taken the advice of the Opposition, he would
have escaped all the faults and misfortunes of his
reign. There is a " third party," it is true, in
the Corps Legislatif, who have invented a pretty
little theory to explain away that sole and single
responsibility of the EMPEROR which his own con-
stitution declares. These ingenious and moderate
dissentients pretend to distinguish between the
EMPEROR and his Ministers, and to lay all the
blame of failures and mischances upon the latter,
and especially upon the Minister of State
whose back is broad enough to bear a multitude
of sins, and whom they designate as a " Vice-
" Emperor." They represent the EMPEROR as
" oppressed " by his own servants. in private
life, perhaps, such a situation as that, for instance,
of a large landowner at the mercy of his steward
is conceivable enough ; but that the chief of a
personal Government, who has made his own con-
stitution, and by it has declared himself alone re-
sponsible to the nation, and his Ministers mere
agents and expositors of his policy in their several
departments, should suffer himself to sink into a
secondary and subordinate position, and become
as insignificant as a client or a sinecurist who
signs whatever his lawyers or his clerks
put into his hands, appears to um not
only a flagrant absurdity but a supposition
inconsistent with belief in the sanity of the sove-
reign who could submit to be the dupe or the
instrument of such an imposture. At all events,
the Emperor of the FRENCH honourably declines to
make a scapegoat of his Minister of State • and in
order to remove all doubts, and close the mouths
of his too ingenious apologists, he has written a
letter to M. Rot:HER, thanking him for his ser-
vices to the country, and offering him the Cross
of the Legion of Honour, set in diamonds, as a
slight token of his friendship and esteem. The
EsirEaos himself understands Imperialism better
than those commentators who would fain convert
it into a limited monarchy. M. RorHER is simply
the inspired apologist of whatever home or foreign
policy the EMPEROR may adopt. To-day he
avows that the Mexican expedition has failed dis-
astrously, but that the catastrophe, with all its
mournful consequences, must be charged to Pro-
vidence. Two years ago he assured the Cham-
ber that it was the greatest enterprise of the
Emi•Elloß'S reign, and that the French troops
would never leave Mexico until that enterprise was
completely fulfilled ; and oven now he takes care
to add that the people of Mexico will at some
future day return thanks to France for having
spent six hundred millions of francs in setting
up a throne for them, and pulling it down
again. And so about Italy, or Germany, or
Luxemburg, about peace and war. To-day M.
RoUil ER speaks peace; who knows what to-mor-
row may bring forth I Certainly not M. Remint:
he kne iv nothing of the Imperial letter of the

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 23, 1867.

Wile Court.

OSBORNE, JCLY 22.
The Queen and royal family walked out this
morning.
The Empress of the French IL+ expe:ted to mire at
Osborne to-day on a private visit to the Queen.

BUCKINGHAM PAI.AVE, JriA N.

The Sultan, attended by Djemil Paths, Reouf Pacha.
Lord Raglan, and Mr. Moore, with Ceneral the Hon. A. N.
Hood and Colonel H. Ponsonhy (the Equerries in attend-
ance) on horseback, drove out this morning, and visited
the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough-house.
His Imperial Majesty also visited the Duke of 'ambridge
at Gloucester-house, and the Duchess of Cambridge, ►t St.
James's Palace.
Viscountess Palmerston had likewise the honour of
receiving a visit from his Imperial Majesty, in Park-lane.
In the afternoon the Sultan, accompanied by the Prince
of Wales and attended by the same suite as in the morn-
ing, drove down to'the Houses of Parliament, and went
through the New l'alace of Westminster.
In the evening his Imperial Majesty honoured the Duke
and Duchess of Sutherland with his presence at an enter-
tainment at Stafford House.

Later in the evening his Imperial Majesty honoured the
President of the Royal Horticultural Society (the Duke of
Buccleuch) with his presence, at the Royal Horticultural
Gardens, South Kensington.
The Sultan was escorted to Stafford House, and after-
wards to South Kensington, by a detachment of the Ist
Life Guards.

Messrs. W. and D. Downey, of \ewcaatle•upon-Tyno,
have had the honour of photographing hie Imperial
blajeaty the Sultan and the Imperial Princes.

MARLBOROUGH HOUSE, Jur.e 22.
The Prime of Wales redo out in the forenoon, attended
by Captain Elite.

The Sultan visited the Prince and Princess of Wales, at
Marlborough Hoene.
The Duke and Duchesa d'Aosta visited the Princess of
Wales.

The hince of Wale.; went to the Howe of Lords in the
afternoon.

The Princeu of Wales drove out, attended by the
lion. Mrs. W. Grey.
In the evening the Prince of Wales dined with the Duke
and Duchess of Sutherland, at Stafford House, to meet his
Imperial Majesty the Sultan.

A deputation from the parish of Dorking, accompanied
by Mr. Briscoe, M.P., and Mr.Cuhitt,M.P., and consisting
of Mr. Cusins, Mr. Young, Mr. Paxon, Mr. Shearburn,
Mr. Wells, Mr. Fielder, and Mr. Allowey, bad an interview
with the Earl of Devon, at the office of the Poor-law Board,
Whitehall, yesterday.

ARRIVAL OF THE EMPRESS OP THE FRENCH.

The French imperial steam-yacht Heine Hor-
tense, with her Majesty the Empress of the French on
board, arrived off Portsmouth early yesterd►y morning
from Havre, after a pleasant possage of eight hours, and
anchored until afternoon in the vicinity of the Spit Buoy.
A party of l►dies and gentlemen from the yacht, including
lit was supposed) the Empress, landed ►t Sonthsea in the
morning, and spent some time on the Esplanade and
Common, and partook of luncheon at the Fier Hotel.
Shortly before 2 p.m. the Reins Hortense again weighed
her anchor, and steamed slowly past the fleet at Spitbead
for Osborne, where the Empress arrived on a visit to her
Majesty the Queen soon after 3 p.m. As the Emprees
travelled iacogniia the yacht hoisted no standard.

THE SULTAN IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.—Shortly
before half-past 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon the Sultan,
accompanied by the Prince of Wales, entered the house by
the door on the left of the throne, and crossed within the
brass bar to the chair of state which had been placed for
the accommodation of his Majesty on the right of his
royal highness's state chair. The royal party were pre-
ceded by Sr Augustus Clifton' and Sir Denis Le Merchant,
Sir John Shaw Lefevre and the suites of his Majesty and
his royal highness remaining without the railings on the
left of the throne. The proceedings of the house were
suspended for a few minutes, during which the Lord
Chancellor left the chair, and, having saluted the royal
party with two low bows, entered into conversation with
his Majesty by the aid of the interpreter. The Prince of
Wales then pointed out o his Majesty the throne and the
various parts of the house, and replied to several questions
which his Majesty put to him through the interpreter.
Their visit having Jested about 10 minutes, the royal party
retired.

The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Meek-
lenburg•Strelitz, and Princess Mary Adelaide and his Serene
Highness the l'rinoe de Teck, honoured the Earl and
Countess of Wilton by their presence at dinner yesterday
evening at their residence in Grosvenor-square. The Prin-
cess Mary Adelaide and the Prince de Teck arrived shortly
after 8 o'clock, and were soon followed by the Grand Duke
sad Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. There were present
to meet their royal highnesses the Duke of Grafton, the
Duchess (Emily) of Beaufort, the Duchess of Marlborough,
the Marquis and Marchioness of Clanrioarde, the Marquis
Conyngham, the Earl Cedogan, the Earl of Sefton, the
Countess of Bradford, Viscount and Viscountess Sydney,
Lord Rokeby, fox
The Duke and Duchess d'Aosta and suite dined
with his Excellency the Marquis d'Azeglio at the Italian
Legation, in Grosvenor-street, yesterday evening. There
were present, in addition to the members of the royal
suite, the Duke and Duchess de Rorra, the Duchess San
Arpino, the Duke di Vallombrosa, the Marchioness di 'Tag-
liacarni, Count Arrivabene, Count Cortance, Admiral
Count Albini, Baron and Baroness Marochetti, M. Panizzi,
Captain Roberti, R. N., M. Trivizzio, the Marquis San
Germano, and M. de Vigoni. Covers were laid for 22.
The Sultan's visit to the Duke and Duchess of
Sutherland's last night was quite devoid of any extraordi-
nary show or preparation, and, when compared to the
recent vibit of the Viceroy of Egypt, might be considered a
priv►te one. The guests were in evening dress, and, with
the exception of the magnificent picture gallery and prin-
cipal saloons being thrown open, there was nothing beyond
what is seen at Stafford House on ordinary occasions.
Mr. Mill will introduce his bill for the better
municipal government of the metropolis into the House of
Commons this day week.

To-morrow week Mr. Tite brings forward a bill
to regulate the oonatruction and use of buildings, and the
formation of streets and of sewers and drains, in the
metropolis ; and for other purposes connected therewith.
On the 2nd of next month Mr. Henry Seymour
purposes to call the attention of the House of Commons to
the famine in Orissa.

Secretary Sir J. Pakington intends in committee
on fortifications and works to move the following resolu-
tions :—" 1. That, towards providing a further sum for
defraying the expenses of the construction of works for
the defence of the royal dockyards and arsenals, and of the
port• of Dover and Portland, • sum not exceeding
800,0001. be charged upon the consolidated fund of the
United Kingdom ; and that the commissioners of her Ma-
jesty's Treasury be authorised and empowered to raise the
said sum by annuities for a term not exceeding thirty
years, and that such annuities shall be charged upon and
be payable out of the said consolidated fund. 2. That the
said commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury be autho-
rised to direct the payment to the governor and company
of the Bank of England, out of the said consolidated
fund, of the sum of 800 f. for the management of the con-
tributions to be received by the said governor and com-
pany in respect of the said annuities."

A part of the famous old French prison in Bugle-
street, Southampton, has been converted into a Norway
ice store. The ice is cut from the Norway lakes in cubical
blocks, three hundred weight each, and is perfectly trans.
parent. It is piled up in the form of massive walls until
wanted for the monster mail packets. Fiahmongers now
send fish to all parts of the country packed in ice.
Butchers use ice safes to preserve meat in the hottest
weather. Brewers use it to regulate the temperature of
brewhouses and prevent beer from turning sour. The
great curing houses in Holland and Ireland use it in their
pickling vats, to avoid the necessity of killing all their
dock in winter. Pastryoooks use it in large quantities.
Medical men use it in cases of inflammation, fevers,
laxity of the digestive organs, and to produce numbness in
cases of amputation. All the monster mail packets have
now ice wells, and the decks of those packets ace no
longer encumbered with the nuisance of live stock and
fodder.