The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-27 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(nom oils owar CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, THURSDAY EVENING.

As I anticipated on Monday, there is little doubt
that the opposition in the Corps Legislatif will be
reinforced in the first week of the new year by
two deputies. In the Indre-et-Loire, MM. Riviere
and de Flavigny, who were at the bottom of the
pull and scored between them upwards of 5,000
opposition votes, have announced their retirement,
and recommended their friends to support M.
Houssard, the only remaining adversary of the
prefect's nominee. On all former like occasions
the strength of the opposition has shown itself
greater on the second than on the first ballot, and
for this reason, that the possibility of victory,
which owing to long years of uniform official success
had been supposed infinitely remote, encouraged
many electors to shake off their apathy. In the
Somme it is not yet quite settled what course the
opposition will take, but in all likelihood M.
d'Estournel will be adopted as the sole candidate
against M. Villemont, the prefectoral successor of
Dr. Conneau, just elevated to the Senate. Both
MM. Houssard and d'Estournel go to the country
pledged against the army bill. I said some little
time ago that the general elections would probably
be made under the influence of " Chauvinism." It
occurs to me now that the question may now be
asked—how can that influence be expected to be
successful when the accidental partial elections
show such a decided reluctance on the part of the
people to consent to the augmentation of the
army I My answer is that the danger of a general
war is rendered all the greater by those manifesta-
tions of public opinion. The Emperor is deter-
mined above all things to augment his army. That
I take to be an undeniable proposition. And in
proportion to the indisposition which he finds in
the country to furnish an augmented army without
some strong necessity shown, will be his tempta-
tion to create that necessity, by proclaiming that,
in spite of his long suffering and well-known
moderation, the honour and interests of France
require an appeal to arms. It is pos-
sible that he may miscalculate. It is possible
that the military spirit in France may be
leas strong than it used to be. But the
general opinion no doubt is that if war against
Prussia were actually declared, or even asserted
to be imminent, the traditional love of conquest
and glory would make the French people blind to
every other consideration.

The Manna of the Eure-et-Lair says that peti-
tions against the army bill are now being signed in
the department.
The Presse mentions a rumour that MM. de
Rothschild have been served with a notice
not to pay the coming dividend on Italian
Rentes, in consequence of a claim on the
part of the Papal government to a lien for
that part of the Papal debt which Italy
took upon herself by the convention of September
and which she now refuses to pay. One version is
that the distringas at MM. Rothschild's has been
lodged by the Pope ; but according to another it
is the French government that intervenes. There
is no contract between Italy and Rome, the latter
having always refused to recognise the September
convention. In private affairs, however, a cestui-
gne-trust may claim the benefit of a deed to which
he was no party, and the like rule may possibly
hold between nations. If France has taken such
a grave step as the one alleged it shows that she
either means to provoke Italy to war or to hold
her in tutelage.

At the Bourse the Bente opened at higher quo-
tations than on Christmas-eve, and rose te 68f r. 85c. ;
but it became very heavy towards the close, and
left off with a fall of 10c., at 68fr. 65c. for cash
and 68fr. Mic. for account. Italian fell 20c., and
Mobilier 2fr. 500. Railway shares were weaker.
The last week's receipts, like those of the week be-