The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-22 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(mow °us OWN CORRESPONDKRT.)

PARIS, SUNDAY EVENING.

The apprehensions of war continue to be on the
increase. All the Bourses in Germany are lower
on account of them. If there has been no con-
siderable fall at the Paris Bourse, it is only because
the Rente is almost at war prices already. Rumours
of an alliance between France, Austria, and Italy
are industriously circulated, and the Sultan is
eagerly canvassed to join it. Considerable dis-
appointment is felt that the Sultan is not coming to
pay a second visit to Paris, and that there are no
hopes of seeing even his minister, Fuad Poch*.
Temptations are being held out to Sweden and
Denmark to join the French league. Prussia is
rapidly preparing for the coming storm. A very
important symptom, among many minor ones, is,
that the division which Hesse is bound to furnish
to the Prussian army pursuant to the military al-
liance, and which was not to have been organised ti➢
October 1, is by a recent resolution of the Grand
Ducal government and the Hesse Darmstadt
Chamber to be formed immediately. The remark-
' able reasons for this haste, publicly assigned by
the Hesse Minister of War, are that although it is
impossible to predict with certainty what events
may occur next spring, it is essential that the
Hesse division should be fit for active service by
that time, and that it would be impossible during
the six winter months to have the extraordinary
levies thoroughly drilled with the needle-gun and
fully equipped. The three months yet left of
summer are felt to be necessary for this purpose.
As Prussia is supreme in all mattersmili-
tary throughout the southern German Con-
federation as well as in the north, what is the
rule for Hesse must also be the rule for
Bavaria, Wurtemburg, &c. It is most
important that peoples as well as governments
should not shut their eyes against evidence. The
alarmists are now the greatest friends of peace. It
is certain that the French Emperor is meditating
war on a grand scale, and it is equally certain that
the nefarious object is an extension of territory,
in order to restore his prestige, grievously damaged
by the Mexican failure, and to stifle opposition at
the next elections. There is a hope that the good
sense of the world may yet baulk these designs, hut
safety lies in constant vigilance and a keen sense of
the impending danger.
An expectation has been expressed that the
Corps Legislatif would be prorogued to-morrow
but although the deputies have almost come to an
agreement among themselves that nobody shall
speak more than a quarter of an hour at a time for
the rest of this session, I do not think the business
on hand can possibly be hurried over sooner than
Thursday. The budget of receipts will give rise to
another debate about Mexico, M. Berryer being
determined to persevere with his amendment de-
manding that the Comptoir d'Escompte shall be
held liable to the state for a sum of 28 millions, for
which M. Fould let them off, when Mexican affairs
went to the bad, on the ground that events had
released them from their contract. M. Picard pro-
poses to bring forward the arbitrary suppression of
the municipal council of Toulouse.

Fraudulent debtors should not be too jubilant
about the abolition of imprisonment for debt. The
laws against all kinds of swindling and embezzle-
ment are now likely to be applied with far more
severity than before, and the government has pro-
mised that if the present laws are found after a short
experience to be too lax they shall be made more
stringent. There is reason to believe that many
of the class hitherto fed by their creditors in
Clichy will be reduced to prison allowance as cri-
minals in Mazes, and they will not find the change
a pleasant one. The bankruptcy laws will probably
be revised in a year or two ; and according to the
high authority of M. Rouland they stand in great
need of it. He said that in the majority of cases
of small bankruptcies the creditors never get any-
thing. A great hope was entertained by per-
sons doing business with Algeria that the
operation of the law in that colony would be
suspended there for some time in order to
give time to wind up pending affairs. It was
broadly asserted by a senator that the native Al-
gerians would never pay their debts if relieved from
the fear of imprisonment, and that they actually
thought it a religious act to swindle a Christian out
of his money when they could do so with impunity.
M. Rouher, however, was inexorable, and insisted
that there should be no exception to the grand
principle of the bill. Experience will soon show
how far the alarms of traders to Algeria are justi-
fied. One Rouen merchant goes about saying that
he expects to be a loser of five or six millions at
once.

The statement of Figaro, echoed by several
journals, that Madame Rattazzi had been ordered
to leave Paris is contradicted.

The Imperial Commission has made arrange.
menu for the delivery of a series of lectures on subjects
connected with the display in the Exhibition. The lec-
tures will be delivered at various places within the build-
ing and the grounds. Among the subjects are—csout-
chow:, artificial ice, iron smelting, brass founding, and the
regulation of gas. The lecturers are all men of some emi-
mace in their various professions.
Tug ROMAN NATIONAL JUNTA.—The National
Committee of Rome and the Centre of Insurrection
between both which bodies dissensions had arisen, have
voluntarily dissolved and have united in a sow organisa-
tion called the Roman National Junta.