The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-04 00:00:00

AUSTRIAN VIEWS OF THE KING OF
PRUSSIA'S LATE SPEECH.

The Vienna press do not seem to be quite
satisfied with the speech of the King Frederick
William on the opening of the Prussian Chambers.
The new Freindenblate says :

The last manifestation which the Prussian government
have issued from the height of the throne is not much calcu-
lated to create amongst the friends of peace and of the Ger-
man nation the hope that Prussia will enter upon the path
of moderation and of reason. The speech of King William
is stamped from beginning to end with the idea of a Ger-
man Empire.

It concludes with the following remarks :
_ _

This is a had omen for the conference. Whilst Europe
is doing all it can to avoid a conflict Prussia is doing every-
thing to foment one.

According to the Prose, the King of Prussia,
who would not make a clear and decisive declara-
tion that he would not yield on the Luxemburg
question, has, on the other hand, purposely
dwelt on the treaties concluded with the South
German States, and on the extension of these
treaties "to the enlarged community of North
Germany." According to the Presse no difficulty
will be raised on the question of the neutralisation
of Luxemburg, whist any attempt to seep Prussia
to the stipulations of the treaty of Prague, and to
maintain the separate existence of " the three
fragments," would be equivalent to a declaration of
war. It will be with the Confederation of the
South as it was with the Italian Confederation in
1860. The treaty of Prague will live about as
long as the treaty of Villafranca.
The Volksfreueid takes the same view of the
speech as the Presse, and insists on the necessity
of an intimate alliance between Franceand Austria.

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(rum ous ows col

PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.

The Marquis de Moustier's speech is something
more than the formal announcement of the confer-
ence to be opened in London on May 7. If the
words he makes use of were carefully weighed, and
it must be presumed they were, the lamentations
and ominous forebodings founded on the assump-
tion that the conference was to meet " without a
basis" may be dismissed. The French Minister of
Foreign Affairs says boldly not merely that the
Luxemburg question is to be discussed in the con-
ference, but that all the difficulties relating to it
" will be settled." lie, moreover, expresses the
most entire confidence that the peace of Europe
will be " consolidated " by the coming " trans-
action."

The anxious public was certainly not prepared
for an official communication so entirely hopeful
as this appears to be on the face of it.
The opening of the Chalons Camp being fixed for
May 12—at least a fortnight sooner than the time
originally announced—has naturally enough led to
the supposition that France wished to hasten the
formation of an army on the eastern frontier, with
a view to the eventuality of war. But this obvious
construction of the fact is most ingeniously ex-
plained away by the Patrie, which makes out, by a
process of reasoning which nobody would ever
guess, that the concentration of an army at Chalons
with the utmost possible haste is the most con-
vincing proof that its services will not be wanted for
any warlike purpose. The apparent paradox is thus
explained. Originally the troops received orders to
march to Chalons along the common roads in order to
harden them and prepare them for the fatigue
which they would have to go through in a serious
campaign. But now the Emperor being altogether
imbued with pacific sentiments and oonfident in the
result of the conference, fears that the presence of
soldiers in the towns and villages where they would
have to be quartered on a march might needlessly
excite the martial spirit of the population. On
this Around alone his Majesty has ordered the
regiments to proceed to Chalons by special railway
trains ; and so it happens that, contrary in all pro-
bability to what will be thought by the vulgar
public throughout Europe—more haste is made
out to be less speed.

One little incident connected with the Chalons
camp is overlooked by the Patrie, probably as too
trivial to be worth notice. I mean that the number
of men to be there assembled for martial exercise,
instead of being 30,000 or 40,000, as in former
years, is to be 100,000.
The Libcrti says it is very curious to know the
text of a circular alleged by the Patrie to have been
sent by the Minister at War to generals command-
ing military divisions, informing them that the
order for soldiers en corgi to join their corps has
been countermanded.

The carriages of some eminent physicians not
habitually in attendance on the court having been
frequently seen lately at the doors of the Tuileries,
a report has been current that the Prince Imperial
was very much worse. This is not so. Drs. Arnal
and Barth° have been called in to consultations on
Madame Rolin (wife of the general intendant of
the palace), whose life is despaired of. As to the
Prince, he is in no immediate danger, though far
from being so well as is given out. He is still con-
fined to bed, but it is an ingeniously contrived
spring bed which enables him frequently to change
his position. On this bed he sits up in the day
time when he is dressed, and is wheeled about in his
apartments. Tho great fear is that the disease in
the periosteum of his thigh may descend to the
knee, and necessitate repeated painful operations,
and perhaps amputation.
A redacteur of the Liberti, M. Wilfrid de Fon-
vielle, had a visit from the police a few days ago,
who overhauled his papers, and it appears found
something implicating him as a promoter at unlaw-
ful proceedings in the matter of the tailors' strike.
He is to be prosecuted.
M. E. de Girardin's appeal against his last con-
demnation will come on for hearing next week.
The trial of Prince de Crouy-Chanel, who, con-
trary to expectation, and to what might have been
inferred from one of his own published letters,
has returned from Italy to surrender himself to
French justice, will come on before the Assize
Court of the Seine on May 14. The Prince is
accused of having been an accomplice with one
Berthome (already convicted) in extensive frauds
upon the Sous-Comptoir d'Esoompte. M. Nogent
Saint Laurens is retained for the defence.

M. de Fallout has accepted the task of pre-
senting the new academician, M. Jules Fevre, to
the Emperor.
M. Guizot and Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop of
Orleans, could not bring themselves to join M. de
Fallout in voting for M. Jules Fevre.
To-day the first civil chamber gave judgment
against M. Alex. Dumas in the matter of the pub-
lication of his photograph, in the shape of a pose
plastique, together with that of the equestrian
Miss Adah Isaacs Menken. The court holds that
M. A. Dumas's allegation that he only authorised
a few copies for distribution among private friends
was not sustained. Moreover that Dumas well
knew that MM. Liebert, the photographers, in-
tended to sell the corks of himself and Mias
Menken, and that the fact of his paying nothing
for the sitting, and having received several copies
gratis, was conclusive against him. His action was
therefore dismissed with costs.

The Bourse was very firm, but the rise was attri-
butable in great part not so much to political im-
pressions as to forced purchases on the part of a
great German house, which, after unfortunate
speculations, has been " executed." However,
rumours that the communication to the Corps Legia-
latif to-day would be of a very favourable character
were in circulation during Bourse hours. Rente
ruse 40c. for cash, and 3711 c. for account, closing at
08fr. 40c. and 68fr. 421 c. Credit Foncier rose
12fr. Mk. Comptoir d'Escompte 10fr., and Italian
92}c. Mobilier fell lfr. 25c. The Northern Rail-
way rose 7fr. 50c.

The Theatre of La Monnaic, at Brussels, was
densely crowded on Wednesday evening, in consequenceof
en announcement that the King and Queen, with the
Count and Countess de Flandre, would attend a gala re-
presentation of the Africeine. In the boxes were re-
marked Dearly ell the members of the cabinet, M. Rosier,
M. Vandenpeereboom, N. and Madame Vanderstichelen,
M. Bars, Lient.•General Baron and Baroness Goetbola.
The royal family made their entrance at the beginning of
the second act amidst loud accLimations, whilst the
orchestra played the Brabiumonne. The Queen was in
white and black, with a magnificent diadem of brilliants ;
the Countess de Flandre wore a rose-coloured dress
adorned with splendid jewels. The newly-married couple
e►t in the oeotre of the box and the King and Queen at
the aides. The representation was greatly applauded, and
the royal party did not quit the theatre until all was over.

A new lifeboat is about to be placed rai the
Brooke station at the back of the Isle of Wight, a dange-
rous part of the coast. Brooke wss the temporary resi-
dence of Garibaldi when he landed in England.

CORRESPONDENCE OP QUEEN VICTORIA WITS
THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON AND THE ZINO
OP PRUSSIA.

The Jountal de Paris, s journal just started
under the management of -AL. Weiss, formerly of the
Debate, and IL E. Nerve, of the Courrier dr Distaurbe,
giver certain particulars on the authority of letters from a
London correspondent relative to the influence exerted by
Queen Victoria in the Luxemburg dispute. The Queen
wrote to the Emperor Napoleon before writing to the Bing
of Prussia, and used the arguments mist calculated to divert
him from the warlike projects ameribed to him by publie
opinion. The Journal de Paris says :
" This letter, impressed with the religious and almost
mystic sentiments which predominate in the queen's
mind, particularly since the death of Prince Albert, seems
to have made a deep impression on the sovereign who,
amid the struggles of politics, has never completely re.
pudiated the philanthropic theories of hie youth, and who,
on the battlefield of liolferino, covered with the dead
and the wounded, wee seised with an unspeakable horror
of war."

The Emperor replied in • letter which, according to
the London correspondent of the Journal de Paris, had
the best effect on Queen Victoria and on her principal
advisers, for he protested against the schemes attributed to
him, and against all idea of territorial aggrandisement for
the advantage of France. He moreover declared, " with s
great elevation of language and ideas," the complete dis-
interestedness of his policy on the recent occasion. He
said, however, that the question, placed as it was, bad
become one of national honour to France ; but he left it
clearly to be understood that when ow* settled—that is,
when the fortreis of Luxemburg was evacuated—France
would be disposed to give up all thought of aggrandise.
ment. It was on receiving these conciliatory declarations
that the Queen addressed herself to the King of Prussia.
The family ties which unite the two reigning houses, the
personal sympathies which, as the Journal de Paris says,
Queen Victoria, in opposition to some of her advisers, has
always shown for the cause of Germany since the beginning
of the question of the Duchies, are known ; but, in
any circumstances, her Majesty's sentiments would
have made a serious impression on the Court of Berlin.
By a lucky coincidence the letter written to King Wil-
liam on the present occasion reached him at the moment
when H. Bismarck experienced • deception the more pain-
ful that it was unexpected—namely, that Russia was not
so favourable to the projects of the Prussians as he had
reason to suppose. Prince Gortechakoff had clearly monis
tested the intention of the Russian government not to
engage itself with any of the parties in the commence-
ment of the war, but reserved itself to intervene at •
later period, whenever the moment seemed oppoettni.
This fact made M. Bismarck seriously reflect on his situ►-
tion. The counsels of the Queen of England found not
only King William, but his minister, in a disposition
less warlike than people imagined, and it was then, with
the prompt decision which characterises him, that M.
Bismarck suddenly modified his policy in a pacific sense,
though probably be will astonish the world by some new

change should circumstances favour him.
There is another fact communicated by the London cor-
respondent of the journal alluded to, which it considers
highly important. At the moment when the crisis occa-
sioned by the Luxemburg question seemed certain to end
in war an understanding was come to between England,
Denmark, Sweden, and Holland of • nature to be easily
trandonned into • treaty, and the object of which was to
preserve the integrity of Holland against all danger from
whatever quarter it should come ; and the knowledge of
this understanding was not without influence on the
Paris and Berlin Cabinets.