The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-06 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(Paoli OUR OWN

PARIS. TUMMY EVIIIING.

The speech of the Marquis de Moustier leaves,
it will be seen, small hope indeed of that speedy
evacuation of the Roman states which was solemnly
stated as desirable in the speech from the British
throne, or of any approaching settlement of the
Roman question. On the contra y, it shows
that the occupation which was renounced
by the convention on account of its intolerable in-
conveniences and manifest evil, is now indefinitely
renewed under circumstances which render it far',
more pernicious to France, and more dangerous to
the peace of the world than before. M. Thiel.'
made a speech of immense length, which took
three hours and a half in the delivery, and can
scarcely be read thoroughly in less time. Many of
the first columns of it are devoted to showing
that he was always right when he said
the Emperor had done • fatal work for France by
creating the unity of Italy, and incidentally by
weakening Austria the unity of Germany. He

entirely approved of the intervention of Fiance,
to protect the Pope, but with consummate art
insinuated a belief that the Emperor after all was
favourable to Italian views so long as they were
not carried out by means which he had not con-
templated. He delivered a long essay on be-
half of the temporal power, which he pro-
fessed to defend entirely on political and not on
religious grounds. He went the whole length of
holding that since catholic* believed, rightly or
wrongly, that it was necessary to the head of their
religion to be the Sovereign of an independent
kingdom, it was an interference with the liberty of
conscience, and consequently a breach of the prin-
ciples of 'B9, to consent to or connive at any act
which might deprive the Popeof his temporal power.
His practical conclusion was that France which he
over Andover again said was terribly and irrevocably
damaged by the fatal policy which the Emperor
had pursued, might now possibly avoid a war with
Germany (which he did not think imminent) by
at once telling Italy, in plain and unmistakeable
terms, that she must for ever renounce all hope of
Rome. A temporary intervention, a mere pro-
visional reparation of the harm which France had
done to the Papacy, would only favour Italian
ambition and increase the chances of a general
war. If Italy were allowed to gain time, without
a positive settlement, she might hope for circum-
stances subsequently favouring a Prussian alliance
which could not in decency be effected now for
such an iniquitous purpose as dethroning the Pope.
In the case of M. du Sisson, which I reported
at length last week, the Court of First Instance
gave judgment yesterday. Adopting the suggestion
of the Imperial Advocate Chevrier it held that the
article in the Derby, of January 19, 1867, entitled
" Recollections of Abyssinia," contained an untrue
libel upon the plaintiff in so far as it stated
that he had " abandoned the expedition of
which he was the chief, and had left his followers
in the lowest depth of his misery." For the in-
jury done to M. du Bisson's honour and considera-
tion by this false allegation, the court awarded him
against the Derby 121. damages ; as against the
Figaro, which had only copied parts of the Derby
article throwing ridicule upon the plaintiff's narra-
tive of his expedition, and denying that he had
ever been in Abyssinia at all, but had not repeated
the above allegation, the action was dismissed
with costs.

' The Bourse was a good deal weaker. Rent. fell
30c. for cash and 20c. for account, closing at 69fr.
20c. and 69fr. 15c. Italian was much offered, and
fell 55c. Credit Foncier fell 121 r. 50c, and Mo-
biller sfr. There was a talk of Prussian and Bel-
gian loans shortly coming out.

An address from the princes of Kattywar was
prmensed yesterday afternoon to Sir Henry Bartle Edmund
Fnas, G.C.S.I.' ' and late Governor of Bom-
bay, at Willis's Rooms. The oeremony was carried out
under the auspices of the East India Association, whose
president, Lord Megrims, occupied the chair. There
were • large number of ladies and gentlemen present, in-
cluding Mr. Crawford, M.P. Colonel Sykes, DI.P., Sir A.
Waugh, Mr. Kaye, Archdeacon Wordsworth, General
North, ice.
The Cotton Spinners' Association are preparing
' to present to the Board of Trade • memorial, praying the
government to bring into parliament a bill conferring
upon the Board of Trade such powers as may be necessary
to amide the board to obtain correct statistics of the
imEorts, exports, and inland distribution of cotton.
CHURCH RATE LEGISLATION.—The government
have answered Mr. Hadfield that they do not intend to
bring in any bill about church rates, for which we are
thankful. The subject is past • tory government. They
could only prices. • compromise, and that is now out of
the question ; they know that full well. Every possible
compromise has been weighed by the House of Commons,
and rejected. Mr. Gladstone's bill is understood to be
identical in substance, though perhaps not in form, with
the clauses Mr. Waldegrave-Leslie put on the books of the
hones last session, and will, therefore, probably be accepted
the abolitionists. The discussion will come on very
early in the session of next year.—Engfish Independent.
THE REPRESENTATION OP GREENOCK.—It Is said
that, in the event of Mr. Murray Dunlop resigning the re-
presentation of Greenock, many of the electors of the
burgh are desirous of proposing that his nephew, Mr.
Alex. Graham Dunlop, shwa be nominated to succeed
l him. Mr. A. Graham Dunlop is the eldest son of Mr.
Dunlop, of Gairbraid and Maryhill, near Glasgow, and is
at present consul at Andalusia, in Spain.
CAMBRIDGE, DEC. s.—Exammed and approved
for the degree of Master in Surgery : Wilkes, Trinity Col-
lege. (Signed) G. IL Humphry, Edward Burl, E. Car-
ver, Examiners.
CRYSTAL PALACE.—Lord William Lennox de-
livered yesterday one of the Free Thursday Lectures, to a
large and appreciative audience, on the subject of " Loto
motion, and how people travelled from the days of Charles
the Second up to the present time." The lecture was in.
structive and most entertaining, and interspersed through-
out with a variety of amusing and well-told anecdotes.
ADMIRALTY Dec. 5. —Arrorwramrrs.—Liente-
nant W. Neilson, to the Pylades ; Navigating Lieutenants
Chas. J. Hills, to the Asia, for Royal OA, and Jesse Dixon,
'to the Pylades; Midshipmen John C. J. Waloot and
Charles W. G. Spring, to the Liffey ; Navigating Midship-
men Wm. Barton, to the Danes, and Henry R. Johnston,
to the Pylades ; Paymaster Chas. D. Lindsay, to the
Pylades ; Assistant Paymasters Wm. Rintoul, to the
Pylades and Fredk. M. James, to the Cumberland •
Clerks Edward Armstrong, to the Pylades, and \Vane;
Parnell, to the Dame as supernumerary ; Assistant
Clerks, Herbert B. Rudge, to the Pylades, and Samuel
Crooke, to the St. Vincent.
BIRMINGHAM CATTLE AND POULTRY SHOW.—At
the annual meeting yesterday, the Earl of Bradford was
elected president for the ensuing year. The receipts at
the cattle show were larger up to WednescLiy evening
than in any year since 18t1. On the third day the visitors
numbered nearly 17,000. The admissions to the dog show
have somewhat fallen off, as has also the amount realised
on the sales of dogs.
A WOMAN CUT TO PIECES AT THE STNEATHAM
RAILWAY STAT/011.—At Streatham-common railway station
there is no subway for the use of persons wishing to pass
from one aide of the line to the other, and the public walk
across the metals. On Tuesday • woman, supposed to be
named Ann Clark, a cook in • gentleman's family, having
been out on business was returning home, and in order
to do so had to cross the line at the station. She had wade
Ilsearcely three paces when one of the fast trains came
along. The driver saw the deceased, and attempted to stop
the train, but was unable to do oc, and the buffer stackher on the aide, hurling her some distanee,wbs• **wheels
cf the engine and carriages passed over her. literally cutting
her into pieces.
Sr. ALBANS SrssrLscsasse.—These races have
Mean further pssiposial until Thursday sad Friday, the
12th sad 13111 last.

THE
ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

(1110 X ors BEWZAL

NAPLES, Nov. 30.

Lest night's eruption of Vesuvius was very
grand, for there were new streams of red-hot lava
on the mountain aide, and the bursts of flame from
the crater itself were bright and incessant. What
a change from the city to the mountain ! What
a glorious effect of blazing fragments hurled
hither and thither by subterranean force! It was
only an boor's drive through the paved streets,
and a two hours' scramble over stony footpaths,
and the city might have been a hundred miles away
from that battle of giants. Those pale lines of
gas lamps which we had noticed prettily fringing
the bay as we looked towards Naples faded into
darkness compared with the fierce glow of the
descending lava, and there was a roar as of waves
upon the shingle from each fresh shower of volcanic
stones. It was worth • longer journey and a
steeper climb to witness such • scene.

by an unusually dense mass of curling smoke, that
rose in a column thousands of feet high, and moved
slowly away before the wind like a monstrous white
plume set in some giant's cap. There were lesser
smoke clouds on the mountain side to show where
the volcano was busy, but in the pleasant sun-
shine of Naples—the weather has reversed its
character since I last wrote—everything might be
forgotten save the blue sky and the sparkling sea.
As night drew on, however, Vesuvius became more
and more conspicuous. The crater began to glow
with its dreary fitful splendour, and streams of hot
lava were to be seen like molten iron pouring out
of a furnace. I might well compare the whole
mountain to some great blast furnace of our own
" black country," only that here the iron which
I should come forth at the base when the
doors are jerked open was brimming over
the top of the pile. In former years there have
been deadly rushes of lava through the mountain
side, sweeping away houses, and burying vineyards
out of sight—the furnace walls have given way.
But this time there is a less threatening action,
with, perhaps, a finer effect. The night settles
down, the smoke cloud catches a crimson tint from
the fires below, and as I advance upon my way
towards Vesuvius there are still fresh streams of
lava welling up from the crater. I advance by aid
of a little Neapolitan cab, swift and rickety. The
driver u my especial friend, I might almost say my
patron, though we never saw each other before. He
modestly charges six times the proper fare, calling
me vaguely, "your highness." Then I bring him
down to thrice the fare, and am dubbed " your
excellency" in a deprecating way. He fights hard
at this point, and requires the pressure of pretend-
ing to walk off and leave him. " Signore, I will
take you," cries he, so soon as my back is turned.
Thus we arrange it ; and as a plain signore I am
rattled away for about double what a native of the
place would give. No matter, the fellow does but
seek to imitate his betters, with the excuse of a
very lean and hungry aspect. I never enjoy beating
down a cabman, though it is often a stern necessity,
and I wish that I could afford to go this
drive along the paved and echoing street, which
seems interminable, as " your highness." Would
he call me " your imperial highness " for an extra
ten franca 1 I think that he would, as, in spite of
our rather warm dispute, he is most civil, from the
hope of a small additional &lona many. Many
foreigners have lately been to see Vesuvius, he tells
me ; it is a great sight, a splendid spectacle, now
that there is an eruption. As to tho Neapolitans
themselves, they are accustomed to it, and it must
be very wonderful indeed to astonish them. Now
we have reached Resins, the region of rapacious
guides. The paved echoing street still stretches
on before us, with its occasional gaslights and its
armed patrols; but I must leave my rickety little
cab and prepare for the ascent of tho mountain.

With a torch and a torch-bearer who knew his
way by instinct, and who carried the flaming piece
of wood as an argument for overcharging I am
persuaded, the ascent was presently begun. We
wound up among vineyards and gardens, left a
good road for a worse, and that worse road for a
mere track across the rocks, and drew every mo-
ment nearer to the glowing furnace before us. At
one time it was lost to sight behind a shoulder of
the hillock over which we climbed. Then the
great black cone of Vesuvius stood out once more
against the sky, and the flames shot up from its sum-
mit, as though fresh fuel had been thrown into the
furnace. The dismal glare of the mountain grew
broader and redder as we opened it more fully into
view. Surely they had emptied twenty fur-
naces on that slope, which was covered with
embers. We left the vineyards and stray cottages,
passed beyond the last trace of civilised life, and
were in a valley of desolation, of rocks which grew
cold and solid long ago, and of other masses still
retaining their volcanic heat. Dark rugged peaks
rose on one hand, where Somme, the brother
mountain to Vesuvius, shut out the northern sky,
and on the other hand was that terrible furnace.
I say on the other hand because I am speaking of
our entry to the valley. But you will imagine
that no one could help facing full round to gaze at
the crater. There was something in fascination
like the effect of a burning-house, only the house
was a palace which towered to the sky, and
a magazine which had strength to blow
the whole city we had left to atoms in
the twinkling of an eye. More rolling,
sparkling, bounding rocks are coming down the
cone, another flash from the dismal summit has
made all the cloud above it glow with infernal
splendour. We could as safely try to storm a
battery defended by a thousand guns as climb up
yonder cone of Vesuvius. There are rocks upon
it bounding like cricket-balls, any one of which
would crush an elephant. It is all that we can do
to approach the foot of the ascent, feeling cau-
tiously for hot places before we step forward. We
must return to those pale gas lamps and to the
city which they illumine, and we know that we
must, but just for a moment Naples, with her
half million of inhabitants, might be a thousand
miles away. Nature is triumphant where we
stand.

THE RECENT HURRICANE IN THE WEST .
The 117drtgrepher to the Admiralty has issued circulars
requesting all the information which captains of vessels
which were in the West Indian seas during the hurricane
of the 29th of October can afford, in order that the charts
of the hurricane district in the West Indies, which are
now being prepared, may be completed with greater ful-
ness and accuracy. The chief pointsof information desired
are the ship's position, direction and force of the wind, the
state of the sea or swell, the registrations of the barometer,
and the temperatures of the air and the sea.

• ".11

LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—During the storms
of the present year the National Lifeboat Institution has
contributed to the saving of 1,027 Uwe from various shipwrecks
aim of vessels from destrucUon. The Institution also expended
L 20,655 In this same period on Its Lifeboat Establishments. in
addition to granting £2,844 for rewards, The Committee of the
Institution earnestly appeal to the public for assistance to
enable them to meet the continued heavy demands on their 186
Lif!boatEstablishnients. . .

tkedributione will be thankfully received by the London and
country bolters, and by the Richard Lewis. Esq., at
the Institution, 14, John-street, Ade . London.

PLANTS and BULBS. —Mr. STEVENS' SALES
of DUTCH BULK Fruit Trees, Rows. and hardy Shrubs
will take place every WEDNESDAY and SATURDAY, and fre-
quently on Monday, at the Auellon.roonts, Ss. king-street,
Coveut-garden, London—Catalogues on application.

BREAKFAST.-EPPS'S COCOA.

Vile erapreoo.

TO COl/1119PON DENTS.
Audis/manta intended for The Express," London Eutaw
Paper must be u the Oidoe. 10, &averts-etre* by Two
Volock on the day of publication.

DRURY LANE.

TRt Smyrna, THE iiiiiiimoiiiiCErdr. Phelps, Messrs.
J. C. Cowper, H. :sinelair, r Phelps. Barrett, Temple, we. , Mrs.
Hernytnn Vette, Miss Grattan, ete.—And THE LA D1F...; CLUB.
Mesdames Beatrix Shirley, Kale Ihrdeltlr, H. Vandenhoff, rte.