The Express.
London, England, 1858-12-03 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

REFUSAL OF M. MONTALEMBERT TO

ACCEPT PARDON.

AL Montalembert has addresed the following
letter to the editor of the Yositeur :

44 M. le Redactenr,—The Moniteur of this morning
contains in its unofficial part a pleas of news which
I learn on reading that paper. It is to this
effect-4 H.M. the Emperor, on the occasion of the
anniversary of the Sad of December, has remitted,
in favour of Count de Montalembert, the penalty

pronounced against him.' Condemned on the 24th of
November, I have appealed, within the term allowed
by the kw,against the sentence pronounced against ma.
No government in France has had, up to the present,
the right to remit a penalty which is not definitive.
I am of those who still believe in right, and who do
not accept a pardon. I pray you, and, if need be,
regain yea to be good enough to insert this letter in
year 13111Xt. number.—CH. DI Morrstratinar."
The ifowiteur this morning says that competent
tribunals will decide whether the appeal which M.
Montalembert seeks, can, under the present circum-
stances, be etuitained.

M. Montalembert has addressed the following
letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris :

Pals, Nov. 20, 1858._

Monseigneur,—The number of the larifiparfaaM Bays
received this day in Perim mammas that your Eminence,
after having already taken various steps In my favors, in-
tesdad to Intifada with the Emmen in eider to obtain •
rineiesioe of the penalty which has been peceouncied spinet
me.

I a- aware that .the credit should not be atteahed
to melbas of this nature, bat the harosses pnbikity of
the Journal that 'anises thee, sad the motion pro-
duced among my tried', Impose co me the daty of pointing
oat thh Immune to year Iheinswee, sad of protesting, if
need be, egahet the intsatka It supposes.

Frond gad honoured by a ocinlemnation which prow
lay fidelity to the politics] ceinolphe at my whole life, and
wbiel masa so opportunely to justify In the eyes of Europe
end of posterity all that I bam mid or thought ce the
enual condition of Priam, I have at this moment no other
&gee than to leave to my judges the responsibility of their
eats, sad I could only ingerd in the light of a real wrong
(iiners) the alighted favour emanating from the imperial
government,

In the midst of the changes of which I bays besa the
minims, and of the trials of which I hays been the sloths,
my honour has been intact. It is to preserve it from an
attempt, even in appearance, that I take the liberty (of as.
membg to your Eminence a disquietude perhaps supertmes,
bat pefectly legitimate.
I have the honour to be, Noassignsur,
Your Eminence's very humble and obedient servant,

0/1. de NOM%

The Cardinal Archbishop replied to the foregoing
in a letter dated the 30th of November, to the effect
that he never had the intention attributed to him by
tie IndEpenclanee Beige.

PLOY OUR 011111 00111STONDI1T4
PARIS, THURSDAY lIVIIIING.

The pardon of M. de biontalembert, although
undcrabtedly a wise measure, is one the wisdom of
which most not make us forget the folly of the pro-
secution. It would, moreover, be affectation to blink
the fact that in associating his act of grace with
the date of December 2 the Emperor very cleverly
aims a poisoned arrow at the breast of his adversary.
The anniversary of the coop d'etat has never before
been kept as a white day. In pardoning M. de
Montalembert on this day, the Emperor in effect
tsunts him with inconsistency, and claims him as
an accomplice. The Press*, referring to the event,
says with bitter irony The many services ren-
dered by the Count de Montalernbert to the cause

of De;ember 2, 1851, both before and after
the event, give to this pardon, announced in the
Moniteur of December 2, 1858, a remarkable cha-
racter of opportunity." Of a verity it may be said
that the "tender mercy" of a pardon granted
under theme " circumatances" is of that kind

proverbially denominated " Notwithstand-
ing the pardon M. de Montalembert, accompanied
by MM. Berryer and Dufaure,: presented himself
at the registrar's office at half-past 12 this day, to
lodge an appeal against the sentence pronounced
upon him. I have not at this moment any accurate
Information as to the legal effect of • pardon,:but I
do not think it necessarily prevents an appeal. It
does not seem just that it should do so, because,
supposing that the sentence of the correctional judges
of the sixth chamber were in reality—as it is in
theory--one that indicts a stigma upon M. de Monts-
lambert--he would not be relieved from that stigma by
a peados; expressly based upon the accident of a par-
ticular day occurring jest after the trial. Farther,
it ocean; to me that a very serious question indeed
might arise, namely, whether the pardon would
have the effect of removing M. de Montalembert
from the category of persons liable to be transported
at any time, at the good pleasure of the executive,
under the terrible law of " public safety." That
arbitrary law applies to all persons who may " bays
been convicted" of certain offences, and it would, I
think, be eminently unsafe, especially under each •
government as the present, to rely upon the perdcu
as a protection.
There are very persistent rumours of ministerial
changes in quarters likely to have an inkling of forth-
coming events. I can, however, only allude to them
as oti dila. It is said that M. de Royer, the Minister
of Justice, retires, and will be replaced by M. De.
tangle ; M. de Persigny will be Minister of the In-
terior and M. Pietri, the former Prefect of Pollee,
will be created Minister of Police, with very ex-
tended powers. One story, however is, that the
" bureau of the pram," being threatened with atm&
ties by IL Delangie sea animas% the people is that
ace set about rumours of the position of that
minister being threatened.
The Doane was very heavy indeed today; an
uneasy feeling with regard to the Italia* question
was decidedly prevalent. The Rents fell 20e. for
cash, and 30c. for account, closing at 741 r. sad
74fr. 200. Mobilier fell 20fr. The Orleans Rail-
way fell 12fr. 60a. ; Southern, aft.; and the other
lines about 2fr. 600.

The ceremony of the apostolic installation of Car-
dinal Morlot, Archbishop of Paris, as Primate of
the Imperial Chapter of Saint-Denis, took place yes-
terday at Saint-Dania with great pomp. The Cardi-
nal was installed in hia high office by the Papal
Nuncio, acting as the special delegate of the Save-
reign Pontiff The Cardinal, on hia knees on the
steps of the altar, at the feet of the Nuncio, repeated
the liturgical formula, after which the ball ordering
the installation was read. Mus was afterwards
performed by the Cardinal Primate, at the tontine,
Lion of which the Dwaine *ahem ,Jac Deperatorms
was sang. The Cardinal afterwards delivered as
address.

THE lONIAN ISLANDS.

Mr. Gladdens arrival at Cala on Wednesday,
the 24th of November, at 11 a'alosit, in the Ur-
rible. He is aorampaniad by Has. end Mies Glad-
stone, and by his Sanatory, the Hes. Azailibald
Gordon, aaa of Lord Aberdeen. Hit arrival had
mato& quite a sensation in the island.

BELGIUM.

In the new penal code, now under examination in
the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, the Govern-
ment proposes to increase the punishment against
writers in the public press who should be
found guilty of attacks against the laws or
against the constitutional authority of the King.
By the new legislation proposed, the penalty
for inch offences is fixed at an imprisoa-
meat of from three to five years, with a
eurvealance of the police of from five to ten
years, whereas, by the present legislation the
maxim of punishment is three years' imprison-
ment without any rurveillasses. The Dibate, after
declaring that this additional severity has produced
great surprise in Belgium, inquires for what reason
the Government of that country has deemed it re-
quisite to thus segment the penalties for pram
offences. Has a revolutionary spirit, it asks, sud-
denly declared itself in Belgium ? Or does the
constitutional authority of the laws and of the
sovereign require such an exceptional pretection
against the attacks of faction. Far from that
the country is perfectly tranquil, and for many
years no prey-trial has brought to light any ten-
dencies of a nature to call for such an aggravation
of the penal laws. The only attempt at justification
fir the increased penalty that can be assigned by the
committee on the measure is that " the enactment
in question is the same as that &upraised in the
French law on the same subject, passed November
29, 1830." But that law, the Mktg observes,
was an exceptional measure, designed to fur-
nish the government, then lately established, with
an extraordinary power against the attacks of
numerous and indefatigable enemies. Belgium is at
present placed in a far more satisfactory position,
and needs no unusual authority ; it is, therefore,
without any good reason and without any prospect
of ultimata advantage, that the increased penalties
have been proposed to the Belgian Legislature.
Oar contemporary concludes its remarks by inti-
mating its surprise at the silence of the liberal
press in Belgium on the subject, and by expressing
a hope that the ministry of King Leopold will not
persevere in a measure which is quite uncalled for.

ITALY.

MAN 001 OWN 00111.118PONDINT.)

TURIN, Nov. 28.

It is now some time since I told you of the hopes
which are placed by many people here in the war-
like designs of a neighbouring Power, and informed
you that they had given rise to en anxious expecta-
tion and inquietude which continue to spread from
one province to another throughout the whole of
Italy. At present all the French and Belgian news-
papers are repeating these rumours of war, of which I
mast of them appear, however, to be still incredu- i
lone ; and, indeed, the Debate has just contradicted 1
them with its usual tone of es eathedril solemnity.
But neither the Dfbate nor any other journal gives
us an explanation of the riddle. It is certain that at
this moment, between the court of Sardinia and that
of the Tuileries, most intimate relations prevail, and
au intercourse is carried on beyond the ordi-
nary process of wiredrawn diplomatic corre-
spondence. The Minister of France here,
the Prince Latour d'Auvergne, is the first
to acknowledge that he himself knows nothing
of what is going on, bat he only knows that there is
something; and in like manner everything tends to
prove that Count Walewskl is no better informed
about it than the others. Meanwhile, Count Cavottr
takes no pains to contradict the rumours which are
torrent, or to calm the public mind, which is excited
in no small degree. He does not deny, indeed, that
the state of affairs is becoming serious, and that if it
should go on mach longer without events leading to
some result, and if the hopes which have been con-
ceived should be left to fall entirely to the ground,
his political system will no longer be enabled to
uphold itself, and he will have to retire. With re-
ference to this alternative, a wit observed to him the
other day, " Count Coyote, you are just turning over
a new leaf, and you are in rupees° betwixt a page
of Plutarch and one of Asop's fables."
Be these things as they may, and whatever be
their true interpretation, one thing is most true
and certain—the alarming condition of Lombardy.
There the exasperation and the exaltation of the
people's minds are daily increasing, and have now
become general. Men and women, rich and poor,
citizens and peasantry, all cry out that the Austrian
yoke has become insupportable, and that they must
put an cod to it. at whatever cost. This license of
speech is almost incredible in a country which is fall
of foreign soldiery and full of cannon. It is a fact
yet more incredible that the police are obliged to
tolerate it ; and this is because the police employes, a
set of persons who are devoid of sincere zeal for any
principles or service, no longer entertain the same
lbeling of security and profound confidence as they
formerly did in the stability and duration of the go-
vernment which protects them against the hatred of
the citizens. The following are the three principal
and immediate causes of the growing aversion of the
people. One is the decree which has suddenly re-
duped the nominal value of the coinage which is daily
used in retail trade. The second consols the new law
of conscription, which I have already mentioned to
you. Without repeating what has been stated before,
I need only cite one clause of this law, which will
gaffes to illustrate the spirit of all its other provi-
sions ; namely, that not even an only son is exempted
from the conscription in case his father be lees than
seventy years of age, unless it be shown by evidence
that the father has no means of subsistence except
his son's labour. The third cause of the profound
discontent which prevails is that the impoverishment
of Lombardy and Venice has now become visible to
every eye. Every one clearly sees that the revenues
of the country are inadequate to meet the taxes and
a thousand other hardens which press upon it, and
that for several years past the deficiency has been
supplied by oonsumiog the capital of the wealth of
the community. Add to these etwiderations the

extensive promises solemnly made by the Archduke
Governor, not one of which has been fulfilled—sod
add, moreover, the rumours of speedy war which
have come across from Piedmont—and yon will find

an ample explanation of the ebullition of the public
mind throughout all Lombardy.
The Neapolitan minister at this wart, Count
Canothri, and the minister of Russia, Count Steckel-
berg, being just now at Milan, it is by some asserted
that the °bigot ores& of them is to observe for him-
self the actual state of things there. The Russian
minister will certainly not make a long stay there,
ea the arrival of the Grand fluke Constantine in
Piedmont is now imminent. The Archduke Maxi-
milian is still at Mantua, where he arrived on the
17th instant, and it looks as though be were
reluctant to dad his way to Milan after the many
hopes which have been excited in vain, and the
many promises which have failed of aeoomplishment.
The few Lombard nobles who frequent the court
are the foremost now to complain of the utter
delusion which has been imposed on them, and make
the butt excuse they can to their fetlow-eitizeroi,
saying that the pablis has newer yet humid aumball'
I f the liberal "mom the young Archduke made to

them, or the liberal institutions he led them to
expect. It is a fact that the Marquis Taverna, the
Marquis Manare, Duke Archinti, and Duke Meld,
with some others, endeavour to withdraw themselves
as well u they can from the festivities and offices of
the court. For the rest, the wisest and most en.
lightened minds, as well in Piedmont as in the Isom.
bardo-Venetian territory, employ all their influence
and every means at their disposal to calm the
people's feelings, and to prevent bloody and dia.
estrous conflicts.

P.B. I have just learned from the Milan Gault.
the arrival of the Archduke Pilaximilian in that city.
It appears that this arrival took place unexpectedly,
as letters from Milan of the previous day saidnot
word about it. A.

The Pseeolo Corriere d' Italia of Turin sayi:-.
"The fortifications of Alessandris, Casale, Oenos,
and La Spezia are being actively pushed on, The

fortilleatiOne of Alexandria are to receive 300 gnu,
already oast and placed on their carriages. The
arsenals of the state contain upwards of 200,000
muskets, besides other weapons in proportion. There
are large quantities of ammunition and uniforms in
100,000 men. There are twenty field-batteries is
reserve."