The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-28 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, ituica 28.

The Emperor has commissioned several naval
officers and hydrographers to proceed to various
points of the globe in order to determine a certain
number of fundamental meridians which will serve
to fix the geographical position of intermediate
places•

FRANCE AND HOLLAND.
HAMBURG, MARCH 28.

The Hamburg Corresputukut of to-day publishes
a semi-official communication from Berlin, which
says :

" In any arrangement effected between France
and Holland, with regard to Luxemburg, tho
other European powers will also be entitled to a
voice in the matter."

ITALY.
FLORENCE. MARCH 28.

In yesterday evening's sitting the Chamber of
Deputies elected Signori Pianelli, Restelli, and
Cavern, as vice-presidents.

ROME.

ROME, MARCH 27.

In a oonsistory held to-day the Pope preoonised
the Archbishops of Milan, Rheims, and Algiers to
their sees. Twenty-one bishops were also ap-
pointed, of whom four were French, one Hunga-
rian, and sixteen Italian.
His Holiness delivered a short allocution to the
cardinals.

PORTUGAL.

LISBON, limits 27.

Popular tumults have taken place in Oporto on
account of the new taxes. Troops were ordered
out to restore order. The city is now tranquil.

THE BOMBAY MAILS.
SOUTHAMPTON, lifAscw 28.
_

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Euxine, with the heavy portion of the above
mails, has arrived here. She brings 34 passengers,
3,121/. in specie, 72 bundles of ivory, and 9C)
packages of sundries.
Across the bay and up channel she experienced
westerly winds.

On the 20th inst. she spoke the steamer Syria,
and on the 24th the China.

Gibraltar 23rd March. The French frigate
Pomone, from Vera Cruz, with 600 men of the Ist
battalion of the foreign legion, arrived here on the
21st instant. These troops are destined for Oran
on the Morocco coast.

Her Majesty's ships Galatea, Skylark, and Red-
pole, were in the harbour.
Exchange on London 491, on Paris 5.24, Madrid
1 dis, Cadiz, Seville, and Valencia par. Freights
unchanged.

AMERICA.
On =rano Tausatura.)
NEW YORK, DlAaca 27.
_ _ _

General Sheridan has removed Mr. Herron from
the post of Attorney-General of Louisiana, and
has also dismissed from their offices Mayor Monroe
and Judge Abell.
Their successors have been nominated.

The levee of the Mississippi is giving way, and
an inundation of the lower valley is apprehended.
The Guion Company's steamer Chicago arrived
here this morning. She was detained by ice in
let. 45 N., lon. 48 W.

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(nom OUR ow CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS. WEDIPEADAT Evarixa.

The partisans of imprisonment for debt are doing
battle for the cause in the Corps Legislatif with
extraordinary zeal. The Tribunal of Commerce of
the Department of the Seine has declared unani-
mously that the test " produces no useful result ;
is not resorted to by any respectable traders, and
ought to be abolished." But the deputies Jossean,
Seneca, and Nogent St. Laurens, cite Montesquieu,
Napoleon 1., and Troplong to prove that imprison-
ment for debt is the head corner stone of com-
merce, and in particular they insist upon its main-
tenance in the interest of poor men, who, they say,
will not be able to get any credit if it shall be
abolished. They go so far as to predict that the
passing of the government bill will deprive Paris
of a main part of the harvest she expected
to reap this year from the Exhibition. Twenty-
five millions is the estimated value of the busi-
ness done with foreigners in a year. This
year 50 millions was calculated upon ; but if
the Paris bourgeois is to be prevented from clap-
ping his foreigner into prison whenever he pleases
and without a moment's notice, he will, it is
alleged, be afraid to do business with him
at all. Again, large numbers of English resort
to St. Malo and other porta of Normandy
to buy cattle and provisions. We are told
that the English will get no more credit in
these places if imprisonment for debt is to
be done away with. These exaggerations were
extremely well answered by the champions on the
other side, MM. Jules Simon, Mege, and Mario,
who contend that the possibility of putting a
debtor in gaol never enters into the calcula-
tions of tradesmen whol give credit. They look,
on the contrary, only to the honesty and
means of the persons they trust. M.
Baroche is speaking to-day as government com-
missioner. The result of the debate is ex-
tremely doubtful. M. Baroche threatens to resign
if the Chamber throws out the bill. This is a very
striking fulfilment of the prophecy that when
ministers came to defend their own measures be-
fore the house they must necessarily consider
themselves responsible to it.

There is a rumour that Baron Jersime David is
likely to resign his seat on his appointment to an
important ministerial department. He had been
talked of as likely to succeed to the Speakership,
which Count Walewski wishes to resign.
The papers contain a story of a crime committed
at St. Denis of so appalling and unheard-of a cha-
racter that I cannot but suspect some inaccuracy in
the report. The statement is that a party of 11
waiters and cooks employed in some of the St.
Denis restaurants met together at the lodgings of
one of them to have a supper with provisions and
wine stolen from their masters. A girl aged 19, of
bad character and in the last stage of pregnancy,
sat down with them. They got drunk. A horrible
and indescribable orgie followed. In the course of
the night the girl was delivered of a child, which
was strangled as soon as born, and the body thrown
into a water-closet. The girl made no complaint,
but on being questioned by the commissary of
police, in consequence of her altered appearance,
she made disclosures which led to the arrest of the
11 men.

At the Bourse, in the absence of any political
news, the market took a favourable turn for the
speculators for the rise. Rente raw 25c., both for
cash and account, closing at 69fr. 20c. and 69fr.
171 c. Mobilier rose 6fr. 23c., and yet the great
affair pending between the SocigtiS Immobiliere
and the Comptoir d'Escompte is not supposed to
be settled. Italian rose 25c. The new Danubian
scrip was in favour, and quoted at 70fr. 01c., or
within i of par.

The annual commemorative anniversary of the
return of the First Emperor from the Island of Elba was
celebrated on Sunday at Catelain's restaurant. Falai'
RoyaL As usual, the poet-deputy, U. Belmontet, was re.
quested to preside, which he accordingly did. Naturally
the number of heroes of the First Empire diminishes
rapidly. M. Belmontet designated the medallists as
" medailles vivantes " of the imperial epopee. All the
victories of the Grand Army were represented, from Ma•
range to Montmirail, which, when one considers the date
of the first Italian campaign, is truly marvellous. The
bust of the First Emperor occupied the centre of the table.
overshadowed by branches of the traditional chestnut tree
of the Tuileries. The huge ration loaf was surmounted by
a magnificent bouquetof Parma violets, sent from Toulouse
for the occasion. The flowers were distributed among the
old medallists, who cheered the Emperor heartily and re-
' peatedly.

The following is the text of the report addressed
to the King of Italy for the decree ordering the removal
of the remains of Daniel klanin to Venice :—" The ashes
of that patriot repose still in the Liendly soil which was
for him, MI for so many others, the hospitable land of his
exile. But since the happy deliverance of Venetia they
await restoration to the country of his birth. After hav-
ing valiantly assisted at the defence of Venice so long ns
that was possible, he took refuge in France, and there,
joining in admirable unison the most disinterested patriot.
ism to the sincerest practical sense, he was one of the first
to sustain the idea of national unity under the constitu-
tional sceptre of the august House of Savoy. By his en.
lightened counsels and an incessant devotedness he foresaw
and prepared the way for the triumph of that unity which
in 1866 ceased to be a wish. He had not the consolation
of witnessing the long-awaited success ; but Venice and
Italy desire, and justly, to restore the remains of the illus-
trious deceased to that country for which during his life-
time be laboured and suffered so much."

Verdi has just arrived at Genoa, where he will in
future take up his winter residence ; during the remainder
of the year he will continue to occupy hie house at Santa
Agate, near Busseto. The municipality of Genoa, wishing
to show the value it attaches to his presence, has decided
that his name should be inscribed on the golden register
of the city, and has at the same time conferred on him
civic rights. A street is also to receive the name of the
Via Verdi.

The first hopeful sign that the Chinese are begin-
ning to appreciate the superior knowledge of Western
races has just been given in the shape of a proposal by the
Foreign Board so establish at Pekin a college for the in-
struction of educated Chinese in foreign science.

According to the Melbourne papers just received,

enormous swarms of beetles Lave been notioed lately in
Victoria, Australia. In the early part of January ► swarm
was notion! near Ararat, in Victori►, flying in a column
about 20 yards broad, and keeping in compact order. They
oast a dark shadow on the ground, and they were an Lour
in passing the spot from which they were seen. At a
certain point they turned off at right angles. The oca-
&ITU in the neighbourhood of these insects have been
stripped of every particle of foliage. Great numbers of
the beetles fall to the ground during the flight. The noise
they make while flying is like th►t of a hurricane playing
in the rigging of a ship. The colour of these beetles is a
dark bronze.

Mrs. Aloock, mother of Major Henry Aloock,
Deputy• Lieutenant of Wilton, county of Wexford, was
burnt to death atWilton Castle on Sunday evening. She was
alone in the servants' hall when her clothe' took fire, and
she was dead before help came. The gentlemen of the
Wexford bunt were to have dined there next day.

Nine or ten lives have been lost by the recent
floods in the county of Wicklow. At a place called
Askinagap, a herd named Mulball, with his wife and four
children, were found overwhelmed with mow in their
cabin, lying dead in their beds, as if they were asleep. In
another place a woman was carried away several hundred
yards by a torrent, while her infant was found floating in
its cot on ► distant stream.