The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-25 00:00:00

IHE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 25, 1869..

but they do not go far, and, what is more important,
do not go fast enough for our actual emer-
gencies. We are willing to believe that ten
years hence we shall have a splendid body of able
seamen, thoroughly trained and wedded to the ser.
vise. But the pressing difficulty is how to provide
for to-day and to-morrow. The House of Commons,
faithful in this respect to the constituencies, says
to the government of the day, " What sum do you
" want ? Name it and take it, and waste it
" as little as you can help." The traditional practice
of the government of the day has been to ask for
thousands for what is useful, and to waste millions
on what is worse than useless. Now, supposing that
by way of an experiment it were resolved to super-
sede the desperate empiricism of bounties by raising
at once and permanently the pay of seamen who
eel re in the navy, and by maintaining ths rate of
pay at a figure high enough to make our naval ser-
vice, in a money point of view, superior to any other
maritime employ? This would involve a consi-
derable increase in one department of the
estimates, but it would be in the mat im-
portant of all departments ; it would be repaid
by the mat tangible and direct advantages,
and it might be saved by corresponding reductions in
other departments, where excess is now the rule, and
reckless waste the tradition.

Still, a higher rate of pay is not all that is
required to man our ships readily and efficiently.
There are other subsidiary but sensible anti-
pathies to the service which at present, whether
rightly or wrongly, exist among the largest and beet
class of our eeatertng population, and which a few
very alight but appreciable concessions would cheaply
and easily remove. Sir CIIAILES NAPIER has lately
touched upon some petty grievances which have ren-
dered the service • bugbear to men who prefer the dew-
late liberty of a north-country collier to the comparative
luxuries of a man-of-war. It is certain that a man is
better housed, better fed, better cared for in all
respects, and, in a word, better off, on board a man-
of-war than in a common merchantman ; yet even the
collier is preferred. Might not one principal grievance
be removed without detriment to the discipline of the
service by withdrawing the exclusive prerogative of
punishment from the arbitraty caprice of one man
wham, temper is apt to be ruffled by the solitary con-
templation of blue water ;and might not regular pay,
more unstinted leave of absence, and the stratums
of a fretful and fligetty pursuit of smartness is
mere drill, overcome the obstinate en.; udices of sea-
men who now look upon a ship of war as landsmen
look spas a House of Correction ? Sir CHARLES NA.
Plies letter to the FIRST LORD of the ADMIRALTY
contained some hints which appeal forcibly to the com-
mon sense of landsmen, and which we believe many
of the ablest officers in the service would not repudiate.
The first thing to be done, then, is to raise the rate of
pay, and thus to attract the best men into the service,
and the setiond is to attach them by generous treat-
meat. If these two methods of manning the navy
have the fault of being too simple, we can only say
we know of no other, unless it be that which only
a foreign Power, bent upon disputing with us the
empire' of the seas, can substitute for the milder
Incentives of a time of peace. Seamen-gunners are
not the creation of a day; and we cannot afford to
wait fora declaration of war to learn the secret of
manning the navy.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(TROY OUR OWN

PARIS, MONDAY EVENINO.

I have more then once alluded to the crusade
against England which is now going on in the pro-
vincial journals "by order." But Iwu not aware
till the .Nord of Btassele arrived this morning that
an article of unparalleled violence and insolence had
appeared simultaneously in several prefectural
organs. This article, written beyond all doubt in a
French government office, is now reproduced in the
columns of the Presse. In it England is solemnly
warned that an hour of trial approaches which may
pat an end to her greatness for ever. She is re-
peatedly described as being in a state of manifest
decadence. Her statesmen reel and stagger like
drunken men, have an impediment in their
speech, and, from conscious weakness, catch
at straws, act at random, and are Mea-
-1
pable of declaring what they mean. The
present government of France, in a kind and
companionate spirit, hes never sought to take
advantage of the pitiable state of its neighbour.
Now, however, that all is ready for the congress,
England, who bat a little while ago was most
clamorous for one, appears likely is "go back
from her word." Ths writer is even yet loath to
say too seven things of a late ally. He will not
prematurely discuss this new act of "tergiversa-
tion" until he officially knows its character. But
if it should turn out that the language of two recent
articles in a London journal is really the expression
of the views of the Foreign-office then we can but
point to the "fatal downfall of a great power which
will henceforth be delegated to a second rank. We
shall tall England that she has lived (gss'eliii a real),
and that her Queen has now nothing else to do but
to look on passively wFle Europe frames decrees
with or without her."

The Opinion Nationale is far from taking the
same measure of England's position in the world es
that offered to " public opinion" in the provinces by
the official scribe.. Instead of exclaiming, " Full
ilium,"this independent journal regret.) that France
has not been able ostensibly to ma,utain the cha-
racter which belonged to her as the protector and
defender of Italian liberty, that she has made too
large concessions to Austrian policy, and ena-
bled England, " even though isolatsd, and even
though excluded from the congress, to assume a
position in the affairs of the peninsula which Francs
ought to have had." The Opinion truly describes
the state of public feeling in France in regard to the
treaty of Zurich, as " altogether cold and indiffer-
ent," because everybody perceives that it is a
" beginning and not an end, a complication and not
a settlement."

M. de Lesseps and the directors of the Isthmus of
Satz company had an audience of the Emperor
yesterday. They give oat that WI Majesty Ilse
taken their project under his protection, and will see
it carried out per Jai act Rojas.

The Bonne was much disturbed by reports touch-
ing the attitude assumed by England in regard to
the conflict between Spain end Morocco. The
Rents declined 30c. for ceih, end 40c. for account,
closing at 69fr. 20c. and 69fr. 10c., the lowest prices
of the day. Mobilier fell 13fr. 75c. The Orleans
and Lyons railways fell 7fr. 60c. each, and the other
lines from 2fr. 60c. to lifr.

Notwithetanding the alarm at the Bourse, I am
assured, on respectable authority, that oa Saturday
M. Mon sent a despatch to Madrid to say that
England no longer opposed the expedition against
Morocco.

The Ami de la Religion pabl,thes a letter addressed
by the Bishop of Ohent to the Bishop of Orleans.
The Belgian prelate, in adhering to Mgr. Dupan-
loup's famous project, expresses a hope that this age
may not witness a repetition of the " lamentable
drama of Valence or the sacrilegious crime of Fon-
tainebleau." In giving insertion to this letter the'
Anti de la Religion expresses a hope that it will not
be thought to have broken the injunction lately served
upon the newspapers, and which was manifestly only
applicable to the writings of French bishops. Should
this plea be accepted, it will follow that the
Unirere and other ultramontane organs have
only to borrow the signature of some foreign
prelate to print with impunity the very
libels upon the French government which they are
restrained from doing in the shape of a French
pastoral letter. That would be a droll state of
' things. Nevertheless as the region " alleged" for
prohibiting the publication of the French episcopal
mandates was tenderness for the bishops themselves,
and a fear lest they should be exposed to the scoffing
replies of lay writers, the distinction insisted upon
by the Ami is not altogether illogical.

The interesting apartments of Louis XIV. in the
Palace of Versailles, which had long been closed for
repairs, are now reopened to the public. The
Grande Monarque's bedroom, that celebrated cham-
ber in which he received his court, and in which he
drew his last breath, has been thoroughly restored.
The furniture is now as nearly as possible what it was
at the time of the King's death. Especial pains have
been taken with the bed, the chef d'oeuvre of I)elobel,
the King's valet de chambre,who took twelve years to
construct it. The bed is still covered with a counter-
pane embroidered by the young ladies of St. Cyr. This
relic war sold during the revolution, but Louis
Philippe met with it somewhere in Germany, and
bought it back again for the State. Adjoining the
bedroom is the King's Library, with his large map
of the world. Next comes the dining-room 1 and
beyond that Is the ante-chamber, which Louis XV.
called his dog-room : he was fond of playing with
hie favourite dogs there before and after hunting.
Around this chamber runs a frieze decorated with
charming paintings of sporting subjects. In another
room is the desk, ornamented with costly porce-
lain, upon which Louis XIV. wrote. But the
most curious chamber of all is the confessional. It
is divided into two small rooms. In the middle of
the party-wall is a pane of thick but transparent
glass, so that what area passing in one room might be
seen from the other, though what was said in a low
voice could not be heard. The first of these rooms is
quite empty. When Louis XIV. was at confection it
was always occupied by a captain of the guards, who,
with a drawn sword in his hand, stood looking
through the pane of glue. Thu, Louis XIV. wee
under surveillance even in the confessional. If the
King, sa an individual, trusted the jesuit confssear,
the state did not. The only furniture in the other
room is an arm chair, a Prie Dien, and a basin foe
holy water. In that arm-chair sat Father Letellier,
the jteuir, and at his feet was wont to kneel, but
watched, as I have said, the most mighty sovereign
in the world.

A letter from Moscow of the 14th states that the
ern snow for the sewn had fallen there on that day.

A telegraphic despatch from Carel hi the Gazette
do Caves, sonoancea the deo& of the oekbrated composer,
Loafs elpohe.

The Busel-LanelscluOler states that recruiting of
Swiss for Rome, Naples, and Batavia is actively going on in
Ihritsarland near the frontiers of France and Baden ; also,
that recruiting Aloes are established at Ziessen, Bt. Louis,
Asernli, and Lorracilt.

ITALY.

SARDINIA.

(mos ova own COWITOWDIDIT4
TURIN, Ocr. 20.
The deputations from the Duchies awaited at
Paris, not without some anxiety, the return of the
Emperor from Biarritz, having been informed that
his Majesty would give them an audience shortly
after his arrival. You are already aware that they
were the bearers of addresses to Napoleon 111., which
had been decreed and sanctioned by the legislative
assemblies, and in which the Emperor was thanked
for the generous assistance he had given to Piedmont.
They further stated not only the profound aversion
of the people to the princes they had ejected, but
their desire also to form with Piedmont one united
kingdom, strong enough t, defend itself against the
entire Austrian army, and accomplish the wish of
Napoleon himself, the wish to see Italy an indepen-
dent nation. These ideas, emUdied in the addresses,
were, as you doubtless remember, announced with
less reserve and with greater resolution than we are
accustomed to find in documents of this nature.
The three deputations from Parma, Modena, and
Tuscany were all received on the same day, the 16th
instant, but not all together, at the palace of St•
Cloud. lam not able to give you the actual words
used by the Sovereign of France, but it is certain
that the deputations left his presence with great
satisfaction. To the Parmeze he intimated that there
were no serious obstacles against their annexation to
Sardinia. His language to the Iklodenese was held
by them to signify that the return of the Duke had
become impossible. As for the Tuscans, with whom
he conversed for a considerable time, be repeated to
them several times that they would best consult their
interests by taking the young Ferdinand the Fourth
of Lorraine for their prince, who would return to
grant them a complete amnesty and truly liberal
institutions. Bat he (Napoleon) did not wish to
extort their compliance, and they would remain the
arbiters of their own destinies. He further led
the Tuscans to understand that there would be
no armed intervention on the part of any power,
whether foreign or peninsular ; that he was greatly
pleased at the order and tranquillity the Tuscans
had maintained, and he begged them to persevere in
that course, inasmuch as it was that by which they
might best attain their object.
From all this it is concluded that the Emperor has
not exactly declared himself in an express and direct
manner respecting the annexation, but that he has
assured it by implication to Parma and Modena at least,
though not to Tuscany. Even to the last he has not
uttered any formal disapproval or prohibition. The
result is that all the three commission,, each inter-
preting everything according to its own desire, were
more than satisfied with their interview. They now
write accordingly that the rest depends on the Pied-
montese government. Public opinion here is becom-
ing more and more impatient on this head, and now
that peace is concluded the nation at large would
like to see a little more decision and promptitude on
the part of our statesmen in office. A.