The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-28 00:00:00

DRURY LAN L

Tuts EvEßrno, TWAII.I.7I6AL JZ/C. Mews. Roue and
Neville ; Mesdames Alleyne and Thompson.—To conclude with
THE GREAT CITY. Mews. Warner, Morton, Mt:James. Rouse,
&c. ; Mesdames Robertson, Le Thiess, and Thompson.

HAYMARKET.
Trim ErIDOWO, DEAF AS A POST. Mr. Compton, Rs —A
WILD GOOSE. Mann. &Ahem Buekstane, Howe, augers, Gor-
don, Ac.: McNamee Korb, Chippendale, MU, Laws, Rs.—
And PERFECTION. Mr. Kendal and Miss Burke.

!ft!l!cw!rf•

Tav Evasino, ANTONit AND CTI.OPATRA. Antony, Mr. H.
Loraine. Enobarbu■, lr. C. Verner; (lamina, NM Page; and
Cleopatra, Was Glyn.

LYCLIIII

THIS Evranra, BAMBOOZLING. Mr. Prlos and Mlle
Kota Hishop.—THE DUKE'S MOTTO. Mr. Fodder, Mows.
Emery, Wlddicomb, Jordan, Price, de. ; Miami ELtrorthy, 'lola-
nda, Grattan, mad Carlotta leelaron.

STRAND.
TAN Evringo WAITING FOR THE. UNDERGROUND —7TIE
LITTLE SAVAGE -PYGMALION; OR, THE STATUE PAIR
Mews. Thorne, hams, de.; Moodamee Swaaboaregli Rapaluiru.
Marland,Johestone,dnolL—And TILE F/LENCH TION.

HOLBORN.
TRm Vll3l/10, MY TURN NEXT. Mr. Salmon; MMus
Boon awl LOIIIOOX. —And /LYING SCUD. Mama NesMe, Sal-
mon. Blake, Tonal's, Madames Y. Josephs, C. Salad^
Beals loop, 114dm, Lawn, Raysioacl.

BRITANIFIA.
THIN Nvzirnoa. THE SHAMROCK OF IRELAND. Hen S.
Lana.—AIILD ROBIN (MAY. Mims S. Mlles &J. Coroner.—
.—Aad THR VOLUNTEER& Kr. Blgwoed and Ni. &Edwin.

MOH WATIR AT LONDON DIMON
rill DAT —Morning. 81t. 4 Atternoos, tAL taw
110-IILoAAON—NoeAIAg. At Sam.._ Animas, 106 300.

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 28.

Truss was an interesting debate last week in
the Corps Ligislatif on a Bill introduoed by the
Government for reducing the term of resi-
dence for the naturalization of foreigners
from ten years to three. In Algeria, where
French settlers are scarce, and the energy and
enterprise of colonists are wanting to develop
the natural resources of the country, the term of
residence required for naturalization does not ex-
ceed three years, and the Bill which has
just been carried through the Corps argis-
latif extends to foreigners residing in the mother
country the privilege accorded to foreign settlers
in the colony. In Algeria the facility of natura-
lization has not yet been found to outweigh the
reluctance of the most desirable class of settlers to
establish themselves in a country ruled by the
sword, where civilians are looked upon as
a lower order, and the military admi-
nistration regulates and restrains every man's
affairs with an incessant solicitude and surveil.
lance. Neither the great colonizers of the world,
the Anglo-Saxons, who are accustomed from their
birth to a free use of all their faculties, nor the
Germans, who, with the same disposition,
thwarted and irritated by vexatious governments
at home, fly across the ocean to found a new Ger-
many free from the incumbrances of the old, are
prepossessed in favour of a colony drilled
and organized by French prefects and generals
in the spirit of a barrack or a camp, as a
school of discipline and training for Zouaves
and Chasseurs. The advantage of being less
than four days' distance from Paris, and within a
few minutes' hail by telegraph of the Tuileries,
is ill appreciated by settlers who are not of
the Latin race, and the Latin race are not easily
persuaded to settle beyond the city of Algiers,
which they have converted into something between
a Paris and a Nice. Will the extension to the
mother-country of the opportunities of naturalization
which have done so little for the colonization of
Algeria be found more tempting to the half a mil-
lion of strangers who from one cause or other,
from motives of convenience, business, pleasure or
necessity, have resided three years or more within
the borders of Imperial France f

There can be no doubt of the largely liberal
and humane spirit of the French legislation on
this subject. It dates from the Revolution of
1789, and each succeeding revolution has ac-
cepted it as part of the legacy of those foremost
liberators and legislators of the human race, who
in their enthusiasm overthrew all the barriers
of race and creed and rank, and all the tyrannies
of prejudice and privilege. Whenever liberty has
emerged from its periodical eclipses in France, the
generous eagerness of its legislators to admit
sympathizing foreigners to the rights of citizen
ship has been always conspicuously manifest. In
those dark periods which have so often sue-
ceeded to the summer-lightning flashes of liberty,
the cowardice of reactionists has brought
back that protective and restrictive policy which
in its more perfect form, and in countries called
barbarous, treats foreigners as interlopers if not as
enemies, and as sojourners on sufferance if not as
prisoners on parole. The Revolution of 'B9, in its
better and happier days, held out the hand of wel-
come to all men of every race and language
who desired to become French citizens.
Naroxzow conferred French citizenship by
right of conquest, and instead of naturalizing the
stranger incarcerated him until his country had be-
come a part of the Empire. Nor was the restored
monarchy disposed to return to the cosmopolitan
ideas of the Republic. Perhaps the very
circumstances of its restoration made it jealous
of adopting foreign residents. Under the consti-
tutional 31ouarchy of July, the protective and
exclusive spirit against foreigners prevailed in all
its bitterness, and the unnatural alliance of the
old Bonapartists with the Republicans inflamed all
the national antipathies. It was reserved for the
mild and generous Provisional Government of
the Republic of 1848 to reaffirm the princi-
ples of their revolutionary forefathers,
and within a year to admit more than fifteen

hundred foreigners to all the rights and liberties
of French citizens. The reactionary party who
destroyed the Republic, but initiated not a single
wise or liberal measure of their own, with con-
sistent narrowness of mind relapsed to the legis-
lation of 1814, and instead of the five years
probationary term which the Provisional Govern-
ment had decreed, insisted on ten years' residence
as a condition of naturalization, and succeeded in
reducing the number of annual applications for
the privilege from fifteen hundred to thirty. The
present EMPEROR, who has so often shown himself
more liberal than the parliamentary majority
he deposed in '5l, and than his devoted adherents
in his own Chambers, now goes beyond even the
Republicans of '4B, and reduces the probationary
term of residence from ten years to three for
foreigners who may be desirous of becoming
French subjects. In justice to the Imperial
Government, it must be owned that this
Naturalization Bill is perfectly in harmony with
all its Acts of legislation which have no reference
to political liberty. No French government
has ever so well understood and practised
those principles of economic and commercial
liberty which affect so widely and so deeply the
international relations of a State, and their influ-
ence upon surrounding civilization ; none has so
well understood the demands and tendencies of
its epoch as the government of NAPOLEON 111.
The principle of the Bill was cordially accepted
by the whole Corps L4gialatif ; and it is impor-
tant to observe that the amendment proposed by
the Liberal Opposition was not directed against
the liberality of the measure, but against
the arbitrary exercise of the personal prerogative
of the executive power in granting or with-
holding letters of naturalization. It was con-
tended by the authors of the amendment that
the right to grant letters of naturalization should
at least belong to the co-ordinate estates of the
Empire—to the executive and legislative powers.
The Liberal Opposition would be willing to allow
all foreigners to be naturalized after the reduced
term of three years, on a simple certificate
of good conduct from the local authorities of the
department or town in which they have resided.
So far, then, as foreigners are concerned, M.
PICARD and his colleagues not only concur in all
that is most liberal in the Bill, but would even
enlarge the facilities it provides. Their objection
was founded on considerations of domestic policy

which every Englishman will appreciate. It is to
be regretted that a bill which in its main
objects does so much honour to the French
Government should be vitiated by an usurpa-
tion of the essential right of the legislature.
But for this defect the French law of naturaliza-
tion is now the moat liberal in Europe ; more
liberal than that of England since it admits at
once without reserve to all the rights of a native-
born citizen ; a law singularly well timed, and
worthy of the genius and spirit of the French
people.

DURING last winter we were told again and
again that the Fenian', besides being socialist
levellers, were atheists, men neither fearing GOD
nor regarding man. Others said that the charge
simply meant that they were not readily amenable
to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Certainly their
demeanour in the dock has not been that of atheists,
and the addresses they deliver, under circumstances
so solemn as to remove every temptation to semi-
theatrical display, have at times a religious tone
which, to say the least, is very impressive. No
men ever appeared at the bar of a human tribunal
less concerned for their personal safety, or more
anxious to place their cause under the sanction
of Heaven. One after the other they appeal to
Almighty justice against us, and refer themselves
to the Divine compassion. It is unnecessary to
say that this demeanour neither makes their acts
better nor worse, but it refutes the notions which
have been sedulously diE.ased as to their personal
character : for no one, we believe, who has read
the speeches of these men believes that their lan-
guage was a mere disguise. EDMUND KELLY,
when asked why sentence of death should not be
passed upon him, said :
As near aa I can answer the question I shall may that,
remembering that every generation since England ob-
tained a footing in Ireland have been sufferers from her
rule—remembering that every generation have risen to pro-
test against the occupation of our native soil by England—
surely I may say that is an answer to the question why
sentence should not be passed on me. In the part I have
taken in the Ista insurrection I was only conscientiously
discharging my duty. Next to serving the Creator, I
believe it is man's solemn duty to serve his country."

Words like these remind us how strictly utili-
tarian are the grounds on which we claim the
right to punish these men. A generous English-
Mllll is almost afraid to place himself by imagina-
tion, even for a moment, in the point of view of
KILL; lest he should be betrayed into sympathy
with wholly indefensible acts. KZLLY concluded his
address by repeating the spirited protestation of the
Jewish captive in Assyria, declaring his unalter-
able attachment to his country, and calling down
imprecations on its oppressors :

Remember, 0 Lord, the children of Edon—ln the day of Jen).
Yield ;
Who Yid—Rue It rue It, even to the foundations thereof.
0 daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed ;
Happy shall be be that rewardeth thee ea thou bad served na.
Which may mean, we suppose, that Lord Chief
Justice Wirrrzeum may live to be tried for high
treason by a judge of the Irish-American Republic.

Ten Government may think itself well rid of
that troublesome gentleman the Compound House-
holder, but Ministerial journalists have even better
reason to rejoice over his disappearance. From
first to last he has caused them nothing but
trouble. It was impossible to know how he ought
to be treated in public. One day he was saluted
with warmth ; the next he was decidedly
" cut." Just as he had been declared to
be a moat respectable person, not only tolerable
but indispensable, it was found that the Govern-
ment had resolved to execute him ; then, when it
was thought prudent to rejoice over his ex-
tinction, he was suddenly discovered in his
old place, apparently in all the insolent
vigour of health. Last night Mr. DISRAELI
extinguished him, but it was only yesterday morn-
ing that the Standard established his right to live
in peace and honour. The good reasons for pass-
ing the Compounding Acts still exist, it was said,
and with increased force, and Mr. Disitazas propo-
aitions were necessary to make Mr. HODOCINSON'S
amendment practicable. Well, we hope we have
at length got to the end of all this. Mr. pis-
Lama has withdrawn that portion of his
amendment which was objectionable to the Liberal
Opposition. In fact—so he explains--he only
introduced them in deference to the opinions of
Mr. CHILDERS and Mr. GLADSTONE. So the
Standard has been battling, without knowing it,
against Mr. DISRAELI., for the views of two mem-
bers of the late Government.

It is stated that Mr. Jefferson Darin may be
expected to arrive is this imantry is the month of June.
ZMILTREI PIANOTORTZA AT TES PARIS EXIII3I-
- —We Are informed that it has been unanimously de-
cided to award the gold medal for pianofortes to the *mi-
ming Radish house of Broadvrood sad firma.—riame.