The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-11 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 11, 1866.

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.
_____,__
(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA.
VIENNA, Aram 10.

In reply to a question addressed to the ministry
it has been officially stated that the independence
of the Bank of Austria will be strictly maintained
by the government, and that the bank charter will
in no way be infringed.
A ministerial plan is said to be under considera-
tion for an issue of treasury bonds bearing interest.

The News Fremdenblatt of to-day announces
positively that an offensive and defensive alliance
has been concluded between Italy and Prussia
against Austria. It gives a general summary of
the treaty, which it asserts bears date the 27th
March, and has been signed at Florence and
Berlin, and adds :—" We are not sure Wit the
ratifications of the treaty have yet been ex-
changed."

VIENNA, Aran 10, Eva.

According to the Prase of this evening the
Prussian propositions, in addition to the question
of the Duchies, also treat of the reform of the
Federal military organisation. Prussia asks
that the contingents of the northern States of
Germany should be under her leadership, while
those of the southern States should be directed by
Bavaria.

BERLIN, Aran. 10.

It is stated that Austria will not oppose in prin-
ciple the proposition for the assembly of a German
parliament, but will demand that all the Austrian
provinces shall be represented.
The merchants of this city will present an ad-
dress to the King to-morrow, expressing the hope
that the government will effect, as soon as possible,
a peaceful settlement of the present difficulty be-
tween Austria and Prussia.

The Kreuz Zeitung says :—" We are convinced
that Prussia will not accede to the demand made
to her by Austria to disarm."

ROME.

MARSEILLES, APRIL 10.

Ads-ices received here from Rome to the 7th
inst. announce that the new loan has not yet been
concluded. The legion for the Pontifical service
now being formed at Antibes will be exclusively
composed of Frenchmen, foreign volunteers being
excluded.

M. Dumortier has presented to tho Pope an ad-
dress to his Holiness, sent from Belgium, which
deplores that the revolution should have inter-
rupted the reforms inaugurated by the Holy See in
1848.

The Pope replied that the first years of his reign
had been the happiest, and he was persuaded that
peace would facilitate the accomplishment of his
ideas.

EGYPT.
ALEXANDRIA, APRIL O.
Nubar Packs has set out for France.

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(PROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, TUESDAY EMTNO.

As I anticipated yesterday, the latest German
news was construed at the Bourse as the most
alarming that we have yet had. The sort of ulti-
matum propounded by Prussia to the Frankfort
Diet receives from the telegrams of the day a
commentary the reverse of reassuring. The steadi-
ness of Consols failed to allay the panic here.
Rente fell 40c. for cash and 35c. for account,
closing at 67fr. 50c. and 67fr. 40c. Other i
leading securities were still more depreciated. Credit
Foncier fell 65fr. ; Mobilier, 25fr. 50c. ; Italian,
40c. ; Comptoir d'Escompte, 45fr. The railways
were more affected than for many months past.
Northern fell 17fr. 50c., and Lyons 12fr. 50c.
M. Guizot has had a private audience of the
Emperor to explain the reasons which led the Paris
consistory to vote the dismissal of Pastor Martin
Paschoud. The Emperor listened attentively to
all M. Guizot said, but expressed no opinion. I
can hardly think that the Minister of Public
Worship, who lately refused to sanction the vote
which pensioned off M. Paschoud with 6,000 fr.,
will now consent to his being sent about his
business with no provision at all.
M. Emile 011ivier writes, in the Presse, an eloquent
appeal to the Alsatian electors, exhorting them to
return M. Laboulaye. The great cause, he tells
them, would suffer little by M. Laboulaye's defeat,
but they, the electors of the Bas Rhin, would be
humiliated.

Your readers will remember that the Emperor
exerted his prerogative in the creation of a batch
of three counts (an unmeaning title now-a-days),
and that the fortunate nominees were immediately
attacked with all the rerre of democratic France.
One of these noble gentlemen is proprietor of the
vineyard which produces the celebrated wine called
Hermitage. M. Behnontet, deputy, poet, and
satirist, hastened to compose a pasquinade for
the Nain Janne, a French Punch without the pic-
tures. He has just received from the victim of
his pen a cask of Hermitage, and a few copies of
certain poems, sins of Count de la Sizeranne's
youth, along with the following letter :
Sir,—To punish you and at the same to reward you foi
your rhymed philippic against the new fledged nobles, I
oondemn you to drink the wine which I send you in corn.
pany with your critics, and to read to your admirers some
of my verses.

ST. JAMES'S-HALL,—MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S
READINGS.-14r. Charles Dickens, whose merits as a dra-
matic
" reader" are only surpassed by his rare creative
power as an author, re-appeared before a London audience
at this hall last night with a new subject and an old
favourite. The old favourite was " Mr. Bob Sawyer's
Party " from Pickwick, • happy specimen of the writer's
humorous style before he discovered or developed his
great power of pathetic writing, and the new subject,
which promises to be one of Mr. Dickens's most successful
readings, was " Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions "—that mar-
vellous compound of humour and pathos which fart ap-
peared in the last Christmas number of All the Year
Round, and proved that time had rather mellowed than
impaired the writer's creative genius. Mr. Dickens's
artistic' capabilities as an actor, joined to his appreciation
and knowledge of his own work, enable him to present his
audience with a forcible picture of the genial and charac-
teristic old " Cheap Jack," which is worth • hundred
pictorial illnetrations. The large hall was crowded in
every part, a gratifying proof of the popularity of an
author who has no living equal amongst English humorists.
HEALTH AND STEENOTH RESTORED HT Du BARRY'S
DELDRons JEWIALSITA ARABIGA FOOD, which oureswitisont me-
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'assumption, debility, constipation, diarrhoea, palpitation, ner-
vous, Mhos', liver, and stomach complaints. It saves fifty times
Its coat in other remedies, and is the beet food for infants
60,000 cures annually.—Du lam end Co., No. 'ii, Ragentatreet,
London, W. In tins, at la Id. ilb ,2a 9d.: 131b4 , Yes.:
Reba., 40a. ; also at 61, Oramehursh-street ; 4, Cheapside ; 63, 150
and NIS, Oziordatreet : and at all Grocera --(Advertisement

MEETING OF LIBERAL MEMBERS OF
PARLIAMENT AT EARL RUSSELL'S.

The meeting at Earl Russell's official residence
yesterday was attended by 263 members of the
House of Commons.

Earl RuasELL spoke for more than half-an-hour
with great animation and strength of voice. He
said he had asked the party to assemble because he
considered the crisis to be a very important one,
and because ho thought the government had a
claim to be allowed to explain their conduct. They
were accused of having raised an unnecessary

question in the shape of reform, of having intro-
duced a fragmentary measure, and of having
given their sanction to a scheme of too
wide and sweeping a nature. And on these three
grounds a vote of no confidence was asked.
The introduction of a Reform Bill at the present
time was said to be heedless and unnecessary.

This he denied. He himself had for 16 years re-
sisted any unsettlement of the adjustment made
in 1832. From 1834 to 1850 he had to stand in

the brunt of the b ' taile and oppose propositions of
slangy. He expressed his selnifeetion in having
done so, on the ground that frequent alterations
were most objectionable. Lord Russell pro-
ceeded to trace the history of his conduit,
observing that his cabinet (so we understood) took
into consideration the Chandos clause, the spread
of education among the working classes, and the
state of the smaller boroughs, as early as 1860, with
a view to action ; but that they opposed Mr.

Locke King's motion in 1861, thoughunsuccess-
fully—resigning, and returning to office, and on so
doing giving notice of a Reform Bill. Lord
Russell then alluded briefly to the various plans of
reform, denouncing Lord Derby's as amounting to
a virtual repeal of the bill of 1832, and he ex-
pressed it as his constant opinion that this was a
question on which public wishes and desires should
be consulted. Acting on this view, he said that
the government thought the strong opinions ex-
pressed at the hustings last year ought to be
respected, and tkey brought in this bill. This, he
thought, answered the first accusation. It was
further objected that the bill was fragmentary, and
that the question of reform ought to be compre-
hended in one measure. The noble lord, in
answering this objection, referred to an opinion
expressed to himself by the late Mr. Edward Ellice
on the occasion of the last introduction
of a Reform Bill by a liberal government. That
hon. gentleman considered that the government
would have then done more wisely in dividing their
measure and dealing separately with the franchise
and the redistribution of seats. Another hon.
member of the House of Commons of great elo-
quence also was of opinion at that time
that the government was unnecessarily chal-
lenging difficulty by dealing with the two subjects
in one bill, and recommended their separation.
That hon. gentleman was Mr. Honsman. (Laughter. )
A third objection was that the government had
gone too far, and proposed to lower the franchise
so as to include too large a number of the working
daises. It had been said that the bill would bring
crowds of venal and violent men into the consti-
tuencies. He denied the accusation. The govern-
ment had not sought men of that class, but for men
of industry, prudence, and integrity, and he be-
lieved it had found them within the qualifications
proposed. Lord Russell then observed that it was
a question for the committee what the exact fran-
chise should be, but that Mr. Lowe's views went
to disqualify existing voters, not to enfranchise
new ones. He referred to the coincidence of the
10th April, 1848, and this day, and asked if we
ought to pass a stigma on a class of men who
had espoused the cause of order then, and
who had since then gone through the cotton
famine with such patience and forbearance.
Earl Russell then adverted to the opposition
made to the bill by one or two members of the
Liberal party. Earl Grosvenor's resolution was
characterised by the noble lord as insincere, and
would be treated by the government as a motion
of want of confidence. (Applause.) Earl Russell
asked whether the government deserved the confi-
dence of its supporters. Looking to its financial
administration he said Yes, and asked who was to
be the tory Chancellor of the Exchequer. Looking
ito its foreign policy, both when he conducted it
under the guidance of Lord Palmerston and now
I in the hands of Lord Clarendon, he said Yes—and
who was to be the tory Foreign Secretary I Italian
unity, American neutrality, and even the matter of
Denmark were to be looked ack on with satisfaction
nor could the old tory coat be patched by a piece of
new cloth ; if it were, the rent would be wider than
ever. Believing that they had grounds for expect-
ing the confidence of parliament and the country,
and that they were bound to deal with the ques-
tion of Reform in order to its settlement, the
government had brought in this measure, and would
stake its existence on its success. If the working
classes, under the influence of feelings natural after
the treatment their claims had received for several
years, had said, on the tender of the bill, that it
was too late, and that they would not take it, he
held that their conduct would not have been sur-
e prising ; but, after the manner in which they had
received it, the government would stand by its
measure. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. AYRTON said he accepted the government
bill, but asked whether ministers considered the
reduction of the franchise and the redistribution
of seats to be part and parcel of one scheme, to
the whole of which the government was pledged?
Mr. COGAN said that the Irish Liberals made no
bargain, and he hoped that the unconditional
manner in which they supported the bill would be
remembered to their advantage in future.
Mr. LAING said that he had been reproached on
account of the disapprobation he had expressed of
the government measure ; but he had spoken his
real opinions. Democracy was advancing so fast
that he could feel no confidence that further de-
mands would not be made, and he therefore wished
to know whether the government brought forward
their proposal in the character of a final settle-
ment I
Mr. ltl`CuLLaoff TORRENS said that he had not
intended to speak, nor would have done so but for
the observations of Mr. Laing • but after the way
in which the working classes had met the govern-
ment, he deprecated any declaration on the part of
the government such as Mr. Laing wished to elicit.
The support given by the working classes was given
without conditions, and he hoped the government
would not place itself in the false position of making
conditions against them in favour of a minority
which, lie was sure, would prove insignificant.
Mr. ROEBUCK expressed himself in favour of the
bill.
Mr. EDWARD JAMES objected to dealing with the
reduction of the franchise and the redistribution of
seata by separate bills, and declared that the intel-
ligent people of Manchester were of his opinion_
Mr. RAZLEY denied that Mr. James had correctly
represented the opinions of Manchester, and said
that he had not once heard the objection which Mr.
James had raised.
Mr. GRAHAM spoke in favour of consolidating the
two bills in committee.
Mr. BRIGHT, who spoke from the back of the
room, spoke in favour of the bill, but recommended
leaving the redistribution of seats to be dealt with
at a distant interval.
Mr. 801/VERIE made a few observations, in the
course of which he promised to vote for the second
reading of the bill.
Mr. GLADSTONE, after playfully alluding to an
opinion sometimes expressed, that an underground
communication exists between Earl Russell and
Mr. Bright, declined the recommendation of the
hon. member for Birmingham. The government
would bring forward its bill for the redistribution
of seats according to its promise.
Earl RUSSELL, adverting to Mr. Graham's recom-
mendation, said he must leave it to be dealt with