The Express.
London, England, 1858-05-07 00:00:00

•

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EYENtNG, MAY T, 1858.

well in India. The Governor-General, or the
Governor, administers the affairs of the Presidency,
"in CoanciL" When he leaves his Council, as be
has constitutional power to do, he generally goes
wrong. To cite the greeted crime and the greatest
blunder in modern Indian history,—the war in
Afghanistan was made by a Governor-General

EXPRESS ?ROM PARIS.

(711011 ova OWN 00111.1ASPONDINT.)
PARIS, TIIII/DILT EVINTIIO.

The following is the text of the bill on the illegal
assumption of titles, u adopted by the committee
of the Legislative Body and the Council of State:

absent from his Council, and would never have been
made by • Governor-General in Council. Now,
ii it be advisable that an Indian Governor
who has nothing to think about but Indian govern-
ment should be restrained by a Council, d fortiori it
is expedient that an English Minister, who is cer-
tain to be swayed by a number of other considera-
tions than those connected with the good govern-
ment of India, ought to be held in restraint by men
who are not agitated by the gusts of party strife,
and who, in their eagerness to hold fast to power
and to place, are not compelled to truckle to the
dictatorship of a parliamentary majority.
If a fixed, consistent policy be desirable, India
must, in practice, be mainly governed by the
potential voice of an unparliamentary Council.
permanently identifying itself with that policy. An
Indian Minister, with • sham Council, will be simply
the slave, not merely of a parliamentary majority, but
often of any given section of the House of Commons,
which, in the present divided state of parties, can at
any time make a parliamentary majority. A party
of outsiders, with peculiar views or peculiar inte-
rests, will at any time be able so to intimidate the
Minister, by threatening to unite with the natural
Opposition, as to force him, in obedience to the
wishes of his oolleagues, to yield to their dic-
tation, however detrimental each concession may
be to the real interest of the Indian Empire. The
defeat of a despotic Secretary of State will be a mi-
nisterial defeat The defeat of a President in Council
would not be a ministerial defeat. The Crown
Minister would not be so wholly and exclusively
identified with the measure as to compel either his
or his colleagues' resignation upon an adverse vote.
Moreover there would, in such • case, be far lees like-
lihood of an adverse vote. Members would, without
hesitation, repudiate the decisions of •Crown Minister
who has never travelled further than Frankfort or
Berne ; and yet pause, before they would condemn
the deliberate decisions of twelve or eighteen expe-
rienced gentlemen who have passed the greater part
of their lives in the East, and who can have no ex-
traneous inducements to lead them astray from their
duty of governing India for the benefit of the
people. The weight of such authority, the value of
such independence, will be acknowledged, and there
will be far less chance of the fulfilment of Lord
MrrcAtre's prediction of " the loss of India in the
" House of Commons."

Art. 269-of the Penal Code Is modified ea follows .
Any person who shall publicly wear • costume, uniform,
or decoration to which he has no right, shall be punished
by imprisonment of from six months to two years. Any
one who without right, and with the view of attributing to
himself an honorary distinction, shall publicly assume •
title, or shall change, alter, or modify the name aseigned to
him in the public registers, shall be fined from 600 fr. to
10,000 fr. The tribunal shall order mention of the judgment
to be made in the margin of the deeds or registers In which
the title shall have been unduly taken or the name have
been altered. In all the cases provided fir by the present
article the tribunal can order, at the exposes of the con-
demned, the insertion of either the whole or part of the
judgment in such journals se it may designate.

The bill, as above amended, has been so changed
in committee as to have lost its original character.
Instead of being a measure for the general overhaul-
ing of all titles, it is so worded that occasions for its
operation will probably be very rare. It seems to
be taken for granted that if a plebeian chooses to
have himself announced as a marquis in a drawing-
room, to call himself a marquis on his visiting card,
to sign himself " Marquis" in letters to his friends
and tradesmen, and to put a coronet upon his car-
riage, he will not, by doing any or all of these
things, be guilty of "publicly" assuminga false title
within the meaning of the bill. These, however, were
the very things which the believers in the possibility
of reviving French nobility intended to prevent.
Very few persons will have occasion to put forward
their pretensions "publicly" in any other way ez-
oept on the occasion of their marriage, or the &via-
' ration of birth of a child. It would, no doubt, be
awkward for a man known in society as a marquis,
count, or baron, to be forced to announce himself as
plain Jacques Bonhomme at his mairie ; but this
consideration will certainly not be sufficiently cogent
to induce the existing holders of fame titles to lay
them down.

It is a curious fact, as showing how strong the
tide of public opinion still sets in France against
any legalised recognition of " nobility " that the
committee should have found itself constrained to
strike out that very word from the bill. The
reasons for this alteration are thus explained by the

Ina political same, the creation of a nobility and respect
for the existing nobility are not incompatible with .cur
oonstituti.nal principles. The bill has not for inevitable
consequence the reconstitution of right of primogeniture;
it only offers the advantage of protecting the social distinc-
tions for which our society, in spite of its demo:ratio spirit,
eutertains • lively passion. Titles of nobility may therefore
prove • powerful motive of patriotic exertions, a beooming
reward for valuable services, • means of attaching to
the throne and dynasty men of devotion end influ-
ence (I), and finally a privilege if entrusted to
the hands of the sovereign. Them coesiderations
having led the committee to adopt the principle
of the bill, the suppression of the word "nobility"
and its replacement by "honorary distinction" was voted, in
order that no equivocation should exist on the point "that
nobility can no longer be considered in France in any other
light than an honorary distinction void of all privilege, and
that ft must not recall the idea of any difference of race or
caste." The Connell of State (adds the reporter) did not
oppose this modification; moreover, the president of the
council declared on this occasion that government enter-
!mined no hidden thought, that the bill was inspired by an
idea of morality, and that no notion was entertained of modi-
fying our laws of inheritance,

It was suggested to the committee that the bill
might become a dangerous and arbitrary weapon in
the hands of the public prosecutor; but the single-
minded members of the committee express them-
selves as being without the least fear on this head,
because the Secretary-General of the Ministry of

Justice has declared that a ministerial circular
would regulate every detail concerning the execu-
tion of the law, and lay down the impartial
fortuity of its application.
In the sitting of the Corps Legislatif M. Jules
Fevre took the oath and his seat. The order of
the day was the discussion on the two bills (from
which the commercial world is taught to expect
great things) relating, the first to negotiations con-
cerning goods deposited in general warehouses; and
the second, to sales by auction of goods wholesale.
The Touloanais says that the object of Prince
Napoleon in proceeding to Algiers in the capacity of
lieutenant of the Emperor will be to impart in-
creased activity to agriculture, to give an impetus
to railway works, and to direct towards Algeria the
tide of emigration which has been for some years
running towards America, Rio Janeiro, and Texas.
The Bourse has been animated to-day. The oscil-
lations in the Credit Mobilier tempt speculators to
operate. This security, which closed yesterday at
770 fr., rose at one time to 800 fr. and left off at
786 fr , with a rise of 16fr. The Rente rose 10c. for
cash, and 15c. for account, closing at 89fr. 66e. and
89fr. 8.5 e. Business in railways was less active than
in the Rente and Mobilier, but they were very firm.
Eastern rose 7fr. 60e., and the other lines about
2fr. 80c.

M. Perret, the defeated rival of M. Jules Pane
at the last Paris elections, is likely to be consoled
with a seat in the Senate.

TURKEY.

The Ottoman government has just transmitted to
its diplomatic representatives at foreign courts a
note on the results of Ethem l'scha's mission to
Servia. The note states that the commissioner has
succeeded in conciliating the feelings both of the
Prince and the people of Servia. Accounts from
Belgrade state that most important reforms have
been introdnoed into the administration of Berrie
under the auspices of the Porte. The torture of
amused persons is abolished, and no chains or cruel-
ties are permitted to be inflicted on those condemned.
The power of the Senate has been greatly increased,
and the Prince is reduced to the position of a res-
ponsible ruler. The troubles in the Herzegowina
' are, it is understood, under the same agency, likely
to end for the present in an extension of the power
of the Sultan in that district.

TRIESTE, MAY 6.

Constantinople letters of April 29, state that
Ferukh Khan will remain three months in that
city. The Greek chambers have voted a credit of
1,200,000 drachmu to increase the navy. Turkey
' and Greece would, it is said, accept the arbitration
of the powers in the differenoe relating to consular
jurisdiction.

AUSTRIA AND ITALY.

A circular from the Austrian cabinet has been
forwarded to its various legations, laying down the
course intended to be pursued on the Italian gime-
tion. The principal point urged is that Sardinia is
not to be allowed to speak in the name of entire
Italy i and it is believed that the smaller Italian
wart' have been urged to express themselves in the
same way.
Accounts from Rome mention that the state of the
Pope's health is causing anxiety, and that his medi-
cal attendants had been compelled to resort to active
depletory remedies. He is about to take another
tour, and intends to journey toward. the Neapolitan,
frontier.