The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-16 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

MEETING OF THE LEGISLATIVE CORPS.
SPEECH OF COUNT WALEWSKI.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, FRJDAT EVENING.

The Corps Legislatif met to-day to constitute
its bureaux and for other formal business. Count
Walewski, on taking the chair, made the following
speech :
Messieurs and dear Colleagues,—At the opening of the
last session, when replying to the speech from the throne,
you placed in the front rank of the desires of this assembly
the development of our institutions, you added:—
" Stability of institutions is in no way irreeoncileable
with the prudent progress of our liberties. You have
already proved this, Sim, and the past is a guarantee for
the future." The Emperor has judged the time come in
which the state of opinion and the predominance of sound
and moderate ideas—the precious result of fifteen years of
tranquillity and prosperity—allow him to give a new
consecration to the just confidence which you ex-
pressed last year in his tried wisdom, and his vigilant
solicitude. (Applause.) Faithful to the policy an-
nounced in the aurora of his reign, the Emperor walks
with a firm step in that path of progress, wherein those
who misunderstand the necessities of the age in which
we live, ea well as those who are dazzled by vain utopias
are apt to go astray. The strongest minds often quail
before these grave problems. It is not, therefore, as.
tonishing that while animated as we all are with an equal
devotion to the country and the dynasty, we should have
sometimes differed in opinion as to the nature and oppor-
tuneness of these solutions. The sovereign's initiative
has put an end to these divergencies—more apparent than
real—(Cries of " True")—and has left amongst us only the
desire to emulate each other in working for the public
weal within the sphere traced out by the Em-
peror. (Applause.) The Emperor defined yesterday,
with all the authority which belongs to his word, the
true meaning of the acts of January 19. Our task will be
to imbue ourselves with the idea which inspired these
words, and by the loyal and measured exercise of the
attributions conferred upon us to assure to the country,
so far as depends upon us, the full benefit that it is eut:tled
to expect from reform. It is in thin wisely liberal and
patriotic spirit that you will have to examine the bills to
be laid before you. The substitution of interpellations
for a debate on the address will have the effect of giving
a ler solemn but more practical character to our discus-
sions. It cannot but be admitted that the debates on
the address which might be repeated on the discussion
of the budget were not very useful—(applause in
some parts of the chamber ; but strong marks of
dissent in others, and interruption from M. Ohne Bizoin)
—and that they involved considerable Ices of time. The
regulations of these interpellstions are a guarantee that
all really important questions will bo fully and upper.
tunely considered. The presence of ministers in the
chambers whenever the Emperor may think fit to send
them, and the part they will take in our labours, must
also contribute to associate the great bodies of the state
more directly with the policy of government. (Marked
adhesiou.) The Senatus Cousultuni of July 14, 1866,
modifying Articles 40 and 41 of the constitution, has
enlarged the right of amendment, and our standing orders
must be consequently altered. (Here follow some techni-
cal explanations of the new procedure in regard to amend-
ments, &a) The tribune has been re-established, experi-
ence having shown the inconvenience of speakers being
forted to speak from their places, from which they are
badly heard by each other and by the president. (True,
true.) The tribune, well known to our parliamentary
language, is almost a necessity in legislative chambers of a
circular form. (Yes, yes.) The session just opened inaugu-
rates an important eta in the history of our institutions. In
augmenting our rights the Emperor has increased our
responsibilities and duties. We will not forget it ; and I
am happy that the first words here spoken should be a
homage to the tutelary thought which daily cements
more and more the intimate union between France and
the imperial government. The empire, restored in time of
danger by the instructive and spontaneous acclamation of
the nation, sustained in every one of the successive phases
of its glorious mission by the deliberate will of the nation,
pursues its work by founding on the solid soil of the
country—order, greatness, and liberty.

Some petroleum springs have been discovered at
Wiesloch, in Baden, and it is stated that the oil yielded
is exactly similar to that from America.