The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-25 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(1/1011 OM OWIII CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, SUNDAY EVINING.

•
According to the France, the Emperor has com-
pletely cut up the press bill proposed by MM. 11
Rouher and Co., and struck out most of the ob-
noxious clauses. The caution money, instead of 1
being raised to 80,000 fr., is to remain at its present
figure, 50,000 fr. Non-political journals aro not to
be subjected to any stamp, and the stamp
duty on political papers is to remain at the pre-
sent rate. The Paris political papers will nut like
this amendment, which, it is suggested, has been
adopted in deference to the remonstrances
of the provincial journals. The enormous fines
which have created so much alarm aro to be re-
duced in the same proportion as the caution money.
The tribunals are only to have power to suspend or
suppress newspapers in very rare and exceptional
cases, and for grave offences coming under the
bead of crimes and not of misdemeanours. Finally,
the idea of depriving a member of the Corps Legis-
latif of his privilege in case he should be the subject
of apressprosecution, isabandoned. If these changes
be correctly reported, one can only suppose that the
Emperor's object in allowing Rouhor and Co. to
propose the abominable laws which have raised a
tempest of public indignation, was to throw odium
upon tools that he means to cast aside, and to
curry popularity for himself as the " most liberal
man" in his government.
A telegraphic wire has lately been established
between the Corps Legialatif and the Emperor's
study in the Tuileries, by means of which his
Majesty receives reports of the debates while they
are going on. _ _ _

The Temps construes the note in the Moniteur
stating that the Emperor has satisfied himself, after
repeated visits, that the Exhibition may be opened
on the day fixed (the ominous Ist of April) as im-
plying that painful doubts have hitherto been en-
tertained on the subject. I hear it yet whispered
that the opening of April 1 will only be a sort of
ondoiement, and that the solemn and official inau-
guration will not take place till much later
in the season, when the Prince of Wales
comes. If so the literal fulfilment of the
promise made to the public that the doors
should be thrown open on All Fools Day
will not signify much, because for that matter
the building is open to all comers now. There can
be no doubt that the Exhibition will be in a very
incomplete state on April 1.
The judge of instruction charged to inquire into
the case of the duel fought on Jan. 2, between M.
Paul de Quaagnac and M. Henri de Rochefort, has
put M. P. de Cassagnac on his trial for cutting and
wounding M. de Rochefort, and included in
I the indictment the seconds of both parties
as accomplices. Logic would require that M. H.
de Rochefort should be indicted for attempting
to cut and wound or even to kill M. P. de Cas-
mow, and having failed to accomplish his object
only by "circumstances independent of his will."
But logic and law are different things ; and it
appears that the duellist who misses his man is
not indictable, whereas he who is unfortunate
enough to hit his adversary may be prosecuted.
This, although the moral nature of the act of the
two is, to all common sense, precisely the same.
The trial is to come on before the Tribunal of Cor-
rectional Police on March 1. The son of M. Duruy,
the Minister of Public Instruction, is also to be
tried for a duel with a naval officer in which the
latter was wounded. The quarrel began in a
lady's chamber, and the arms first used were those
" dogs "—not habitually dogs of war—which are
the useful and ornamental adjuncts of a French
chimney-piece and called dents. The more
chivalrous weapon, the sword, was subsequently
resorted to, and it was with a sword that the
hope of the house of the excellent Minister of
Public Instruction pierced his opponent's hide.
There is a talk of subscriptions for erecting a
statue of Paul Louis Courrier in Touraine.

WEATHER REPORT.

.-(THIS DAY.)

MOWDAY, Ptaatuai

IT IS, • LK.