The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-09 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

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PMUS, SUSDAT Enismst.
The Marquis de Lavalette, Minister qf the In-
terior, whose return to Paris after a short vacation
in the country was only announced yesterday, has
made an energetic demonstration of his authority
' this (Sunday) morning by giving a warning to the
Opinion Nationale. In an article of yesterday that
journal, speaking of the forthcoming election in the
Bea-Rhin, had said, in allusion to the familiar
illustration first used by the Emperor of the
"crowning of the edifice" that France had patiently
given credit to government for fifteen years,
and that now she called for payment
of the debt ; that this debt was liberty,
and that the time had come for putting
an end to the contradiction between the

Constitution, which proclaimed all liberties, and
the Lords, which suppressed them in the name of ,
public safety. The Marquis de Lavalette sees in
this mode of putting the case " a violent attack
upon the Conatitution2l established by the free
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more, " enormous lying, which, at a moment when
an election is pending, amounts to violence against
the electors, and a surprise against their freedom
of action and good faith." Accordingly, the
minister inflicts upon the Opinion Nationale a
second warning. I do not think the measure will
do any good to the government cause at Strasburg

this day week.
It is ',curious coincidence, illustrative of that
liberty in France which the Marquis de Lava-
lette says it is libellous to deny, that in another
column of the Opinion Nationale M. Gueroult, the
editor, who is a deputy for Paris, mentions quite
incidentally, and merely in answer to a question
put by a provincial journal, that an eminent writer
has been refused permission to lecture upon the
works and doctrines of Saint-Simon, on the ground
that no person of great eminence can be allowed
to give literary and scientific lectures for
fear of giving them a political character. This
shocking ostracism, though long acted upon, has
never before been confessed in such a barefaced
manner.
At the Correctional Police Con..; yesterday a
hackney coachman appeared as prosecutor
against a M. Boulabert, who had used abusive
language to him and spat in his face. The defend-
ant when called did not answer to his name, and the
case was heard" by default." It appeared from the
statement of the imperial advocate that AL Boulabert
when very drunk had called a cab, and the driver, I
seeing the state in which he was, refused to allow
him to get in—a refusal justified by the regula-
tions. This, by the way, seem* to me a prohibition
the expediency of which is questionable. It was
Sheridan, I believe, who defined drunkenness
to be a state in which a man was not able
to lie on his back and call • coach. We
may infer from this that in London cabmen
do not, as a general rule, object to take a
drunken man home. However, in the present case'
the court assumed the rule to be as stated by the
public prosecutor. The only thing that gives
a public interest to the affair is the fact that
defendant is the author of a work called "Le Fils
du Supplicie." The author of the sensation novel
in question was sentenced to a month's imprison-
ment.

OPINING OP Tlii WEATMINIMIR Asasr Ewan°
SOROICZIL—Last evening the Sunday evening services in
the nave of Westminster Abbey were resumed, those held
since the opening of the year under the dome of St. Paul's
Cathedral having been brought toe close on Easter Sunday.
Me abbey was very full but the excellent arrangements
made by the dean and chapter prevented any unseemly
pushing and crowding, as has been productive of much
inconvenience elsewhere. The choir was very efficient,
consisting of 30 men and 20 boys, but it must be said that
the behaviour of the latter in lolling on their chairs con-
spicuously during the prayers set a bad example to the
congregation, who generally followed it. At 7 o'clock a
procession was formed from the choir to the nave consisting
of the choir, the Rev. S. F. Jones (minor Canon), the Revs.
R. Hawkins, MD., W, Conway, Eran H canons ; and
the Very Rev. the Dean (Dr. A. P. Stanley), who Wit the
riband of the Bath over his scarf. Prayers were admirably
chanted by the Rev. S. F. Jones (who acts as deputy-
precentor), and the lessons were read by the Rev. Canon
Nepsan. Before the sermon were sung the glorious Easter
hymn Jesus Christ is risen to-day," and after the sermon
the Hallelujah Chorus, with the trumpet aosompaniment.
The Easter hymn and the famous chorus of Handel were•
very grand, but all the mono was of a very high order.
The very rev. the dean preached from St. Matthew :Kra.,
v. 19 and 20. The dean's sermon occupied more than an
hour in delivery, and towards the end a graceful allusion
was made to Mr. ILeble, the distinguished man who had
just been taken from us, quoting his lines--
Three solemn facts do here combine,
In harmony's mysterious line," dz.
The service was not over till a quarter part 9.
Tel ROYAL Socurry.—The Presidert of the
Royal Society has appointed the Rev. Robert Willis,
IIL A., of Gonville sad Caine College Cambridge, Jack-
sonian Professor of Natural and Experimental Plidos2 ,phy
to fill the vacancy at the Board o Visitors at the Maya
Observatory at Greenwich, rendered vacant by the death
of the Rev. Dr. hewelL Professor Willis graduated in
1828, when be was ninth wrangler. He wee the president
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
, in 1882, and is the author of a large number of scientific