The Express.
London, England, 1858-04-20 00:00:00

THREATENING ARTICLES IN THE

FRENCH PRESS.

(IT SUIMATIMI ♦RD Barris. ramtansre.)
PARIS. TOWIDAT 1101NING.
The Ceesstitutiiwnsi contains an article signed
by M. Renee, the director, in which it says :

"No honest man in France or England can
doubt the guilt of Bernard. We will only say
to those of our neighbuurs who desire
the maintenance of good relations between
the two countries, that if the speech of Mr. Edwin
James, filled with gall, with calumnies, and with
insults against the Emperor, the people, the army,
and our institutions, should unfortunately be circu-
lated in Franee, in the cities, the barracks, and the
country towns, it would be difficult for the govern-
ment, with the best intentions, to stay the effects of
public indignation."

(rams one ows COILIMPONDENT.
PARIS, MONDLT EVINING.,
The Unicers publishes the following article,
signed" Louis Veuillot :"

The English jury has acquitted Simon Bernard; the
English people has saluted this crowning result of the trial
with hurrahs ; and the English judges, who souk* not help
detaining the prisoner to answer the secondary charge, saw-
dated themselves with the scandal of his acquittal, as far as
they were able, by declaring that they would accept bail.
How complete le all this, and how cynical. Nothing is want-
ing. While the trial was pending, Ilambil published •
letter, reproduced by several journals, more insulting and
provoking to the Emperor than anything which the refugees
have hitherto ventured upon even in their most revolting
productions. If the English government did not desire this
result, all that can be said is that the Tress governs opinion;
and if it did desire it, then the Them is the organ of
its sentiments. In either case France now knows whet to
think of the inmost heart of the English. Being neither the
worst nor the champions of modern civilisation in general,
nor English civilisation in particular, we have nothing more
to say. Between two powerful and friendly nations a dis-
cussion arose on a question which may be called the " Amanda
question," and one of these nation. decides the question
against the other, and in favour of amusing. Such is the
list and owe of the most remarkable features of European
patios is the 19th century. Let us be candid, and add that,
considering the real state of things, the infamous hurrahs of
the Criminal Court in London are, in our opinion, far prefer-
able to the inflated compliment; with which the corporation
of Dover but the day before wearied the frank nature of the
Duke of Malakoff. No doubt these compliments, full of pro-
fessions, were very English, but the triumphant shouts
which greeted the acquittal of Bernard are the heart of
Ragland herself.

It is the fashion in government circles in France
to declaim against the licence of the English press.
I defy anyone to turn over the files of English
papers for years past, and find among them all so
much libellous matter against France as is concen-
trated in the above few lines. And yet, while the
English press is uncontrolled, nothing can be pub-
lished in France which is presumably nupleasing to
her ruler, and the above ie signed by a man enjoying
his especial favour. It is a virulent attack upon the
English judges, an English jury, the corporation of
Dover, the English government, the English press,
and the English people. It is the language of a
fiendish enemy, boiling over with hatred and malice.
It may well be despised. This kind of thing has been
carried too far. The firmness of the English jury will
speedily prove to every mind that there is nothing
to be frightened about. The leek must be eaten.
The Court chaplain, Father Ventura, is about to
publish to-morrow the sermons preached before the
Emperor in Lent, and, with due regard to the
fitness of things, the preface is written by the Court
journalist, M. Louis Veuillot, of the Univers.
The intention to confiscate the best part of the
garden of the Tuileries for the private use of the
Emperor and Empress, is now confessed by the
Moniteur in the following artfully-worded para-
graph :

- The garden of the Taileries is about to undergo a double
modifloation. A new entrance will be made for the public
on the terrace which runs parallel with the river, opposite
the Rue Csatiglione gate, which new entrance will face a
bridge about to be made to connect the quay of the Tuileries
with the Quay d'Oresy, at the terminus of the Rue Bella-
cheese. At the same time that part of the garden which is
reserved for their Majesty's promenades will be prolonged
as far maths great basin of the parterres, and the public
entrance by the quay will be removed to a point CORM.
pending with that line. The existing gate opposite the
Rue des Pyramides will remain open, as also will the
public promenade on the Terrace des Feuillants end the
adjoining avenue. These changes will facilitate communica-
tka between the quarter of the Rue de la Pala and the
Fauboarg St. Germain, while giving the necessary extension
to the reserved gardens.

It will be long before the entire population of
Paris will be brought to believe this news, so incre-
dible does it appear. But the high, park-like palings
already in course of erection to bar out the people
from the inheritance of their forefathers speak to
the senses of all who have occasion to cross the
garden., and will, I venture to say, influence many
a vote on Sunday next. I believe the first news
which appeared in print in Paris of this enor-
mous infringement of national rights was in the
Express which arrived here yesterday. It was
universally disbelieved, and confident as I was in
the accuracy of the source from which my inform:
tion was derived, I really began to fear that there
must be some mistake, so positively did people,
devoted to the Emperor's government, assure me
that he would never dream of taking away one
yard of the Tuileries garden from the public, to
whose use it had been consecrated without interrup-
tion ever since it had been laid out by Le Notre in
the time of Louis XIV. I was told in explanation
of the rumour, that it had long been contemplated
to continue the Rae de la Paix across the gardens
to the Rue Bellechssee, by means of a new bridge,
and that possibly some improvementmight be made in
that part of the garden nearest to the Palace, but that
all those improvements would be for the benefit of
the public. Frenchmen got angry with me when I
said I knew the confiscation was going to be effected.
" What," they said, " can the Emperor not be satis-
fied to enjoy the Tuileries in that co-partnership
with the public with which the two branches of the
Bourbons and his uncle Napoleon the Great were
content? If he wants private gardens has he not
St. Cloud within half an hour's drive, to say nothing
of Fontainebleau and Compiegne, at two hours' dis-
tance ? And, moreover, has he not, within ten
minutes' walk of the Tuileries, the Palace of the
Elyse., where there is a large umbrage-
ous and beautiful garden entirely walled in ? "
" Further," said these indignant remonstrants,
" the Emperor does not like the Tuileries
as a residence, and does not mean to live there." He
has been heard to say, " The Tuileries shall be my
St. James's, and the Elysee my Buckingham House."
It may be observed, by the way, that shiploads of
money have been sank in the Elysee within the last
three or four years. Parts of the building have been
rebuilt, pulled down, and rebuilt again many times
over as changes of mind occurred, and now
a palace far exceeding the original propor-
tions is nearly completed. Why all these merifless if
not to make a comfortable private residence for the
sovereign ? It was asserted that the whole story
was a gross and palpable calumny, and that so
sensible a man as the Emperor would never take a
step without any adequate cause, which more than
any other would eseteinly make him enemies in
Paris. I was told that the gardens of the Tuileries

were not only national, but European prope;t;7o
merely the decue et tutatem of Paris, but the pride
of the world, the cherished remembrance of all
former visitors, and the fairest picture imprinted on
the expectant mind of visitors to come. "The
man who believes that the Emperor will Tic.
late this universal property must," said a Frenchman
to me," be insane." Bat now the Moniteur has spoken,
and there can be no doubt about the matter. The
reserved gardens are to be extended " for the pro.
menade of their Majesties." And what does this
extension comprise? Why, all the best statues—au
the prettiest parterres, and the ponds with the gold
fish. If there were any law in the country, the
outrage would be resisted ; bat there is none beyond
what is tolerated by power. The Emperor is en.
titled to the " enjoyment " of the royal chiteanz
and rerks, but he has no right to use them in sack
a manner as to be inconsistent with the
time-honoured rights of the public. He might
just as well attach the gallery of the Louvre wit!
all the national paintings to hie private residents.
The thing is done suddenly and stealthily, with
consciousness of wrong. Not only ie the legislature
not consulted, but even the compliment to form
decree is not vouchsafed. The works are begun,
and then, when foreign journals disclose the object
in view, the Moniteur, not in the columns where it
prints important news, but among the fait divert,
the accidents and offences, announces in
deceptive form the intention to commit an
act which will make every citizen of Paris feel
that he is robbed of his birthright. Some people
may perhapesay, "Look what the Emperor has done;
see the Bois de Boulogne, the Louvre, the Boulevard
de Sebastopol, &c. ; how ungracious is it to grudge
him a little private garden adjoining his own Mi.
dence !" Let those who know Paris well judge of
the weight of this argument. The lakes and rocks
in the Bois de Boulogne are, no doubt, delightful
for those who have carriages and leisure.
But it is a day's work for a poor man to
go to see them. A beautiful piece of architecture,
indeed, is the Louvre, bat what compensation is it
to sit upon the hot atones in the interior of that
building for those who are deprived of the cooling
fountains, the green sward, the fragrant flower.beds,
the orange groves, the clear air, and the tranquility
of the Tuileries gardens—all in the centre of the
city, and within a few minutes' walk from the home
of thousands P The question, however, is not oiled
compensation, bat of property. The people haves
right to what is taken away from them without pre.
text or apology, and I am sure that those who Mas
counselled the confiscation have immensely on.
derrated the resentment that will follow it.
Yon will have remarked that the opening sentesos
of the paragraph in the Moniteur represents the
first "modification " as being a boon to the public.
The new gate and bridge is to put the Rue de is
Paix is connexion with the Faubourg St. Germain.
This, even taken by itself, is scarcely any boon at
all ; for the Rue Bellechmee, which will be brought
a little nearer, is not much frequented, wheresa
Rue de Bee, the most populous part of the For
bong St Germain, which was hitherto &ppm:lW
by the gate now to be shut up, by the Pavillon ds
Flee, will be further off than it was before. Bet
admitting the convenience to certain localities sf
• five minutes saving' in the communication betwen
the two quarters, that is no satisfaction for the cce•
'location of the Tuileries garden.
The Bourse has been even worse than it was cs
any day last week. The acquittal of Bernard Ind
undoubtedly a depressing influence, bat still i it
obvious that if any really serious consequences were
apprehended from that event the effect would ban
been much greater. The Rente fell 26c. for reel
and 20c, for account, closing at 69fr. 10c. and 61ffr.
Mobilier was comparatively firm, and cloud
at Saturday's price.. The railways were generally
from sfr. to lir. lower.