The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-10 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 10, 1868.

vested interest in each other's gravity. This idea
of a tribunal sympathising more or lose with the
offenders they have to try ; this suspicion that,
somehow or other, an election petition could be
compromised or bought off, was in itself an incen-
tive to corruption. Tho clauses which Mr.
DISRAELI moves this afternoon will secure, at all
events, a bend fide investigation of alleged corrupt
practices ; the evil-doers really compromised
by their illegal acts will be exposed ; the
offence of bribery will become a real one instead of
one sanctioned by custom or opinion, and there-
fore none at all ; and many a highly respectable
gentleman will at the next election think it wise
to keep his money in his purse, and his throats in
the recesses of his breast. The Bill will so far
be an advantage to honest candidates; it will
cheek the unscrupulous seal of landlords and
clergy, and paralyse that brute force of cynical
wealth, which buys its way into Society through
the suffrages of a marketable constituency.
It 6012M8 that the constitutional objections of
the Judicial Bench to sitting 88 a tribunal be-
ta ven Parliament and the constituencies
have been overcome by the simple process
of npi .inling tli roe add itional Common Law Judges,
and adding 500/. to the salary of each puisne Judge
of the superior courts who is selected to try aloe-
tion petitions,. Inasmuch as those three now
Judges appointed for general purposes will
be a relief to the Bench in their ordi-
nary work, they have doubtless already accepted
the scheme of the Government with good
humour. Indeed, it may occur to some
frugal minds that had the present judicial staff
been offered the 500/. for the job, they might not
have asked for more judges, and might have found
in the extra pay an adequate inducement to do
what Parliament required. Tho Judges, however,
are neither an overpaid nor an tuulorworked order
of public servants ; in mounting to the bench they
do not profess to be more disinterested or self-deny-
ing than when they practised at the Bar, or sat in
the House of Commons. And who shall say that in
demanding so much more money for so much
morework, and in makingthoir acquiescence in this
Bill a question of 5001. a year, they set a bad
example to the profession they adorn ? If the
present Parliament is sincerely in earnest in
desiring to prevent corrupt practices at the general
election and to redeem the new constituencies
from the vices of the old, it will follow the
example of Mr. GLADsToNE, and give the Govern-
ment all the aid it can in passing this Bill. It
is avowedly a piece of experimental and provisional
legislation, but its operation will very soon be
tested ; and its moral effect upon candidates and
electors can hardly be tested too soon. Linked to
this one virtue the thousand faults of the old
Parliament will be more easily forgotten, and true
Liberals ought not to grudge the Government the
merit of tardy perseverance in passing a measure
which according to Mr. DISEA.E.LI'S doctrine in 1866
ought not to have been omitted from the Reform
Bill of last year.

Mesmer' as private mails. We hope to hear that
cheaper rates of postage will be agreed to. An
1110701180 in the opportunities of eoaununios-
lion will only make the present high charges the
more onerous.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

FOREIGN NEWS.

(THIS DAY.)

AUSTRIA.

The North East Correspondence says that the
Duke do Grammont has presented a fresh protest
against tho taxation of the French eroditots of
Austria, especially as regards the loan negotiated
in Paris. "The form of the note," it says, "is
friendly, and in harmony with the excellent rela-
tions subsisting between Franco and Austria."
The municipality of Reichenberg, in Bohemia,
have agreed to a protest against the allocution
of the Pope, and at the same time passed a vote
of confidence in the Austrian ministry. The
Czech party in Prague have petitioned the Empe-
ror, praying him to spend two months of the
year in the imperial residence at Prague.

(TIIEOO6II If7l. Ritl7TEll.B Acki24cr.)
AMERICA.
ARRIVAL OF THE 110LSATIA.

The Hamburg and American Company's steamer
HoUntie, from Now York on the 30th ult., arrive.]
at Southampton to-day, with MO passengers for
this port, Havre, and Hamburg, 42 sacks of mails,
541,684 doll. in specie for London, 155,185 doll.
for Paris, and 7,076 dots. for Hamburg.
She made the entire passage from Sandy hook
to the Needles, allowing for the difference of time,
in nine days and four hours, with more or less fog
throughout the passage. On the 2nd inst. she
passed the English ship Chancellor, bound west.
NEW YORK, JuNE 30, Noon.

The House of Representatives by 92 against 55
votes has passed a resolution directing the com-
mittee of ways and means to report the bill
taxing the interest on the United States Bonds at
least 10 per cent.
General Buchanan, by direction of General
Grant, has removed the Governor and Lieutenant-
Governor of Louisiana and has installed the re-
cently elected officers, Warmouth and Dunn, the
latter a negro.
It is reported that General Grant has addressed
the district commanders informing them that the
military will give place to civil rule in those states
recently admitted to representation a .9 soon as the
constitutional requirements are complied with.
The Louisiana Legislature was convened yester-
day, the majority of the democratic delegates with-
drew.

The Mississippi election is still progressing. It
is reported that the Democrats are largely ahead.
President Johnson has signed a bill establishing
eight hours as a day's work for all mechanics iu
government employ.
The trial of Su rratt has been further postpon"d
until the 21st September. The district attorney
will not prosecute under the murder indictment.
The Bing of the Sandwich Islands, in conse-
quence of the annexation agitation by Americans,
has threatened to place the islands under British
protection if his nationality is interfered with.

The German national Schiitzeniest has com-
menced. A grand parade took place on Saturday.
On Sunday there was a banquet. A delegation
from Congress and several European delegations
were present.

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(ram OUR OWN 0081118PONDENT.)
PARIS, ThrrawAY Eraxma

The melancholy spectacle of an officer and a
gentleman, and a man wearing the decoration of
the Legion of Honour, appearing in the dock of
a court of justice, guarded by two gendarmes, to
answer a charge of swindling, was seen in the
Correctional Tribunal on Tuesday.
Captain Negroni, a Corsican of noble family,
who entered the army as a private soldier at the
ago of fifteen, rose to the rank of captain, saw a
great deal of service in various parts of the
world, had an irreproachable military cha-
racter, and was able to call us wit-
nesses, not only brother officers but colo-
nels and generals, to speak in his favour,
was accused of having raised large sums of money
by pledging jewels and curiosities which he knew
to be of scarcely any value. Captain Negroni was
in the French army, during the sack of the
Emperor of China's Summer Palace. Like
most of the officers and soldiers engaged in that
affair, he laid his hand upon a good deal of plun-
der. Some " demon " appears to have whispered
to him, " Negroni, have a taste," and, having
formed an exaggerated notion of the value
of the nick-necks which fell to his share,
he added to his collection by purchases
from officers and soldiers, in which he
invested not only all his own money, but a
great deal that he borrowed from comrades. Re-
turning to France after 23 years' service, he retired
in the full persuasion that his collection was
worth a very large fortune. He opened an
exhibition in the Rue Rivoli which was
visited by the Princess Mathilde, Count de
Niewerkerque, M. Thiers, and many distinguished
personages. Afterwards he took his collection
to Baden Baden and other places in Ger-
many, and finally to England, but the
enormous value which he set upon his curiosities
prevented him from finding a market for them.
Ultimately he came back to Paris, and being in
great want of money succeeded in raising as much
as 130,000 fr. upon the deposit of part of the
jewels. He had for a long time before published
various prospectuses setting forth that his collec-
tion was worth 140 millions of francs. He had
a quantity of " jade " in larger pieces than
had ever before been seen in Europe, and
every piece of which represented, he said, the
labour of a man's whole life, and the wearing
out of a great many diamonds employed to
cut it. The thing which most got him into trouble
was a diamond which ho pledged as worth
10,0001., and which two valuers swore was a Rhine
pebble not worth twopence. The parties who in-
stituted the prosecution were paid their money,
and desisted ; but the public prosecutor
thought it his duty to go on with it. He ad-
mitted that Captain Negroni was at one time bond
fide under a delusion as to the value of his col-
lection, but contended that the reports of
experts whom he had consulted, and the im-
possibility which he had found of raising
any money upon his trinkets in Germany
and England, must have opened his eyes, and that
unless he was a fool, which he did not appear to
be, he must have known that the curiosities on
which he raised a very large sum of money were
worth scarcely anything. M. Allou, the baton-
nier, defended Captain Negroni. He called
as witnesses to character, General Soumain, Com-
mandant of the Paris garrison, Brigadier-General
Grolier, the Colonel of the Ist Grenadier Guards,
and several other officers, who deposed that they
had been well acquainted with Captain Negroni,
and gave him the highest character. They said
they had seen his collection, and were struck with
the many " curious and beautiful things"
it contained, though they thought the cap-
tain was labouring under a mistake as