The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-18 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(now ous owx

PARIS, SUNDAY ETZNING.

The conference on the affairs of Syria, which
meets to-morrow or Tuesday, will deliberate not
only upon the report of the international commis-
sion of Beyrout, but also upon a rival report,
drawn up by Ali Pacha, the Turkish Minister of
Foreign Affairs. This latter report opposes the
establishment of a single government in Syria, and
suggests that the province should be divided into
two pachalicks, with Beyrout and Damascus for
capitals. A corps of 25,000 Turks, commanded by
a Turkish general, would keep order in these two
provinces, and a council-general, composed of
Christians and Musaulmen, would be attached to
each pachalic. The revenues of the two provinces
would be appropriated to the public ser-
vices created by the new organisation, in-
cluding, however—and this is a very important
item—the payment of the army to be kept up for
the defence of the inhabitants. The French go-
vernment, as smatter of course, receives this scheme
with disfavour, and ►lleges that it is in the main
nothing but a device for making the Syrian Chris-
tians pay the Turkish soldiers who are to oppress
them. The Opinion Nationale, referring not to
the above project but to the other, according to
which Fuad Pacha was to be Governor-General of
Syria with the fullest possible powers, falls foul
upon Fuad in very violent terms, declaring that he
is " an object of terror and execration" to all the
Christians in the East. This tirade is the preface
to a proposal which I note as being thrown out for
the first time, that if Abd-el Kader cannot be made
viceroy, Syria should be " purely and simply an-
nexed to Egypt."
M. Solarthe, principal editor of the Passe, con-
siders the Guerronniire pamphlet as being simply
"the history of the separation of Italy and Papacy,"
and he exclaims, " the temporal power is over-
ri.cii." This is precisely the view which I took yes-
terday, and I find it to be the general one. The
P nye, however, thinks it impossible that the Pope
can continue to live in Rome, " face to face with
Victor Emmanuel, whom he halt excommunicated."
lam not at all sure of this. It was rumoured a
little while ago that the Pope had appointed a
committee of theologians to consider the question
how far temporal power was necessary to the inde-
pendent exercise of his spiritual functions, and now
the last letters from Italy say that the Jesuit Pas-
saglia has arrived in Turin on a sort of
sporting mission from Cardinal Antonelli to
take soundings for negotiations with Pied-
mont. I have not the least doubt that
when the Pope finds that the best thing he can do
is to come into the scheme of a vicariat with Victor
Emmanuel—and the pamphlet seems to leave him
no other issue—the theologians will discover ex-
cellent religious reasons for giving up the tempo-
ralities.

The Pays announces that the draft of a treaty
of commerce between Turkey, France, and England
has been received by the cabinets of Paris and
London ; it is proposed to fix the import duties
at 8 per cent., the export duties at 5 per cent.,
and the duties on goods in transite at 3 per cent.,
to be successively reduced to 2 per cent. and 1
per cent.
After the proclamation of the amnesty last year the
French Consul in London informed M. Ledru Rollin
that it did not apply to him because he had been
found guilty "by default" of participation in a plot
against the life of the Emperor, which was a com-
mon law, and not a political offence. Thereupon
M. Ledru Rollin submitted to several eminent
Preach advocates the following question:—" Is
a plot against the Emperor's life a political crime P'
The following advocates, in an opinion dated Jan.
23, 1861, have resolved the question in the affir-
mative, adding that M. Ledru Rollin has a legal
right to enter France without being molested :

Jules Fawn, bitonnier ; Marie, wades biltonnier ; Plooque,
ancien tAtonnier ; Ad. Crimiintx E. Desmarets, Leblond,
Paul Andrei, Emmanuel Argo, Th. Bac, Da Barthelemy, A.
Betolaud, Etienne Blanc, Camille Bouquet, Bouillaud,
Edouard Bounlet, &mutant Leon Chamaillard, G. Chaudey,
Cresson, J. J. Delaol, Lion des Etangs, Due:, Dupont (de
Sumac), Emile Duna; I)urieux, Fauet, Ferey, Ch. Floquet,
H. Fontan, Ach. Oournot, 0417, L. C. Grilliet, Guiard,
Hubard, Humans, Ksempfen, De Kermarec, Emile Jay,
A. Juliet, Laborde, Laurier, Lehman, Lecanu, Emile
Leroux, Leven, R. Mognier, Mallard, Malapert, Montigny,
Jules Morel, H. Moulin, Adalbert Philis, Ernest Picard,
Aug. Poyet, Ed. Puthod, L. Renaud, Eugene Richard,
Jules Ronjat, 0. Salvetat, Truitt, Vavasseur, Voncken.
PARIS, SATURDAY EVENING.

Notwithstanding all that is said
about the ambi-
gu9ty of the Guerronniere pamphlet, I think it
rings the death knell of the Pope's temporal power.
In endeavouring to find the true meaning of it we
must look at the surrounding eircumstancesas much
VI at the language used. The latter has no doubt
been softened down out. of tenderuessfor the clergy,
and to keep up the fiction that the Emperor is not
only by tradition the "eldest sou of the church,"
but in fact and in deed its most respectful and obe-
dient servant. M. Thouvenel, as I am assured,
claims credit for striking out some of the original
passages of the pamphlet, and is angry at the con-
tradiction of his having done so which another
minister took upon himself to send to the evening
papers last night ; and, to make a short digression,
you must not be astonished to learn that there are
declared differences of opinion among Napoleon's
ministers. They are not a homogeneous body—
there is no solidarity between them. According
to the Imperial system, each man is separately and
individually responsible to his master alone, and as
long as he pleases hie] will naturally try to gratify
his own opinions without regard to his colleagues.
Only lately, the speeches of MM. Troplong and
de Morey were remarked as containing altogether
conflicting views of the decree of Nov. 24 ; but the
Emperor, who has suddenly became alive to the in-
convenience of keeping a people in leading strings,
carries his new-born zeal for independent thought
to such an extent as to allow his confidential coun-
cillors to contradict each other in public. But to
return to the pamphlet :—lt is very difficult to con-
ceive how such a bill of indictment against the
court of Rome should be published by authority,
under present circumstances, if it were the Em-
peror's intention to prop up the government of the
Cardinals much longer. Perhaps the most im-
portant line in the whole pamphlet is that
which declares Rome to be the " obstacle to
the organisation of Italy." This is, in other
words, a declaration that the French army of Rome
is the obstacle, for it is plain to all the world that
if that army were withdrawn, the Pope would give
the King of Italy no further trouble. When the
Emperor—for he it is who really speaks by the pen
of theCouncillor of State, Guerrouniere--complains
of an " obstacle," it cannot reasonably be supposed
that he means that obstacle to remain in papctuity
when it is in his own power to remove it by merely
passive means. He has over and over again said
that he would not for ever be the gaoler of the
Roman States, and the recently published diplo-
matic correspondence shows that he has more than
once officially threatened to withdraw his troops.
I have been very slow to believe that he ever really
means to loose his hold upon Italy ; but I now
think be will.
The Side thinks that the choice of M. Granier
de Cassagnac to draw up the address, on behalf of
the committee, does not imply that it will he
framed in an ultramoutane sense, and it very
irreverently gives it to be understood that the
sturdy catholic of the Pays, seeing which way the
cat jumps, has modified his opinions within the last
three days.
•

Abd-el-Kader is shortly coming to France. He
is expected at the Chateau Masc 3, near Pau, and
also in Paris. The Emir is said to have assured
Fluid Paella that he has no thought of coming
forward as his rival for the_pachalic of Syria.
It is announced that the European conference on
the Syrian question will meet at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs on the 18th or 19th instant.
The Opinion Nationale, which originally circu-
lated the news that three French noblemen, MM.
de Noe, St. Pierre, and St. Martin, had been sen-
tenced to death by a court-martial at Messina, now
corrects the statement. They are merely arrested
on a charge of conspiracy, and have been seat to
Genoa to take their trial. A Prussian named
Kalkreuth, a mysterious personage, who is said to
have betrayed them, is now their fellow-prisoner.
At the Bourse to-day, although the amount of
business done was still very limited, there was a
decidedly better feeling. The Guerronuiere
pamphlet is considered favourable to the Italian
cause, and therefore pacific ; and the speech which
Victor Emmanuel will pronounce on Monday is
discounted in a pacific sense. The Route rose 25
cents. for cash and 20c. for account, closing at
68.30 and 68.25. Mobilier rose 8.75. The Orleans
Railway rose 8.75 ; Northern, 5 ; Lyons, 3.75;
Southern, 6.25 ; and Eastern, .25. Western with-
out change.

THE CESSION OF MENTONE AND ROQUE-

BRUNE.

The Journal de Monaco of the 10th inst. pub-
lishes the following :

On the 2nd of February a treaty was signed at Paris, by
which his Most Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco
cedes the communes of Mentone and Roquebrune to his
Majesty the Emperor of the French.
The Plenipotentiaries were, for the Emperor, M. P.
Fenger., lows dircete•r of Foreign Affairs, and, for the
Prince, M. le Comte Henri d'Avigdor.
The exchange of ratifications will take place within ten
days.
This cession is made by the prince for an indemnity of
4,000,000 fr. (160,0001.), as also the restitution of the private
properties belonging to his most serene highness in the
communes of Mentone and Roquebrune, and of which the
prince was despoiled in 1848.
The treaty stipulates, moreover, the establishment of
• Customs union between France and the Principality, and
the engagement on the part of the imperial government to
construct a carriage road between Nice and Monaco, follow-
Mg the seashore, as also to enlarge and improve the road
from Monaco to Menton.

This treaty, which is as honourable for our sovereign
aa it is advantageous for the country, puts an end to the
abnormal state of things which has existed for " thirteen