The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-13 00:00:00

OUR PARIS LETTER.

THE ELECTIONS.
(mom ova OWN COMISPONDINT.)

PARIS, 131'NDAY ENT'SING.
The elections decreed in yesterday's Mositeit r to
take place on May 2 and 3 for the three death
vacancies in the Seine Inf6rieure, Tarn, and
Dordogne will be the occasion of a considerable poli-
tical demonstration in the country. The question
is asked why two other vacancies—those in the
Somme and the Ariege—are not to be tilled up at
the same time. As to one of those seats it may
be plausibly said that the late possessor, M. Henry
Didier, is dead too recently for it to be consistent
with usage to fill up his place just yet ; but for
the postponement of an election to supply the
place of Count d'Estournel, who was unseated
by the Corps Legislatif some time ago,
it would be difficult to allege any better
reason than that the government, anticipating a
defeat, wishes to put off the evil day as long as
possible. It is a very monstrous thing that the
imperial constitution gives the executive the power
to keep a seat vacant for six months. In the
Seine Inferieure the government candidate is
M. Corneille, the son of the late member.
The recent success of M. des Rotonrs, jun., in
the Nord, encouraged the government to adopt
the hereditary principle in this case. In the
Tarn, however, that principle is not acted on by the
Prefect. M. Gorsse, son of the late General Baron
Gorsse, is tainted with liberalism, and moreover,
the votes of his father, in the latter days of his life,
were not as subservient 'as might be desired. He
frequently kicked over the traces, voted frequently
with the tiers parti, and sometimes even with the
Loft. The consequence is that M. Gaugiran, the
Mayor of Albi, is the official candidate, and M.
Gorsse must try his luck on "his own hook."
There is another independent candidate, M. Louis
Decazes, who in 1863 obtained as many as 8,000
votes. In the Dordogne M. Gibiat, the
manager of the Constitutionnel and Pays,
who had hoped to be the official candidate,
has been finally rejected by the Prefect, and
came forward as an independent candidate
against a M. Boiaredon, who is to be sup-
ported by all the influence of government.
The divided duty now imposed upon the Con-
&tut ionwl is unprecedented. It cannot well
oppose its own manager, and yet how can it
refrain from supporting, as it is wont in all
cases to do, the candidate recommended by go-
vernment t Hitherto it has preserved a judicious
silence ; but the Pays, whose editor, Cramer
de Casssgnac, thinks himself warranted, in
consideration of old and special services, to take
liberties with his master, abuses the Prefect in
good set phrase for refusing to patronise M. Gibiat.
The opposition candidate in the Dordogne is M. de
Malleville. That in the Seine Inf6rieure is M.
Estancelin, • member of the Constituent Assembly,
who in 1863 obtained • very respectable minority
in the district. In all these departments there
will be • serious contest, and the poll will no
doubt forcibly mark the rising tide of oppo-
sition, but I shall be greatly surprised if
the government loses any one of the seats.
In reference to these elections the catholic organ,
the Union, publishes an article signed by the
Marquis de Dreux-Bread, no ordinary journalist,
but the head of a great catholic family and the
brother of one of the wealthiest bishops in
France. The advice he gives to the church
party is neither to vote for official nor
democratic candidates, but to seek for pure repre-
sentatives of church opinions. As a reason for
not supporting government nominees he refers to
the history of the last sixteen years. Never, he
says, in any country, or at any period was the
system of official candidates carried out with a per-
sistency and a success such: as it has been the " sad
fate" of catholic. to witness under this empire. And
yet what guarantees have the religious, political,
moral, and material interests of catholic. obtained/
Rather he would ask, what checks have they not
suffered t The tolerance of the Chambers
resulting from these official elections, if
ad their expert acquiescence, has rendered
'tensible those said events which have
diverted France from her secular mission, corn-
Ineraised her prestige abroad, and diminished her
prosperity at home. Among the calamities of the
mapke added up by the marquis are the unity of
There dripping of the Holy See of four fifths of
its dominion', the aggrandisement of Prussia, the
Medan catastrophe, the aggressions of free trade,
toed dko encroachment' of lay instruction. Fee all

these ceuses he has no oonadenoe in any govern-
' meat candidate. He would not, however, oompro-
mime sound principles by forming an allienoe with the
revolutionary opposition. It may very likely be
that the purely church can lidatts which he mam-
ma& may sot succeed. But his esloulation a


that if in every circumscription of France C,OOO or
7,000 electors were to vote for churchmen, their
whole number, amounting to something like
1,500,000, could not fail to exercise an influence
upon the march of government.

PARIS, SATURDAY Sesame°.
Prince Napoleon and the Princess Clotildo will
leave Paris on the 14th instant to attend Prince
Humbert's wedding. The Queen of Portugal is
expected at Nies next week on her way to Turin,
for the lame ceremony.
I read in the Presse :—" The osremanies of Holy
Thursday and Good Friday attracted innumerable
crowds to the clunchea of Paris. The washing of
the feet of twelve poor children took place yester.
day at Notre Dame by the Archbishop, at St.
Thomas Aquinas, by the Pope's nuncio, and at the
Madeleine by the Abbe Duguerry, the curs; of the
parish, and the Prince Imperial's confessor." Now
as "I hate the pride that apes humility," I shall give
you an exact description of the feet washing as it
took place at the Madeleine. An imposing array
of the great ones of his parish, in which the ?allies
of the Tuileries is situate, witnessed the self.
abasement of Ablei Duguerry. The ladies—such
is the church etiquette of Passion week—were all
in mourning, but coquettish in the last degree.
The altars were sumptuously lighted up, and the
tall beadles, with their three-cornered hats and
silver-mounted poles, seemed to hold their heads
higher than on ordinary occasions. After the con-
gregation had waited some time, M. Duguerry
made his appearance, followed by a band of deacons.
He delivered a 14ort extempore exhortation on
humility, in which he spoke of the glorious et-
ample set by the Pope to the Christian church at
the very moment he was speaking, when his
Holiness was engaged in washing the feet of
twelve beggars. No doubt, but for the enmity of
the French code to mendicancy, the priest of the
Madeleine would have selected the persons on
whom to display his abnegation of self from the
beggar class. As it was, he had hardly finished his
discourse when the inmates of a boarding echool--
and judging from the aspect of the boys I should
say a boarding school for aristocratic children
were marshalled in, and from about three score
twelve of the youngest and fairest selected. Thee
were at once placed on old-fashioned high-backed
chairs, when their patent leather boots and sp.t.
lees white stockings were removed by a
deacon. Another deacon bearing a silver
basin preceded M. Duguerry, and set it
down m turn before the little boys. A 3
each, after he had immersed a clean plump little
white foot in the silver vessel, withdrew it, the
cure hastily went through the form of wiling it
with a large napkin. I have small judenieut in
textile fabrics, but I was assured by a lady that
this " towel " was of the finest Saxony linen—tine
enough to pass through a wedding ring, and th.d
the deep lace border surrounding it was of antique
point de Velude.
The Bourse was again dull, but the fall is too
insignificant to be attributed to any serious appre-
hensions of war. The Ginnulc of Bordeaux,
of the most important provincial papers,
suggests that government at this monieut
encourages the war rumours for the sole purp..e
of exercising a pressure upon the budget mu.
mates), which bravely says it will not sanction the
enormous expenditure in the war department sue
less it is furnished with a "reason." Rents
10c. for cash and Zie. for account, closing .t
68f. 90c. and 681. 95c. Italian fell 75c., closing .a
47f. 90c. Credit Fonder fell 6f. 75c., and Mot..
liar and Comptoir d'Escompte sf, each. Itailwa,s.
which have not lately fluctuated much, were all
or sr. lower.