The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-21 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

CHALLENGE TO A DUEL BY PRINCE
MURAT TO PRINCE NAPOLEON:-

(11011 OUR Owl

PARIS, MoNDAT EVINING.

Prince Murat has sent a challenge to his cousin
Prince Napoleon, on account, as I understand, of
a paragraph in the Opinion Nagionole (given below),
which the actual Grand Master of the French Free-
masons attributes to the inspiration of his imperial
rival for the office. The Emperor, who heard of
the matter, ordered the Prince Napoleon not to
fight, just as he did in the case of the Duke
d'Aumale ; but Prince Murat repeated his challenge
in the most taunting terms, and telling Prince
Napoleon that he did not admit the Emperor's
jurisdiction in affairs of honour between persons
of their rank, gave him notice that he should be
upon the ground to-day, and fully expected to
meet him. This information, nothing of which is
yet known to the public, reaches me from a sure
110111"00.

The following is the passage in the Opinion
Nationak above referred to. After reproducing
Prince Murat's decree against M. Riche Gar-
don, editor of the Masonic journal the Initiation,
it says :
Events have rapidly succeeded each other since then.
As the elections take place on Monday, the 20th, the
authority which was bent on perpetuating its existence
bad no time to lose. Yesterday, therefore, on a report
addressed to his royal highness by the grand-officer charged
to represent him, Prince Murat decreed the provisional
suspension of 11 members of the legislative assembly of the
order, whom the report styles factious, and whose open oppo-
sition might have disturbed the election. But the very abort
time that remains to elapse before the election further
aggravates the position of the lodges thus deprived of their
representatives. The Grand Master is named for seven
years ; it is therefore most essential that all the lodges
should be represented at an election, the result of which
may be of such vast importance to the whole order. We
may also mention here that the course taken by Prince
Murat was the cause of the great schism three years ago in
the lodges of the United States. The election of another
Grand Master in his place would, no doubt, tend to the
establishment of unity in freemasonry. The influence of
the order is very powerful in America, and it is easy to
understand that the return to unity is a matter of the
highest moment to an association based on the dogma of
universal brotherhood.

It has always been usual in France to choose the
Grand Master from a member of the reigning
family, and generally speaking the election is for
life. But Prince Murat, who, perhaps, expected
by this time to be King of Naples, requested that
he might only be elected for the seven years which
have just now expired. The result of the new
election will not be known till to-morrow or next
day, but there can be scarcely any doubt that
Prince Napoleon will be chosen. He has attained
the rank in the craft of a Rosicrucian, which here
is a necessary qualification for the supreme office.
Murat is said to be terribly " cunning of fence,"
and the friends of Prince Napoleon are alarmed for
his fate if he should be so imprudent as to place
himself within reach of his incensed adversary's
sword ; in all probability, however, the latter will
implicitly obey the Emperor's commands.
I hear this evening, but too late to verify it, a
report that M. de Flahaut, the French ambassador
in London, has just come to Paris to receive per-
sonal instructions from the Emperor relative to
the Syrian affair, Which it seems still perplexes
diplomacy.
I Lave good reason to believe that the French
government and Count Cavour have come to at
complete understanding with regard to the evacua-
tion of Rome. Recent letters speak of extraordi-
nary military preparations making by Count de
Mende, which are inexplicable upon any suppo-
sition than that the Pope means to garrison fur
himself the small domain which it is proposed to
leave him.

The extraordinary fear of Orleanism betrayed by
Count de Persigny's circular is thus represented by
M. Gueroult in the Opinion Ntaionaic,::

The Minister of the Interior is at once the friend of sound
democratic ideas and the loyal servant of the Emperor. In
this double character be will allow us to tell him that we
do not share the sentiments which prompted the circular.
Why seize and suppress the pamphlets of the Orleanist
party? Wbat is there in • discussion with the policy of
1840 to be so much dreaded? Why by measures of seventy
protect that policy against public opinion, and thus render
it impervious to criticism? That policy is not so old but
that the country can well remember how it lived and how
it fell. Has it now become more formidable because of a
coalition with the legitimists, by whom it is detested, and
the clergy, by whom it is despised? To do the policy the
honour of being &frail of it is to lend it • greatness not its
own : it is a drawing•room opposition, a defunct deg, it rests
.upon no souvenirs, it is an oligarchy without prestige, a
staff without an army, an equivocal regime which has no
antecedents to boast of, and yet turns its lack on the future.
What is there in such an opposition to alarm the govern-
ment? There is one sure way of having nothing to fear
from Orleanisni, viz., to abstain from filling the mayoral-
ties and prefectures with its adepts; to appeal to the
country and auk it for • Corps Legislatif leas foreign by date
and origin to the questions of the day ; and further and
above all, to make the imperial policy, whether home or
foreign, more decided, to distinguish friends from enemies,
opposing the one and energetically supporting the other,
not as happens but too often in the provinces, to leave
friends in opposition while enemies are in power--in short,
to put an end to the doubts and hesitations of the country
by marching with a firm 'top towards ► definite object. On
these conditions the government has nothing to fear from
Orleanisin or its pamphlet.. It may allow them to circa.
late freely, and even give them the hospitality of the
Mon,leur. It is not by these pamphlets that it will
perish.

The Bourse might as well have been closed to-
day, so little business was there doing. The Bente
closed at 69fr. 30c. (with a rise of Sc.) for cash,
and at Saturday's price, G9fr. 40c., for account.
Mobilier rose lfr. 23c. In railways scarcely any
change.

The Monifeur de la Matte says :—" A Belgian
journal has stated that Vice- admiral Chooser, Commander-
in-Chief of the French Naval Forces in the Chinese fleas,
was about to be recalled, and that France did not intend
to follow up the expedition in Cochin China. Wo have good
mason for affirming that both these statements are alto-
gether unfounded."

" On Saturday night," writes a correspondent of
the Athena-ma in Genoa, "we maw a new ballet, 1 Biaisoki
ere i Neri , taken from Uncle Tom's Cabin ; it was
pretty Bad amusing, and contained a new fea-
ture. When the blacky is reading his Bible, the
scene opens to a vision of heaven, and a song is beard
with harp accompaniment, which had a most original
effect in a ballet. The prima donna, who rag it, was
called out ; and being dressed in a white muslin wrapper,
looked quite in character. The ballet ends with a grand
ball, when the eleg►nt ladies in blue and pink have, am
partners, niggers with white cravats and waistcoats, and
woolly hair. It is truly a ballet-master's Idea of perfect
future felicity and emancipation from slavery—the ecstatic
privilege of dancing with white ladies."

- The Bishop of Celle in Tuscany having on the
Sad but. published, in allusion to the approaching national
festival, a circular to all the clergy of his diocese, threaten-
ing with immediate suspension a diriais any priest who
should presume to celebrate any sacred rite for a political
parpome, the clergy of Poggibonsi have replied in a protest,
dated the 12th, declaring their firm intention of performing
service on the occasion of the said national festival, which
is to take place on the first Einnday in June, and that they
intend to place themselves under the protection of the
King's government against their ~piritual head.