The Express.
London, England, 1861-06-05 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(FROM OWN OWN

PARIS, TUESDAY EVE:WM.

It is long since I have seen a greater political
curiosity than the following paragraph in this
evening's Patrie, apropos of the extravagantl)
adulatory article of M. E. About upon Prince
Napoleon, to which I directed your attention •
week ago :

We brve name to know that the Minister of the Interior
has severely blamed the article of Y. About on Prince
Napoleon's portrait, and that immediately after It. publica-
tion he warned the editor of the Opinion Nationak that if
such things were said again (side penile faits descriest as
rrproduire) be should be obliged to report to repressive
measures."

Considering that the gestation of this short note
has extended over a period of six days, it is fair to
presume that every word in it has been carefully
weighed with a view to the impression likely to be
produced upon the public mind, and that if the
nature of the offence, the repetition of which will
be punished, is not specified, the Minister of the
Interior must have his reasons for speaking darkly.
The article, which was only received with con-
temptuous laughter when it appeared, will now be
scanned line by line with intense curiosity, in
order, if possible, to discover the feature of it
which excites the ire of the Minister of the
Interior. It is not reasonable to suppose that any
amount of mere toadyism and vile slaver about a
prince would have drawn down the censure of
the Home Offios. M. About is known to be one
of the prince's favourites, and the Opinion
Nationale, in which he wrote, is the prince's own
peculiar organ. Any ironical intention, therefore,
in the highly-coloured picture, drawn by the very
clever writer, is out of the question. M. do
Persigny cannot hold it an offence to speak iu
glowing terms of the beauty, the virtue, the
graces, the courage, and the universal genius of
a recognised prince of the imperial house who
stands on " the steps of a throne." But the article
of M. About went further than this. It repre-
sented Prince Napoleon as discontented with Is
brilliant position. It spoke of him as a "Caesar
out of place," longing fur action—as a man of
men and yet lacking advancement—and in
three several phrases gave it to be un-
derstood that be was only biding his time to let
his light shine forth before men as it ought to do,
and that he would not always nor long stand with
his " arms folded" on the steps of the throne. The
note in the Patrie,then, infers that the prince is re-
garded, at least by the minister of the day, as a
turbulent member of the imperial house, putting
forth pretensions not to be tolerated. The snub-
ibing of the prince is coincident with his departure
on a long voyage, and, as it is said, to America ; it
is coincident with the countenance of Murat as
against him in the matter of the masonic election ;
and it is coincident, I lament to say, with rumours
of a reaction in an nitrarnontane sense in the impe-
rial council, of recent declarations of the Emperor
altogether hostile to that cause of Italian unity
which Prince Napoleon especially represents in
Prance, and which is essential to the well-
being of the Italians and to the peace of
Europe. I rather think that the details
of this affair do not appear before the pub-
lic in the order in which they occur. It is more
than probable that at the moment when M. About
wrote his very ill-judged article Prince Napoleon
was already in disgrace, and that his temporary
banishment had been then determined upon.
The Bourse was calm, with little change. The
Bente closed, with a rise of 5c., at 69fr. 15c. and
69fr. 35c. Mobilier rose 7fr. 50c. Two or three
railways were from 2fr. 50c. to 3fr. 75c. higher.

Lord Stanley, to-morrow, will ask the Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs, whether it is true, u stated in
the latest telegrams from America, that a regiment of Cana•
dies volunteers has offered its genies, to the President of
the United States, to amulet in coercing the southern states ;
mod th►t this offer bad been accepted ; and what steps will
be taken by her Majesty's government to prevent this vio-
lation of neutrality.