The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-03 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND THE
PRESS.-POPULAR AGITATION.
(r6Oll OUR cm( CORIIESPONDINT. )

PARIS, St!NDAT EVECING.
The words spoken in the Corps Legislatif yester-
day am well worth reading by politicians who have
leisure. I read them with interest, and had in-
tended to have analysed them. But more impor-
tant things, arguing " acts" more important than
words, distract my attention. It is very curious to
read in the Moaiteur how M. Nogent St. Laurens,
the reporter on the bill, who had promised on Fri-
day to make a long speech, made a very short one,
on the ground that after M. Granter de
Cassaguac's onslaught on the bill as being
too liberal, he had nothing to say until
he was assured that the government did not
mean to withdraw it. It is curious to read how
the fluent M. Baroche, Minister of Justice, who
was not authorised to say that the bill would be
withdrawn, defended it with calculated lukewarm-
ness and spoke against freedom of the press in a
spirit totally opposite to the letter of January
19. It is instructive and amusing to read M.
Picard's exhaustive demonstration of the short-
comings and treacherous nature of the bill, and
hie description, which provoked great laughter, of
that narrow correctional chamber derisively
called a public court, where President Delesvaux
reigns supreme, and where the independent
journalists, called up one after the other
in rapid succession, may with peculiar pro-
priety be said to appear before " their"
judges because they know them of old, and know
exactly what they will do. But there are serious
rumours to-day that in one form or another the
bill will be abandoned. The rapidly succeeding
meetings of the Privy Council, to which I alluded
yesterday as evidence that something extraordinary
was in the wind, are now understood to have been
called to consider this question. The Emperor is
frightened by his counsellors, who tell him that
his government cannot stand liberty, not
even that very charily measured liberty which
he was driven to consider necessary a year
ago, but he also shrinks from breaking his
word. The device hit upon for getting him out of
his difficulty is very seriously said to be that of
giving the majority of the Corps Legislatif, who
whenever a pressure is put among them are his
" most obedient humble servant to command,"
leave to vote against him in this instance.
They are most anxious to do so because they
know that a free press, or even a press
more free than at present, combined
with free electoral meetings, would turn most of
them out of their seats at the next elections. There
are rumours, nodoubt exaggerated, of revolutionary
movements in Paris in case the bill should be
dropped. Troops " under arms " and double
sentries on various posts are spoken of. On these
subjects I have no accurate knowledge, but there
is clearly something more than common in the
wind.
The Prince Imperial took the chair yesterday at
a dinner of 160 pupils of the Bonaparte Lyceum,
to which establishment he is supposed to belong.
He does not, it is true, study at the college, but he
goes through the course of education that is given
there, and twelves prizes for his superiority to
other students, with whom he does not come in
direct competition, but who are pronounced by
competent authority to have passed examinations
inferior to those of his imperial highness. The oc-
casion of the feast was the festival of St. Charle-
magne, dear to all French schoolboys as the best
feeding time they know throughout the year. The
Emperor sent game and champagne for the tuck-
out.

" A distinguished party," says the Prime, "have
just made an excursion through the sewers of Paris.
Among them were the Winans de la Tremoills, the
Counters de Coetlagon, the Frio* of Bolos, the Counts
de Quincy, de Mercy-Argentean. de Teeny, de Ooeglogen,
and Dural de Beaulieu, and others. They deeeended at
the entrance on the Place do Chitelet, and went in a
vehicle all along the Bus de Rivoli. At the Place de la
Concorde they entered a boat to mooed by the great
collecting sewer is far as the Rue de la Factual*, where
the excursionists emerged into the upper air, much sur-
prised at ell they had +Unwed."
The journals announce the death, at Paris, aged
96 years, of lime. Louis Duels, 'tea Anna Telma. This
lady was sister of Telma, and married the nephew of the
poet Dude.
A New York paper says :—" General Dix,
oar Minister to Franco, it is reported, bee instituted snits
in the French courts against the builders of Confederate
vessels during the rebellion. A Weahington despatch,
shading to the matter, says the emit is brought spinet
E. Erlanger, the banker, and several ether prominent
parties, to force the reetltitsion of 6,000,000 dollars paid
thew parties by the Confederate States for ships built
and net delivered, bet subsequently sold to Prowls sad
other powers. The limited States further slain 2,000,000
dollars ter espouses incurred in sending yawls to the
French comet to prevent those Confederate enders from
putting to see."
The Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia
' StearesldpOsergany hare maireeted with Ma me. Tod sad
Mearrigor, of Gleagow far a new steamer, 148 feet keel
sad forerake, and sioul 'Mgt togs mariarmaint, to be
called the City al
lirDzA AID Cznia —iLissitaues, PAL S.
—The Meregeries Imperials. steamer Warts, with the
shore loath, strived here at 9 a.m. this morning.