The Express.
London, England, 1861-12-26 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(Mid OUR OWS 0011111111.0XDrifi.)
PAILS, WILDNILIDAY EVININO.
The Dibats, whose good luck and good judgment
in keeping clear of warnings has hitherto been the
wonder of its admiring and envious contemporaries,
has now at last got one,by way of a Christmas-box,
from M. de Persigny. The Minister of the Interior
thinks it necessary to take under Lis protection M.
Troploug's solemn platitudes about the "glorious
constitution of 1862." Nothing can be more true
than the description given of it in Professor Saint
Marc Girartlin's sarcastic sentence :—" If we were
to discuss with M. Troploug about the fundamen-
tal principles of the constitution of 1852, we should
perhaps be led to say, with the assent of very many
people, that the most fundamental principle of the
constitution of 1852 is the Emperor, and that it is
the illusion of a jurisoonsult overestimating the im-
portance of the text before Lis eyes, to think that
it is the empire which supports the Emperor
and not the Emperor which supports the
empire." This mere truism is held by M.
de Persigny to be "factious," and written with the
intention of "shaking faith in the strength and
durability of our institutions." I don't think
that faith will be strengthened by M. de Persigny's
warning. Nor will the public be more likely to
forget, or less likely to adopt, M. Saiut-Mare
Girardin's compendious criticism, on account of the
attention called to it by this official denunciation.
The "constitution" is in reality a provoking mis-
nomer, a bad joke, a shallow sham, a riddle not
worth guessing. The Emperor himself is evidently
hampered by, and half ashamed of it. He got
frightened last year at his own isolation, and made
the memorable confession, "my government
wants control." All his acts since, to which he
owes increased popularity at home and diminished
distrust abroad, have been in derogation of that
constitution, which the courtiers who framed it
now cry up as an ark of salvation, too sacred to be
touched. They do their master au ill service in
provoking the recollection of the fact that this
constitution was voted at the point of the bayonet,
and under a reign of terror. So far from there
being anything factious in the Debate' arti-
cle, it is in spirit a commendation of
the Emperor's government as it is now
going on, and the passage " incriminated" (that is
M. de Persigny's own word) points only to M.Trop-
long, and obstructivea such as he, who do their best
to prevent such reforms as may in time endow
France with institutions not depending exclusively
on the prestige of the Emperor's name, and under
which a great and free people might be content
permanently to live.
It is stated that a passage in M. Fould's speech,
in which he expressed an opinion that a minister
who might be blamed by the Corps Legislatif for
having made a bad exercise of the droit de electrical
could no longer hold office, was struck out of the
Mouiteur, on account of iM conveying an approba-
tion of that parliamentary doctrine of " minis-
terial responsibility," which ultra-imperialists
abhor. You know that a " fundamental prin-
ciple" of the constitution of 1832 is that ministers
are responsible only to the Emperor—just like his
groom or his footman.

- Cardinal Mathieu, who distinguished himself by
giving a solitary vote against theSenaiusConsultutn,
is the eccentric prelate, who, being some time ago
called upon to bless the engines of a new railway,
took the opportunity to inveigh against steam and
electricity as diabolic inventions ; one of the
engines, breaking away accidentally, " hissed" his
speech and provoked great laughter.
A Mons. Peign6, author of a "Dictionary of
France," puts a rather embarassing question in a,
letter to the papers, to the gentlemen who manage
the censorship of the press. The Muniteur said on
11 December 22 that the object of the legislature in
constituting the commission of colportage, was to
protect the "religious, mural, and political inte-
rests" of the country. " That being so," says M.
Peign6, " I want to know what right the committee
had to prevent my selling my dictionary as they have
done, on the ground that I use an I ' in certain
names of places where they would use a Y'
I write Cambray, Douai, Nanci, Aveiron instead
of Cambray, Donay, Nancy, Aveyron. My
system may be wrong, although I am prepared to
defend it, but at all events I should like to be
I told which of the three great interests placed
11 under the guardianship of the commission I have
attacked ?" There is certainly no legal answer to
be given to 31. Peigutrs question.
A slight shock of an earthquake was felt in the
evening of December 20, at Nice, Draguignan, and
other places iu the south of France.
This being Christmas-day there is no Bourse,
and several of the journals do not appear.