The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-24 00:00:00

OUR PARIS LET PER.

(mos ous OWN COARZIPONDENT.)
PARIS, FRIDAY EVENINU.

The opposition at Bordeaux has been doing some
serious business. It cent:is-rid to hold a " private"
meeting of 4143 people without being interfere 1
with by the police ; thereby showing pr.sclically,
se hat the best lawyers have said in published opi-
nions, that there is no limit to the numbers which
may lawfully assemble at a private meeting. If a
man chooses to ask personally a thousand people and
has a house big enough to hold them, ho has as good
a tight to ask 1,000 as 10. That, in point of fact,
the vast maj rity of the invited guests ate not per-
sonal friends of the hdlg or that ho never elm
most of them in his life arc eircutustanees t9tally
irrelevant to the question whether the meeting was
a cprivate one. At :cisme+ and Alois sufficient
precautions not having been taken, the police
themselves violutuil private domiciles in such
a way as to afford the judge a pretext for hold-
ing that the meetings were not private. But
neither of the judgments against the persons pro-
sectitusl in those cases rely upon numbers as any
element to be taken into consideration. At this
Bordeaux meeting, which was utteuthsl by MM.
Jules Simon, E. Arago, A. Lavertujon, the
editor of the innel., A. Lerrieu, List, ome,
the /di/wittier of the order of advocates of M mt-
pellier, several editors of Southern journals. and
many well-known liberals of Bordeaux and the
neighbourbood--speeches were made which, in
the present state of the "liberty of the pres.s,"
French newspapers cannot report. It wets agreed
win. rot. that the opposition candidates
at the general elections for the southern
district of Bordeaux and the rural districts ad-
joining should be MM. Amedee Larrieu. Jules
Simon, and Andre Lavertujon. There is every
probability that they will all be elected. At the
last vacancy M. Lavertujon was only beaten by
two or three votes. The example of Bordeaux in
not waiting till the last moment to organise
electoral opposition will be followed under the
auspices of the Paris liberal press in many other
places.
The Ganlnis says the news which it was the first
to give, under all reserve, of the completion of the
conversion of the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. it
can now announce positively. This information,
it says, has been furnished to-day to all the de-
partments in the lithographed correspondence
patronised by the Minister of the Interior. Tho
same correspondence gives credit to the (Judas
for having—after for a long time, and not without
reason, speaking of war as probable—" rallied most
loyally, and, moreover, very 4propos, to the opi-
nien that peace will bo maintained."
There must be some very conflicting currents in
governmental circles, for the aggressive attitude
of the i'ays towards Prussia is backed up by
ether organs, including the France, which, though
it tie It rate terra,,, sp4Nas of that power in a
wny el. arty ,showing that some warm diplomatic
currespeo.d. nee must now be going on. It was
111.4.0011.:d at the Bourse that Denmark, prompted
by France, has written an energetic note to
Prussia, deutzaeling the execution of the treaty of
Prorue.

IVLutever the cause, the Bourse was extremely
homy to-day. Yisterday's fall in the Bente of
12=c. was followed by another of 221 c., the latest
quotations being 70fr. 15c., both for cash and
account. Although this reaction is to some extent
accounted for by the artiflo:al means regortecl to
by M. ][ague to support tho market, it is
very evident that something political is in the
wind.

Prince Metternich, who was enjoying his holy-
day, suddenly left his country huuso tho other
day, and after an interview with M. do Boust
started for Paris.

The Spanish Minister of Finance has ro3olvod to
adopt the metrical system of money, Liking as unit the
/small, of the same weight and alloy as the franc, and
divided into lOU centimes. This improvement places
Spain in a commercial eonnexion with France, Belgium,
Switzerland, Italy, and Rome as far as coinage is con-
cerned. _ _ _ _

Prince S. Elia, the father of the Duke of Gels,
has very extensive property in Sicily. Not long ago he
ceded the sulphur mines on ono of his estates to a com-
pany which agreed to pay him down at once 2,000,000
francs, and a rent of 150,000 francs a year fur a period of
GO years.
The court of Rome has notified through the
nuncio at Madrid that it is " opposed " to the establish-
ment of religious liberty in Spain.

A work by the Iliahop of Orleans on the ap-
proaching cectunenical council is about to appear.
Revolutionary catechisms now abound in Spain.
The following is an extract from one of them :—" Who are
the mania of Spain ?--Isabella of Bourbon, Gonzales
Bravo, and Father Claret. What evil have they done to the
country?—The first has robbed it of its liberties; the
second of its money ; and the third of its conscieuce,
covering with the cloak of religion the turpitude of thu
two others."

The New Fork Times of the 11th says :—" Miss
Lydia Thompson was presented on Friday evening with a
pedestal of dowers—tuberoses predominating—over four
tot t high, and two feet in diameter at the broadest part.
This little lady with the golden locks dances and dashes
over abed of bouquets every night."
The New York World has a dread vision of the
things that are to be under the Republican party : " When
the President gives a state dinner, how can he avoid
inviting negro senators and representatives along with
their colleagues P if them be a negro senator and a white
senator from the mine state, how can he ask one and
alight the other P If a negro cabinet officer find his family
eicluded from (social recognition by the families of his
colleagues, be may have no means of directly resenting
the insult, but the affront will rankle in his breast and
cause him to use his influence with his race to slaughter
every public man whose family has refused him tom:ig-
nition."