The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-25 00:00:00

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SAXIMIkt "EnNDTG, M" sboq T 861:

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

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PARIS, FRIDAY ETEVING.

At the usual weekly reception of the corps diplo-
matique at the Foreign-office to-day, IL Thouvenel
was so long engaged in conference with the English
and Russian representatives, that be was obliged to
put off his audiences with all the other foreign
ministers till to-morrow. The protracted talk on
this occasion related, there can be no doubt, to
Syria and the East, and more especially to Prince
Gortchakors recent despatch thereanent. As I
see by the evening papers that Lord Cowley has
accompanied Count de Flahaut to England, I pre-
sume that his secretary of legation, Mr. Grey,
must have been with M. Thouveuel this morning
in his place.

The Pays contains a very curious paragraph,
which is probably the result of the diplomatic con-
versation above referred to. After alluding' to the
mention made by the Nord of the Gortchakoff
despatch, it says :
This despatch and the sending of a Russian frigate to
Beyrout [we have heard hitherto not of a frigate but of
two fiesta] have occasioned a certain sensation. News.
mongers have seen in it an indication of a closer under.
standing between France and Russia. They have drawn
conclusions which there is nothing to justify. The rela-
tions between France and Russia are such ea ought to be
desired. [Such a definite semen°, is this must surely
satisfy foreign powers.) The two powers ace speed as to
most of the questions, which agitate Europe. [Query, can
ea much be predicated of any other two European powers
at the present moment!) Bat from this data of Wage to
as alliance, and, ►bove all, to ea offensive &Mame, there is
a great distend. And besides, limos and Rada do ant
believe [so they think in nelson] in the existence of any
imminent danger such as produces an alliance IA this kind.

IiSVIEWS."

The above paragraph, with its peculiar phrase-
ology, is evidently semi-official.
I cannot tell exactly what has happened to the
Freemasons. A placard is exhibited on the door
of their Grand Temple, in the Rue Cadet, stating
that all meetings are suspended, by order of the
Prefect of Police. But as I find that the brethren
held a meeting yesterday, at which the election of
Prince Napoleon was solemnly confirmed, the step
taken by the Prefect of Police may have been in-
tended to prevent Murat and hie friends from
holding the meeting adjourned by him till to-day,
at which they intended to dispute the election.
The craft may thank Murat for introducing the
police into their brotherly lodge.
I learn from a good private source that M. de
Persigny has received the Emperor's commands to
draw up a report setting forth the reasons which
militate in favour of a dissolution of the Corps
Legislatif.

The Prase and other evening papers give u
"Latest News " two facts which I sent you several
days ago ; first, that the French government is
about to establish a uniform telegraphic tariff of
lfr. for each department, and 2fr. for all France ;
and second, that 22 Russian governments (I be-
lieve I said 27) are in a state of revolt upon the
question of the emancipation of the serfs.
_. _

The Bourse was totally devoid of interest, and
extremely dull. The Rente fell Sc. for account,
closing at 69fr. 40c. In railways there was scarcely
a fractional change.
M. About rends an extraordinary communication
to the Opinion Nationale, of which the following is
the substanoe :—On Wednesday, May 22, there
was a funeral at the church of St. Pierre, at Mont-
martre. The defunct was a young married woman,
the wife of M. Canard, living at Montmartre. The
chief mourners were the husband and the wife's
father, M. Boillet, of the Rue Faubourg St. Denis,
No. 55. The two families being much esteemed, as
many as 300 friends followed the corpse to the
church. When the coffin was placed before the
altar, and while the father and husband were
weeping bitterly at its head, a beadle cried out in •
loud voice, " Please to go into the offertory." As
the mourners remained waiting to hear the funeral
service performed, and nobody moved, the beadle re-
peated his injunction in a more commanding tone.
Still no one stirred. (I think it should be ex-
plained here that to leave the corpse in the
church and go into a separate room to
offer alms is not a usual proceeding. The
common course is for a priest to go round
with • bag to the mourners as they sit. Had this
been done in the present instance, few, doubtless,
would have abstained from offering their mite. As
it was, the probability is that the chief mourners,
in their grief, did nut understand what was re-
quired, and their friends naturally remained with
them.] An uncle of the deceased, M. Rouen, Rue
de l'Empereur, No. 64, remonstrated by a gesture ;
but the officiating priest exclaimed from the altar.
"Oh ! you want prayers, and you will nut come
to the offertory ; " and thereupon he rushed furi-
ously past the coffin, and went into the sacristy.
One of the mourners, M. Donnuartin, an
old schoolfellow of M. About, followed
the priest, and found him pulling off
his vestments. Hu told him that he was commit-
ting a gross breach of duty, and received for answer,
"If you want prayers you must pay for them."
Being very urgently called upon, however, not to
leave the weeping relatives in their distress, he
ultimately put on his robes again, returned to the
church, threw some holy water on the coffin, mut-
tered a few words, and again retired, without per-
forming the usual funeral service. M. Donimartiu
again followed him, and asked, "Is this all r'
" Yes," said the priest, " I am not bound to do
anything more." One of the mourners, on leaving
the church, exclaimed, " What a misfortune to be
• catholic Such is M. About's story. It is an
ez parte one, and doubtless will be answered on
the part of the priest. But as the case occurred
not in Spain or in Rome, or in a French village,
but within the walls of Paris, there can scarcely
fail to be a thorough investigation. The Opinion
Nationale heads the statement, " Avis aux morts—
pas d'argent, pas de prieres."

Dowictzu-anznz, MAT 35.—The Queen hoc been
pleased to appoint Chula Mamarsl. Eeq., to be a member
of the Legislative Conocilof the Island of Prime Edward;
Frederick Warner, Esq., to be a member of the Legislative
Council of the Island of Trinidad ; and Donald Fraser,
David Canserou, and Alfred John Lingle y, Erin., to he
members of the Council of the Island a Vancouver.—
filerzette.
AKKt V A L FROM SZBAJITOINIL —Tiro Cowlitz,
Captain Potter, has arrived at this port from Piebourfo.
pol, laden with a cargo of old rope, hoses, end guns.
The work of raining the sunken vemaels from the bar-
boor prove. a very difficult and perplexing one. Can
Potter informs us that the operation of getting
under one vessel, the Twelve Apostles, oocuoied upwards
of four months, and the rime r the case it respect to
other weasels, for during the time they have been im-
mersed they have sunk about 20 feet into the mud, which
I has t 3 be removed Ly divers before the chains can be ap-
plied Colonel Gowan has yet some 31i vends to Mies.
Nothing whatever ha. been done as yet in the way of re-
building the barrack., and hospital. The vicinity of the
Bolan, the Malakoff, the (larders Battery, the heights
of the Alma, and other fortifications, are yet the
scene of almost incessant labours on the part
at the poor Jews and Tartars, who have dug to
the depth of 25 feet below the forte in search of goo,
and shot and shell, loads of which are being daily o
away. Of hones, ton, although numerous cargoes have
bees brought over to this country, the stock does not
appear to be exhausted. The Russian government are
apparently very still as regards the naval and military
departments. For the promotion and facilitation of
commerce, however, a patent slip has been constructed,
and we la.lieve that • new shipping dock Is about to be
man—Ha Pookd.

TM! /4Pia DUTIES.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has put upon
the order book of the House of Commons the following
settee of motion :—" Schedule (D).—Specifying the
articles upon which customs duties are to crass
by this act. The duties of customs chargeable upon the
goods, wares, and merchandise next hereinafter mentioned,
imported Into Great Britain and Ireland, shall MOO
and determine on and after the Ist day of October, 1861
(that is to say) : —Paper, viz.: Brown paper, made of
old rope or cordage only, without separating or ex-
tracting the pitch or tar therefrom, and without
any mixture of other materials therewith ; printed,
painted, or stained paper hangings, or flock paper;
for printing or writing ; gilt, stained, coloured, embalmed,
and all fancy kinds, not being paper hangings or paper fit fee
printing or writing ; waste paper, or paper of any ether sort
not particularly enumerated or described, not other-
wise charged with ditty ; inillboarda ; pasteboard
books : via., being of editions printed in or since the year
1801, bound or unbound, admitted under treaties of inter-
national copyright, or if of or from any British pose:with.
Prints and drawings : viz., plain or coloured, admitted
under treaties of international copyright, on and at the
option of the im porter ; single ; bound."

THE BISHOP OE SALISBURY c " ESSAYS AND

The case of the Bishop of Salisbury v. the Rev.
Dr. Rowland Williams will be removed by request from the
diocesan court of Sarum to the Court of Arches at Doctors'.
commons, and will he net down for hearing after the long
vacation. There are many circumstances connected with the
forthcoming trial which an of the highest importance to
the interests of the church, and which are worthy, there-
fore, of being thus early noticed. Dr. Rowland Williams,
the defendant, is a member of King's College, Cambridge,
where he graduated in 1841. He was Battie's University
Scholar in 1848, but his name does not appear in the list of
those who took honours, because at that time King's man
were presluded from competing with menthe.. of other
colleges Two or three yen ago Dr. Williams was pre.
tented by his college to the vicarage of Breadchalke, Wilt-
shire, and it is this which brings into under the episcopal
recognition of the Bishop of Salisbury. He is
the author of the second article in the " Es-
says and Reviews," entitled " Bunsen's Biblical
Researches.' In the course of the debate which took
place at the hat meeting of Convocation a right reversed
prelate, whose judgment is entitled to the highest reaped,
expressed as opinion that the author of this essay was not
so much stating his own views as giving an historical
account of those of the distinguished diplomatist to whose
writings hereferred. Should this be the view taken by the
Court of Arches, the case of the Bishop of Salisbury must
esossearily fall ; but we believe we are correct in saying that
his lorchhip will rely, Ant, upon the general tendency of the
coney in question, and, secondly, upon purges extracted
from it, which tend to throw discredit upon Revelation,
arising out al the discoveries of modern science, and which
demi °sprees the individual opinions of Dr. Williams