The Express.
London, England, 1857-10-23 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The following list of a ministry was in circulation
at Madrid when the last mail left : Admiral Armero,
President of the Council, and MM. Moo, Martinez
de la Rosa, Serrano, Bastille., Castro, Caved*, Rios
Roam, Bermudez de Castro, Zalaverrio, Ballesteros,
Moyers*, Cams, and Fernandez Negrele. It was
said that General Roe de Olano would occupy an
important military post.
The Madrid journals of the 17th have arrived.
It was said that the new cabinet had resolved to dis-
play indulgence towards the press, and not to seize
journals except for attacks on the subjects of religion
or morality, or for exciting disturbances, or for in-
sulting public functionaries; it was even supposed
that it intended to modify the law on the press in a
liberal spirit. The newspapers were so delighted at
this news that the offices of the Iberia, the Occident.,
the Estado, the Diteueion, and of almost all the
other political journals were illuminated; bat at
the request of the civil governor, who thought the
demonstration objectionable, the illumications were
extinguished. On the formation of the ministry, the
ambassadors at London and Pariswere to be changed,
Permission had been sent by telegraph to Count de
. Reuss (Prim) and M. Chien y Rent* to return to
SPain.

LTOHS TO STRIA, THROUGH THE
ARCHIPELAGO.

(IT AN LIITUMIAL mouse.)

LYONS, Ocrosza, HST.
An old commi&royageur once gave me a piece of
advice, which I commend to the notice of all com-
pilers of guide books to the South of France. When-
ever you go to Lyons, said he, do not forget to take
an umbrella, a Macintosh, and a pair of goloshes; if
you remain there two days, both of them probably,
one certainly, will be wet. I have always profited
by the warning, finding his appreciation of Lyons
weather wonderfully correct, and would suggest an
additional "hint" to travellers who may propose
exploring Lyons, namely, a pair of boots with very
thick soles. So long as they confine their peregrina-
tions to the lower part of the town the waterproof
part of the equipment will suffice but if they in-
tend to disit the Croix Rouse and the heights of
Fourvieres, they will do well not to neglect my
warning. For there are two modes of climbing
these elevated localities; one hymens of the numerous
flights of stone steps, varying in number from one
to three hundred—the despair of short-winded gen-
tlemen and stout females ; the other by the steep and
tortuous streets, or rather paths, ono and all paved,
where there is any paving, with those dreadfully
bard and narrow-edged stones which the French
paviours exercise so perverse an ingenuity in collect-
ing and fixing with the most uncomfortable aide up-
wards, to the destruction of the toes of enterprising
tourists. Properly equipped, however, the traveller
will not repent his exploration.
The Croix Rousse is the weavers'quartcr at Lyons,
built on a steep hill at the northern end of the city ;
high above the smoke and dirt, enabling the work-
man to execute the most delicate fabrics, and won-
derfully different from the squalid, fetid streets of
Bethnal-green. In every window of the lofty stone
houses the framework of the looms is to be seen,
and their clicketty click fall, on the car incessantly.
The workmen's quarter of Lyons is meliorated from
the St. Giles' of them ty, the suburb of La Guillotiere,
where the police are always full of occupation, and
which is situated on the opposite side of the Rhone,
having the new suburb of Les Brotteaux, the resi-
dence of the rich manufacturers, between it and the
bridge leading to the Croix Rousse. In fact nothing
gives a better idea of the general form of Lyons than
a tongue, not of land, but of an ox, as it comes to
table. The elevated root of it will represent the
Croix Rouse, and supposing the spectator perched
on the savoury eminence, and to be looking towards
the point, he will have on hie left the Rhone, and on
his right the Saone, meeting at the tip of the tenger,
and flowing on as one river, the Rhone, to the Medi-
terranean. And es this tongue lies nearly north and
south, the root being the northern end, he will have
to the south-west the heights of Fourvieres on the
other side of the Saone, and behind him the Ceite
d'Or of Lyons, covered with villas and gardens to its
very summit. On his left baud is the suburb of Les
Brotteanx, and then La Guillotiere, both built in a
low plain, deeply flooded at the time of great inen-
dation/. In front of him, on the flat surface
of the tongue, lies the commercial quarter
of the city, with the Hotel de Ville, the'
great Opera-house, the Museum, &c. Further
on, and reaching to the tip of the tongue, lies the
quarter of Perrache—the Faubourg St. Germain of
Lyons, and the locality of the Great Central Rail-
way Station, whence the trains start in every direc-
tion. Across the Saone, at the foot of the hill of
Fourvieres, lies old Lyons, with the cathedral, very
dirty, very ill paved, and almost abandoned to
carters, carriers, and all appertaining thereunto ; but
at the same time the head-quarters of all sculptors,
masons, and plaster figure makers.
The Ile Bathe lies on the Saone, behind the Croix
Rouse, at the northern extremity of the city, and
is a singular locality, covered chiefly with the re-
mains of a mediteval fortress, which has long ago
been converted into dwelling-houses, reminding one
of the old Italian towns. The long sloping roofs
covered with yellowish thick tiles ; little terraces
with trellises over them; a strange-looking square
turret or two, and the tower of a Roman church, give
it, especially in the sunshine, a peculiarly southern
aspect. On the level portion of it some excessively
Cockneyfled villas have been erected, with such
inscriptions as " Mon Plaisir," " Mon Joujon," over
the doorways.
But on a fine day the Belvedere on the summit of
Fourvieres ia the great attraction, and the panorama
is worth the labour of climbing so high and by such
fatiguisg roads. In fact, since every one now-a-days
does his Mont Blanc, more or less, I should recom-
mend a week's practice in Lyons as a capital pre-
paration, which leaves nothing to be desired
in the way of steep ascents, slippery and
pointed stones, and gutters, self-made, in every
direction, to represent the mountain rivulets.
From the top of Fourvieres the whole of Lyons is
seen, as on a map, and the course of the Rhone may
be traced for a considerable distance along the plain,
bounded by the Alps, Mont Blanc himself being often
visible towards sunset. Here stood Roman Lyons,
the convent of Notre Dame de Fourvieres occupy-
ing now the site of the forum, and the ruins of the
Palace of the Citiars serving as the foundation of a
mail-house. The old Romans, perched on tl“ti
height, must have held the terrible inundations of
the rivers at their feet, if they took place in those
days, very cheaply. They are, however, becoming
now more frequent, and it slightly damaged the
value of house property here in my eyes, when I
found that a mark, inirmting the level to which the
Saone rose a few years since, was eight feet four
inches above the pavement. Not very long ago there
was hardly a straight street of any extent in Lyons,
and they were, without exception almost, narrow as
well as tortuous. But Lyons, like Paris, is in course
of rebuilding. Its handsome squares have been
finished, and a splendid street, the Rite Imperiele,
with facades surpassing those of the houses in the
Rue de Rivoli, stretches from the great theatre to-
wards Perrache. The eastern facade et the Hotel
de Ville, a capital specimen of the Lou's XIV. style
of architecture, is being completed, and the building
generally restored ; but Lyons will probably long
remain a curious specimen of splendour and
squalor, elegance and vile taste. The Lyon-
nese seem to bare remained perfectly contented
with the admirable situation of their city, and there
is probably nothing in France more striking than
the entry into Lyons by the railway from Paris,
passing along the side of the Cdte d'Or for miles,
covered with splendid country houses and handsome
gardens, indicating unmistakeably the vicinity of a
very wealthy city.
Hotels and omnibuses are clearly looked upon
here as modern inventions, and are quite in their
infancy. The latter are in the hands of a Lyons
company, and are a sort of packing-cases on wheels,
for the most part furnished with springs which do
not even pretend to be elastic ; but what they lack in
eoinfort is fully made up in noise, for the rattle they
make is deafening to the passengers. Some little
progress has been made during the last year in the
matter of hotels, the Hetet de Lyon having been
erected, containing a coffee-room which does not
foster suicidal intentions, the rule being in other
hotels that the coffee-room shall look on to the tiles
or the court-yard, and that it shall be carefully
deprived of any other accessory that might tempt a
traveller to sit in it. Nowhere was a tourist who
does not need, or cannot afford, a sitting-room,
-room, worry
off than in Lyons. The hotel-keepers made it
point of conscience to offer him every inducement to
shorten his stay there. No danger of missing his
train in the morning could exist, for the single bed-
rooms are ingeniously contrived to be within reach
of all the noises of all the house, either opening upon
corridors looking on to the court-yard, noisy all
night with arrivals and departures, or separated from
each other by plink partitions, which allowed you
to know the exact point your neighbour had reached
in his morning or evening toilet, or to benefit by his
sleep-dispelling talents if he happened to snore.
It might be supposed that at the centre of the silk
manufacture of France, the public picture gallery
would be rich in works of art ; but the collection is
of the poorest, showing that the Lyonnese take an
extremely practical view of the tine arts. The arcade
which runs round the interior court of the Museum
is rich in Roman remains, and while the traveller is
spelling out the inscription on a Roman altar, tomb-
stone, or military column, he may also learn the last
price of stocks and shares, for the rendezvous of the
dealers in those articles is there. Not a soul seems
to care for the antiques, and there is at all times

plenty of room in the Picture Gallery, for which rea-
son I presume the Emperor has selected it as a re-
ceptacle for two pictures, one worse than the other,
and which he bu presented to the city of Lyons
either am a record of his profound ignorance of art, or
as a sly hint that, for their indifference to it, the
Lyonnese merit nothing better. Three fine mosaic
pavements and some excellent bronzes, all of Roman
work, are, however, worth examining, as are also the
few specimens of medireval pottery and balmy ware;
but, on the whole, the collection is a disgrace to
Lyons.
I was not surprised to find trade here very de-
pressed, or that a general anxietyand gloom existed
among the merchants and manufacturers. The ar-
rival of the American mail, bringing no prospect of
a speedy termination of the monetary difficulties in
the United States, leaves the Lyons houses without
hope of finding, as usual, large customers in that
quarter. Vut numbers of looms are still, and the
warehouses overstocked with goods destined for the
American market, and prepared at a time when the
raw material was dear. The manufacturers are of
course unwilling to submit to the fall which must
necessarily. ensue, and buyers do not come forward at
present prices, so that it is feared that a very serious
blow may be given to the prosperity of Lyons should
the general monetary pressure increase, aid should
the dealers in woven goods seek elsewhere for articles
of lower price and different character to replace those
which Lyons has furnished hitherto.