The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-23 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(now on on commons:Rt.)
PARIS, WEUNFAILLY EVECIKC.

The great masonic election was brought to a close
at half-past 3 this afternoon, and Prince Napoleon
is elected Grand Master by a very large majority.
This ignominious defeat of Prince Murat, after all his
blustering and his comic coups d'itat, is a political
event of much important*. In this contest Murat
was the representative of the ultratuontanists, and
Prince Napoleon of the liberal principles pro-
pounded in his celebrated speech in the Senate.
The result shows that the Emperor still throws the
weight of his authority into the latter scale. If
the question be asked what have Freemasons to do
with politics ? the answer is that for very existence
—pro aria et foeis—they cannot but do all in their
power to shake off the yoke of the ultra partisans
of the Pope of the present day. The novetninent
of the cardinals would send all the Freemasons
to the galleys if they could get hold of them. The
following is the copy of a letter from Prince Napo-
leon to a masonic deputation, by which he ulti-
mately accepted the candidature offered to him :
Gentlemen,—l have received the letter by which yes
offer to vote for me es Greed Master of your order. I feel
this testinomy of your flattering confidence. Oa &comet of

the bonds of relationship and friendship which subsist be.
tween ma and Prince Murat I oould not at first come for-
ward in opposition to him. But now the letter signed by
so many " ven6rablee," stating that they will not vote for
the present Grand Master, changes my determination ; and
I wish you to know, gentlemen, that I shall accept the
office if your suffrages give it to me.

The date of the above letter is not given, but I
premune it must be anterior to the challenge already
spoken of.

The Bourse opened very well, but there was a
sudden fall in the afternoon in consequence of a
telegram from St. Petersburg reporting that Prince
Gortchakoff protests against the French leaving
Syria. The Rente closed at 60fr. 25c. for cash,
and 69fr. 16c. for account, with a fall of 20c. and
15c. Mobilior fell 6fr. 250. In most of the rail-
way lines there was no alteration, but Orleans fell
3fr. 75c. ; Lyons, 2fr. 50c.; and Western, lfr. 25c.
On the subject of the imperial prize, so unex-
pectedly awarded by the academy to M. Thiers,
the Prose has a remarkable article by M. Peyrat,
which not only adopts the obvious and as yet un-
answered argument that the academy had no
mission to crown one of themselves, but, assuming
M. Thiers to have been eligible, rudely denies his
claims, and raises the question whether the cele-
brated history is not one of the many " false
pearls" which a credulous public has too readily
accepted. M. Peyrat affirms that the decision of
the academy has " amused Paris and astonished
Europe." The academy, he thinks, when they
found it impossible to agree among themselves as
to the merits of the three candidates among whom
their first votes were divided, might have avoided
ridicule either by declaring themselves incompetent,
or reporting that they had not found a fitting
recipient of the prize. But it was the height of
absurdity in a society exclusively literary to
award it to a work which " especially and
notoriously is devoid of style and literary
merit." M. Peyrat takes upon himself to
affirm th►t, although opinions may differ as to the
historical value of M. Thiers' work, there are not
two opinions in France about M. Thieve considered
as a writer. He proceeds to describe the "History
of the Consulate and Empire" as a work " un-
finished and interminable "—stuffed with trivial
and parasitical phraseology, doubtful, equivocal,
or false statements, common-place or rash ideas,
and vulgar and incorrect expressions. Comparing
the merits of Madame George Sand and M. Thiers,
the critic says :
To the most brilliant, varied, supple, and harmonious
style to be found among living writers, this lettered society
prefers a monotonous, flabby, painful phraseology, without
relief, character, or colour—in a word, it chooses is place
of a magnificent style that which is no style at all. We
humbly beg George Sand to accept our congratulations and
compliments. As to the academy, it is yet competent to
distribute the prizes so much coveted by the vanity of
mediocrity ; but it is mach mistaken if it supposes that
renown is in its gift.

THE CONDITION OF SOUTHERN ITALY.

(Fox ova ovne

NAPLES, MILT 15.
Two years have sufficed to modify very consi-
derably the feelings of the Southern Italians to-
wards the French. I remember the time when they
were regarded as the liberators of the country,
whereas they am now looked upon with undis-
guised suspicion ; and to tell the truth, there is
great reason for the change, for the most vexations
movements against the peace of Southern Italy are
matured in Rome, where the French eagle flaps his
wings over the Capitol • not only, therefore, is the
unity of Italy impossible so long as this tate of
things continues, but even the consolidation and
quiet of the south. Bands of ruffians cross the
frontiers, spreading terror and committing every
kind of excess, and then recrows into the Papal
States, where they find themselves under the pro-
tection of the papal authorities and the guarantees
of the French. Such has been the character of the
movements which I have recently reported to you,
and you will readily admit how impossible is con-
solidation in districts so liable to such hostile in-
cursions. How great must be the exasperation of
a people against those who, whether willingly or
from want of power, permit such deplorable acts.
It is whilst suffering from such excesses that the
wishes of the people of the south tend even more
strongly than those of the north to the occupation
of Rome, or at least to the immediate departure of
Francis 11. Their very existence depends upon it,
and we see this from the fact that in some places
the poor people are induced to sacrifice their hberty
for the sake of tranquillity. "Francis 11., or any
one, provided we can be at peace." This is very
dangerous for the security both of government
and people; and the Roman question can-
not be well put off consistently with the true
interests of United Italy. Fresh details continue
to reach us from the districts which hare been
afflicted by the reactionists, showing the excesses
which they committed, and all in the name of
Francis IL In every instance priests have been
mixed up with them, and of course it is from these
gentry that the greatest opposition to the actual
government may be expected, as it is just these
persona whom the interest of the state requires to
be put down with a strong hand. The Italian
question is, as it has long been, a religious or
ecclesiastical question.
From Meters°, too, we have now tardy intelli-
gence of disturbances which, in the first instance,
were of an agrarian character. A deplorable mas-
sacre was committed, and l•ere,too, a priest appears
to have been most active in urging on the move-
ment. Indeed, all the movements in the country
are in the first instance of a social character—
people clamour for work, or bread, or, as at
Mutest° for • different division of land, and
then the political age It steps in, and gives a poli-
tical turn to the public discontent. "It is all the
fault of the government of Victor Emmanuel. Since
he came into power things have gone from bad to
worse—bread is at famine price—Viva Francisco
—arm yoursolves"—and then comes inoendiarisui
and murder. Such, in a few worda, is the history of
the reaction in Southern Italy. The great neces-
sity for this country is tranquillity, and in the hope
of obtaining it the central government has been
making efforts to prevent any campaign for this
Year, but it may be doubted whether they have nut
in this way given an opportunity to the friends of
disorder to keep open a wound which must in time
exhaust the strength of the country.
The disposition and the capacity of the new go-
vernment to introduce improvements is sufficiently
well attested by what has been done, and I cannot
but allude again to the new postal arrangements
which were introduced on the let May. Hitherto
it has been the policy to suppress the very desire
for all intercourse • reading and writing have been
so discouraged that iu some places it will be diffi-
cult to obtain the necessary public officers under
the now municipal law ; iu many of the commercial
schools girls were prohibited from learning towrite ;
and, as you know well, every kind of obstacle was
thrown in the wa of travelling. The strongest
possible impulse is, on the contrary, now given to
communication by past and travelling, and the
scenes which one now witnesses twice a day when
I the couriers leave reminds one of the old mail-
coach days in England.
We have official intelligence that the disorders
which took place lately in the Terra di Lavoro are
suppressed, and that tranquillity has been re-esta-
blished on the frontier ; but the same journal
spftks of the breaking up of the National Guard of
Castelcicala by the authorities on the charge of as-
sisting and providing the brigands. In the Ba-
silicata and the Calabrias ton, though we are told
that the bands have been broken and dispersed,
yet small bodies of men continue to go through the
country, in many places destroying the produce of
the land, so as to create want and discontent
amongst the peasantry.

TURKEY.

(PION • COMSPONDIENT.)
BELGRADE, MAT 15.
_

I must tell you of the strange protest of the
Turkish commandant of the fortress here aganiNt an
article of our national journal, the Tirdo,i,/,
speaking of the mission of M. Garatichanin to Cou.
stautinople. The Pacha pleased to see in the article
a kind of appeal to revolt against the government
and army of the suzerain, and demanded, in con-
sequence, the seizure of the journal, the public
chastisement of the editor, and the establishment
of a censorship of the press. The Servian Minister
of Foreign Affairs, M. Christich, declared that lie
could not consider so impertinent a note as seriously
addressed to him. There existed no tendency to
revolt in Servia, and far less agitation than could
be expected iu the disturbed state of all Selaconic
Europe. The Servian press could give no
pretext for remonstrance to any one capable of
comprehending it'; and told the Pacha lie was inter-
fering in matters in which lie was neither in-
formed nor empowered sufficiently.
The minister had then a personal interview with
the Pacha, who declared that in what he had done
he had not acted upon his own inspiration. Some
foreign consul must have suggested the matter to
the Pacha.

Finding the Pacha's attack thus rebuked, the
consuls, ho at least of Austria and another, came
forward themselves to demand a censorship, not
only of the press, but of the theatre. A drama, of
which Heidrich Veljo wax the hero and the sub-
ject, has been very popular of late in Belgrade.
This Heidrich was one of the heroes of the war of
liberation, and his exploits, as well as his lan-
guage, draw forth loud bursts of applause from the
Servian audience. The consular intervention
proved not more successful with the Servian
minister than the Turkish. Heidrich Veljo con-
tinued to be represented and applauded.
This intervention havinggot wind with the public,
the press has begun to expose the tactics of the
anti-liberals. The Vider Dots has given a history of
the political subservieneyof the government of Kant
Georgewitach, which leaned upon the foreigner in-
stead of seeking to conciliate the Servian nation, or to
safeguard its interests. The present government
of Servia, affirms the journal, goes upon the national
principle,
but does not seek to exaggerate it.
Servia has not excited disturbances in other coun-
tries, nor sought to take advantage of them. It
bides its time patiently, and is merely anxious to
be prepared, in case any great cataclysm should
befall the East, in order that it may be able to de-
fend its rights and independence.
So far, indeed, is Servia from fomenting at pre.
sent the troubles in the Herzegovina, that it Las
every reason to be satisfied with the reception that
M. Garaschanin has met at Constantinople from the
Turkish authorities and the European envoys there.
The Turks have established a cordon to prevent
the emigration of the Bulgarians. It continues
nevertheless, and has become a serious source of
embarrassment to our government; which cannot
abandon children who seek refuge with it. The
discontent of the Bulgarians with the Porte has
been increased by the news from Constantinople,
and the attempts made to seize the bishops. The
government of the Sultan would do best to pretrial
to be ignorant of these Christian differences. Al
to the boast of the Bulgarians becoming converted
to catholicism, it is absurd. The people want to
be independent in the exercise of their religion, and
neither be dominated nor fleeced by their religious
superiors. To remain Greek, andrto be unmolested,
is all they require. For of difference of dogma they
know and care nothing.

CORRESPONDENCE ON THE AFFAIRS OP THE
DUCHIES OF SCHLESWIG AND HOLSTEIN.

This morning a blue-book of 162 pages, con•
taping the above correspondence, and including letters
from the representatives of Great Britain at the different
German and Danish courts, together with a variety of en.
closures throwing light upon the proceedings both in Den.
mark and Prussia, and also in the Germanic Diet,
was issued from the parliamentary printing-office.
The course taken by our government in this dispute has
been fully explained by Lord J. Russell in his place in Par
liament, and the publication of many of these documents
in our columns would afford but little additional informs•
lion to the public as regards the main features of the Eng.
lash policy.
The following despatch from Lord John Russell to Lord
Cowley, written in February last, will chow the principles
by which our Foreign Minister wax guided, and the policy of
which be urged the adoption :

" Foreignofce, Feb. 73.

" My Lord,—The Count de Flabault has asked me, in
the name of his government, to furnish him with an out.
line of the views of her Majesty's government in reference
to the affairs of Holstein-Lauenburg. At the request of
the French ambassador, I proceed to communicate to you
the general views of her Majesty's government on this no
triads) question. As a broad principle, they consider that
Denmark is in honour bound to redeem the pledges the
gave in 1852. In the present stage of the negotiation the
German confederation requires that the texas and the ex•
peoditure of Holstein should be voted by the states of
Holstein. Whether this has always been the rule of
the German confederatimi may well be questiocel
The German states of Austria, for instance, have uever
apparently been brought under the operation of this nibs
and other German states have complied with it rather in
name than in reality. The principle, however, appears to
her Majesty's government to be one which may fairly be
applied to all the states of the confederation. A represent.
tative assembly is, according to our ideas, the proper authee
city for sanctioning a budget of taxes and expenditure,
nor in the opinion of her Majesty's government would Den
mark have any camas bah against Germany should the cos.
federation bring Holsteio under the operation of this rula
even by a federal execution. But a practical ilifBmlty
occurs on the point often raised, how is Holstein to be
charged with the proper proportion of the general expenses
of the Danish monarchy? It has been proposed that the
sums necessary for this purpose should be voted by an
assembly in which Denmark, with. 1,500,000 population,
Holstein, with 500,000, Schleswig with 430,000, and Layne
burg with 80,000, should each have an equal number of
members. But this scheme, though it may have a show of
justice, is evidently unfair to the people of Denntirt.
Another pile, which wee put forward in Holstein, *ed./
give the diets of Holstein, Schleswig, and Laueuburg
equal power with Denmark to sanction or refuse the taxes
and estimates for the year. But this plan is so cuml.reas
and uncertain that, if ever put into operation, it mold
only serve to paralyse the Danish monarchy. The eon•
del. put forward by the Danish government that the diets
of Holstein and Denmark should each contribute a lived
sum for the general expenses of army, navy, and civil list,
leaving the remainder to be voted according to the dee
cretioa of each assembly, seems far more P.,000
able. It would be necessary, indeed, to restrict
the sum within narrow limits, perhaps not Mae
than two-thirds of the amount proposed by Den'
mark ; to have the accounts submitted to the diet of
Holstein as well as to that of Denmark ; and to give feud
rights to each assembly to refuse ally sums which might be
asked for, exceeding the stipulated contingent. This is 6
rough outline of the term* upon which Germany and Hol•
stein might agree, if they wished for egreement. Nothing
is here sail of Schleswig. The duchy of &Maori; is I
Danish duchy, and although both the honour sod the
terest of Denmark require th.t.t Schleswig should be equita•
bly treated, the King of Denmark could not without .I.te_;er
treat with Germany respecting the terms to be civet' to
that duchy. Since this despatch was written, it has been
stated that the states of Holstein have been summoned to
meet on the 6th of March, co that some time for delibera-
tion will bo obtained. Your Excellency may read this
despatch to M. Thouvenel, and say that it has been written
in consequence of H. de Flabault's inquiry. I am. ke..
(reigned) "J. Reso.m.t.."
On the 11th of March Mr. Paget transmitted from
Copenhagen translations of the King's notification to the
Holstein states, the draft of a provisional arrangement to
take effect on the Ist of April, 1861, and the draft of
special constitution for Holstein. "The special eonstitto
tion for the doily," says Mr. Paget, "appears lobe drawn
up in entire aeroplane* with the wishes expressed by the
states of Holstein In their report of March, 101, eel to
give every security to both civil and regions liberty." With
the documents referred to by Mr. Paget the correspoodeno
domes.