The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-19 00:00:00

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(ISO* 013 OWW

PARLS, 817NDEY EVENING.

The following pleasant peep behind tho scenes
of the oourt at Biarritz is from the Gironde of Bor-
deaux:

The Journal le Grni-re speaks with more precision of the
ministerial modifications conceived by the Emperor during
a month's meditation. Public liberty has nothing either
to gain or to lose by these palace intrigues. It is the old
story of the same set of men changing placed from
the stage to the side scenes and vies eerie. The
embroidery on the coat and the name of the office are the
only things really altered. M. Rooker. instead of going
out, as was reported, is still to remain the principal man
in the ministry, only the Ministry of State being for the
moment supproesed, he will take the portfolio of the In-
terior, in order to work the genoral elections with
that plias for whiidi he is famous. M. Pinard
will become Minister of Justice, and M. Barochs,
who is getting too old for work, will enjoy
Count Walewakes 100,0001 r. a year as • member of
the Privy Council. Thus M. Itouher maintains his posi-
tion as Vice-Emperor, while M. Grainer de Cruna,-,,mac
breakfasts with Napoleon 111. and receives imperial en-
couragement. All this is logical. It is, by the way,
perfectly true that the Pays was very near passing into the
bands of M. Ilippolyte Castillo, to the groat chagrin of the
present editors. M. Oibiat, the manager of the united
journals the Pays and Conatilettiomml, being offended at
the rejection of his pretensions to be a government can-
didate, resolved to avenge himself, and, in spite of M.
linard's remonstrances, convoked a meeting of share-
holders for the 30th of November, in order to
vote that the rays should no onger belong
to the company. This resolution was a heavy
blow to the Cassagnacs, father and son, who
between them draw one year with another an income of
60,001/fr. from the Pays. The emotion of Cass►gnac, son.,
was so great that he found it necessary to unbosom him-
self to the head of the state who, while complimenting
him in terms already made public, put an end to his
alarm by promising him to end the money necessary to
buy the paper. It is said by people professing to be well
acquainted with the details of this history that ,100,000 fr.,
which is the price asked, would have been deposited by his
Majesty were it nut that the private purse at this moment
is somewhat low.

M. Rouher, who returned to Paris only on
Friday, dined the same day at the British
Embassy, where he was asked to meet the Earl
and Countess Clarendon.

The portrait of Senor Marfori is for the
moment the lion of the Boulevards. It has the
prominent place in the print shop windows in the
goltrie des cvhtemporains, and, as such, stands
out alone on a little easel a few inches in advance
of the reigning sovereigns and their wives. The
intimate councillor of Queen Isabella has
the physique of one of those herculean
footmen who stand behind Belgravian carriages.
He began life as an actor, and it was during his
impersonation of a knightly warrior that he made
the conquest which opened him the road to for-
tune.

The legitimist pretender to the Spanish throne
has not yet left Paris, where he has been staying
for more than a week. Ho lodges in a genteel,
but by no means sumptuous set of apartments in
the Ruo Cardinel Pesch. Charles VII. is a young
man of handsome exterior and grave polished
manners. The comic journals turn into ridicule
the attempts of his friends in Paris to awaken
sympathy for him by dwelling on his
external advantages. One of them says that were
the prince a bachelor, it should have suspected a
certain flattering description of him, which ap-
peared last week, to be a matrimonial advertise-
ment. When receiving visitJrs, of no matter
what rank, he invariably hands them a chair him-
self, in order to show that he dispenses for the pre-
sent with the strict Spanish etiquette which forbids
any one to sit in the presence of the sovereign.

The Friend of India says :—" The Punjabees
are going in with spirit for the erection of a Theatre and
Concert House at Anarkullee by a limited liability com-
pany with 10Ors. shares. Eighteen shares have been
already subscribed and operations are to be cummenced
directly other 18 shares are taken up. Unfortunately the
Punjabees are always most vigorous at the outset of such
undertakings."

We read in the New York Time g,—" Quite •
number of celebrated European se:runts will visit this
country the present winter. Dr. Karl Vogt, of Geneva,
the distinguished anthropologist and zoologist, author
and professor, will favour our scientific classes with
certain new theories and views on his favourite subjects.
Professor Robert Schlagintweit, one of the three brothers
who explored the Ilimalayu and a great part of Upper
Asia eleven years ago, and who has for some years been
engaged in publishing his contributions to geography, is
coming over to deliver a series of lectures in Boston, Dr.
Lemerier, of Paris, a distinguished professor of compara-
tive anatomy and physiology, will deliver in this city a
popular course of lectures, accompanied by a large colloc•
tion of elastic models.

La Petrick,le, Offenbach's new burlesque opera,
is only a few nights old, and it is already famous ; and,
as Mdlle. Schneider takes the principal rues, a portion of
fashionable Paris will crowd the \rarities for many nights
to come. The musie is said to be a happy combination of
the French opera comic and Spanish melodies. Through-
out the two acts there is not a blank of five minutes' dul-
ness—sprightly, bustling, pleasing; in fact the whole com-
position thoroughly French. Some of the orchestral ac-
companiments to the duets, trios, and choruses are re-
markably rich, a plaintive Spanish melody creeping out of
the rattle and frolic of the general design. The Paris cor-
respondent of the Pose says :—" English mothers in Paris
always ask you, can I take the young lady to any parti-
cular drama or opera which is the talk of the hour ; and
no doubt parents and guardians will inquire if young
ladies can with propriety bo taken to see Schneider, iu
Offenbach's new opera. Well, I think, no ! because they
would not be able to describe in society afterwards what
they bad seen and heard and guessed at."

NATIONAL EXKLITTION OP WOW or Az?, AT
lamo.-11.oturn of sobaboions :—Saturday, October 17,
by SINAO/11 tido* NO ; by p•pani ot 216. Ud, Mb. 16070 ;
igfais OA

TB& REVOLUTION IN SPAIN.

(won out OPLOPAL oeasesesessurr.)
MADRID, OOP. 14.
The task of reorganising the whole system of
Spanish government, political, religious, and
financial, is one 'of no ordinary magnitude, and
we cannot expect that it can be completed in a
day, or oven in a year. At the name time it is but
fair to record that the present ministers appear to
be exerting themselves to introduce the necessary
changes as rapidly as possible. The &area dis-
solving the Society of Jeeus in Spain, and ordering
its members to leave the country within three
days, is at first sight hardly reeencileable with
that complete liberty of religion which it is one of
the objects of the new men to obtain and to secure.
But then we must remember that the Jesuits are,
by their opponents at all events, regarded rather as
apolitical than as a religious society, and that the
suppression of their order will throw no obstacle
whatever in the way of the free profession of the
Roman catholic religion, and the complete per-
formanoe of its rites by the ordinary priests and
ministers. The Jesuits have so long exercised a
oontrolling influence in the affairs of this country,
and they are in the minds of the people so inti-
mately antedated with all the recent misgovern-
ment, that their expulsion seems almost a natural
and necessary consequence of the revolution. The
suppression of monasteries and convents has not
yet been decreed ; but as the measure has boon
proposed with the authority of tho Junta, and as
just now public feeling runs very strongly against
the maintenance of such useless and corrupting
institutions, we may expect to see all these reli-
gious foundations dealt with in a manner which,
if not quite as summary, will be quite as effectual
as the treatment which has been extended to
the Jeeuite. The Junta propose the extinction
of all religious communities and associations which
have been established or created by government
since 1835, the voluntary discluistering of com-
munities which are not included within this
description, and the abolition of all special privi-
leges conceded to religious corporations. The
grounds upon which the Junta has recommended
this sweeping measure are, that the religious asso-
ciations and communities sanctioned by previous
governments were established with the object of
creating in Spain institutions which were hostile
to liberty; that they were, in fact, an integral and
principal part of the shameful and oppressive
system of government which the country has
just thrown off ; and that without their abolition
it will be impossible to consolidate the revolution.
Although I am at present hardly in a position to
pronounce a definite judgment upon the sound-
ness of these positions, I must say that they carry
with them a great appearance of plausibility.
Religious bigotry and exclusiveness and civil mal-
administration are very commonly found together;
and monks and nuns are very generally, if not
always, the ready tools of ministries who will
enlarge their enduwitients or increase their privi-
leges. Ido not win!: to raise here the vexed
question as to the position and authority of
Father Claret, but no sane man whom I have met
in Spain appears to doubt that he was in fact " a
power behind the throne," and that his was an
influence which was always exercised upon the side
of tyranny, injustice, and oppression. Of course
this view may be an altogether erroneous one,
and the venerable ecclesiastic may have been the
meekest and most benevolent of mankind. What
is important at the present moment is, that
the people of Spain, almost to a man, entertain a
very different opinion, and that large numbers of
them believe, and are prepared to act upon the be-
lief, that the only way, or at all events the best way,
to secure themselves against the repetition of a
similar scandal and abuse, will be to abolish the
system of religious orders altogether. I should
hesitate to say that this is a measure which will
command universal approval. On the contrary,
I have no doubt that it will be regarded by very
considerable classes of the people with alarm
and repugnance. Although by no means so
utterly sunk in superstition as it is the custom of
fanatical protestants to represent them, the
Spaniards are a reverential and tradition-loving
people ; and it will, I fancy, be rather a rough
blow to the feelings of many women, and of not a
few men, especially in the rural districts, to see
the pious nuns and holy monks whom they have
been accustomed to venerate all their lives reduced
bylaw, by the legislation of a mere political assembly,
to the condition of ordinary human beings. The
shock will be a severe one; and in ordi-
nary times might perhaps not be borne with-
out resistance. Now, however, there is such a
general satisfaction at the overthrow of the rule of
the infamous Isabella IL, and, if one may judge
from the reports which are received from all parts
of the provinces, such a general confidence in the
men who have wrought the beneficialchangein the
national condition, that a measure which at any
other time might be regarded with suspicion or
aversion will probably be accepted from their
hands as necessary to the completion and consoli-
dation of the revolution.

While the government or the Junta are
thus active in devising 'items for securing
complete religious equality, the Finance Min-
ister is working hard at the measures which
are required for the liberation of trade and for
the re-adjustment of the system of local
and general taxation, which has during the
late reign pressed so severely upon the industry
and energies of the Spanish people. The Gaz, etc
of this morning contains a report from Senor
Figucrola, setting forth an elaborate scheme for
the abolition of all octrois or internal duties, and
the substitution of a small personal tax. By this
means the Spanish Chancellor of the Exchequer
expecte to reduce the burden of these duties,
while at the same time ho will, by diminishing
the cost and improving the regularity of their col-
lection, increase the amount which is paid into the
public treasury. By the extinction of the rural
guard the government will effect a considerable
saving. This body, which was established by
Narvaez rather more than a year ago, was nomi-
nally intended to supply the deficiencies of the
old country guards, who existed over nearly
the whole of Spain, and who were paid
by and were dependent upon the local
communities, or the proprietors whose estate'
they were engaged to watch. The real ob-
ject of its creation was, however, to increase the
military power of the government without any
apparent addition to the strength of the regular
army. With this intention it was formed mainly
of old soldiers, was placed under the orders of the
generals of districts, and was male as much de-
pendent upon the War-office as any other part of
the military army. Thus Narvaez, and after him
Bravo, counted that in any ease of conflict with
the people they would be enabled to reinforce the
army with the gendarmerie, and afterwards with
the rural guard, and that by thew moans they
would be certain of ultimately gaining the victory.
It never appears to have occurred to them that
army, navy, gendarmerie, and rural guard alike
—for all these forces were represented in the in-
surgent army at Aloolea—might become weary
tff lighting for a Amnion Quoin and a cctrupt

and tyrannical ministry. Now that thore
further use for this somewhat hybrid force, whin"
although fully armed and equippe 1 as
were nominally only country watchmen, it b 1
been determined to diololvo it. The offic'ti
sergeants will return to the eiril goard or it,
darruerio, from which I fancy they vr.,re orig:cal:
drawn, and the members of tho furors wh„ „,,
with Herren° in Andalusia will, as a r,warl
their ger-view, be allowod to enter that 1,, Ji
they desire to do so.

There was a great crowd at the cemetery „s
Sebastian yesterday afternoon when the
cortege arrived there with the remain,. ~f th,
Don Benjamin Yellin, who WM killog at Ifeet,
by Colonel Eecalera. When the coffin resell...it
place of interment the outer cia.se Was rtiu
and the face of the deceased was expoleil tA, vi•
through a glass pane which had been inert 44,
believe that, as there WAS no other eridene. 6, ,
the identity of the oorpee, this was a fernie.i
which was required by Spanish law before th 9
terment could take place. But it was not 'ILAN
to remain a mere formality. Upon rerAgniii4
the features of his friend, the Duke de la T
(Serrano) bent down and kissed the cold glait
his example was followed by General Prim ati et;
intimates of the deceased, awl by many persist .
though not acquainted with Yellin during hi,
regarded him as a martyr in the cello: of
So great, indeed, was the crowding to qv:.
the features of the dead, that by the
Duke de la Torre the outer case was re-e:
the funeral ceremonies were pr,c-a1..! w
Before the coffin had been placed in the r
which had been prepared' for it—one

catacombs of which the cemetery
tian chiefly if not entirely consists—t'.•• -

Torre, his eyes suffused with tsnrs ; .
broken with emotion, &admixd a
the mouniers and spectistorq. T 1...

Alcolca declared that he should alway

Lin recollection of the unfortunate Vs;
Lad been so ‘ilely assassinated a

inu3islied. alike by the justice
that of man—and that in the tcari w
were shell before that tomb all tl. •

dements of th• country would

continue united. The duke was hire 8,

by some cries for vengeance, which h• u
buked by remarking that Divine jui:i
ensure their vengeance, and that sa

then to think about was union. TI.;,•:-.t
neceesity for privato vengeance w hen ti..•

of the country were available for the T

of offenders. Serrano concluded 1111

by a few expressions of condolon, w

fortunate widow of Vallin, condolew.,

very sincerely echoed by all who hoar

coffin was placed in its last resting-? 1,
great crowd quietly dispersed.

MR. GLADSTONE IN

On Saturday afternoon Mr. G1.1.1,4.-n-
Grenfell, the liberal candidates fur mutL-w
Aire, addressed a meeting of the elect,r. N
the district, in the Town-hall. Newtun. Tioa, a
indications of welcome in all parts of the t