The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-10 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

IVION OITI OWN

PARIS, THURSDAY Evalrega.

This being Ascension Day is a general holiday,
and the Bourse is closed. Some of the evening
papers do not appear, and those that have come out
contain nothing remarkable. The wind has changed
to a warm quarter, and there is a nice spring rain,
which, though annoying to the holiday folk who
have been caught in it while promenading in new
dresses, coincides with a new moon, and promises
a cessation of the dreadfully cold weather we have
had for nearly a month.
The Moaiteur contains a note repeating the
assertion—in contradiction to the statement of
several journals—that no greater severity has been
used towards M. Mires than to other prisoners in
the like case, or than the laws and regulations
allow. It does not, however, give any hint as to
the period when M. Mires may be expected to be
brought to trial.
K de Lesseps has just stated at a public dinner
at Trieste that within a year and a half from this
time the piercing of the Isthmus of flues will be so
far advanced as to allow vessels of 100 tons bur-
den to enter the oanaL This is not au altogether
improbable prediction, though I should be sorry to
guarantee its fulfilment ; but be does not say
when the ships which " enter " at one end will get
out at the other—that is the question.
The interchange of parcels between France and
England is now—since the Ist of the month—
greatly facilitated by new arrangements of the
South Eastern Railway. Formerly you could not
book a parcel from Paris farther than London, and
there were many difficulties about the customs
which are now removed. A parcel directed to any
principal town iu England may be taken to the
company's office in the Boulevard des Italiens, and
the carriage paid through at once. Thanks to the
new tariff, there are scarcely any articles likely to
be sent by parcel upon which customs duties are
payable, but if there should be any the company will
arrange the payment.
Paris has hitherto been very poorly supplied with
public reading-rooms, not indeed as to number, but
as to quality. With the single exception of Galig-
nani's old establishment, there has not been
'hitherto a single newspaper•room at all comparable
to what may be found in most second-rate towns in
England, to say nothing of the splendid halls in
Glasgow, Liverpool, and other groat cities. The
cabinets de lecture which abound in the metropolis
are dreadfully dark, stifling places, in which elbow-
room as well as air is so scarce that it is a wonder
to me how people cau be got to sit in them, as they
do, for hours together. Within the hat few days
K Molini, the well-known librarian of Florence,
has opened a grand suite of reading-rooms on the
Boulevard Montmartre, next door to the Theatre
des Variitis, such as has never been seen in Paris.
There is a plentiful supply of French and foreign
papersconveniently classified on various tables, and it
is a perfect luxury to read in a well-stuffed arm chair I
wheeled just to the spot you may fancy, and com-
manding a view of the Boulevard through broad
plate-glass windows. If it be true, as the Indi-
petidemee Beige reports, that the Emperor is going
to make a liberal law on the press, so that people
may safely subscribe to foreign journals without
the fear of their being seized, or, which constantly
happens more or less, " delay ed" at the post-office,
'reading-rooms on this scale will multiply. At',
present M. Molini stands alone.
The University of France has just admitted to
the degree of doctor of laws, "without examina-
tion," Dr. Hoechster, an advocate of Cologne, who
was proscribed in 1848. There is only one pre-
vious instance of this extraordinary favour being
granted, namely, in the case of the unfortunate
Count Rossi who was assassinated at Rome.

The Cologne Gazette states that the Archduke
Ferdinand Maximilian, husband of the Princess Charlotte
of Belgium, has had about thirty copies printed, for private
circulation, of a work that be has written en the Brazils.
The work, which is said to possess much ability and
humour, is dedicated " To Charlotte, the companion of my
travels and my life."
A few days since tendert; were received for the
supply of 40 locomotives for the Russian railways. There
were numerous offers from English and French manufac-
turer.. but the contract, it is mud, is given to Cockerill and
Co. of Liege, who presented the lowest tender, 63,000 fr. the
A manufacturer at La Villette, near Paris, has ob-
=.ed a contract for the suply of 500 waggons for the
railway from Alicante to Senile. Another Paris manufac-
turer has obtained a contract for the supply of 1,200 tons
of iron for the same company.