The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-04 00:00:00

THE KING OF SAXONYS SPEECH.

The speech which the King of Saxony delivered
on cloning the Jeasifol contains the following pas-
sages, which have been brieiy alluded to in tele-
grams :

If at the comn.eusen.ent your first task was to give a
legal ruction to the change: which had occurred owing to
political events in the external position of Saxony, you
,hire, in adopting your deadest, resolutely and without
delay, given a fresh legal basis to the new situation. . •
and so contributed greatly to obtain for Saxony an ;
esteemed position in the newly-established Confederatiou
of the North. I observe, with special satisfaction, that
, you have been enabled in the latter part of the session to
adopt the bills introducing trial by jury. With the poli-
tical
education which the Saxon people has acquired by
a long participation in public Weirs, I hope that this in-
stitution will rapidly take root amongst us. end
will produce results all the more satisfactory since
its principle is already fully realised in the law and is freed
from all inconvenient formalities. An important, and,
with the aid of God, a beneficent, progress has also been
achieved by the abolition of capital punishment. The
question is of so grave:. nature, and touches so closely the
human conscience. that every sincete conviction, even when
differing from our own, demands respect. and conse-
quently the opposition I have met with on this
subject has been neither againa-t my expectations
nor any desires . and, moreover, my resolution was formed
with difficulty. But it did not arise from purely theo-
retical reelections ; I thought that, considering the cha-
racter of the Saxon people. it is possible to dispense with
this punishment under ordinary circumstances, and that
its retention could not be jus-itied in presence of the
s doubts which have arisen resp.mting it. I consequently
. I hope that the succe,s of the experiment will confer upon
simony the honour of has ing first taken a step which will
perhaps be followed elsewhere at a later period.

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(710 M OUR OWN CC IML9PUNDENT.)
PARIS, Vitostsull E%esfs(..

Several of the evening papers give as the "event
of the day the death of the Emperor's favourite
dog Nero—a catastrophe which occurred " almost
suddenly yesterday. Nero was a remarkably fine
English setter, of very dark brown colour,
a ithout a single spot of white. He was born
at Strasbourg; in 1861, and when a fine puppy was
presented to the Emperor by his Chamberlain, M.
Boulack. The sculptor Carpeaux's chisel has
immortalised Nero in a group, in which the Prince
Imperial is represented patting him on the head.
The dog lived entirely in the Emperor's apart-
ments in the Tuileries, sod was never suffered
to go out with any one hut his master.
The Emperor was in the habit of feeding him hint-
self. The Empress does not like dogs. but the
Prince Imperial took to Nero, and it will be re-
membered that Nero had the honour of routing up
in the Compiegne preserves the first pheasants that
the Prince ever shot at.
Poor Nero now lies buried in the corner of the
Tuileries gardens. The Emperor did not appear
at the Empress's last ball of the season, yesterday
evening, and the Pattie says that in consequence
of a "slight indisposition of his Majesty the
ministerial council, summoned for this morning,
was postponed.
It is now said to be doubtful whether the Em-
peror will visit the Havre Exhibition. His
leisure at Fontainebleau, whither it still remains
arranged that the Court will go after the great
Paris race, is to be devoted for a fortnight to the
forthcoming volume of " Julius Cgesar ;" and on
June 20 the Emperor and Empress and the Prince
Imperial are going to the Chalons camp.
I had not an opportunity of witnessing the first
representation, at the Vaudeville Theatre, last
night, of the new piece, the Abiate— a French
dramatic version of No Thoroafilifare---but I am
told it was a decided success. Ido not know
why the name of Mr. Dickens appears on the play-
bills as the exclusive author of a novel which was
published in England as the joint production of
Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Mr. Dickens was in Paris
for a short time to superintend the rehearsal, and
the Opinion Nationale says he was so nervous and
anxious about the reception which a French au-
dience might give to the melo-drama as not to be
able to see the performance, and the box No. 4
which had been kept for him remained vacant
the whole evening. The part of Reichenbach,
the Swiss villain, was effectively played by M.
Berton, a veteran who does not belong to the Vaude-
ville company, and Madlle. Cellier made a very
graceful Margaret. A great deal is said about the
scenery, and more particularly of a novel trick
which makes the audience fancy they hear the
crunching of snow under the feet of people on the
stage.

There is plague among the Seine gudgeons,
numbers of which float ashore dead or dying, and
those which are caught alive are very bad eating.

There was a more considerable rise in the Rente
than has taken place on any one day for many
months. The opening was rather heavy, under the
impression of grumbling articles in the government
press pointing out, what is perfectly true, that the
treaty of Prague was not meant to be included in
those " treaties " which the King of Prussia told
the German deputies he should scrupulously
observe. But later in the day, whether owing to
news not generally known, or to " executions " of
speculators for the fall, who can go on no longer,
there was an extraordinary demand for the
Rente, and the closing quotations were
70fr. 80c. and 70fr. 65c., with a rise
of 60c. and 65c. In other securities there was little
change. Italian fell 15c., Mobilier rose 2fr. 50c.
Isthmus of Suez rose from 430 fr. t0440fr., owing to
the flourishing account of the undertaking which
M. de Lesseps gave to a general meeting yesterday.
He promised positively that the work should be
completed by October 1, 1869, and read a paper
which his adherents say answered all objections
" made or which can be made."