fortign ant

Fasarct.—The formal grounds of the arrest of M. Becher, on Thursday sennight, are now known. He is charged with the double crime of " dis-

seminating seditious writings, and infringing the laws applicable to hawkers"! The seditious writings were the legal " case " of the Orleans family against the confiscation decrees, which M. Becher, their "man- datory," has submitted to the most eminent French jurists; and also the

joint opinion delivered on that ease by the jurists, with the letter of M. Dupin resigning his office of Procureur-General, on account of the con- fiscation, and the letter of the Orleans Princes. The jurists whom M. Bocher consulted were M. Berryer and M. Vatimesnil the Legitimists, M. Dufaure and M. Gillen Barret the Orleanista, and M. Paillet, an emi- nent advocate in the Supreme Court. Their opinion was favourable on all points to K. Bocher's clients; and at the end of their elaborate legal deductions they comply with M. Bocher's request that they should point out any legal means of resisting the confiscation. They hold that the de- cree of confiscation is not a law in form—if it were so, it would be a pri- vilegium, and would be inoperative by the fundamental principles of French jurisprudence, which are invoked in the very preamble of the new Constitution. It it not an administrative ordinance, for it deals with matter not within the province of the Executive. What, then, is it ? "It has no other force than that of an order given to the agents of the Administration to maintain the rights of the State before the competent authorities." The courts of law cannot annul such a document ; but if it be brought before them incidentally, its averments can be examined.

Therefore, if the Orleans Princes sell their property, they will raise the question of its legality, and that question is not likely to be decided against them. This grave legal dictum M. Becher was forbidden to print or publish in Paris. He got it printed in London, and was personally distributing it to his own friends in Paris, when he was arrested, on the charges of "sedition and unlicensed hawking" already mentioned.

Count Montalivet, another of the executors of Louis Philippe, was put under arrest till Monday, when he was permitted to retire from France :

it is said he went to Brussels. Three other persons were arrested with M. Bocher, for complicity in his "sedition and unlicensed hawking"; but their names are not known.

The Mon iteur has published "the Government list of candidates" for seats in the Corps Legislatif for about sixty of the departments. Almost

the only name that the general reader in England will recognize is that

of Dr. Veron, of the Constitationnel, who is said to have quite made up his quarrel with the Elysee : he is named for Sceaux. It appeared as if there would be some sort of concerted opposition to the Government candi- dates; but the matter is doubtful. The Sack stated that meetings had been held, which had agreed to a list of candidates ; and it published the list so agreed on, as follows—Dupont de l'Eure, General Larnoriciere, General Cavaignac, Carnet, Goudchaux, Bixio, Eugene Sue, and Ferdi- nand Lasteyrie. But the Government paper, La .Patrie, of next day, contained this parazraph- " The candi&V.Mip of several ex-Representatives now under banishment has been spoken of. It is stated that the necessary arrangements are about to be taken to put an end to such a state of things, which is in direct oppo- sition to the measures of public safety which have been adopted by the Chief of the State."

The Sack disregarded the interdiction, and next day republished its list. It remains to be seen whether the fresh provocation will be allow- ed to pass, or whether the journal of General Cavaignac is doomed to feel the first rigours of the law on the press.

Dupiu and Dufauro have both published letters expressly declining to stand for any place.

The law of the press made no reference to the Colonies. A decree has appeared in the Mon iteur declaring that nothing shall be printed in the Colonies without the express sanction of the Colonial Governor.

The newspaper proprietors of Paris have signified their intention of ad- vancing the price of their journals, in consequence of the late Govern- ment decrees respecting the press.

The London Illustrated News was stopped at the railway stations on Monday ; its circulation in France being forbidden.

The following decree was lately published in the Moniteur- " Louis Napoleon, President of the French Republic : Considering that the celebration of political anniversaries recalls the remembrance of civil

discords, and that among the fetes it is a duty to choose that the consecra- tion of which the best tends to unite all minds in the common sentiment of national glory—Decrees, for the future, the only fete to be recognized and zolebrated as a national one shall be the anniversary of the 15th of August." This was the device adopted for Suppressing the anniversary fete of the Republic, which would have completed the fourth year of its age on Tuesday the 24th instant. A Paris writer says—" Last year, on this day, six thousand Republicans walked in orderly procession to lay their votive wreaths at the foot of the column of the Bastile. Today, per- haps, six thousand Republicans are crossing the seas towards various penal colonies in Africa and South America."

General indignation has been excited by the conduct of a sentinel in the Rue Richelieu. Some young men going home at night had a few words with him, and he warned them off: they departed. Immediately afterwards, another young man approached from the same quarter ; he was challenged by the sentinel, and not answering, was shot dead on the spot. He was the son of M. Leon Chauvreulx, a manufacturer at El- beuf ; he had been just put down by the carriage of friends who were driving him part of the way home from a party ; he was deaf, and thus fell a most innocent victim.

The correspondent of the Times devotes a column to an interesting gmaping account of the reception of M. Guizot and M. Montalembert by the President, when K. Guizot, as late Director of the French Aca- demy, officially presented to him K. Alontalembert, the member elected in room of the deceased historian K. Droz. It was the second visit of each gentleman to the President—in K. Guizot's case since the coup d'etat of the 2d December, in M. Montalembert's case since the confisca- tion decrees against the Orleans family. The President was very elabo- rate in his polite attentions to K. Guizot; seeking to know if he intends continuing his History of the English lievolution, and receiving with delight assurances in the affirmative, and some particulars of interesting and original documents which M. Guizot stated that the descendants of Croix. well have intrusted to his care. He rejoiced that M. Guizot's functions of Director of the Academy had procured him the pleasure of receiving K. Guizot twice at the Palace, and "regretted that that pleasure is not oftener repeated." To K. Montalembert the President directed inquiries after his health, toned with an affectionate solicitude, showing that the personal estrangement which was caused by the Orleans confiscation had melted away under the warmth of mutual political needs : the President desires the aid of the great Catholic orator for his schemes of govern- ment, and the Catholic orator desires the assistance of the "Chief of the State" for his Ultramontane schemes against the University and secular education.

President Bonaparte gave his second ball at the Tuileries on Monday night, and it is said that the attendance was even more numerous than at the first. There was again a prevalence of the English military uniform.

The Government organ, La Patrie, had on Thursday the following re- markable paragraph about Lord Malmesbury, the new Foreign Minister in Lord Derby's Cabinet- " The nomination of Lord Malmesbury to the important post of Minister of Foreign Affairs is a fact the importance of which cannot be too much noticed. It is, perhaps, not known in France, that this statesman is a per- sonal friend of the President of the Republic ; that he has not ceased for a series of years to keep up with the Prince relations based on a reciprocal es- teem and affection, and that he even visited him several times when a pri. soner at Ham. These relations have been long known in England; and consequently a choice made by her Britannic Majesty possesses, under pre- sent circumstances, a signification of a very peculiar character."

The Paris correspondent of the Morning Chronicle calls especial atten- tion to the studiously pacific tone which the Mon iteur and the other °fa- cialjournals have suddenly taken. He says he understands that tho fol- lowing is the true reason for the change-

" Within the last few days, a despatch has been communicated to the French Government from the Government of Great Britain, to the effect that, in the event of a single French soldier entering the Belgian territory, the city of Antwerp, with its citadel and the forts on the Scheldt, would at once be occupied by an English army of ten thousand men. It has been at the same time announced that this English occupation would be accomplished with the express sanction and concurrence of all the great Powers of Europe, including Russia. It appears that the Russian Government, in giving its consent to this important measure, made it a special condition that King Leo- pold should at once dismiss all the Polish officers in his service ; a condition which was at once complied with." [Where is the spare English army of ten thousand men" to be found

BELGTITPL—The Belgian Government has ordered an increase of 5000 men to the army; and the Chamber is about to apply for a credit of six millions of francs for the formation of an intrenched camp in the environs of Antwerp, and to put into defence the Tete de Flandres.

Count d'Haussonville and K. Alexandre Thomas, the principal writers of the Bulletin 11.anfais, were arrested at Brussels on Wednesday, and ordered out of the country.

SWITZERLAND.—A correspondent of the Morning Chronicle writes from Berne, "on authority which cannot be questioned," that after the coup d'etat of the 2d December, the Austrian Government, in concert with the Governments of Bavaria and Baden, demanded the assent of the French Government to a military occupation of Switzerland, as the only means of stifling a revolutionary hotbed, which threatened the tranquillity of their states ; that the French Government, without questioning the legi- timacy of the step, wished first to try" conciliatory measures," and there- fore sent in its own ultimatum "peremptorily demanding the expulsion of certain refugees" ; that the English Charge d'Affaires remonstrated un- officially with the Envoys of France and Austria, but received evasive answers ; and that there was the utmost fear that the matter would be- come publicly known, and produce a serious explosion of Swiss opinion throughout the Federation.

A later communicaion from Berne, of the 16th February, gives the text of the reply of the Federal Council to the French ultimatum. It is a direct refusal to comply with a demand which is called "an attempt against the independence, the dignity, and the liberty of the country," and "a decided intervention in the internal affairs of Switzerland." "The voice of the people of Switzerland" will uphold the Diet in its resistance to the "threats" held out.

SPAIN.—Queen Isabella paid her visit of thanksgiving to the Church of Atocha on the 18th instant. The Parliament and the ecclesiastical and corporate authorities received her at the porch; and the people testified

their joy by the universal display of flags, flowers, by day, and by an illumination at night beyond anything of the sort previously seen in Ma- drid. In the evening her Majesty and the Sing were present at the Principe Theatre.

Goitmarrr.—Two political trials of some interest have taken place at Berlin. Count Henry Arnim "a member of the First Prussian Cham- ber, and leader of the Liberal party, a titular Minister of State, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a former representative of his Xing at Versailles and in Belgium," was tried criminally for calnmniating ;the Government by his writings. When M. Manteuffel went to Olmutz in November 1850, Arnim published a pamphlet called, "The Policy of the Counter-Revolutions ; two Speeches, spoken and unspoken," in which he charged Manteuffel with violating the union treaty, with changing his policy on the demand of his passports by the Austrian Minister, and with having, "in his eagerness to surrender the policy of the Government, set out for Olmuta before being certain that Prince Sehwarzenberg would come so far to meet him." The court was crowded with an audience ex- pecting an open political tournament; but, on the demand of the King's attorney, the public were put out, and the proceedings taken with dosed doors. It was demanded that M. Arnim be imprisoned six months. K. Arnim defended himself in a speech of two hours. The Court acquitted him from the first two charges, in a manner implying the opinion that those charges were established as true ; but on the last charge they, found him guilty of "an outrage on the dignity of a Minister of State,' and sentenced him to pay a fine of 200 thalers, or be imprisoned four months. M. Bardeleben, who had reprinted a portion of the pamphlet in his journal, was sentenced to pay 100 thalers. The inediatized houses in the different German states enjoyed im- portrait immunities guaranteed to them by the federal treaties, but which were generally abolished during the late revolutionary period. They have eleitned the interference of the German Diet for the restitution of their rights, The Diet has admitted their claim, but referred them first to the Government of their respective states. Weimar has already restored the privileges in question within its territory. The nuptial ceremony of the Austrian Archduke Rainer Ferdinand /traria, fourth son of the ex-Viceroy of Lombardy, to the Austrian Arch- duchess Maria Caroline Ludovica, daughter of the late Archduke Charles, was performed in the chapel of the Imperial Burg at Vienna, on the evening a the 21st February. The bride and bridegroom were born respectively on the 11th September 182.5 and the Ilth January 1827.

UNITED STATES.—Two European questions occupy much political at- tention in the States. General Cass has moved in the Senate "resolu- tions of sympathy" on behalf of the Irish exiles—Smith O'Brien and the others—transported from Great Britain for sedition ; that is to say, he has moved that the President be desired to address the Government of Great Britain, in a friendly spirit, "for the liberation of those unfortu- nate leaders of a lost and hopeless cause." General Shields, the Senator for Illinois, an Irishman by descent, and a very popular man with the Irish of the Union, moved verbal amendments, to make the resolution "in perfect consistency with the dignity of the two countries." His speech was conceived in a very kindly spirit to this country, and had such an effect that the resolutions were carried. There are statements that Mr. Webster has accordingly sent a despatch on the subject to the British Government. General Shields is the leader of the 'Free-trade party of the Western States.

General Cass has made another great stir on the Kossuth doctrine of nonintervention. He supported with "one of his greatest speeches resolutions moved by him, that "the United States could not but regard with deep concern the interference of Russia, for example, in the event of another revolutionary struggle in Hungary." The New York corre- spondent of the Times says, "The speech produced a deep impression, and I doubt not that strong resolutions will pass the Senate on the subject"

Kossuth had a public reception by the Legislature of the State of Ohio, on the 7th instant The correspondent of the Times reports— "After Kossuth had delivered one of his two-hour speeches, an eminent judge moved a resolution instructing Congress to declare to the world, that whenever despots trample beyond their own confines to suppress a people rising for freedom, this country will interfere with all the power of the nation. The resolution was carried unanimously, in the midst of the wildest applause. This is the sentiment of Ohio with its three millions of people, and it is doubtless the prevailing sentiment of the ten millions who inhabit the great Western valley."

On the 10th instant he adds, in his postscript—" The Ohio Legislature is now discussing a resolution to loan to Hungary all the arms belonging to the State, to be returned after the achievement of her independence."

The last week's papers contained a brief telegraphic announcement from Boston to New York that Mademoiselle Jenny Lind had been married ; but the report was not credited at New York. It is now " confirmed " the happy man is M. Otto Goldschmidt, a pianist, of Hamburg.