OUR PARIS LETTER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 388, 23 April 1880, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(from our own correspondent.)

Paris, Feb. 26,

Perhaps tbe only novelty the capital lacked to uphold the honor of its cosmopolitanism was a real, hv_ Nihilist, and we have one in Karl llartmann, or Mayer, for he has as many surnames as a Spanish hidalgo or a Crown Prince has of titles. The Press has taken sides regarding this illustrious stranger, who might have selected Geneva, London, or oven New York as his abiding city rather than Pariß, and so save the Republic a little trouble. Will Mayer be handed over to the Russians, or officially conducted to any part of the frontier he may ple;.se; for tlie evidence is presumptive be has had something to do witb explosion number one, at Moscow V Was that explosion murder in the eyes of the Code, or tho retaliation of nihilism againut autocracy ? Is it akin to the Communists, who find a refuge under the vines and iig-tiees of other lands, or on a par with the arrest in 1858 of Dr Bernard at London, on the charge of murder and iiccessory before tbe fact ? And if Mayer be acquitted like Bernard, will Russian Colonels threaten France with specimens of her '■ civilization and culture V" While the French indignantly reprobate every violation of! tbe Decalogue, they are very far from approving of the Czar's manner of making his 100 millions of--more or less loving subjects happy. Tbe.State can expel a foreigner when it pleases, but to deliver him up to the tormentors necessitates a judicial examination of the proofs presented by the demanding. Government; the accdsed has no mixed jury as in England to appeal to. So far, opinion leans to the belief that Mi'yer will be expelled, not sunendered. He has been allowed a very able lawyer to defend him, is permitted to fare sumptuously every day, and has been furnished from the prison library with the ileihoiresde Vidocq. Old Fagin had similar literature for tlie training of his boys. A journal, more remarkable for its connection with tbe gallant than the evangelical world, alludes to President Grevy omitting tbe word ■■ Providence" in his congratulatory telegram to the Czar on his escape. Knowing that ■' God moves in a mysterious way," M. Grevy, with his proverbial caution, did not wish to commit himself to any interpretation of the Divine will. Professor Tyndall would attribute the escape to the Prince of pantaloons. The Prince's baggage had been stolen on ita arrival in St. Peteisburg. and with it the bran new costume be intended to wear at the Imperial dinner party. A new suit was ordered ; all fitted well Have the pantaloons, which tbe tailor had to alter, necessitating a delay of half an hour in his Highness' arrival at the Winter Palace, and the mercifully keeping back of the dinner. What next and nest ?

Few but were glad when M. Rouber rose to make his famous oration on commercial freedom, as the debate on the general tariffs was becoming a downright bore. Tlie once powerful ex-Minister must have ascended the Tribune—the scene of his many triumphs—with a heavy heart. Instead of de Morny or Schneider, there was, for. President, Gambetta; instead of a cohort of deputies that he "could throw oif like a huntsman bis pack, for he knew when be pleased he could whistle them back," he had the stern representatives of a free and sovereign people, who respected his years, sympathised with his talents, while detesting his Imperialism. The last ten years have marked him severely ; he is an old man, broken with the storms of State; bis once abundant black hair are " locks like the snow;" his handsomely cut features are wrinkled, flabby, and the jaws fallen in for lack of teeth ; the eyes lack lustre, and the eloquence warmth ; but in the crystal clearness of his arguments, the niaiveilous ease with which he handles figures, making them attractive by their simplicity, his prodigious memory never at fault tor a date or a fact—in all these he was the Rouber of 18GG. His discourse was not only the defence of the Cobden treaty, but the summing-up of the case on behalf ot free-trade, it has produced an immense effect. During bis speaking church mice might have gambolled on the floor of the House without iear.J

■"■' The Papal encyclical onDivorce has not produced any effect. The question is not a burning one in France, and is only passing through its threshing and winnowing stage by public opinion, at the thentr -s, conferences, and in pulpits. In time M. Naquet -will introduce his Bill "to the Chamber, and which will be voted without enthusiasm on one side or maledictions on the other. What France is most concerned with at the present'moment is tbe subject, of education—to take its control out of the hands of the clergy. His Holine-s claims marriage, to bo a sacrament, and in matters Celestial the Church ought to have the last vvord—-that is, to place the rights of the Church above those of the State. For those inclined to bear the Church there is no difficulty, but for tbe dissidents it is another affair, and of whom the number is not only great, but augmenting; not as additions to Protestants and Jews, whose Ministers are endowed dike those of Catholics by the"State, but the vast number of incredulous and indifferent, wbo have severed connection from all creeds, but who nevertheless pay taxes, defend | their country, vote for representatives, and are elected such. Actuated by the principles of equality and liberty of conscience, the State claims to be incompetent in matters of faith ; it leaves to the Church the liberty to preach wandering sheep back to the fold, or to anathematise them if they resist. But the Government will .never allow any Church to dominate the State, especially in a country where, as Frederick the Great would say, each has the liberty to damn himself .as he pleases.