OUR PARIS LETTER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 437, 28 September 1880, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FUOM OUU OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Paris, August 12,

A voyage to Cherbourg must be regarded as the complement of the Presidential ceremony of the distribution of the flags to the army on July 14. The Boys in Blue must also have their cakes and ale. The Portsmouth of France is very Republican, so the three Presidents naturally found themselves at home. It is not often tho navy is honored as it has just been, as tho pet service is the army. M. Grevy conducted himself as a Spartan in point of simplicity, and M. Gamhetta recommended the crowd to cheer not himself, but the President of the Republic—the incarnation of public virtue, national rights, and inflexible legality. Only one incid nttook pine, where the Bishop of Bayeux headed a deputation of his clergy, to pay their respects to the President, when the latter (in response to the congratulatory address) asserted that " love for the Church was not incompatible with love for France." Volumes might be written on the parallel between the voyage of Marshal MacMahon three years ago to Cherbourg, and that just made by M. Grevy. The former had arrived at the zenith of reactionary politics, and the country was in the throes of a preparation for that general election which has decided the f ate of France. It was at that moment Gambetta made his famous speech at Lille, where he laid down that when universal suffrage would have spoken, the Marshal must either submit or resign. Then the Government of the day was, as De Girardin said—" manufacturing fear, which meant fabricating revolution." On the Marshal quitting Cherbourg, 30,000 persons pursued him to the railway station with cries of " Vive Thiers," " Vive la Republique," and singing the Marseillaise. To-day M. Grevy is received as the honoured chief of the nation, in whose hands legality runs no risk, and whose dominant care is respect for the national will. He represents France in full political repose, work, and commercial prosperity, when dynastic parties are reduced to debris, and each successive expression of universal suffrage an unequivocal approbation of tho constitution which France has chosen for herself.

As was to be expected, the knot of noisy people that called themselves Socialists, and that relied on muskets, barricades, and dynamite to ensure a second edition ot the rights of man, have uearly exhausted themselves. At one of their recent frugal banquets they denounced not only Blanqui, but Rochefort, as being too aristocratic. The Republic has nothing to fear in such a quarter ; it can crush insurrection as terribly as it did in 1871. Evey man has now a vote, and to effect fundamental reforms, to execute new programmes, agitation must first commence by converting the electors.

Baron llardcn-Hickey is aged 25, and reputed to be wealthy. Some say he is an irishman, others an American, ur a combination of both nationalities. For the Minister of the Interior he is a foreigner. He married three years ago an Italian lady, whose family (Sampieri)

trace their origin up to St. Peter, as the De Courcys do theirs to Noah. The Baron had an itch for writing, and under the name of " Saint Patrice " not only composed a few novelettes descriptive of man upon town life, hut founded a weekly periodical called Triboulet, ten. imitation of Punch, less the latter's genial fun, wit, and healthy satire. It was devoted to scurrilous abuse of the Republican institutions, and, above all, offensive personalities towards the authorities ; it never of late conformed to the law of submitting its skits and senseless cartoons to the censors before publication, consequently it was always in court, and '• Saint Patrice," when not in prison, was occupied paying fines for violation of the law. To end the matter, the chronic and wilful delinquent has been expelled France, a step the Opposition journals lament, like Jeremiah, though they uttered no protest when Hartmann was requested to try change of air. The Republic has no \ more than any other free Government ever professed the doctrine of unlimited liberties, and has a weakness for upholding the respect of the law. Nothing ' hindered Baron Hickey of the Fifth Avenue, New York, to criticise in a manly and national form the acts of the French Government, but to descend into the arena of personal politics and I scurrility, to become the partisan and exponent of the hates of the defeated dynastic Mamelukes, was not the role of a stranger, still less the manner of thanking France for her hospitality.

The artistes of the theatres have only just happily concluded their compaign, to he eligible for the decoration of the Legion of Honor, when they enter upon another, all men being equal since the Revolution. They complain of the disrespect in being called Faure, Got, Capoul, Sarah Bernhardt, or Patti, quite short. They demand, from politeness, the prefix Monsieur, Mdlle., or Madame : this daily decoration is respect.

Alexandre Dumas is about putting his " Dame aux Camelias " in verse, to suit Verdi's " Traviata," which is founded on that novel; but the author of the libretto prohibits Dumas from carrying out his intention. Thus the author of a successful novel and drama cannot put it in verse, because it has been pirated in advance. A similar difficulty was encountered by George Sand. One Bourgeois dramatised her " Petite Fadctte," and without either her permission or a division of the receipts. Some years later she decided to dramatise her own novel herself, and was prohibited from doing so by the heirs of Bourgeois.

Dr Tanner's experiment, that in dying' oi* lmngcr man c;m live without eating, has certainly drawn attention to the question—Do we eat and drink too much ? The anti-tobacconists are in the field with tlieir hobby, and so are the vegetarians ; the latter have never had many disciples in France, though the hermits of Port Royal no more eat meat than a Fakir, which explains the paleness of their portraits ; hygienics and dietary, said Sainte Beuve, were bacly studied at Port Royal. The Ncphalians bind themselves never to tasfo intoxicating drinks ; they hate wine as Noah must have done after his spree; at table they are a nuisance, as they draw attention to those beside them who have a weakness to a glass of pure generous wiie ; and very annoying when a lady is in the case, Pending the siege of Paris it was propose I to empty all the barrels in the city outside the fortifications, so that the Prussians could drink themselves to death. The plan was rejected, as encouraging intemperance. A sceptical member proposed that, in case of falling shells, no Nephalian ought to seek refuge in a wine cellar, save when it was emptied.