Our Contributors

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 506, 20 May 1881, Page 2

Our Contributors

ODll PARIS LETTER

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Paris, March 24. France lias had of late a .few cares, despite the formidable proof of her fiuatidal soundness in the monetary_ world giving her fifteen milliards when she asked but for one, and depositing in earnest money alone three milliards. There arc wheels within wheels driving the Bey of Tunis astray; he has done more to irritate France and to merit punishment than when his former neighbor, the Dey of Algiers, in 1830, struck the French Ambassador with his fan, and was mulcted "in his realm for damages. Sooner or later France must annex her Transvaal; .it: is necessary for her extension. Tunisians, must make way for Frenchmen, $ed, Indians: ;for Americans, Turks for " ? '

Instead of allowing the Chamber of Deputies to regulate a question appertaining peculiarly to shop, that of its mode of election, and with which the Executive — the offspring of deputies—had nothing to do, the Chief of the Cabinet and M. b'revy, unfortunately, muddled into making the matter a personal one, against the advice of the best heads, and

thus leading to a split in the Republican ranks. The country, true to its good sense, saw no such vital importance in the matter, but considered M. Gambetta's plan, scrutin de liste, gave more independent and educated politicians than the scrutin by parish, as advocated by M. Grevy. The Ministry was divided m> the matter, and it ,vas urged they ought to remain neutral. That opinion— Gambetta's—seems to have triumphed, so he has again scored an inning. It is urged that the scrutin de liste will enable M. Gambetta to be returned head of the poll for forty departments, instead of as many parishes ; that will likely be one result, and will illustrate what no oue doubts, that one-half of France is in harmony with Gambettn. If his opponents- desire-tc- "lessen- * ~ Jthey must effect that by superiority of programme ; .'ftu't- it is'not the intr'ansigreani, .press, and < ats_ribaldrie3, i .nor,..the... ,», monarchical journals-.and.:their sneers and salon epigrams, that can injure the great Tribune, who, no.later than Sunday last, before 8000 members of the Commercial .Union, branded t as.enemies.. , the apostles ~\>i'. iTJtopias,; who ■cliunt to i'- I remake society in.-twenty-■'our hours by first annihilatuigjjfll that exists. Si If The Communists celebrated the lßth March—the most'glorious date, they asserts!in--history; :amidst'general/hir difference. Louis Michel spouted a- * little, and asserted she , was ready, when told .offyio" poignard anybody ;, only for ; the moment she is occupied soothiug her old , tnother's rheumatism. There was a time' when girls, boasted that "though, father and mother and a , should, gae mad, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad." An unfortunate said he was a Nihilist from Rooslkli. The audience naturally expected to see him arrive through a trap door, flanked with fulminates] etc.; instead, he was as 'umble looking as Uriah Heep, with an immense pair of blue goggles, a cotton umbrella, and a Paul Pry hat." As'the police wanted, him, they took charge,of him on - his coming out. The Government is to be complimented on paying no attention to theireunions;;of, political :dissidents ; <~; in this respect, it puts Communists, Royalists, Bonapartists, and Clericals in the same sack.

Spring, as usual, is capricious ; some extremely fine days havo been succeeded by bitterly cold ones ; vegetation has remained coy to a sun, brilliant, but devoid of heat. Only that old flatterer or humbug, the chestnut tree "twentieth March " in the Tuileries garden', has come into leaf ; under the Bourbons it was Royalist," and according to some truthful historians, its precocity is due to the bodies of the Swiss Guards buried underneath, and, who ,fell defending the King. As it came into leaf on the anniversary of the birth' of 'the' t King , * of Rome, and the escape of. Napoleon from Elba, the tree ,was\viewed,as imperialist; the old Vicar of Bray is now a Republican.

I Dr Charcot,, thefamous authority on; hysteria, and th<? thousand,, 'forms of nervous diseape,Js now, in. and will publish "his opinions , on 4hVpeople from a medical , point of view.,. The mysterious and the mystic' have had a home in St. Petersburg ; not a spirit rapper, necromancicn, somnambulist, , or ' charlatan hut "strikes ilc" in that capital. i M._ Charcot's analysis of Russian "ladies— preserved itiice"—will be extremely'interesting. Col. Paris, chief of the city fire brigade, reports, that excepting the Louvre, , all the other monster drapery establishments are so many tnnt'cli boxes ; they are built of lath, plaster, starch , ,and paper; the lifts are so''many feed-pipes, in case of fire.' He recommends that the electric supersede'gas , light, as'the only mode of safety. Result; the insurance companies give notice that these risks having been officially confirmed, extra premiums must be paid. The Woman's Right Society has indulged in a new spurt, since King Leopold decorated a Belgian hidy who had made her fortune in the manufacture of crockery. Will the Republic hesitate hence-forward, to bestow the Legion of Honor, on a lady who peints—on canvas, sculptures, and writes novels, whether in one or three volumes, and superior in many cases to men ? Yes, the injustice will be continued, and yet it is a great occasion for Gambetta to interfere, and win the suffrages of the fair sex for ; the Republic, which he avows it lacks. The fact is, the gallant; y of Frenchmen is a fiction; if he declares to a beauty he : loves her at firet sight, and is ready to • marry her, he is equally quick after the ceremony to fly away. Women, as many erroneously suppose, are not goddesses , in with altars at ; every street I corner to enable the divinies to be adored. In the eyes of' Monsieur, woman is a toy, a doll, that dresses gracefully, a machine ; that < smiles or grins, looks . pretty, and replies pleasantly. As the talented ladies have mostly big noses, grey hair, and large teeth, he could never consent to decorate the sex. But being witty, the sex resigns itself to its charms, and takes revenge by leading men, who claim to be the most independent in the world, by the nose. We are getting through Lent merrily; '"' more truffles are "consumed than salt cod or smoked salmon ; the theatres ' draw better than the Revs. Monsabre and Loysonv Not a Parisian feels in- : clined to emulaterSt. Macaire of Alexandria,, who remained standing and awake, from Ash Wednesday till Easter Sunday, merely eating a leaf of raw cabbage every Sunday. Patti and Nicolini are being terribly nagged by a few French journals on account of their parsimony.