OUR PARIS LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 3907, 1 September 1875, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

Paris, July 10. The cry of the country is for the dissolution of the Assembly, but those deputies certain not to be re-elected show no desire to vote it. The Republican members are anxious to see the ballot boxes at -work, although many of them will find political death therein. It is not very clear whne is to do gained by postponing an appeal to the country, when such was honorably understood to be the compensation for the suppression of the partial elections. Further delays will only exasperate the electors, and lead to their selection of candidates with extreme views. The discussion of the constitutional laws is behind time, and if the Assembly breaks up as usual, by the middle of August, even by sacrificing all innocents, and gagging the mouths o: orators, iiardlv sufficient time remains to vote the laws absolutely required. If the constitutional majority be really sincere—and which is open to quession—it has only to give the proofs of its desire for the dissolution, and if the country be really in favor of the Republic, theie can be no impediment to returning a verdict in that sense. Louis Blanc is a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn. He belie ves, despite conclusive evidence, that France wants to-day his ideal Republic ot 1848. It is thus he has improved the occasion at a fHe just given in honor of Garibaldi, and where the spirit of equality was so acted upon that no chairman was even elected to enunciate the “immortal principles” of right-lined Republicanism, He Acids Garibaldi up as a moiicl Republican, but fails himelf to imitate the General by accepting the institutions his country has decreed. When we have not what we like, it is necessary to like what wo have. There are various forms of monarchy, and there can be too various forms f Republicanism; of the hitter Franco now presents a mosaic specimen. j The reports continue to ho excellent from Toulouse, so far as indicating the iclief forwarded has done its work, and what the sufferers feel no loss, the sympathy expressed for them not only by their own, but by foreign countries. The succor is now distributed by general and mixed committees, so that politics and religion no longer establish a qualification for_ relief. There are 25,QU0 persons being assisted, the majority of whom demand only to be provided with work, ana allowed to commence life again ; others will only accept the pecuniary assistance as a loan. The exact loss of life is still but a horrible guess, assumed to be under 2,000; 900 ho lies have been found, and some bodies have been seen at the mouth of the Gironde, their clothing indicating they are peasantry from the neighborhood of Toulouse. The material losses can be better estimated, and are not far from the figure of two hundred millions. In addition to manufactories, the washed plain was a sort of immense kiichen and fruit garden, where the delicacies of the season were earbest produced for the Paris and London markets. Engineers are busy discussing plans, so as to prevent these periodical inundations, and seem to agree that it is better to attack the tributary rivers near the sources, by neutralising their force by locks and reservoirs, rather than heightening the banks of the main river, the Garonne. Unfortunately, thrso discussions ever remain discussions. The replautiug of forests, it is said, would preventthese floods; but it is forgotten that a century ago, when forests existed, a greater calamity took place than at present. The collections for the unfortunates still proceed actively ; hardly a group of persons can be formed, when some one in the midst will take off his hat and solicit the smallest contribution; the guests at dinner parties, and the invited to balls, aie expected to deposit aid in a salver left in the corridor: even waddling babies have auinonitres stitched on their robes, with a ticket setting forth “forthe umdes.” iSch olars make up nice round sums; but the most gratifying lists are those detailing the fifties and half francs from tho workshojis. vlarshal Macinahon, by bis timely visit to the scenes of tho disaster, has done much to win popular support. His position is very difficult, holding the balance between several i’,aging parties, and possessing no grand talents to master them. But a genius in his place would likely be a calamity for the country. The condemned who was to be guillotined the morning of the inundation at Toulouse has had his sentence commuted, and one ot the immediate attractions now in Paris is a racehorse that broke out of his stable and swam to a place of safety. i.iic inundation has given rise to fierce quarrels between the clerical and lay journals. Ihe former assert, without producing their authority, that the catastrophe is a punishment from heaven because more churches are not built, more “holy places” inaugurated, more rvgaid paid to the saints, and higher salary .'aid to the clergy. To all ttiis it is replied, chat the creation of such an extent of misery ia not calculated to make muscular Christians in the year 1875. The Bouapartists have the modesty to hint the calamity is a retribution for Sedan, and if the Empire were in existence, the miseries sown by the Carmine would, ere this, be healed. They do not exactly affirm they would resuscitate the drowned, but they would _ cultivate, at least, a more elegant mourning for the widows and orphans. Perhaps since newspapers were established in France no one has ever read such floods of virulence and abuse. Journals seem to exist in order to pepper one another, and two organs are to be enlarged to afford greater space for diatribes. There is a journal that creates much amusement by selecting some of them wild articles, and transpo-ing tho names of persons and things shows that foul language is limited to no party. Perhaps these wars arc conducted on tho principle that by constantly throwing mud some will stick. Yet oddly enough duels are rare. Une has just taken place between two editors, where an antagonist, after being scratched, ho was pronounced a hero, and honor was declared satisfied. Duelling will never be put down in France, if skin wounds can bo considered as a duel, till the law compels the combatants to fight till death parts them, just as it formerly did in wedlock.

The Church has been accused of being intolerant. This must be a mistake, as a Bishop blessed a locomotive the other day, carrying the not very religious name of “ Babelais the opening of all railways like that at Chinon has a claim on the Church for a benediction. If a majority of free-think.ng railway directors could _ be secured to name a few locomotives Voltaire, Pascal, &c —imagine the Bishop of Orleans whisked along by an engine bearing the name of “ Littre.” Perhaps a few Martin Luthers ” and “ Savinarolas,” if blessed by an ultramontane bishop, might reconcile Germany and Italy with the Church. After carrying war into the camp of the opintists, and their manufactory of phantomphotos, and declaring hostilities against the I ositivists, the “ Somnambulists,” that perform iu lairs or give siancot in town, are to have their licenses for practical joking henceforth withdrawn. All is not lost, as they can employ then,’ time qualifying for the new prizes

of virtu* the Academy to to award, consequent on the receipt of a thumping legacy of a quarter of a million francs.

Since the public patronizes the cheap telegraph tariff, an old institution is on the paint of dying out—that of the Commissionimirnt: these resembled the piolicc in never being visible when wanted. Since srtme time they have largely fallen back on slidc-Vacking and pitch and toss, as aids to their plurality of offices. Most of their time is now passed in siestas on their r.rochds.

It is a trying moment for Freemasons and spiritists, but nothing in comparison to their brothers in adversity—the free-thinker-. The Council of State has confirmed an appeal; that a dying 'man, refusing the last rites of the Church, has' no claim to he buried in consecrated ground. A parishouer, so long as he professes a recognised faith, can be buried in some section of the graveyard ; if not he must take his chance in that out-of-the-way corner allotted to dead-boni bailies, suicides, and murderers. Ore Halle died in 1873, at Gravelle, in the department of the Loire-et-Cher ; he declined to receive the last saorements, and the priest invoked the application of the law, so he was buried in unconsecrated ground, despite the appeals of his family to inter the remains in his sepulchre. (To be continued.)