OUR PARIS LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4191, 2 August 1876, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

Pabis, June 10. The clerical party in France is at the present moment an .exceedingly interesting study from the psychological point of view. The term “ clerical ” is designedly employed to denote those Catholics who associate politics with; their jeHgion—-the Ultramontane party in a word. Now Ultramontanism has no hold, on .France, and it may be safely asserted will never-take root in the country; it has only the bishops and the partisans of Henri V. in its faypr. The' vast mass of the nation, and the great body of the clergy are neither its disciples nor zealous apostles. In the Chamber of Deputies ex-captain de Mun was the spokesman for the Ultramontanes during the debate on the Superior Education Bill, Though he has but recently quitted the army, he, has jthe air to have more recently left the cloister. His speech was carefully prepared and delivered,' hut revealed more of the artist than the apostle. He repudiates altogether the rights of the State, and .advocates purely and simply a theocratic government. God, he remarks, is the creator of the world and the source of all law; all human authority flows from Him j the Catholic Church is His representative on earth, and is consequently that of Qpd even j it is a duty then to submit to the Church, as the mole legitimate government is the theocratic.. This is the tyllabuo in a nutshell. The right of the Church is anterior and superior to that of the State ; it is not from the latter hut from the former that government takes its origin and legitimacy. The Chamber repudiated this pro- • gramme of the Bishop by a majority of 833 against, i 43, and Captain de Mun has done tlie cause of liberty ipcalculable good; in UO case his election to be brpken,

This debate has been very damaging for the Bonapartists. It has first of all divided the party.; led by M, Rouhor, the bulk of the Bonapartists voted for the Ultramontane ticket; but the minoxity, under Prince Napoleon, plumped for modem society. Like a certain übiquitous character, Bonapartism can assume every shape, but the peasantry will note this chanting of “ Partant Pour la Syrie,” with the canticle “ Sauvons Rome et la France.” Paul de Cassagnac embraces Louis Yenillat; the ‘ Pays,’ and the ‘ Univers ’ have kissed each other. The Republic scores fresh winnings by these tactics, and Prince Napoleon also, who in addition to possessing an evening has purchased a morning paper. These ought not to be pleasant tunes at Chiselhurst. The * Figaro' journal has “ struck ilo.” Its character among all serious people is well known. It is the chronicle of scandals, the moniteur of demi monde-iam, and the depdt for; all that is naughty. Of late it has been making superhuman efforts to become a pious paper, to cut out the clerical organs, a feature that makes the journal positively more humorous, knowing its antecedents. Some attribute its religious fervor to tbe approaching death-bed of . its director. At any rate itnsa been the first to herald a fresh apparition of the Virgin, which will put Salette and Lourdes into the shade. It is at Saint-Palais,-in the Pyrenees, that the “blessed mother” showed, and, of course, to a peasant. It-is in the-neighborhood even, where M. Chesnelong, the leading Ultramontane candidate, has .just been, beaten. The lad who saw the Virgin is twelve years. old. She was dressed in -a- black 'gown, had. a white Cap, and a ditto hood. When the. Virgin appeared elsewhere,, her toilette was different; which suggests- that costumes, like marriages, may be made in heaven. It is odd that the Virgin never manifeats her- ■ self to ahy little -boys or girls in Baris. Just, like the “speerits,” which, never.come and. appear when 1 a-St. Thomas is among the company. Chi the present occasion she told the little boy to-“swallow four pebbles, to. drink froin the neighboring brook,.&c., and be and'everybody else-who did. likewise, would be 1 cured of all infirmities.”. Imme;. diately a roaring-trade commenced, .in Saint.-. Palais pebbles and water,.. Patent medicines, have no 'chance.- Cripples, as usual, now. run like March hares, and bad legs.. of thirty, years standing mre bettas than new— their owners can promenade as well as a canon unaffected with gont. A bottle and jug department has been organised beside the river, and all that is required is iraSpdt at Paris, where, like the eanx of Vichy, one can purchase it at five sous the glass. At the exhibition of paintings on Sunday last the Italians mustered strong in their fancy costumes. They had certainly taken advantage of the hot weather to enjoy a big wash after the winter. They came to observe how they looked in the frames, as they were all artists’ “models”—a profession that pays better than hurdy-gurdy grinding or chimney sweeping. Fresh monarchal calamities. A glove cleaner displays in his shop window gloves that he has cleaned for Queen Victoria, the Emperor of Austria, Victor Emmanuel, and the now definite ex-Sultan, at the rate of six sons per pair. It is working for nothing. The Borel demand for separation has been definitely ruled, Mme. Borel, a Calvinist, became Catholic without her husband’s knowledge, and declared, though she had the happiest of homes and most loving of husbands, she could not conscientously continue to live as she had hitherto done; she desired to dwell apart, but with her children, whom she desired also to make good Catholics. The husband consented to even pardon her adjuration of the Reformed Church, but on condition that-she would not entice the children to'go to mass; on this pfimt he was as decided as John Knox liimself. She declined all, appealed to Ciesar, and was ordered to return to the conjugal roof, and to display more corrunonsenle, which was not at all incompatible with the most fervent devotion for her new faith.

' A very important reform is on the "eye of being accomplished—and is the first practical step in the way of self-government. In the new municipal law it is proposed to iallow all Communes—from .the humblest containing only 500 inhabitants, to those possessing 100,000—to elect their own Mayors, and from the members of the Council. The Government claims to nominate the Mayor in the case of larjje towns, selecting him from among the councillors. De Broglie and Buffet “imposed” Mayors: 'took, a man from the north of France and installed him in the south. This was called “ moral order ” administration. The Maydrs are political agents more or less—whit they ought not to be. In a Republic. all the functionaries represent not a particular Ministry, but the people entire. Under a Monarchy or an Empire, where.a personal interest was to be upheld, it was necessary for the creatures of a dynasty to administer in its interests. The cry is for “free Mayors”—what Spain enjoys. It is proposed to concede this, and to transfer their political functions to the sub-Prefects. So much the better, as it will soon be the turn for abolishing also these inutilities. We laughed here perhaps as elsewhere, at the downfall of the Sultan, of the most wretched modern example of the one man system of government; we smile on learning that the imbecile Abdul-Aziz had committed suicide “unaided too”—in so classical a manner by opening the veins of his arm. A few are still sceptical as to his haying so lively a recollection of the Seneca method, and so much animal force left as to cut : the veins of one arm and then do the same for ; the other without a friend to aid'him. In* New Caledonia the Communists are commencing to settle down to work, believ-

ing that whac cannot .be cured must be endured. They have since some time relinquished the hope of an amnesty, and the Parliament, in definitely rejecting thiV, have done the transported a valuable service. The whole of New C-iledonia, where the prisoners reside, is divided into “communes” •—strange coincidence-—or The forced residents elect two or three representatives by universal suffrage. These administer the petty affairs of the Commune, and are the interpreters of all complaints and demands with the authorities. The office of representative is not unattended with danger. One was murdered a few months ago. The four accused were arrested, judged by court-martial, and shot in the presence of the assembled prisoners, twenty-four hour* after the commission of the crime. The only newspaperallowedfor circulation is the ‘ Journel Officielbut as a set off, the prisoners are permitted,to form clubs, and blow off steam respecting all social and political theories. When they are tired they stop. Those compulsory spectators—the guardians —find the speeches “ rare sport.” The authorities might adopt this liberty of speech’ at Home. The worst misdemeanor a felon can commit iu the eyes of his companions is to die a Christian. If the dying man sends for a priest or a parson, his funeral will not be followed by his comrades. Such is the way they show their contempt for backsliding towards Christianity. A deputy, who is living apart from his wife, found himself accidentally shut into the same compartment of a first-class carriage with a young man, the notorious lover of his wife. The husband approached his rival, who had shrunk into the smallest compass in the furthermost recess'of the carriage. As they were entering a tunnel the husband assured him to have no fear, and then <som miserated bis passion, revealing the 3

names and social positions of the several < lovers taken and rejected by his wife., 'Tha! young man never said a word, hut coin- : plained of the excessive heat —it was a time when the thermometer was at freezing point. On arriving at Versailles the husband, in the most good humored manner, : invited Adonis to meet him at the return train in the evening for Paris, and he would tell him other tales. The young man dined and slept at Versailles that night for the first time in his life.

A young wife complains that her family never called her husband an idiot - till shd had been married to him! France mourns the death of her favorite, George Sand, although at the age of seventy } two„ Since forty-two years, she has been constantly before the public, either with a novel, a review article, or a newspaper contribution. Her last writing was an exhaustive criticism of Renan’s new work, “ Philosophical Dialogues,” and the contribution was going through the press when she died. If her early years had been trying, the close of her life was most happy, owing to the affection of her two children and their numerous family. She assumed the jiom de plume of “George Sand?’ almost by accident and out of compliment to M. Sandeau, who joined her in writing her first novel, ‘ ‘ Rose et Blanche," Her second work, ‘‘ Indiana,” exhibited her new namd. She made an unhappy in arriage in 1822 with M. le Baron Dudevaflt, from whom she separated in 1836 definitely. Her maiden name was Dupin, and she was Un illegitimate descendant or the Polish King, Augustus 11. She wrote incessantly,- but was not a brilliant talker. She revealed herself in her writing!,, and it was during the ; night that she worked. Her great charm oonwsts. iin her beautiful and clear style; a model .of pure French, |n the brilliancy and liveliness of her descriptions—above all of Nature. She was a discipje of Jean Jacques Rouasean. Of course her social theories are; to be avoided—as she outlived them herself. There is no depth, no social observation, no positive remedy for the ills bf • society in her romances,. whether philisoplnoal, religious, or political only viewed the world from- hter inner self, and wished po have it as her imagination suggested. She not the less remains olie of the greatest among French women, by the fecundity of her talent, the variety of her accomplish-’ ments, and the:.brilliancy of >'ier style ; she had some eccentricities in the way of dressing like men and smoking as Spaniards, with a weakness for the rod. the gun, and tie chase; but as time wore on she abandoned these as she did her paradoxes.