OUR PARIS LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4284, 18 November 1876, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

September 30. The dead political season in France is ordinarily devoted to raking up all that is ugly in the past of adversaries, and as all parties display equal industry, the Rolands in the end become en a par with the Olivers. It is thus that such shining lights now in republicanism, as Cremieux and Hugo, are being accused of having been rank royalists in the days when George 111. was king. The first shouted hosannas for the Bourbens, and the second sang them. At present Oremieux opens bis purse liberally to the democrats, as a kind of conscience money; why eHugo drawsthe strings of hiß the tighter; but he pays in sublime twaddle. The turn has arrived for the ex-Empress. Gambett.'d journal has obtained a document a long time missing, namely, the judgment of the Spanish Doctors Commons, .by-which the mother of the Empress, Mdme. dt> Montijo, had but two children by her husband—a son, who died in 1827, and a daughter, deceased in 1823. The husband died in 1823, according to the registrars, and the same documents attest that the Empress Eugenie was born three years after his death, namely, in May, 1826". Like the Cooate de Chambord, she too might be called "the child of a miracle." This old scandal is makingthe fcourof France. Napoleon 111. was never considered to be the son of his father by the father himself; and no one ever accepted the mother, the Queen Hortense, to be the pattern of virtue. She was always partant j>our laSyrie, or some other romantic trysting jplace, much to the King of Holland's disgust. The Due de Morny was her natural son", and Comte de Flahault was th 9 pntative father. The Comte de Welenski was the .illegitimate son of Napoleon I. The Napd'oon dynasty can boast of as many live cnildi"e& as could the Sun King himself. The i\m£;?artes bad then a precedent. In any cas'e, it is a wise child that knows its own father. The exposure of this family tree at the present time will not contribute to raise the fortunes of Imperialism, never so low as jtLst now, and promising to illustrate that in tue lowest depths there is a deeper still. , _ , M. Molinarf, the special of the 'Debats,' whose letters on " Social America" are attracting so much Attention, has been visiting the cotton State*. He does net know which to pity most—tl» .niggers and their liberty or the whites ana their sufferings. He believes the negroes are destined to die out. Bougival is one of the many pretty villages in the vicinity of Paris. It is beautiful in natural scenery, and its wooded heights sloping down to the Seine recall many of the loveliest nooks on the Rhine. English tourists visit Bougival, and several English people live there, and many more make it their summer quarters. One monument, among the many erected in connection with the late war, stands prominently forward—that dedicated to Henry Regnault, the painter. It will ever be called his, though it celeDrates other gallant young artists who were also killed. Well, another typical menument is to be erected, and at Bougival, to Francois Debergue's memory. He was an old gardener, who contracted to keep your garden trim all the year round. He had fruit always at hand for children, and the most respectful of salutes for strangers. "He was sixty years of age in September, 1870, when a Prussian regiment occupied Bougival. Their first object was td%connect the field telegraph with Versailles ; effected, it was found cut the next morning, and the author, Debergue, was arrested. Before the court-martial he admitted he cut the wire with his pruning knife because it belonged to an enemy, and would do it again, because he was French. He was sentenced to death; the villagers clubbed 10,000fr to buy his release. He declined their assistance, as he vowed he would recommence; next morning he was led outside the tovfja. and tied to an apple tree, some villagers following in deep mourning. The officer in command asked Debergue on© favor, to bandage his eyes, which was accorded, Debergue lending his handkerchief. He fell pierced with eighteen balls. The apple tree is surrounded with a railing, and Lanzorotte is the sculptor appointed to execute the statue. Weather charts are proving a nuisance in France. Of late they announce foul weather, when the latter proves to be lovely, and thus compels Parisians to cling to the Boulevards, when races and fttes pitronales expect them in the suburbs to be fleeced. At a railway buffet: "One coffee, boiling hot," cried out the garcon to the cook; "no, cold," nterposed the passenger. "Then its six sous dearer, because Monsieur intends drinking it." The Sisters of Charity at the Convent of Pont-Achard, near Portiers, devote themselves to supporting a certain number of aged and infirm poor. The resources of the establishment are limited, and are largely made up of freewill offerings from the well-to-do of the neighborhood, but who mostly leave, for the sea-side during the summer. The religieuseu were in presence of an increasing expenditure and no receipts. Tradesmen threatened to stop supplies. Convents are democratic establishments, so the Buperioress nailed a counoil of all the sisters, and it was decided to sell the fat pig which had become quite a pet. The pork butcher duly arrived, and the animal was disponed of for 270fr. The butcher banded a " bank note " for 1.000fr., alleging he had no money, and demanded the change, 730fr., which was handed to him. The superioress never saw such a large note in her life, and, being assured it was real, declined to examine it with her spectacles. The sisters viewed the big note with joy. One observed it was different from the smaller bank notes ; but others remarked, "as the postage stamps had changed, bo might the notes.' A sister was delegated to pay some pressing debts; she called first on the butcher, whos< hair stood on end when asked to pay htaseli

out of tha note j it was merely a hand-bill, imitating a bank not*, and announcing great bargains in shoes. The swindler has been sent to prison for a year, and his effects seized for restitution. Faure has left the Grand Opera, and from October will make proviacial cosmopolitan tours with a troupe on his own account. Parisians regret the departure of the famous baritone, but were a little surfeited with his rows and exactions with his director; indeed the French are as much inclined to wage war against " stars " as Wagner himself. The venom of politics has penetrated so deeply into religion in this country as to imyart a peculiar acerbity to the ordinary relations of life. As it is never too late to do good, the revival of the three-months old pastoral of Monseigneur Guilbert, Bishop of Gap, is so far excellent. He wisely counsels that the clergy and the Church abstain from taking sides in politics, but to preach peace and concord equally to |the conquerors and the vanquished ; and while the priest has the right to his personal opinion, to profess it and to defend it, he ought to do so apart from his ministry, and with the prudence and moderation that are to be expected from his sacerdotal character. The anti-religious reaction existing and extending in France is owing to Catholic journals placing Catholicism under a political flag. In 1872 the Bishop of Perpignan published also an admirable pastoral, where he hesitated not to recognise that Atheism and Christian religion had equal rights, similarly as the Constitution equally proteets the believer and the apostate. He recognised also that modern society did not desire the tutelage of the Church. The Liberal party in France makes no crusade against what is sacred, still less does it persecute the faithful, but as a general remark it is alienated from the Church, because it sees in the latter an enemy of human knowledge and of modern institutions. Montalembert with a dying hand, beautifully wrote: "Liberty for myself and neighbor, dear and sacred liberty. Despite the fools who blaspheme it, and the wicked who soil it, it will be ever the remedy for all evils, and the most splendid reward for all virtues." Educated men cannot follow the clergy of France in making such devotions as are practised at the Sacri-Coeur of Montmartre and the grotto of Lourves. Serious minds cannot identify themselves with such deceptions, superstitions, and foal fanaticisms. These are what make faith incompatible with the independence of science, intellectual culture, and almost with personal dignity. Mdfie. Jules Junin, in her will, left a Bum of money to the Academy, and confirmed her husband's testament bequeathing his library of well bound books to the same body, on condition that a salle would be exclusively devoted to the collection, and named after him. There was no vacant room, so the bequests were revoked. This put the Academy on the alert, and a room was at last found. Mdme. Juuin at once sent for her notary to add a codicil revoking the revocation ; but next day when the notary arrived she was dead.

' The Congress of Working Men is to open on the 2nd October. Great efforts are being made by the reactionist journals to prevent the re-union, which is a policy as condemnable as it is puerile. Delegates from various parts of France, and representing the several trades of the country, will meet in Pars, to discuss matters connected with work, and totally unconnected with politics and religion. When the Government tolerates wLat are called " Catholic workmen's clubs," where dogmas are preached, and members taught to place their country after the Vatican, the true ouviers ought to be granted what they demand—a fair trial. Royal England and Cassarian Germany allow workmen to meet, and why not liberal France under her Republic ? Here the working man is accused of not being able to act reasonably. His order now invite an impartial public to regard how the proletariat goes to discuss its own affairs, to think by itself, to speak with authority on economical questions, to trace the best path to follow, and to endeavor to find the best remedy for existing evils. It will be time enough for the authorities to interpose when the Congress violate the law.

Ganal, the fashionable embalmer, and who sends you his prospectus once a year, relates that he was requested to "operate" in the case of a minister under Louis Philippe. He was shown into the wrong bedroom, but where, nevertheless, reposed a minister sound asleep, and who was famous for his personal filthiness. "It is ever the old story," observed Ganal, throwing a look at the body, "I am always summoned too late." He concluded the live minister was advanced, from his appearance, in decomposition.

The French hope still, but do not much bslieve, in peace. When the Czar issues a decree from his Russian Biarritz-Livadia, prohibiting his soldiers and officers from emigrating to Servia, and recalls those already there, Tchernaieff will be brought to a sense of his situation. That adventurer cannot hold all Europe in oheok. Tennyson said of Napoleon 111., "he 1b our faithful ally, but only the Devil knows what he thinks." The Great Powers are all allies for peace, but the Devil alone knows what each thinks.

A husband, to save the few haira capable of being couated, had his head shaved as smooth as a cannon ball. He looked such a fright that he said to his wife, "I fear, darling, you will now cease to love me." "No, my dear," Baid she embracing his pate, "I have only a fresh pleasure in kissing."

m A Truism.—An expensive wife makes a pensive husband. A woman in New York State cured her husband of staying out late at night by going to the do r when he came home and whispering tluough tbe key-hole, "Is that you Willie?'' Ker husband's name is John, and he stays at home night now, and sleeps with one eye open and a revolver under his pillow.