AFFAIRS IN FRANCE.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 252, 2 April 1875, Page 4

AFFAIRS IN FRANCE.

(From a correspondent of the Press.) PABIS, January 12. The Assembly cannot even constitute a ministry, and it is useless speculating about what may follow its inability, which will be definitely tested in a few days, to pass projects for the organisation of the country. No one approaches the hereafter, though statesmanship is said to be the wisest the more it can foresee. The regret is very general that the Marshal should have delivered his last message, which was uncalled for, and has not only placed him in antagonism with the united minorities in the Assembly, but forced him to take his stand on Orleanism, which is the weakest and least popular of all the existing isms. The Marshal demands that his powers be defined, and to leave everything definite till his term of office expires, when all parties could grapple each others throats to settle the question of supremacy. This the nation will never consent to, in order to to oblige any pretender. It insists on the House being put in order now, and the present employed to make provision for the rainy day. The very fact of forcing forward the project for a Senate, apart from, and independent of, defining first the form of government it was destined to serve, was too openly Orleanist to receive the support of the other parties. Orleanism thus has played itß last card, and lost. In the general elections it will disappear ; it has been on its trial since the overthrow of Thiers, and has been found wanting. One remedy is clear — the dissolution, and Marshal Macmahon may rest assured, if he adopts that programme he will have the "entire nation for lovers"; but he will have no longer a royalist majority ; the popular vote will fiat the Republic, and the Marshal has never ceased to recognise the sovereignty of the chamber. The party that is afraid of the ballot boxes is a party condemned in advance. The Gordian knot is about being cut; it will be as merciful as it will be timely, as really the country is worn out with the exceptional state of things, and with the chronic sterility of the Assembly. The people desire only tranquility, to find work and to execute it, to be restored their necessary liberties, and to be treated rather as men, than as children by every Government that may succeed to power. The crisis in the Reformed Church of France is becoming more grave; the difference of opinion between the Orthodox and Liberal Protestants more profound. Already the cry of "persecution" is raised, but it is to be hoped the Government will settle the dispute by measures of sagacity and moderation rather than by any stretch of authority; A recent decision of the Minister of Public Worship rather leans to give time to the Orthodox to concert their plans for ousting the Liberals from the churches they at present hold, and where the Orthodox are at the same time in a minority. It is not a question of dogma, but of ecclesiastical discipline, which separates the antagonists, now rapidly becoming belligerents. The Liberals or Nonconformists reiterate their deteimination not to accept the doctrinal decrees of any Synod, and the Government inclines to back the Synod, doubtless became it is an authority. Public opinion in France has not yet been appealed to, and that would at present only envenom the quarrel, which ought to have been regulated after the family pattern originally; but it is impossible to believe that opinion would look on with indifference at one half of French Protestantism being shown the door, because it will not subscribe to the rulings of the other. In self-defence the Lord Mayor is justified in returning to London: there seemed to be a conspiracy on the part of his French admirers to breakfast and dine him to death ; every succeeding banquet being more Lucullian than its predecessor. His lordship brought his sheriffs and trumpeters with him, but it appears he forgot his medicine man. Parisians have certainly vied in paying him all honors, and his beautiful steeds must have made the made the mouths of hippophagists water. " God save the Queen " was in a fair way of cutting out the " Marseillaise," especially as the republican air has become unfashionable under the iiepuolic. Had " Milord Stone " time and stomach to remain longer within our walls, "Rule Britannia" would have succeeded Madame Angot on the barrel organs, and Siraudin would certainly have brought out Union Jack bonbons.. There are no less than five different photos of his lordship offered for sale, in which Baron Haussman does duty for him; and doubtless he will leave behind him more honorary dentists than he has teeth, and these are said to be au eomplet. It would not be surprising if Sardou wrote a tragedy or moving drama, introducing the civic authorities of London; the unused up materials of his la Maine, might be turned to profitable account, just as the manikins representing his dead Guelfs and Ghibelines, now do the part of revellers in the triumphal car of Orpheus. The Parisians will gratefully remember the services rendered to the inauguration of their new Opera by the presence of the London authorities; the Lord Mayor came like some magician to salute its accession; entering like a fairy king, in the midst of his pompous cortege, to take his place at the marriage of Cinderella. But though the French would laugh at such a ceremonial, if originated among themselves, would view it has no than a masquerade, the most thoughtless feel, that the quaint form and ceremonies connected with the Doge of London, unite the present with the past, novelty with tradition, recent laws with antique customs, contemporaries with ancestors; they mix "' the ashes of ages with the constructions of progress," and embalm some fragment of history and perpetuate the triumph of some popular right. This moral has not been overlooked by the modern Athenians, who, after all, are not Iconoclasts at heart. Though officially inaugurated, the new Opera House is not yet finished; the left wing, the section intended for the Imperial family, is unachieved, fault of funds. Loans had to be negotiated to enable the structure to be opened as it is. A sum of 200,000 fr is necessary to provide the proper fittings up for its illumination alone, which for the fagade will consist of bronze figures of mammoth dimensions, sustaining reflectors. The library has yet to be installed, and has accommodation for a series of shelves over two miles in length; the " music-hall " will include manuscript music, copied or to be copied, as well as compositions never yet represented or executed. Not the less curious will be the "jewel room," where all the barbaric pearl and gold is preserved, and, though but imitation, possesses not the less a great value. The decorations alone employed in the fourth act of " L'Africaine " are estimated at 25,000 fr. Among other incompleted works are the smoking-room, the restaurant, and the lift, The restaurant will

be open to the general public, as well as to the frequenters of the opera. The smoking-room will be so constructed as to ventilation that not a puff will be able to stray into the building, and the lift is intended only for the aged. The execution of these works, but above all their decoration, would require some millions of francs to accomplish. The representations now are very sober in comparison with the gala opening; it is like the banquet-hall deserted. Many are of opinion that the prices are fixed at too high a rate, and if the new lyrical theatre succeeds, the opposition will tell on the Grand National Opera. Three francs for a seat in the attics, and ten for one in the pit are only for the croVvd with Peabody purses. Everything continues to be very dear in Paris, and now that the irost is threatening again, prudent people are laying a supply of chaussons, a kind of coarse-knitted woollen slipper, generally worn inside wooden shoe?. Of course Parisians will never forget New Year's night and the terrible thaw, when to walk home without breaking one's brittle bones, stockings had to be drawn over boots, a case where it paid to put the cart before the horse. Well, to avoid such a desecration of hosier, chaussons are being purchased, and these humble articles of peasant costume are running up in price. Passing a little higher up in the scale of the necessaries of life, since fifty years vegetables and fruits have increased 45 per cent, and meat and beverages 87 per cent; coffee, sugar, salt, and tea—the latter not of much importance in France —have increased by 200 per cent. In other terms, in 1820, the cost of living per head was about 95f r, while in 1870 it amounted to lt)sfr. The Legitimists ought to claim the ancien regime, based on these " statistics made beautiful." Would it be worth while getting up a revolution for O.P. prices ? There is no lack of comestibles of all kind in France, in season, as well as out of season, and which have been very extensively patronised during the holidays. France is a nation of gastronomists and gourmets —not gourmands —for this means gluttony, quite another affair ; and her food preparations are in high request throughout the world, each of her provincial cities being celebrated for some special comestible or dish. Her people are hence connoisseurs of good things, just as Ancient Rome led the fashion, gave the ton, to delicate dishes. France has inherited the sceptre in the culinary art, and has a very wise article in her kitchen code " that a woman shall ne'er rule the roast," a most excellent Salic law, for French cookery is a laborious profession. At Rome, persons were appointed expressly on account of the exquisite delicacy of their palates, to test if certain fish had been caught at the mouth of the Tiber, or further on, and if the livers of geese had been fattened on green or dry figs. It is only in Paris that a man-cook can be found coming near to the Roman standard. French cooks are as universal as Paris fashions. The Grand Hotel has gone into the dairy business; it has long since turned poulterer, fishmonger, and fruiterer. It has now its own cow-house, and supplies at the depot " milk fresh from the cow," at the rate of 12 sous per quart, or if bottled, sealed, and duly marked with care, and delivered at the house, eight sous more. There has been the usual anniversary Mass celebrated for the repose of the ex-Emperor's soul. The gathering of the Bonapartists was perhaps more numerous this year than the last, when their prospects were more cheerful. Of late a reaction has set in against them, caused by their going ahead too rapidly. On the present occasion the little violet bouquets were in great request. In accordance with the event, the " ghost" of a " Viva " was was given for the Emperor. These solemnities must pay, or they would not be indulged in beyond doubt, but they are just as reprehensible in point of taste, to say nothing more, as a political oration over the grave of a modern Brutus in Pere La Chaise. Preparations are already being made for the Carnival, which really promises to be gay, as a new generation has come into existence since the invasion, which intends to have its cakes and ale. Of course there is no use of remaining for ever in sackcloth and ashes. Youth never dies. If the carnival did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it, and the money spent, or squandered, does good to the poor and needy.