PARISIAN CABARETS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5167, 13 October 1877, Page 3

PARISIAN CABARETS.

(From the New York Evening Express.) Paris, 17th July.—Four hundred thousand cabarets in France are at this writing under the eye of the Government agents, in view of the conversion of the electoral population to more conservative ideas than those which have prevailed for a few years past. The cabaret is officially considered as the nursery of "radicalism," which appears to be the executive definition of the pronounced form of Republicanism.

Very naturally the first-class establishment, where the civil functionaries' of the locality, the military officers of the resident garrison and the elite of the population meet of a morning to air their esprit and imbibe their " absinthe gomme," are quite too virtuously conservative to be suspected of any political leanings not in accordance with the views in favor at the governmental focus. Such establishments are tolerated and even petted. There we may see displayed for perusal the solid and sometimes stupid organs of the people in France, whose birth, wealth, or official .position stamp them as the upper and directing classes. In these' respectable precincts there is an atmosphere of antediluvian satisfaction with things as they were centuries ago, and as the frequenters hope they may be again. That good old progress-resisting sentiment affectioned by the solid inhabitants there finds expression, mingled with a suitable disdain for all innovations, both political and social, which are of more or less modern birth. Descending in the scale, we note the commercial cafe" with its numerous frequenters who affect the ' moderate Republican papers, mingled with an occasional perusal of the oldest established Radical journals.. Formerly, and. that not long since, conversations, even political, were carried on in that loud tone, and with the profuseness of gesticulation so common to Frenchmen, even when discussing the most insignificant topics. The advent of the present Ministry has tended to the suppression of any discussion, and that solemn silence which now reigns in these establishments indicates the consciousness on the part of their frequenters of the dangers of any too public exchange of opinion, -At the ordinary estaminets, popularly known as " zincs," in allusion to their metallic counters, we find still less of comment on public affairs, and the convenient corners which are so frequent in all large French towns—the mai'cliand de vins~-a.ve.ol a very dreary dullness, except for the actual business of buying and_ selling the ruby liquid. This situation exhibits in a very strong light what a widespread and quickly developed influence may be brought to bear by the powers that be in times of political crises like the present. We do not undertake to discuss the advantage or disadvantage of the governing influence extending so far as to suppress the free interchange of opinions, but perhaps it may be Tegarded as not altogether unadvisable at any time that in a country like France, where the population are so profusely voluble and oftentimes extravagant in their talk, a little pressure may be exerted to diminish the floods of cheap eloquence to which everybody seems so much inclined.