PARIS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 283, 23 June 1875, Page 2

PARIS.

(fkom oub own correspondent.) April 17. Some philosophers maintain, a nation ought to be judged by its almanacks, hence perhaps the origin of rating history only as an old one ; others insist that a people is best depicted by the observance of anniversaries’; looked at from this latter point, Paris must at all events be admitted to be an industrious capital and its citizens endowed withthe greenest bf memories. Twenty-four hours is popularly held to be the average period that t’arisians remember an event, for, like the Athenians, their ancestors, and not the Franks as generally believed, they must have something new, whether it be a siege, or green peas, a revolution, or fresh strawberries ; indeed it is alleged that in the age when revolutions were a la mode, the objects which prompted Jhcm on the first day, were forgotten when the conflict terminated on the third. Of the several agreeable anniversaries recently held, that in honor of M. Thiers having reached his seventy-eighth birthday, was among the most interesting; if the Pope did not send him his blessing by telegraph, or President Grant his congratulations in cipher for having founded the Republic, Frenchmen, and above all Frenchwomen, essayed to drown Thiers in complimentary letters, and there was a concerted attempt to smother him under bouquets. An old friend sent him from his native Marseilles,"one of Thiers’s own pot hooks and bangers copy books employed during the first stage of Latin composition, and the printers of Paris presented him with all of his earliest proofs, corrected with his own hand, when he was an art critic on the daily

press; ij; is a stage secret that M. Thiers corrects all his own proofs, and since the death of his mother-in-law, who was his “ reader,” his wife takes her place. In the coming elections for the new Senate, it is intended to elect Thiers for all the Departments of France, the ovation being designed as a tribute to his patriotism and political foresight, in advocating a common sense republic as the most efficacious of libur - several perfect political cures. From a Senator, to bd President of. the Senate, is but a step, so that he will be within hailing, distance in case Marshal Macniahon desires to leacl a camp life, or that his ■Sedan --wound might -open afresh. Hahnemann’s anniversary honored the infiniment petits, and seventy admirers bf homoeopathy, praetitionersincluded enjoyed anything but a short commons banquet. Two incidents created much amusement; a speech by Paul Teval the novelist on behalf of the “ Press,’ and where he ' most harmoniously attacked homoeopathy—his father-in-law being one of the leading doctors of that school; and the arrival of a letter from “ General Tom Thumb,” thanking the society for",their affectionate attention: to small objects, and demanding to be enrolled as an honorary member. The hippophagie banquet has left on the whole nothing but sunny memories with those amateurs who paid twenty-five francs to partake of beautifully cooked horse, ass, and mule ; of the 120 guests, only five found themselves on the sick list, next morning, but then this immunity may be 'largely attributed to the fortifying influences of Lent on the stomach—well regulated fasts being equivalent to the best of “ bitters.” Captain 80-yton is to visit Paris, but be will edme after his own fashion, he will start from Havre and paddle his own canoe up to the capital, where he will be received by a. deputation, of young girl? dressed in, white ;_.the dean of the markets is to present him with a bouquet, .just as if he were a newly arrived ambassador, and he is one > truly with his piessflge from the sea. With the arrival of the water proof ; the departure of Houlton, his cannon proof countryman coincides; this worthy amused Parisians by showing them how to stop cannon balls, an object not beneath their attention, as evidenced by the crowds .that attended to witness.a real ball, shot from a real cannon, caught between his fir-gloved hands. What a pity he did not aid France during the bpbibafdtnent di Paris, likp Captain Boytbn. However, these events are .nowmatters of history, just as Disrkeli estimates' Bismark’s loveletters to Belgium, and which make so many persons uneasy; not in France, for sho has no ideawf "fighting 'With anybody and only regrets her armaments, are not so perfect as Germany 1 desdribds them. The Republic is now sailing in smooth water, and the clergy being ordered to officially pray for it every Sunday, its future may be looked upon with confidence. The deputies are to have a new Assembly House .af'Versaiiles, built of iron"; it will be' constructed in “ compartments,” so that the ship of State can never founder, an important desideratum in that country ; by opening the iron slides, the house can be enlarged at Will, and perhaps the same facility can be applied for “.shutting up ” a troublesome orator. A good deal of .growling is being indulged in because the head of the Cabinet, M, Buffet, will neither,write a circular nor make a speech wherein? the word republic may be found, and the constitution honored with some honeyed phrases ; why not order him to take lessons from the Geneva professor now in Paris, whose speciality is to make the dumb speak by enabling them to hear, for France is rich enough to pay for all her glories ? If M. Buffet do not consider his ways and be wise, he need never expect to have his name honored as the designation for a street in the slums of the city, dr a. blind alley the newest plan for immortalising all who have deserved the nation’s gratitude,; and jn addition the cheapest of Pantheons, the plate with the name costing less than five francs, and obtaining the possibility of their remains being some day ejected from a national sanctuary, like Marat’s and Mirabeau’s, when the tide of popular feeling turns. It is a common ■ observation, and proof of the benignity of ‘the Republic, that the chief: thoroughfares of the city are named after the ex-dynasty and its administrators ; only the streets bearing designations of the thirty - fourth cousins of the Napoleon family, have given way to names familiar in our mouths as (good) house-hold words. Prompted probably by feelings of commiseration, the grand cathedral dedicated to the Sucre C<eur, and to be erected on the summit of Montmartre, a point higher than the cross on the Pantheon, will contain a side chapel exclusively appropriated for the use of the deputies; space will be reserved for burning tapers to the Virgin, in atonement, for sins; a good supply if confession boxesjwould be needed. It is said the cathedral will be as long in point of completion, as that of Cologne, but St. Peter's, like the city where it stands, was not built in a day. Efforts are being made to induce the Comte de Chambord to lay the foundation stone, as was originally contemplated, and in a moment when he was expected to occupy the throne of his ancestors as a matter of course ; were he to do so, and a small sum charged to be allowed to see him, the necessary funds might be thus secured to add another new wonder to the

world ; the military authorities declare the building being so conspicuous would, in case of a future siege, powerfully attract the enemy’s fire; in that case it might hsve to be blown up, the safety of the people being the supreme law, it is strange nevertheless,, that while belligerents pray so devoutly to the God of battles; they have no scruples about destroying the temples dedicated to Him.