PARIS.

Southland Times, Issue 1643, 4 October 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

PARIS.

♦ (pbom otjb own coeeespondent.) Jfly 25. It is more than probable, if the nation gives a thought to the subject, it will laugh at the spectacle of the Assembly being bound hand and foot by M. Thiers. It is better to indulge in broad grins than in barricades. Rest assured that when M. Thiers ceases to be an utility, a severe account will be demauded of his dictatorship. For outsiders, it was strange to observe protectionists voting for freetrade, and free-traders going over in a body to protection. They manage, we know, these things differently in France. It would appear, according to the deputies who have voted white in January last, and black a few days ago, the circumstances being unaltered, that they did 30 to strengthen M. Thiers ; that is, to humor the whims of an old man, and to pander to his obstinacy, a heavy blow and great discouragement are inflicted on French industry, and the country withdrawn from the family of commercially enlightened nations. It is a check M Thiers requires, not servile devotion. "My government lacks control," exclaimed truly Napoleon 111. when he saw the evidences of his coming fall. Better things were expected from republicans than a wholesale gulphing down of their principles, their dignity, and their independence. The best means to establish the republic is to exhibit a little of republican manners ; the personal views of M. Thiers on raw materials must not be bound up with the existence of the republic. To-morrow he will have some new — or alas ! more likely, some old — idea to carry out, when the purest of the pure republicans must again eat " umble pie," and grace by their servility the triumphant tactics of the President. The principle of protection having been thus voted, there was no necessity to waste time as to the articles to be taxed, and by how much. Of course, every interest required to be leniently dealt with, but the chamber showed itself sternly rigorous in applying a prohibitive tariff — Proerustean-like — to nearly 300 raw articles, from salts and senna, to rabbit-skius, cotton, beer, and castor oil. By his ability and exceptional necessity, M. Thiers has broken up all majorities in the Assembly. He tames where he fails to dazzle; he no longer essays the republic ; he favors it, because it is a fact. It is made, and commences to spread like a green bay tree. So much the better for the country if the republic inclines from the conservative bend M. Thiers is giving to it. It is useless for the royalists to trip up the President for his alleged violation of the Bordeaux pact ; they, as well as their opponents, nave infringed upon it. That truee — that loyal essay — wag only a pretty toy, very ingenious, very fragile ; the children, however, broke it to find out what was within — and discover that it is the republic was enclosed. The loan is the thing. People talk of nothing else ; the walls of Paris are insufficient to advertise it. The question is not, will the amount — over tbree milliards — be subscribed, but, how many more milliards will be offered than are required. At one time, the learned in finance asserted the German fine would crush poor France — and it is not Bismarck's fault if it failed to do so ; then it was stated such a mass of precious metal could not be got together. Happily we live in an age when wonders are common-place. The first loan of two milliards was to have deranged the financial world ; it did nothing of the sort ; not an earthquake ensued ; not a single note of the Bank of France was depreciated. As appetite grows by what it feeds on, we want some 3^ milliards of francs on Sunday and Monday next. It is " prodigious," as Dominie Sampson would say. For 84 1 francs, M. Thiers guarantees the accumulated and imperishable wealth of France, along with her honor, to give a bond for 100 francs, carrying five per cent, interest. This is superior to purchasing the French Three per cents, for 54 francs. The bailiff will thus be soon out of the house, the seizure bought in. The amount of applications from foreign countries promises to be singularly high ; it is this, more than anything else, pleases the French, consoles, flatters them, because they justly conclude their credit is viewed as

sound — that it has survived all misfortunes, all disasters. And such testimony is very substantial for a people so light, so easily deceived, so careless of its interests, ao captivated by change, so | bellicose. It is the versatile Athenian breaking to-day what it yesterday adored ; always ready to proscribe ; credulous and defiant at once ; by turns undisciplined 1 and docile, intrepid and discouraged ; 1 but despite all defects, France imprints '' herself on the world by her mobility of mind and language, by her animation and 1 gaiety, her rapid and ready intelligence, and indefatigable activity. The world 1 cannot do without Prance. ! Perhaps in another fortnight the Assembly will break up for a three months' ' vacation. Tf the present session devoted most of its time to personal incidents and 1 party squabbles, in raising the money to ransom the country it has a grand claim 1 for indulgence. When the invader has retired, the great domestic reforms will be seriously taken up by a new Assembly that will not know M, Thiers. It will be a great trial to patriots to carry their money bags to the various receiving offices on Sunday — as the terrible heat is overpowering, and the instalments for the loan must be paid in gold or silver. The beat which killed the inhabitants of New York has crossed the , Atlantic. "We are being grilled by degrees ; this slow torture is worse than being plunged at once into the fiery furnace. It is only " From the cool cisterns of the midnight air " that our spirits drink repose. The bathing establishments on the river — and their name is legion — are totally inadequate for the wants of the population. Crowds form a queue for admission, like the public outside a theatre ; not a few persons take their meals in these anchored palaces ; the mere looking at citizens taking headers acts as a refrigerator. The municipal council has opened several institutions where vagrants can wash and be clean for nothing. In the series of rules and regulations posted up, every beggar has the right to a bath, warm as well as cold, daily ; they are furthermore recommended not to indulge in a bath " after a copious meal." Whether the intention be to avoid the livery tax, or the heat, a fashionable lady is reported to have ordered her footman to dispense with all clothing save his pantaloons. It is gratifying to note that the city is comparatively free from sickness ; the mortality is highest among young children, who have inherited the seeds of disease during the sufferings of the siege, and also from the baby farming so extensively practised . As a too general rule, a French mother rarely nurses herself her offspring. It is " sent out " till three years old — if it survives the nurse's neglect and cruelty — and then, it not only becomes a toy to be played with, a doll to be dressed, but the object of real affection on the part of the parents, who, having perhaps little love for one another, concentrate that quality on the child. I notice that feTrer citizens are leaving for the seaside, and as a substitute enjoy more outings in the country, returning to town healthily fatigued, and to a home where they will find " all the comforts ; " all the inconveniences being obtained at the fashionable watering stations. Not a Sunday but the various railway termini convey half-a-million of people beyond the fortifications at least ; so great is the demand for tickets, that these are sold in packages of twenty, several days in advance. Nothing is so gratifying as the spectacle of the French holiday-making. The crowds are so orderly that you forget they are crowds ; every member of the fair sex is 30 neatly and even fashionably dressed ; no gewgaws ; nothing outre. A duchess cannot look better though she may wear richer stuffs. Then the bolder sex — how they enjoy themselves like children ■ their fun is never boisterous ; their jokes are never rude ; politeness is natural, and manners soft. Then over their picnics or dinners, be the dishes few or many, the flow of soul is all the same ; it is a pleasure to see the French enjoying themselves. Above all, there is no intoxication. The cases of suicide are rapidly dimi- ■ nishing — not more on an average than nine per week. However, this does not i the less prevent the journals from des scribing as many per day, every one more , heartrending than the other. The Morgue ■ is becoming unattractive, few bodies > being exposed on account of the deceased

putting their papers in. order before killing themselves. The most constant attendants before the railings of the Morgue are soldiers and nurses ; young citizens thus commence at a very early age to sup horrors. As for the soldiers, there is much childish curiosity about them. Glance at the Puppet Shows in the Champs Elysees ; the unpaying spectators are nearly all military, with medals on their breasts, who gape with infant delight at the domestic quarrels of the marionnettes, and as one show-box closes, they run with zeal to take up position before those about opening. It is well known that one of the penalties of greatness which M. Thiers is subjected to, is the innumerable demands from tradesmen to be authorized to be his purveyor for all the little that man wants here below, as they have hitherto been for the several dynasties. He refuses such applications invariably. This season's new flour has appeared in the Paris market, and nearly every one of the 5000 bakers of the city has sent the President specimen loaves, expecting a letter of thanks. This new bread and all such commodities Mine. Thiers distributes among the poor and needy of Versailles. Every newspaper is presented also with one of the fairy new loaves ; about a crumb falls to the share of each member of the staff, so that not a vestige remains for an original subscriber or a constant reader at the moment of going to press. " Medical bakeries" are springing up ; these establishments profess to sell bread with the addition of pure phosphate of lime. It is to be hoped their doctoring hath this extent — no more. In Paris the telegraph offices are painted blue, the post offices red — and display lights of corresponding colors. From and after the Ist January next, chemists' shops are to exhibit green lamps, and hotels, yellow lights. It is calculated that after the first of August, two Courts-martial will suffice to wind up the remains of the Commune. Lullier, the successful leader of the insurrection of ISth March, and who was sentenced to imprisonment for life, has been transported in a dying state to the city Bedlam. He was as mad as a March hare when he ran foul of the ezempire. The condemned to death at Versailles — some 31 persons — are still uncertain as to their fate. The local bishop visits them occasionally, and if the free-thinkers dislike his doctrines, they never decline the presents of wine and tobacco he brings for their comfort. "When the heat will be a score of degrees less, a grand review of the army of the future will take place in the suburbs ; upwards of 120,000 men are in and about Paris, and are as superior in discipline as the soldiers of the exempire were deficient in it. Several hints have been taken from the Prussians; there is less of drumming and more of bugling. Why not go farther, and make the " calls" musical ? The Assizes have disposed of a good many rogues of late, and the moral cleansing: of the city is being aa vigorously pushed forward as the material. It is clear that many police eases which the late dynasty winked at, are now receiving attention. Prince Guennaori passed himself off as heir to the crown of Morocco—an ofiice open to any adventurer — >and was in reality but the son of poor and honest parents. Being handsome, audacious, and of good address, ho was able to marry a real countess and enjoy her fortune. He has been sent to prison for a year. The Director of the Jesuits' college at Brest has caused much scandal ; he was detected in a criminal position with a viscountess in a railway carriage ; the Red Republicans are very wroth, and call for the expulsion of the Jesuits from France. One crimson newspaper suggests that as the Orleanists desire to serve their country, the Prince de Joinville should be directed to bring back the ashes of Napoleon I. to St. Helena ; another invites us to note that the 22nd inst. was the anniversary of the decease of Charles VII., who voluntarily starved himself to death. — a piece of pluck that Prince Bismarck might study. Dumas's work having gone up like a rocket has come down like the stick. This, his latest dose of adultery, was found to be over-spiced, and his olla podrida of philosophy and divinity, where it has not made people laugh, has made the judicious grieve. The work is at present to be had at a reduced price, which is bad

for a second edition. Up to the present he has made a net profit of 75,000fr5. for about a week's work, which will no doubt console him for the quiet and cool reception the press here has given him. The French are becoming more attentive a 3 to what foreign Mrs Grundy says about their blague, and Dumas betises. Esto perpetua ! The Undertaker's men having received the requisite permission, have opened their club. Eeport asserts it is the liveliest reunion in the city; to judge from the singing, the place has the appearance of Harmony Hall. As in. the guild of cabmen, so with the clubbists in question, they include doctors, stockbrokers, merchants, unfrocked priests, &c, all with a bad past to their account. These men but associate among themselves ; they mix with the world only — when conducting some member out of it. Chance brought me to Saint Denis on Sunday last. A few vestiges of the siege are yet to be met with. It was gratifying to witness the numbers of workmen with their families who were pic-nicing on the river's banks ; numbers were fishing, or playing some musical instrument. Fishermen and musicians never make revolutions. A good deal of bathing was going on from boats — men and women with the fig-leaf bathing dresses — enjoying the common dip The subsequent dressing was open to objection — especially the passing of jupdns and pantaloons to their respective owners. The fair sex doubtless agreed with the Princess Livia, that men — in puris naturalibus — were but statues in the eyes of the chaste woman. Corate Moltke has presented a copy of his Franco- German war to M. Thiers. Mine enemy haa written a book. It is the rosemary for remembrance, perhaps the pansies for thoughts. One of the most curious traits in the French character is the completeness with which it washes the family linen in public. In the parliamentary inquiries, as well as in the Court Marfcials this is to be met with, and nowhere more prominently than in the Creiner trial just concluded, where the " ex"-general and his co-accused, De Serres, have been sentenced each to one month's imprisonment and costs, for involuntary hotnicido, in shooting a grocer from Dijon, husband of a young wife and father of four infants, without trial. It is a pity the condemned have no property for the widow and orphans to attack; the ought to award them some compensation. The Court Martial, like every tribunal in France, displayed the most frigid impartiality, the nicest sense of honor, and the old Marshal Baraguay d'Hillier, over 80 years of age, who lost an arm at the battle of Leipsic, deserves the highest praise for subtle examination. The verdict was received with cheering and some disapprobation ; but the inhabitants of Lyons are indifferent about the trial. General Cremer is a young man, very vain and proverbially ambitious ; he has a weakness for absinthe, not to find Dutch, courage therein, but consolation. He confounds brutality with bravery, and to judge from his writings and speeches, common sense is with him the one thing needful. He ordered the poor grocer named Arbinet to be shot — knowing the man had never been tried — on the receipt of a simple telegram from an official named De Serres, without ever inquiring who this official was. Now, De Serres gave it to be understood he was Gambetta's representative, though his place was only to look after maps and the transport of troops ; he was a Pole, who claimed to be French, because he fought against the invaders, and this waa the man whom Cremer — the Commander-in-chief of 80,000 men — the successor of Bourbaki, regarded as his superior ! It came out in the trial that a serjeantmajor, condemned to be executed, was shot down by an officer with a revolver, his men declining to fire at the condemned. The newest circumstance about Bazaine is that he is becoming enormously fat. Now and then the newspapers without distinction give him a sting ; one journal maintains in its advertising columns, and in the fattest of type, the charges which every Frenchman, and not without a show of reason, believes Bazaine to be guilty of; the Marshal is bringing out a second edition of his work to rep y to those damning points he so disdained hitherto, the omission of which formed the great attraction in his book.