Our Paris Letter.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2011, 15 June 1875, Page 2

Our Paris Letter.

(FEOM OtTB OWN COBBJBSPOiriHUfT.) Pabis, April 17. *W . Politics and personalities everywhere, bat neither do any great harm; like the „■ skinning of eels, we are accustomed to.' them. The principal Ministers either by,; speech or circular, have given in their., adhesion to the Eepublic, without hedging" and an absence of: all fear and trembling j - M. Buffet, the Cabinet leader, is being well badgered and laughed at, because he will not boldly declare for, and pronounce „ at the same time the name, Eepublic. He' still hesitates to. remove officials being/, compromised by their partiality for Hiperialism and antagonism against the fornv ■ of .Government now established. He counts upon civil functionaries - to simply obey orders,-like an army, and sees- - nothing inconsistent in serving to-day what they denounced'yesterday; Clovis was converted to Christianity by. St Eemy, who commanded.him.*'to adore what thou has hitherto burned—burn . what thouhas hitherto.adored.".. Modern. Franks apply this doctrine of conversion \. to official life with remarkable alacrity. The absurd man is he who never changes.M. Buffet was Orleanist under the Citizen King, Eepublican in 1848, Minister under Napoleon III.; then he belonged to las honneles gens like everybody; later, Fusionist; afterwards. Septennialist, and now a second neo-Bepublican«- Yet he is ■-' not exceptional, but typical. Frenchmen- „ aremostpoliticallyconsistentwhennothing more is left for change. They laugh v \ heartily as ourselves at their metamor- ? phosis. " •-■'■■ m Hitherto it has been .the great aim of J Ministers to prevent such local bodits a« the General and Municipal Councils from., talking politics, but since these, corpora-,. tions have been charged to take part in the election of Senators, political subjects are down on their order of the day. . Some Prefects object to politics as illegal, others think the subject .is orthodox,, and so wags the * official world. - The Clergy are called upon .to pray every Sunday for the Eepublic just as they have been in *the habit of doing for the King, the Emperor, and. the Eepublic of 1848. . This is in accordance with the law. of 1801, which decrees, no pater vaster for the State, no pay. Perhaps this step has given the coup ac . grace to the Bonapartists;. to ask Divine protection for Henry "V. or Louis- • Philippe IL r would be bad enough, but for a Conservative Eepublic is the abomination of desolation. Yet there were Te Deums for the the Coup d'Elat, and for those wars which illustrated that .the Empire was peace. At all events the Imperialists are formally broken up as a party; the hive has thrown off the two swarms that claim to be emancipated from the' leadership of such old fogies: as , Messrs Eouher, Fleury,. etc., and now \; assume the title of "Bonapartists of the ~ future;" happily the dissidents are young, for there is every likelihood they will have to remain a long time out in the . , cold. Prince Napoleon is the only Bed Eepublican left in France. . The tribulations of Gormany are natu-" ' rally not unpleasihg to the French, who,, I • feel not a little complimented, while at* ' . the same time amused at the nervous flutter experienced .in Fatherland respecting the rapid reorganisation of France, who is now a sturdy convale- , scent. The future of this, country is more hopeful than that of Germany;' Franco has no religious questions to divide her, and has laid her spectros by founding a sagacious- Ecpublio that can neither be

irritated nor bullied into .war—till the " psychological moment " arrives. It takes two persons to make a quarrel, and Barkis is not ." willing "—as yet —to . fight. The people; are up to. their eyes in ■work, hare a good "deal of legislative business to execute, and which consists not in riveting fetters, on the nation as practised elsewhere, but in conferring on it all the gifts of experienced liberalism, slowly but surely, and hence wisely. France' is not without religious difficulties, which are more annoying than grave, but in no case will they affect the homojreneity of the country;" seven-eighths of the population are liberals to the marrow of the bones, but all are one in patriotism. The Beform^Ghuroh/lias its dissensions, and these the administrations of the last two years aggravated rather than removed; but " Orthodox " and" Liberal" protestant«, are first of all French, and if they cannot dwell together in unity, they will occupy separate and equal parts of a common building. France has her ultramontane party as well as other states, and she wisely accords them full liberty, in their pilgrimages, their Catholic clubs, their Cathedral of the Sacrd-Cceui\ But this has not prevented France from burying the Koman question, and remaining on the best terms with Italy; with relegating Henri V. to the Museum of Sovereigns, and giving the cold shoulder to Don Carlos. The fussy pilgrimages to Paray-le-monial and Lburdes, have not intercepted the establishment of; the Constitutional [Republic. Cavalry officer?, in uniform, may denounce the Revolution before Catholic clubs, and the Pere-Mar-guigny glorify the ; , Syllabus, but the grand lessons of the Revolution remain, and spread like a green bay tree. The civil power in France will never be.employed to crush conscience, and the Ultramontanes overlook how that game effects them in Germany, France takes her stand so far with Luther, by acting on his avowal —" it is neither safe nor expedient to act agains.t conscience." ' The work of the " Catholic clubs," wasfounded on Christmas Day, 1871, ostensibly to raise the condition of the working classes —an object highly patriotic, the more especially since Universal Suffrage has become the first of institutions^ The

society has a central office in Paris, and

branches throughout the country. It is , not very clear'how the law is complied with, which prohibits an assembly of twenty persons, for one occasion only, without permission of the Prefect; it is thus that prayer meetings can only take place. Formerly a French monarch was reproached with preventing God from performing miracles, by decreeing that people should no longer approach a certain saint's tomb to be cured of their infirmities. 'To return to nos moutons ;if the general public does not comprehend how these clubs are tolerated, still leas

do they understand how officers of the army, and in uniform, are permitted, like Captain de Mud, and others, to go about France lecturing, not on religion-, but against the Revolution of 1789, and in favor of the Temporal Power of the Pope. As ordinary clubs those in question are failures; they draw the working man from his family, as his wife and children are not allowed to accompany him to the cercle. The ITrench. workman labors nrder an evil which is not political, but religious—that of impiety, and' which he has inherited from, the upper classes of the list "century. No one could blame a cras»de honestly, intended..tp cure him of this malady, but the matter is different when, it is converted into a political agency. The clergy themselves do not in all cases like this, foreign interference in'their parochial work; others do not object, and conduct special services, where " the seats are free, no collection made, no tfermon preached ; " a kind of causerie takes place. However, one of the leaders of the movement admits " that

the clergy have never so much preached, and the people never were so' bad." A' yenerablo clergyman of » Paris e>nce remarked, "Nobody comes to my church, and yet I preach always." Some of the lecturers treated the subject of Papal Infallibility, others the " Revolution, which, was, a, collection of the Seven Capital Sins." This is the Scarlet Lady platitude. ■ Tracts were distributed on"the "protestant principle," but failed, as the Republicans circulated their fly-sheets in opposition* ' " Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The Dev!l always builds a chapel there ; And 'twill be found upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation."

Such is the =work of the Central Council "of ' Jesus ouvrier; to combat as Captain de Hun proclaims, the which "reigns mistress of the towns, and oppresses the country." ■It aims to bring back France t» the confraternities of the Middle Ages, and -,to make the' working classes inarch in the leading strings of the social layer that goterns. A i similar"Work was undertaken in 1826, and failed ; then, the spectacle was seen of a Marshal of France vainly soliciting a civil appointment for his son, till he obtained a letter from his parish priest to the Chief of the "Congregation'—abody that also certified for footmen and ladies' maids. Paris has seven of these clubs, boasting of 1100 ouvriers; Lyons hasi five, with 700 mem--bera ; the former costs 160,000 -francs a year, the latter 102,000 francs. It thus appears to be as expensive' to transform a French workman into a; soldier.of the Pope, as to convert-say, a Jew to Christianity.