OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3523, 10 April 1880, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FBQM Oira OWN COBBESrONDBNT.)

Pabis, February 26. Perhaps the only novel ty the capital lacked to uphold the honor of its cosmopolitanism, was a real live Nihilist, and we have one in. Carl Hartmann or Mayer, for he has as many surnames, as a Spanish bidalgo or a Crown Prince has of titles. The Press has taken sides regarding this illustrious stranger, who might have selected Geneva, London, or even New York for his abiding city rather than Paris, and so save the Republic trouble. '• Will Mayer be handed over to the Russians, or officially conducted to any part of the frontier he may please, for the evidence is presumptive, he has had something t<# do with explosion number one, at Moscow? Was that explosion murder in the eyes of the Cede, or the retaliation of Nihilism against autocracy ? Is it akin to the Communists, who find a refnge under the vines and fig-trees of other lands, or on a par with the.arrest of Dr Bernard at London, on the charge of murder and accessory before the fact ? And if Mnyer be acquitted like Bernard, will Russian colonels threaten France with specimens of her " civilisation aud culture ?" Wliile the French indignantly reprobrate -every violation of the , Decalogue, they are very far from approving of the Czar's manner of. making his hundred millions of more or less loving subjects happy. The State can expel a foreigner when it pleases, but to deliver him up to the tormentors, necessitates a juridical examination of the proofs presented by the demanding government; the accused has no mixed jury as in England to appeal to. So far opinion leanß to the belief Mayer will be expelled, not surrendered. He has been allowed a very able lawyer to defend him, is permitted to fare sumptuously every day, has been furnished from the prison library with the Memoirs de Vidocq. Old Fagin had similar literature for the training of his boys. A journal, more remarkable for its. connection with the gallant than the evangelical world, alludes to President GreVy omitting the word " Providence " in his congratulatory telegram to the Czar on his escape. Snowing that God moves in a mysterious way, M. Gre>y with his proverbial caution, did not wish to commit himself to any interpretation of the Divine will. Professor Tyndall would attribute the eacape'to the Prince of Bulgaria's pantaloons. The Prince's baggage had been stolen on its arrival in St. Petersburg, and with it the bran new costume he intended to wear at the dinner party; a new suit was ordered'; all fitted well, save the pantaloons which the tailor bad to alter, necessitating^ delayiof half an hour in His Highness' arrival at the Winter Palace, and the mercifully keeping back of the dinner. What next —and next ? Few but were glad when M.Rouber rose to make his famous oration on commercial freedom, as the debate on the general tariffs was becoming a downright bore. The once powerful exMinister must have ascended the Tribune —the scene of his many triumphs—with a heavy heart. Instead of de Morny or Schneider, there was for President, Gambetta; instead of a cohort of deputies that he " could throw off like a huntsman his pack, for he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back," he had the stern representatives of a free and sovereign people, who respected his years, sympathised with his talents, while detesting his Imperialism. The last^ 4en. ywtfa' ha**-- -marked— hhn~"~" severely:" he is an old man broken with the cares of State; his once abundant black hair are " locks like the sna\" his handsomely cut features are wrinkled, flabby, and the jaws fallen in for want of teeth; the eyes lack lustre and the eloquence warmth, but in the crystal clearness' of his arguments, the marvellous ease with which he handles figures, making them attractive by their simplicity; his prodigious memory never at fault for a date or a fact—in .all these he was the Jiouher of 1866. His discourse was not only the defence of the Cobden treaty, but the summing up of the case on behalf of free trade. It has produced an immense eflaet. During his speaking church mioe might have gamboled on the floor of the house without fear. The Papal encyclical on divorce has not produced any effect; the question is not a burning one in France, and is only passing through its threshing and winnowing stage by publio opinion at the theatres, conferences, and in pulpits. In time M. Magnet will introduce his bill to the Chamber, and which will be voted without enthusiasm on one side or maledictions on the other., What France is mosit . concerned with" at the present moment is the subject of education/ to get its control out of the' hands of the clergy. His Holiness claims marriage to be a sacrament, and. in matters celestial the Church ought to have the last word —that is, to place the rights of the Church above those of the State. For those inclined to bear the Church,.there is no difficulty; but for the- dissentients it. is another affair, and of whom the number is not only great, but augmenting: not as additions to Protestants and Jews, 1 whose ministers are endowed! like those of Catholics by the State, .but the vast number of incredulous and indifferent, who hare severed connection from all creeds, but who nevertheless pay taxes, defend their country, vote for represevtatives, and are elected such. Actuated by the principles equality and liberty of conscience; thr state claims to be incompetent in matters of faith ; it leaves to the church -the. liberty to preach wandering sheep back to the fold, or to anathematise them if theyresist. But the Government will never allow any church to dominate the stated especially in a country, whereas Frederick the Great would say, each has the liberty' to damn himself as he pleaies.. <. Paris presents very little appearance= of being in Lent; never was mortification of the.flesh less visible; a restaurant that would advertise a bill of fare in harmony wirh the season, would be avoided as a lazar house. Provision shops are. bursting with the few things man wants here below; balls and; dinner parties never were more numerous or more brilliant, and public amusements . are liberally patronised. The Lenten sermons, whether by such " old " Catholics as the. Rev. Pere Loyson and his curates, or the Rev.. Fathers Doidon and Monsabre, who weekly demonstrate the harmony between the Vatican and modern society, unknown - to the "People's William;" attract no marked crowds. Yet Parisians are capable of enduring not only favt but famine. In 3793 the citizens practised - a " civil fast" voluntarily for two months to allow the provinces, devastated by war,

to gather ihemselves up to forward food supplies, and the whole nation later, also yoluntarily went on short commons to be able to more generously aid her sans culotte. Russia is awarded the palm for being the model of Lenten abstinence : the nation, even including the Winter Palace on explosion days, takes to black bread, salt, and dried fish, washed down with deep draughts of brandy—"for nothing so the calms, as rum and true religion." Bat after the forty days, what a revenge for all the dear moments one was absent from the flesh pots of Egypt! Meat is de« Toured so Toraeiously, along with the other prohibited fruits, that the bills of mortality become as swollen as the stomachs of the departed. However, Holy Russia is exceptional in all her products—Nihilism included. At Monaco the extraordinary fact is noticed, that at the Casino theatre, the spectators seem to array in all they diamonds the possess, whether strass or paste is another thing. Can this hare anything to do with the scare caused in the diamond, equal to what Edison created in the gas. world, by Mr Hannay's plan for making Koh-i-nors j and Stars of South Africa, artificially, and so bring down the rate of usance,in Venice ? It is whispered that Brnsian iewellers are quietly getting rid of stocks ofmlorless and yellow diamons. This is a bt? prospect for the motion of Victor Hugo's half son-in-law, Lockroy, which demands the sale of the French Crown diamonds, and to apply the proceeds of the monarchal baubles to decorate the country with schools. From Monaco also comes the assurance, that Faures baritone voice never was more splendid than in his singing of the serenade in Don Juan, a part in which he first appeared in 1866; if the real hero sang like that, no wonder be made "one thousand and three conquests:" the first financier you meet would boast of catching more than that number of Becky Sharps with his cheque book. ■■■'■■ '■