OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3641, 27 August 1880, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

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Pabis, July 15.

" Here we are again!" the Communists may say; with the triumphal entry of Bochefort into the Capital, the plenary amnesty is accomplished; he in fact was the touchstone of the whole question. The measure of forgetfulness—not of pardon, carried, the Republic is now free to devote all its energies to the development of home progress; its partisans will be henceforth ranged in two camps, the moderates and the advanced, differing only in points of time and patience. France will gain from the conflict; the tortoise and the hare will not be the less friendly in the contest, less faithful in the end. The Monarchists opposed the amnesty, well knowing it was a dead weight on. the Republic; but had the chapter of accidents led one of the three pretenders to the throne, the first act of majesty would have been, to accord the amnesty, to curry popular favor. The apprehensions then of the fioyalists, and of their new ally, Jules. Simon, are simply hypocritical, which "\New France," well knows, and the theatrical accessories were so many simple concessions to pious old maids and dowagers with political ideas as old as their lustres, and displaying like their features, a look of another world.

The hero of the hour, of the day, is JRoche fort. Parisian s gave hi m a welcome that Henry Y. might envy, and readily give the fifteen thousand francs, three sous, that admirers hare clubbed to present the last of the Bourbons with a souveuir. The crowd was great to welcome i:nd see the first batch of the amnestied that arrived, but the Koehefort crowd exceeded all; it was origiraliy 5.0C9, then swelled to 30, and finished at 60,000. It was a good-humoured and enthusiastic crush, perfectly well conducted, sare that they nearly suffocated the object of I heir veneration, who had to conceal himself for some hours in a draper's shop, where he passed the time enjoying an excellent improvised dinner, while Victor Hugo's was waiting for him. It must not be concluded that this nearly hundred thousand welcome meant sympathy for Roohefort's politics, or a ! manifestation in favor of the Commune; 1 no, it was simply a tribute of admiration to his eventful career, romantic, daring, and plucky; it implied first of all an expression of gratitude to the man, the writer, who had the audacity all alone, to attack that incarnation of audacity, the Second Empire, and give the first blow of the pickaxe and. the hammer, to that organised hypocrisy. Jtochefort has no political oreed, no system, no hobby: he is a freelance, attacking whatever will afford the anbjeot of a sneer or the pretext for a laugh. He is a political gamin. It will be curious to see what will be the lines of his new journal, L'lntransigeant j thr«e«fourths of it will undoubtedly be personal, iplat highly popular in this country, and further, a Fay'n8 one> Hochefort undoubtedly "eared," as Anaoharsis Cloots would say, "France of the mania for individuals;" time will show if the physioian can cure himself. When the novelty wears off, when Rochefort ceases to be a premiere, when his paper arrives at its one-hundredth representation, some other idol will have come to the front. There are no abuses on which to exercise his wit, because those existing are all on the high road to reformation, and while France enjoys Vaudevilles, she never omits to leave serious affairs to serious people. Roche* fort has not grown muoh older during his exile; his face is more bony, the hair round the temple commences to tqro

grey, but bis three puff's are still «• black as jet, he looks yellower, more cadaverous, and calculated reticence h»i replaced a free and easy riracity. Paris may be said to hare commenced f£te week on Sunday last—three days in advance; the tricolors look extremely pretty, and as they are all new, very imposing. I hare observed them placed in area railings and in stacks of chimneys —could joy be more extreme, patriotism more expressive, the busses hare their I flags bound to the knife-board railing beside the driver, and horses like their drivers' heads, display trioolor farora. Each street has one or more triumphal arch, crowned with a symbolical figure of an episode of the devolution, and all surrounded with garlands of variegated glass lamps, and decorated with tricolor bunting. The various public squares and gardens have gigantic poles with gilt spaces; at the summit floats the tricolor streamer, and at the lower part, a group of flags forming a festoon around an escutcheon, baring thereon tbe letters B. P. Across the streets are wire lines .from which flags are draped: the devices in gas are* very numerous and pretty, full of originality, and suggestiveness. • The , Church domes will lose nothing in com* parison with St. Peter's of Rome. As for the personal emblems, they are as numerous as the sand of the sea shore. Watch chains and collars are now extensively worn 1 in tricolor bead jewellry; there ar» tricolor shirt collars, and hats, and those who prefer the red Phrygian cap, can sport it also. Each ward of the city has, its fair and dancing " asphaltum," which does duty forga " green;" and the chief secular monuments will bare either electric y#ht« or fireworks. The concerts are not only of the " monster " type, but free, and .conducted by Pasdeloup and Colonne. Boys hare " been liberally • supplied with fireworks, and- squibs are tbe order of the night. The generality of the workmen had been .paid in advance, but some Monarchal employers refused this petty, favor* and eren declined <• to recognise -, the ' holiday, which was foolish. Why should not the Republic hare its cakes and. aleother dynasties had theirs in days gone by. The enemies of the Republic take their defeat badly; they follow the old tactics, proclaiming the certainty of emeutes, and quitting the city. But DO one minds these displays of spite and disappointment. The 14 July, 1880, is the reconciliation of the nation, regenerated.; and sorereign, and ' reposing on an army eminently republican, and on a revenue, wonderfully prolific. ...v".' '„ The distribution of the flags to the army is a fact of no mean historical and/ political importance: the new colors are a combination of legitimate pride and excellent taste, war-like, but not defiant. The specimens of the* soldiers delegated to receive the colors for their regiments, are in every respect praiseworthy in build! and bearing, and M. Gre>y committed, the Standard of France simply to their honor. I really beliere some of the crowd must hare passed the night in the Boia de Boulogne to secure good positions; the number of the tickets issued for, the stands was 60,000, for exactly half the number of places.