OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3855, 7 May 1881, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(fkom oub own cobbespondents.)

Pabis, ]$arch'24i. France has had of late a few cares," despite the formidable proqf of her financial soundness, in the monetary world giving her fifteen milliards, when she asked but for one, and depositing in earnest money ajone three milliards. There are wheels within wheels driring the Bey of Tunis astray [he has done mope to irritate France and to merit punishment than when his poorer neighbour the Dey of Algiers, in 1830, struck the French ambassador with his fan, and was mulcted in his realm for damages. Sooner or later France must annex..her Transvaal; it is necessary for her extension : Tunisians must make Way for Frenchmen, Red Indiana for, Americans, Turks for — ? Instead of allowing the Chamber of Deputies tp regulate a question appertaining peculiarly to shop—that of its mode of election,, and with which the Executive—the offspring of deputies— had nothing to do, the chief of the Cabinet and M. Grevy, unfortunately, muddled into making the matter's personal one, against the advice of the best heads, and thus leading to a split in the Bepubjicap ranks. The country, true to its good sense, saw no such vital importance in the matter, but considered M. Gambetta's plan, scrutin de Uste, gave more independent and educated politicians thau the,

scrutin, by parish, as advocated by M. Gre" vy. The Ministry was divided on the matter, and it was urged thejr ought to remain neutral. That opinion, Gam* betta's, seems to hare triumphed, so he has again scored an inning. It is urged that the scrutin de ?wfe. will enable M. Grambetta to be^returned head of the poll for forty departements, instead of as manyparishes: that will likely be one result, and will illustrate what no one doubts, that one half of France is in harmony with Gambetta. If his opponents desire to lessen his importance, they must effect that by superiority of programme; but it is not the intransigeant press and its ribaldries, nor the monarchal journals, and their sneers and salon epigrams, that can xn]ure Q the great tribunef wKoDO? latef i * ?u Sun« ay la8t« befo™ 8000 members ot the Commercial Union, branded as maniacs the apostles of Utopias, who clai t. to remake society in twenty-fouir hours, by first annihilating all that i The Communists celebrated the "18 I March"—the most glorious date, they assert, in history. Amidst general i indifference, Louise Michel spouted a little, and asserted she was ready, when told off, to potgnard kay body; only for the moment she is occupied soothing her old mother's rheumatism; There was a time when girls boasted that " though father and mother and a' should gvmad; whistle? and I'll conafa % tp. you my lad."An unfortunate said*he was a nihilist-* from Hooshia. The audince naturally expected to see him arise through a trap .? door flanked with fulminates &c, instead, ' he was as 'umble looking as Uriah Heap, with an imm*ense.pair of blue goggles, a cotton umbrella,-and a Paul Pry hat. As the police wanted him, they took charge of him on his coming out. The Govern* ment is to be complimented on paying no attention to, the reunions of , political dissidents. ;In 'this rc;epeet J it puts communists, royalists, Bonapartists, and clericals in the same sack.

Spring as usual is capricious ; some extremely fine days hate been succeeded by bitterly cold ones; vegetation has' remained coy to a sun, brilliant but devoid of heat. Only that old flatterer, or humbug, the chestnut tree " Twentieth March" in the Tuililerieß garden' has come into Jeaf under the Bourbon's it was royalist, and according to some truthful historians its precocity is due to the bodies of the Fuiss Guards buried underneath, and who fell defending the Eing^ As it came into leaf on the anniversary of the birth of the King of Rome, and the escape of Napoleon from Elba, the tree wts viewed as imperialist. The old Vicar of Bray Js now a Be* publican. ?.'.■•• :. ■ / .■'. ■■': if ;:..5 Dr Charcot, the famous authority on hysteria and the thousand forms of nervous diseases, is now in Russia, and will publish his travels on the people from a medical point of view. The mysterious and the mystic have erer had a house in St. Petersburg. Not a spirit*rapper, necromancien, somnambulist or charlatan* but "strikes ile" in that capital. Jf. Charcot's analysis of Russian ladies— " Orientals preserved in ice "—will be extremely interesting. Col. Paris, chief of the city fire brigade, reports that excepting the Leuvre all the other monster establishments are so many matchboxes; they are built of lath, plaster, starch, and paper: the lifts are so many feed-pipes in case of fire. He recommends that the electric, supersedes gas light, as the only mode of safety. Kesult: the insurance companies give notice that these riski having ,' been officially confirmed, extra premiums mast be paid.

The Woman's Bights Society hat indulged in a new spurt, since King Leopold' decorated a Belgian lady. who had made' her fortune in the manufacture of crockery. Will the Republic hesitate henceforward to bestow the Legion of Honor on a lady who paints—on canvas, sculptures, and writes novels, whether ,vi one or three volumes, and superior in many eases to men? Yes, the injustice will be continued, and yet it is a great occasion for Gambetta to interfere, and win the suffrages of the fair sex'for the Republic, which he avows it lacks. The fact is, the gallantry of Frenchmen is a fiction ; if he declares to a beauty that he lores her at first sight, and is ready to marry her, he is equally quick, after the ceremony, to fly away. Women, as many erroneously suppose, are not goddesses in Franc, with altars at every street corner, to enable the divinities to be adored. In the eyes of Monsieur, woman is a toy, a doll, that dresses gracefully, a machine that smiles or grins, looks pretty, and replies pleasantly, as the talented ladies hare mostly big noses, grey hair, and large teeth, he could never consent to decorate the sex. But, being witty, the sex resigns itself to- its charms, and takes revenge by leading men, who claim to be the most independent in the world, by the nose.

We are getting through I*nt merrily, more truffles are consumed than salt cod or smoked salmon, more gossip is listened to than sermons, the theatres draw bette* than the Eerds. Monsabre andLoyson. JNot a Parisian feels inclined to emulate A. Maoaise of Alexandria, who remained standing and awake from Ash Wednesday till Easter Sunday/merely eating a leaf of raw cabbage every Sunday. *■ Patti and Nicolini are being terribly account of their parsimony . Husband to wife., " Those orauna left from the dinner party can do the servant" ™ *?/** dear« the? are *m good/ .- Old lady to young wife: « See what a family Madame %. has.*' "Oh that's not astonishing, fcer Ijns.bapd is an apcoucheur.' -■.;-.-,.,. w * w

The farmer's favourite Test—The Harvest. . But what shall we say to the honesty of the- ■ dealer who baton ladiei to pall and see his invisible nets for the hair.