OUR PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2050, 27 August 1885, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

B [i'uom ol u own eoimwovnicxT.] ■ JPuus, June 14. ■ Thk silly season has set in rern irkable c irly r this year. There h the bx Minister of War, General Thibaudin, and an othcer still on active service, has taken coinm.vnd of th» Communist army, in tho sense tli.it he is to bo a candidate at the appiodchmg elections with Eudes, ex commander and chief of the Commune Rochcfort has consented to be elected to tho chamber also, by tlio same party. It has been reinaiked that the first steptowaids demohshmgan anihitiousnary in Franc.!, is to nominate him deputy, and m order to finish him, make him a Now there U room for the mm JWoftho Lantern in Pailiament, a* he will pos-ibly do what no extiemist has hitheito done, put down m black and white the laws the Anarchists and Socialists demand, and devide the House thereon. It would bo a pity were his legislative cares to prevent Kochefoit writing for hi-. i journal. Tho Tans press would lose by his silence the perennial souice of it-, fun and ecceutncitj. In the manufacture of history, the imagination of fact, and the distortion of eui Unities ho stand\mrivalled. Take his latest lucnbiation, tho second part of the legendary histoiy of Oliver Pain. That Wandering Jew was leporteel to b.we armed at tho Mihdi's camp : wai named the False Piophet's Minuter for Foreign Vff.un, whilo lemain- . ing tho Jefferson Buck for a gionp <>f * colonel diveiwand their oigaiw at Pans. Nothing ovei J «mo from our own cm respondent at the seat of war. The Spanish fleet ><>u cinnot spr>, because it s not in sight. Pain npver readied the head quartet s of tho Mahdi, though it vv.ib invented for him that he commanded at Kh irtoiuu and expelled tho English from Noudm. That feat alrne mci its for him a niche in tlie Pantheon or a national funeral. fc It now appears on the authority of an * algebraic X, that Pain has not died of fever — *uch was the in vuntion of tho English— but has lieen shot by English instigation, so as to seize hi-t knockabout big of despatches from the Mahdi's foreign office, and which were tilled with teinble proofs of the incapacity of tho Biitish Government, itc. The gobemnuches swallow the tale as usual, and the Anglophobias beat the torn tout. Of com so, sensible people laugh, while regretting Pain should have left hm wife and some four children next to starving in I' ranee, w hile lie indulged m a will o' tho • wisp adventuio acrojs tho desert. Tho h tst lejui.ition unfortii'iate John Bull can nuke, i-, to quit E o 'ypt, and try to pie vail on Fiance to t.ike Ins pkiee. The w holesale rebaptiMng of tho «fcreetn of F.nh, his raised quite an uproar among l.indlouN and tenant-.. M. U.e»y is failed rupon to put his veto on tlm continued mama of tho municipal council. Th it many of the names proposed are politically distasteful to anti-republicans is beyond question, however, imp-iiilistsand royalists when m office, acted sinnlaily, and would do so again hid they the chance. But the council ought not to commit blunders. Thus, the Hue tie la Uoquett< , wheie iiiiirdcrerH lire guillotined, is to be changed to " Hue Faclio," in honour cf tho inventor of the motto of republicanism—" Libeity. equality and fraternity "— nice timity of words, but only words. Pacho was an austere, a Spartan dc- » mocr.it. He was the son of a house-porter, in tho employment of Marshal de Castries. The latter was so struck with the lad's gio.it intelligence, that he made him tutor of his r children, and ultimately obtained for him the poot of first sec-.stary at the Admiralty. He was a born administrator, but his independent nature could not brook the airs of the expuing nobility. Ho retired to SvvitzeiJand with his family. When the i evolution of 1789 broke out, he returned to France, was entrusted by the convention, to oigamse the Army and Navy offices. He was War Minister for a year. Next, he aided Roland in his ministerial duties, declining all salaiy. He came to his work at si \en in the morning, with a piece of W dry biead in his podfcet, and remained till three. To v<>\ the new (Jovermuetit, the Pansians elected him mayor. In that, oapacity he suppressed bread-riots by going Among the rioters and imploring them to disperse. Ife introduced the notorious Mauit to the Municipal Council, then designated the commune, as a kind <>f medicine man foi France; it wa« he who separated "the young Cap.it —Louis XVII from his mother, Mane Antoinette, in piison, and it was Fache who ordered the paintings on the public buildings of the words, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity the only place, wagaassert, whero tho viitnos hnd it home. But the real author of the words, was Momoro, a man of Spanish descent, born at Bewngon, in 1730, and guillotined with Heheit, Clovt/, and philanthropists of similar kidney, in IVJ4. Momoro camo to Fans, and learned printing henianied the beautiful daughter of the famous engraver »Fourmer, herself a skillfull artist. He wrote .several valuable works on the art of printing, apait from being a \igorous pampheteer. He becime an ardent revolutionist, and styled hircself tho "the fint printer of liberty." B-nng a Jacobin true, he was charged to organise the public fetes, and it was thus he every where displayed the dovico he invented for the escutcheon of the republic, "liberty, equality and fraternaty." It was he who organised the celebrated Fete of Reason, and it was his beautiful young wife who symbolized the godesse* of Liberty and Reason. He advocated the abolition of all religions, all aristocracies, and the W reign of pmc equality. But Rob^pieriP, to stom the anti-religious movement, sMit him and his leading sympathisers to the guillotine. Tlu electoral programmes continue to be of the By/antium tyre ; they ha\e no inflnuiics apparently on the country. A shrewd Frenchman observed to me tho other day tha-:. the voters are tirpj of politics are disatulied with tho stagnant condition of business and the ever mounting flood of taxation, and that the pro-fe->si.inal politician is in a fair way to liecoiiiis as obnoxious as a Prussi in. It is the question of the concordat of the Union of Church and State that will bo the stumbling block at the poll. On the question of the abolition of the concordat, the republic un aro divided; the r.ulictls vvnilrl »wiu>p it away by ft resolution ; atiotln'i sp^tion would in.sidtioriHly underniim it, starve it to death by degrees instuid of manfully raising the issue ; .ui"tlici |>nty of tho republicans would let nntteis alone, well-knowing the Republic is li'tt .v match fur tho Chinch ; that tho nation, especially the female part of it, will not consent to the closing of the Chmoli and the conversion of tho edifices into M-cular xilons for local clnbs and newsrooms. If tho clergy be such a power, now that they aro in a sense bound to the | «tat<>, what would they be when forced to I combat the existing regime— .iv army MI i, (MX) stiong, having all the adversaries of the republic on tho other side. And theie is .i multitudo of thinking people, who, while opposed to tha endor.sincnt of religion, consider liko Robespierre and the Fir^t Napoleon, a national religion necesn.uy for the French, a» a brake on their > tendency to scepticism. At the hustings, candidates must cay what they wish rpxpi-ctitig the church. The latter is an ailmuable political agency for France in the E.i-st, is the forerunner of her foreign p.ilicy, and more in valuable to the country's material inteiests than are Piotestant missionaries of other states, because filling a p.iid, a semi-official role. The emeus programmes only vaguely allude to colonisation. No party even hints at the necessity of loaning some millions to woik up Tonkin, or to lav down rail or pipe into China. That would be pine Bed lamisim. Egypt 'u not touched upon ; but Egypt for the French, not the Egyptians, is understood. The crisis in the silk tiade of Lyons is a typical test of all Fiench trade. The operatives demand a minimum and a uniform tariff for dissimilar kinds of woik. They obtained that in 18tii), and being found impracticable, fell into disuetude. It is sad to think that many of the silk workmen are veritable artists, and do not earn ntore than 27 sous, per day, not a fianc and a-half, while a mason at Paris gains six tolO _ franc 3, and a scavenger three francs per fcriay. The secret of th« Lyons silk trade is in ability to produce cheap goods, as cheap nay, ai Germany, Italy, and England ; not all silk art'clesj but mixed cotton and silk. Several countries bar out Fiench silks br pioluUtive tariffs, as Austna and the k, Vniteil States, but then such is only a ' Koland'for an Oliver. Cotton yarn, that Eiigl't'iii cuuld supply some seventy per cent, cheaper than French spmnrrs, is vir tually excluded, while HwiUeiland and (Jurinarfy reap the iumieriso advantage of this difference. The machinery and pro- i cesses of manufacture at Lyons also arc oldfashioned. Now, these aie the causes why the French fiilk trade is unable to compete with the foreigner, and it i* by exportation that it liven. The same l earning is the key to the other branches of depressed In the prison of Roquette the three condemned celta are not only full, but two

emporary ones also. A sixth must bo prepared soon. Maichaudon Ins been sentenced to bo oxecuted, and it is to be hoped M. (4revy will allow justice to take its course. The most scandalous featuie about the trial was the cmsh of ladies to be present, localling tho age somewhat when the fan sex of Koum found only excitement in the jjrl.uli.itoualconib.it'*. Public opinion demands that all women be excluded hence forth as spectators. It is the presiding judge who issues the admission caids ; this time lie refused none to .my application in spidei penmanship. Tho consequence was, theie neie fi\e peis-ons for one place, hence a teiuble crush and a stiange melange of all the mondes. Even that trick will not cure feminine curiosity. Marchaudon turned out a downright coward ; ho passes his time in teais and sobs, and praying to all the gods to save his heart. Faivro is being tued for nmidermg an old man, (iiraux, at Bagnolet, outside Paris. Tho motive was lobbery. The victim'^ thi oat was cut, but he died fiotn being thrown afterwaids into a well. The pi i«oner was caught in the act of opening presses bv the deceased's datighter-in law, when he decamped. She could not exactly identify him. His shoes and blouse were discovered, and as he was suspected, a detective feigned to have " found " them, and to give them to the prisoner's wife and daughter, who at once identified them as belonging to ths husband and father. They added innocently he had been from home the previous night— that of the murder. This is not exactly fan play, though other circumstances exi»t to piess the cumc home 111 1 the accused. At Saint Plasir, m the centie of Fiance, a buy aged ten, lrntatid at a companion eight jeais old, calling him a nick-name, cut Im throat with a knife, dragged the body to a river, placed a plank over it, and then a ladder to keep it down. When arrested he confessed Ins ciime. It w ill be a happy icsult if the employment of music and aitistie recitations, now resorted to for the refotmation of juvenile offenders, succeeds to civilise such youths. At Lyons a young woman went out for the day to amuse herself, and picked up with a young mechanic. As they were entering the railway station slip exclaimed, looking fixedly at another passenger, "Oh ! there's my husband !" She ran away and threw her .«olf into the Saone, and was drowned. She mistook a stranger for her husband. When Pompoy reproached Lucullus w ith having a house very agreeable in summer, but inconvenient and unhealthy in winter, he replied, " Do you think mo le-s prudent than the cranes and tho storks, that know how to change their dwelling and climate, following the se.i-»orrj ?" Xow one of tlic heart desires of a Parisian shopkeeppr is to possess a villa somewhat within the ten mile circuit of the suburbs. Indeed, if he could build his villa-nest as ho generally did, he was only the happier and the prouder ; it Is also one of the three ways that Stosne recommends for handing down your name to posteiity. Well, \ery few shopkeepers but now dispay a poster in their «tore, "country house to sull or to let. Terms cheap." That speaks volumes for tho suffering condition of trade, independent of tho closing of shops on account of " e\p ; ration of lease," 01 other form of unavoidable commercial hypocrisy. The newspa'.ier selleis cry aloud that the temple of Epehsus is in danger. They rent a kiosque, which requires as much diplomicy to obtain, as a tobacco shop and by spiling journals, the}', if in a good .situation, can earn ."> to 7 fis. a day, an income superior to a lieutenant, a. paiish priest, or a membci of the Barnacle family. In the fulness of liberty and fraternity the journals are allowed to be sold in the street by any crier, and which destroys the kiosque monopoly. A \oiy pretty service has just taken place at the Neuilly English church. The inmates of the English and Ameiican orphanage weie all affected w ith the measels — an endemic. On then lptownnp, the children marched in a body, in w lute, with white bouquets of flower*, to take part in the very special and crowded thanksgiving. A writer diaws a veiy witty Plutarch biography of Admiral Com bet and Gordon Pacha, the texts being the foimer'* assertion that tho French Government was a "bet of butfonns," and the hitter's that tho English Ministry was a "set of h u m bugs." The Pays and Con.stitutionnel journals arc in tho market. The former lived on the hcrcechmgs of Paul de Cassagnac, the latter hince the death of Dr Yimou was a grand-mother shoot, though it once bi ought out fmne of the most populn romances of Sue and Dumas. When George Sand founded n newspaper in Orleans, the shareholder* laid down .">(>2 rules for the guidance of the unfortunate editor, who naturally had to b? admitted after a timo to an asylum. Tho Bonaj>arti<>t papers had almost as many byelaw s. A sign board for the gambling palace of Mnniico : There arc throe doors to the den, Hope, Infamy and Death ; It is by the first one enters, It is by tho others one leaves. "Why gentleman,"' mquiicd a voun<i 1 idy, "do you ii'>tspeak about i s before us ' " It is because, M.idem >i*elle,''iephul aclub in in, "we ln\o <\h uistcd tin- *übjict generally when weaie ainoiitfoiu selves."