PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2516, 25 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

PARIS LETTER.

[from our own correrpondknt]. Paris, July 14. Till the end of the world, doctors will differ and patients will die. Prince Bi.imarck has "lost no time in letting loose the Chauvinistic Galiens against " Sir Morell Mackenzie," because the doctor could not do the impossible—cure cancer, and decided not to reveal the nfttnro of the dreadful malady of his imperial patient, no as not to uselessly abridge his life. The cardinal orime of Dr. Mackenzie was, that he, an English doctor, enjoyed the entire confidence of the Princoss-Em press Victoria. The report of the German dootors extends over 100 pages ; its effect is _ destroyed by tho passion and the animus of the writers. It consists more of the tongue baiting, the gossip, the pulling of the hair and tho face-scratch-ing of old women, than the writing of sober, cool, and chivalrous professionals. They have banished conrtcsy to the winds; but where nothing exists tho king

loses his right. I)r. Mackenzie neither denied nor admitted the existence of cancer. Ho only did not express his opinion to his German confrferes. Impossible to conclude that a man of his experience, and fortified with tho opinions of the politico-doctora of Germany that cancer existed, did not keep a keen eye on the symptoms of that incurable malady. Cancer is a disease of the blood; a surgical operation only affords tomporary relief, prolongs the life for a brief time—when it does not extinguish it. The German doctors forget, that a cancer is a cancer, whether it occurs in France, England, or Fatherland; whether in emperor, bourgeois, or beggar. All the chances were, as surgical science and its demonstrate, on the side of a fatal, rather than on that of a happy

issue, were tho Imperial larnyx to have boen cut out. How many have suecurnbed under that forlorn hope operation ? At host wero it successful, the relief would have at most been but transitory. Mackenzie's treatment prolonged the patient's life, less tho risks of cutfinir it off; and he followed the alternative system, which has the most eminent French doctors on its side, that of employing medicaments, where the scalpel is likely to be followed by the undertaker. We are in presence of only ono side of tho pleadings. Mackenzie never opposed tho calling in of specialists from all points of the compass. He even recommended the snmmoning of the " French " throatist, Dr, Fauvel! As well demand tho Teutons to give back Alsace and Loraine. Had Uergmaun cut out the larynx of the Kronprioz in May, 1887, the patient had the chances of being fourteen months earlier in his tomb. Mackenzie prolonged tho invaluable life for that period. Bergmaun does not say that his palliative, even if successful, would have exceeded that interregnum of death ; or if he

would, cro the fourteen months expired, not have had recourse to the inevitable further operations, for in tho surgical treatment of cancer, nature imposes the law of "out and come again." The crime of Sir Morell Mackenzie is, that he perceived the intrigue to bar out the accession of Frederick HI., and declined to aid or abet it. Tho light he could shed on this phase of the tragedy wo-.ld settle tho dispute; but he must refrain from doing so. In a few centuries hence, some Dryasdust Carlyle will rummaire up the archives of the Berlin Foreign Offica, find publish the true story of tho Hohenzullern family in the year A. I). ISBS. Lot that console the Paul Prvs of to-dav. The present combinations, or maccbiiiations of Prince Bismarck, are »s strange and as mysterious, as the Eleusinian mysteries. In negotiating or coquetting with the Czar, he assures neither AustroHungary nor France, nor perhaps Eng. land. In duo course the nature of the imperial interview will be known by its effects. The verdict on the situation is this; tho war is postponed till 1889, when few have doubts, but it will commence, and that prudence commands every state that intends to have a struggle for its life to arm, arm to the teeth, in tho short breathing time left. This verdict is totally independent of the opinions a journal solicited from a number of prominent people, including Jules Ferry and Sarah Bernhardt; tho Duo do Broglie and Paulus, the comic singer; Marshal Macmahon and the Communist, Felix Pyat; Ernest Kenan and Lespe's, the barber. This is a capital plan for obtaining autographs. Ouly Pautus and the grand Sarah employ writing machines. Minister Floquet congratulated France, that he had suppressed Boulanger. Howover, in the present matter, the Premier has not triumphed in his boast: "What I do, Ido well." Tho General has been starring it in Brittany, his native province and was wired, and denied, and ova ted in its capital, Rennes—tho city where he was born. It was a triumphal march for tho General, and that suggests unpalatable comparisons between tho official outings of President Cirnot and his ministers. Boulaniter is clearly not to be suppressed. The Privy Council has ruled, that belonging to the armv of reserve Boulatiijer cannot be deprived of his title of " General," nor debarred from wearing his cocked hat and feathers ; nor his gold spangled uniform. He continues to crack up the country to demand the revision of the constitution ; that will be his platform at the general elections of 1889, aud he wants the electors to return men who will have task tho revision. Many think the revision will revise away the republic. Quite a downpour of new constitutions inundate tho Chamber of Deputies. Every representative seems to have a charter either in his head nr in his pooket. Tho professional politician is making healthy Government impossible. Undoubtedly there is a lamentable falling away of enthusiasm to observe the feto of tho 14th July. Were it not for the official preparations, "tho day we celebrate" would not be more remarkable thau any other. A few years ago Ropublicans were bo ardent as to hang out their flags a fortnight in advance. But now Republicans are bitterly divided and "fighting like devils for reconciliation." Further, ther.; is little business doing; the legislature is incapable, afraid or disinclined to grapple with the ameliorations the country and the situation demand. The state of tho finances is deplorable, and not the shadow of a shade of a Sully, a Colbert or a Necker appearing to set them ri"ht. Many once admirers of tho Republic have become indifferent; many of its lovers havo become cold. M. Floquet has committed a great wrong against liberty by seizing tho worthless letterprogramme—of the Count do Paris in the Post-office. He ought to havo left such to Second Empires or iSW.-e Mais. Equally questionable is his girin" a banquet iu the Exhibition Buildings to 2000 mayors of France to celebrate the overture of 1789, and puff his programme. The Monarchal senators and deputies have returned their invitations to the banquet, and the " revisionist " Republicans decline to bo present. It was a i blunder to draw the Exhibition into the i vortex of party politics. , The inauguration of the Gambetta i monument, inside the Tuilleries, furnishes I much food for reflection. That man, who t may be said to have made and upheid the ( Third Republic, to have created armies ] by stamping his foot on tho ground to re- i sist the Gsrmau invasion, that man was c hooted into his grave by Republicans, ] who accused him, as Boulanger is at t present being accused of desiring to be a ( Ccesar, and with leading a Caprean life s at his lovely cottago at Ville d'Avray, ' •when his death revealed the simplicity of a his home and the modesty of his wants, s Though leader of the Republicans] y Speaker of Parliament, and maker of Ministers, his houso at Ville d'Avray was placed under the espionage of two detectives. And tho Municipal Council c of Paris having refused to grant a site in '' the city for tbo monument, tho Govern- C monk was obliged to select one inside tho Tuilleries, which is State property. Nor v would the Municipality baptize as much P as a blind alley after him. Similar treat- 0 ment has been extended to Thiors' ri

memory. The beautiful Btatue which has just been so fitly inaugurated by President Carnot, is the result of subscriptions from Gambetta's own partisans. And to think if Royalists or Imperialists return to power, that statue, as well ns ninny others set up by the Republic, will be carted away tosome lumber cellar, there to repose as neglected as used-up tombstones, the removed busts and statues of Capets, lionuparti-t", and Orleanists. The inauguration of tho statue was a capital occasion for divided Republicans to fornix's and forget ; but the opportunity was not improved. .Eloquent addresses were delivered, but by this have been forgotten. Tho statue itself represents Gatnbetta in his favourite oratorical, or Mirabeau attitude. It is very expressive. The inscription on the pedestal is as lengthy as a charity sermon, or the mortuary scroll of an Egyptian nuitnmy. It must have been the happiest moment of his life, for M. Spuller, Gambetta's great chum, and who accompanied hiin in his balloon escape from Paris, to have delivered the homage address, as president of the Statue Committee. There was also another personage present, the famous "Madame Leonine," who kept house for, and lived with Gambetta. She often told the deceased to break their liason the moment it would fetter his candidature for tho Presidentship. She is the widow of a French General, has a son, now aged 15, and who called Gambetta " Uncle." She possesses all Gambetta's papers, and when a seasonable moment comes, will publish a selection. She iB a lady of great natural capacity, a keen observer of events, and ever proved a wise /E^'eria.

There was a most interesting collection of personal souvenirs of Gambetta, and notably those connected with his youth His first copy books, the pot hooks, and hangers ; his themes in Latin, Greek, and English; and the first speech he delivered —on the occasion of his college examination. Close to the Gambetta monument, are the sites where formerly were erected, the equestrian statues of Francais I, and the Duc'd Orleans. It is said, that some of the bronze cf the first, has been melted to make the statues of Jeanne d'Arc and and Ledrie Rollin, and the second, sold as old metal, after passing through the smeltery has been converted into Etienne Marcel, who resides now majestically, close to the Hotel de Ville. The Floquct-Boulanger incident, and the duel which was on the cards, if ever Greek mat Greek, are events not calculated to enhance the renown of Parliamentary Government. When persons in high stations exchange impolite words, humbler mortals may claim not to be too severely judged for rushing into flat blasphemy. In testing the constituencies on his own name directly, as a revisionomcter, Bonlanger takes up new ground, where only

discontented, disappointed, or disgusted politicians cati follow liim. In any case he must be what the electors will make him. The official Ferryist journal demands the expulsion of the General as a public enemy—a Catiline in fact. But Cicero before he can orate must have the proofs of Cataline's conspiracy. The Municipal Council has given the Omnibus Company of Paris one clear month to comply with a summons to fulfil its contract —to provide more facilities for the travelling public-or its material will be seized. The company replies that to do so ou its part would he ruin. In the discussion it was said tins company's horses were underfed, and had "saw dust added to their rations, as a substitute for straw." The simplest way to solve the difficulty, and to avoid law expenses, is for the Prefect of the Seine to give—as he has the lepal right to do— equal running powers to new omnibus companies, but on condition they must never amalgamate. It is the tendency of Aaron's rod to swallow up the rest that Ueep3 opposition industries in France

from holding out. Centenaries are so commou that it is refreshing to have the prospect of a millenary. Paris intends to have such, to celebrate the defeat of the Normans, under their terrible chief Ralls, who for the third and last time besieged Paris in SSB. The Normans plagued Lntece as much as they did Em-land. When the citizens learned that their elephantine and cowardly King, Charles the Fat, had purchased a shameful peace—2oo pounds of silver for the ransom of the city—they made a " torrential sortie," drove the Norsemen into Burgundy, and" a tail wave of the fliuht sucked the king away with them. His Majesty was abandoned even by his domestics, and had to end his days bogging his bread from a charitable bishop. Parisians were thus early in the field in compelling their kings to bolt. In 88S Paris was ransomed for 200 pounds silver ; in 1871 B'smarck exacted 200 millions of francs as rausom .-noney to spare the the capital. M. Pasteur states that since the new police decree has been in operation, about six weeks, to destroy all wandering ( l°g 3 i the number of persons bitten by dogs has diminished 25 per cent. If no dogs existed no one at all would be bitten, and Pasteur's occupation would be gone. Madlle Juliette Grevy, sister of the ex President, has bceu shut up in a lunatic asyltnn since 1860. M. Grevy never omitted paying her constant visits and seeing that she wanted for nothing. She had lucid intervals, but she was never told of her brother's fall. She detested M. Wilson, and one had only to shout his name in her car—she was deaf—to bring on a fit. That name gives many sane French people at present fits. M. Floquet said in his duel speech that the coloured pictures of Boulangor came from Germany. He might have added, so did the famous horse back chromos of Macinahon—riding from a fass—came from German presses. And to be accurate and impartial nearly thrceFonrths of the popular republican insignia »nd mementoes come from the same land. Madame de Valsoyre has petitioned the Chamber to allow women to dress is men. Fcrniuinc toilettes she says are jmbarrassing and dangerous. The Examining Committee declined to recomnend the petition, but suggested that petitioner should avoid all dangerous toilettes.