OUR PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2820, 9 August 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FKOM OUIt OWN (HIKRK.SI'OXDKNT.)

l.'.Mlis, June 7. Kfixita I.A JlirsicA. The (Jovvniment his done well to let the nurtain fall on the " Conscript " comedy. Home Minister (.'onstans Iris ueted" towards the Dun d'OrliVius as Premier Tirard imght to have dune when the young mat, arrived in France—sent him back to Switzerland. Asa political investment, the ivc.ipade h.-.s not hroii-rht any grist to the Oiieani-t mill. The trial of the duke created no sensation ; his Dives imprisonment at Ciairvaux, not a particle of interest. Perhaps it w;is anticipated that the Republicans would shoot, him in a ditiOi, as Napoleon did the Due d'Enghien; or hand him over tu the giol care of a Simon, to havn his life whittled away as was that of Louis XVII. Instead, the Republicans co Idled the duke in a bandbox cell, and.applied to him the courteous code of old Versailles. The Comte de Paris and his stall' must now perceive they have no rank and file in France, and that the country seeks no philosopher's stone in any form of restored monarchy. The very idea of kingship is ilead in Franco, and no respect can ever be. evoked for that principle. Th?. pardon companion of tho Due d'Orltkns —and as inoffensive —was that political old girl, the Red Virgin Louise Michel, proof that Minister Constans, in addition to being the Boanerges, is the " funny man" of the Cabinet.

In France, parties banish one another, following apparently some law of political heredity. The legislature prohibited the Due d' Orleans from entering France, and declared him ineligible for the army. He was e!»e«d to fly in the face of both prohibitions, and to count upon the gallery to applaud his violations of the law. He selected as capital to farm—the Cousscripts ; he was burning to join them in the army, while they were burning to get away from it. One conscript less in an army of three millions, will not weaken the power of France—an army, where now dukes and clod-hoppers stand shoulder to shoulder like 'Arry and Tommy. 0 shade of Loais XIV. The Duke's Dantean lamentations, as written for him'like a speech from the throne, or a presidential message —did not fizz as long as a Catherine's wheel. Odd exile, who has a palace in London wherein to revel ; a peahody credit with his banker ; and all the world before him where to choose, from shooting tigers in a Bengal jungle, to spearing seals in Polar ice holes. The position is next to a Russian atrocity, or a Newfoundlander's cod and Jobdter afflictions.

The " Orleaniafc Vaudeville" is an agreeable interlude between the longrange duel of Prince Bismarck versus Emperor William, and the twisting of the British Lion's tail by African .Stanley versus Lord Salisbury's objection to that liberty. The French are quite prepared for something '"big" on the part of English enterprise, to nip the German rush for Central Africa ; they expect a simultaneous advancs of southwards with Khartoun for objective, flanked by the railway from Suakim to Berber, —a lino considered as next to made. Tho evacuation of the Nile Viilley, having been hooked and eyad to the departure from Tunisia —both these sleeping dogs are allowed to lie.

Foreign Minister Itibot is a Frenchman with Anglo-Saxon brains. He has just presided at a banquet of tho ''French Alliance," whose aim i.s, to uphold and propagate tho French tongue. At first Olush, this would appear, that French was on the decline. In one senso it i.s so, whin compared with tho 1.20 millions Aiiiilo-S ixoiiH who speak Kuglish, and the (10 millions of Gauls who speak French or tho over IUO millions of Russians that speak Slav. Since 1871, when Prince Bismarck iniisted on employing German, instead of French, for diplomatic eorresponilonc-) and treaties, he gave a knock down blow to thn political monopoly of French. What M. ilibot. did not tell bis hearers was, that English was the language of commerce and business; that language was propagated, not by its elastic charms, but by its utility.

If Frenchmen do not live abroad, either to extend their trade or to coloui.-e, if they decline to iucroaso and multiply, how do they expect to win the Derby or the ({rand Prix, in tho Tower of Babel linguistic raws? Tho ex-ambassador to Germany, Viscount de Gontaut Birun, who has just died, merited a statue, or at least a lltiiro funeral, if any public, bcnef.nt.wr ever did. Hμ bad 22 children, of whom K! are living. He could never liavo been included in the Black List which Ilochefort threatened to publish—that of all the celebrities and hi:;h functionaries in France, who limited the total of their olive branches, to the mystic and chartered number of—two.

Up to the present, thodillieulty for the utili/.ition of i>. water-tall, to turn delicate machinery, has been, the inability to overcome variation:; in the rate of motive power. This was fatal for such industries «s clock-making and electric lighting, where uniformity in speed, was a necessity. Hydraulic motors were thus at a disadvantage, as compared with steam power. Iu the neighbourhood of Geneva, the waters of the " blue rushing arrowy Uhorni , , , ' are utilized, to turn 100 turbines. M. I'iecard, engineer, has invi!iiti:i"l n sort of spit-turning nncliine. with paddU; board arrangements, that cm, automatically, uniformizo the rapidity of the sluice current. At pro-.-leiic this newly regulated motive power, is being laid on for working wateh and doc!; factories, the driving of dynamos for electric liyliti and the propelling of tram cars by electricity. It is a fortune for Geneva.