OUR PARIS LETTER.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 6905, 10 November 1887, Page 6

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FROM OtTB CORHESPONDENT.]

PARIS, Septembier 10. It is to be hoped that the Marquis of Salisbury is of the same way of tmnfcmg as the French journals that announced the fact of England and France having come to an agreement respecting the Suez Canal and the New Hebrides questions. The latter is, after aH, the more important, as the Australians do not intend, and they are perfectly right, to have their robust manhood in any way sat upon by old Europe. It is alleged by the usual "one who knows," that France engages not to acnextheNew Hebrides if England undertakes to do likewise. This is whatcausesthe presumption that the hallelujahs are premature, since a mutual agreement has existed between the two powers since IS7S, not to annex the islands. It is because France has observed this treaty a Iα by taking: possession of the New Hebrides notwithstanding, that a misunderstanding has been created with England, and subpicion bred in the minds of determined Australians respecting the promises of France. Like America, the less Australia has to do with European diplomacy the better for her welfare; the living should keep aloof from the effete. The Under-Secretary for the Coloni«| intends to inaugurate the experiment or State-assisted emigration in New Caledonia, and more important still, in French Guiana. Groups of home peasants, reduced to misery by the destruction of the vineyards andagricultural depression generally, will be shipped to these countries when the future home shall have been broken in by convict labor. A district will be cleared, reclaimed, and roaded embracing 30,000 acres, to be subdivided into lots of sixty acres each, to accommodate 500 families. Shanties will be run up, as well as outoflices, and elementary farm plant provided. The emigrants will be installed in these holdings, and will be guaranteed the definite possession of them, after binding themselves to repay the charges by redemption annuities. The plan is a combination of the American Land Company and the French Credit Mobilier.

The scheme merits every best wish for success; the emigration of a few million families from Mother France to her distant possessions would be the first serious step for the colonial expansion of this country. But there must be no shutting eyes to the rocks ahead; no indulging in illusions. There is first to overcome the reluctance of the French peasant to quit France. It is a sufficient ordeal when he resolves to leave his native parish to immigrate simply to Paris. Then there are journals which are opposed to the best bone and sinew of the land being scattered broadcast over the wild wastes of colonial wildernesses. They will give fits to aspen pilgrim fathers. More serious still is the pivot of the whole scheme. The clearings for the contemplated agricultural colonies are to be effected by convict labor camps, that after out-lining 30,000 acres, will move on to do the same for similar areas. Now the grand difficulty France has to encounter with her recidivists is their unconquerable aversion and resolve not to work. The reports from the Governors, of New Caledonia attest the utter helplessness of the authorities to cope with this non possu?nus of the criminal. The recidivist is a product, happily for human nature, special to France; he is naturally and scientifically intellectual; there is not a spark of the angel left in him ; no place exists "wherein a single seed of reform could be sown ; for penitence and redemption his nature is a blank. He_ believes in no hereafter, has only a wild animal fear of death, views society as having , victimised him, and feels it an obligation to take revenge on society by poisoning the very springs i of its existence and sapping the bases of its life action. He laughs at fetters and warders; he knows he must be fed, and outcast though he be, he is fully aware Frame will not permit that he be punished out of the world for an uncapital offence. France threatens to scourge, but holds back the lash. Say the correct classes— Ship the recidivists anywhere, so that the filth be shot out of France, and be not unmerciful to the irreclaimable sinners when 12,000 miles away. Above all, never let any of them come back, whether reformed or deeper crimed. Some years ago I was requested by a leading Australian to sound the French authorities on a project that he and some friends were ready to carry out. They would reclaim, stock, and farm hind concessions in New Caledonia, and after an agreed upon term, hand the founded holdings over definitely to the most deserving of the reformed convicts, on c ondition that the concessioniets would be guaranteed the free labor of the convicts in exchange for their being fed. The proposition was not entertained, ostensibly owing to the fact that compulsory labor could not be guaranteed. The new scheme, will it be more fortunate ?

After all, President Jules Gros means business. He will sail about the 9th October next for his new realm, baptized " Independent Guiana," of which the capital is Counania. He will be accompanied by 150 shareholders, and will proceed at once to make civilised tracks over the immense region lying between French Guiana and Brazil, and claimed by France" and Brazil alike. Since the signing of the treaty of Utrecht in April, 1713, up to the present, no boundary commission has settled the frontier, either materially or scientifically. President Gros holds that since 1713 the bottom has been as much knocked out of the treaty of Utrecht as that of the Golden Bull, or of Crecy. If by the treaty 6f 1841, Brazil and France agreed to recognise the Cournanian land as a neutral zone, the natives have the natural right to go in for a republic, and Jules Gros as their medicine man. Nay, more, the experiment will be most interesting, that of Frenchmen, working their own patent for colonisation. — S. G. D. G.

Bicycles have been ruled as henceforth an essential in war impedimenta. No report has yet been sent in on the "letting slip dogs of war." However, since many years the French in Algeria have always employed dogs at the advanced posts, as did the Knights of Rhodes. And the faithful friend of man can well distinguish between his master and an Arab. In 1802, General Melac had a dog that accompanied him in all the heroic sorties from the besieged town of Landau, and could smell a mine, as other dogs can truffles. In Napoleon's first campaign in Italy, the famous dog Moustache was of extraordinary utility, and at Marengo he proved as invaluable as the geese in the Roman Capital. It is not expected that poor Tray or Toto will ever carry out the field telegraph; but it is anticipated they will be of much use, as advanced sentinels, for the advanced sentinels. Corinth was said to have small advanced forts wholly occupied by dogs, simply to give the alarm.

After the dreadful calamity at Exeter It will be very difficult to induce many-per-sons to go to a theatre. Managers here are positively afraid to re-open, believing they wonld not cover even expenses. Only theatres with doors kept wide open and broad runs thereto from the interior of the house, can count upon forlorn-hope spectators. A gamin would view now a pass to the upper galleries as a permit for a free cremation. Theatricals must, apparently, come off in the open air, as in Greece and Rome. A companyf or erecting and working a colosseum might ina&e hat? full of money. A camp entertainment of the Buffalo Bill and Bed Shirt kind, in the racecourse, in. the Bois de Boulogue, would draw. The score of performing Ashantees now in the Jardin d' Acclimation is an exhibition that owes its success to being held in the open air, on grounds plentifully intersected with running streams. As if further safety were necessary there is a fire engine kept in the elephants' shed, and the telescope escape ladder beside the cot of the giraffes. Parisians are incensed against theatrical managers, and the authorities alike, who profess to have completely fire-proofed their establishments and certified that all is serene, but who have not adopted th** electric light. The latter is opposed by tVe Gas Company, which has a monopoly. What signifies the conflagration of a theatre, and the incineration of a of hundred of play goers, in to families dropping f rom reduced dividends on gas comply scrip. Then, "Man is made to mourn " Good news for civilization, the Prefect de Police has refused thepe'.ftion for permission to hold eock-figbts. That functionary received at same tune, -renewed applications for genuine bu«, figfcts in Paris, and Engush boxings."- w ith. closed doors! When the turn for butt-doxr fightine and terrierand man. nfc kiKere against time? Fr S nC * *** famous specimen of the galkttaeeee that MHed its thirtyfive rivals* aod croweoVover their remains, must retaua to it will be well watebed *ortbe futv.ee.by the Anti-Cruelty Society. Let the <*ck remain, as the poet describes, "a father, lover, and happy chef, on his dr<ngbm throne, surrounded by admiring comAesaßß."

In Hyderabad, wMch by comparison possesses great aOTfcultural and mineral resources, the N>zam raises £4,000,000 yearly from a^K>p/alattoao&9,ooojooU.