OUR PARIS LETTER

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5604, 10 February 1879, Page 7

OUR PARIS LETTER

Borins t n ho a. -®* o * 2L j Ter *« Te election* f“: ,? a i* r *ith that to hare the rlr 1 ,Fr " lM ’ r ill settle down J> “ oU J ?u t’ Bol ng Monarchlal I !°.one S^SHJ^ OO of St. LawwaS. ; things Th«iv n j • w but enjoy their ** “ their time g«4 tW Hat theironLr ol^® I .® o^0 ” “ a round jm® point ** ®^ ort “id to o^a®d ß^tifeH c - !“* the »l|?k ernmen t by 01111 “““"tS, if _ conceals it* name, and IPclletan haa .ll T%» “ ■ it* picket. SHH ithhU ß wr rof wiffiTS' t ' u^pp.ta ta rs^Eo.'K

stand-up fight { to fight- without peril Is to triumph without glory, *ay the pool*. The new brooms la office, .it will bo oorioua to study, not the reforms to be effected, but the celenty with which they will be accomplished. It is to be hoped the pace will not kill. Be assured there will be nothing wild, nothing crude, and, all in harmony with the wishes, end in keeping with the wants of Fiance.

Very little attention is paid to the split in the ultramontane camp. The dispute is not of doctrines, but of tactics j not or questions, but of opportunity. Gapt de Mun, hacked by the Comte de Chambotd, marches boldly to battle s pits the Bourbon white flag against the tricolour, and the Syllabus against the salutary twolte of tha Revolution—equality before the law and liberty for sill. Oomte de Falloux,counsels the use of the fox’s in place of ihe lioo's skin. Both hides obme nearer to the donkey’s. The conning is already exposed, and than is no terror in impotenoy. Oomte de Fklloox will have about as many followers as Fkn HyaoinOie—who is said to to revising the Galilean Miaaal—has of old Catholics.

The Bonspariista are relatively worse. They were a respectable minority once, but brag ftod violence converted them into a nuisance, and each election easts them, at it wen, awiurH political rubbish. France has exposed w ahamsj (he hiss herself penetrated into the Blue Boardrooms, whan bug-bears were fabricated; she knows all the tricks, all the aims, all the east of saviours of society. Of late the Bonapartitt journal#, dying out like flies on the first nip of our autumn frost, wash an uncommonly large quantity of family linen in public. This does not speak wall for thooobonouof the party, or the fidelity of the Mamelukes. The Swiss Guards wen famous for the seal with which they changed aides.

Who will be the new President of the Senate Mar of course the lemon-shaped head of 800 Fasquier is destined not to ornament the chair when the new session opens. There is a feeling in favour of Jules Simon, and he has many excellent qualities for the task,, only ho is considered to depend more upon extreme unction than firmness of character; he is sweet, oily, and affable; can smile as well as the Duo de Broglie, but does not practice the ducal political villainies. Unfortunately, he andGambetta are not friends. He has been jealous of the neat chief, and among other imprudent Teazle talk, claims the merit of having compelled Qambetta to surrender his dictatorial powers in Jan., 1871. I predict that history will reveal that Gambetta threw up the sponge on the counsel of the English Ambassador, Lord Lyons.

There is no more talk about the Marshal now than any other constitutional sovereign. What a change. The curse of French rulers, the cause of all the constitutional breakdowns, was ever owing to the monorebs not having the humility to believe the nation was wiser than they, just as everybody had more wit than Voltaire. It was only when in exile, the chased monarch saw the error of his ways; hence the sweet uses of adversity. The first battle of the triumphant Bepublioan senators will be delivered against the war office—a natural quarter. The big wigs there commence to fear the bombardment, as they have really astonished the country by nominating General Leoointe to a high command. I had the advantage of seeing this Republican of the old rock handling bis” boys’’ before the Prussians, and he kept the latter at a respectful distance at Bapanme. It is leaking out that contractors’ tins, to military store inspectors, are not limited to the one case accidentally exposed in the Senate, where a member of a commission of thirteen unreservedly demands GOOOfr. hash money to nss the Shoddy. That effrontery is either i Solly, or the hardihood springing from inveterate vice. It Is rumoured that grave misdoings have taken place in the purchase of the army horses, and (hat contractors who found their manufactures, Ac., rejected in the provinces, had only to send them to Paris to have them accepted. The War Office is charged with being behind the age ; daring the autumn manoeuvres the soldier arrived at their destination famished, only to learn that the bread and meat had been sent several mile* in an opposite direction. In the Peninsular war Pieton’s remedy for these blunders was to bang the Commissary General. About ten days ago a detachment of cavalry, 200 strong, arrived at St Cloud, and found no advice bad been received of their intended ■visit, «n«i consequently there was no stabling or rations for the horses.

The Exhibition fittings are being sold off rapidly; prices are not so much an object as to remove tbs lumber. To judge of the extent of the clearance, the public are now freely admitted without passes into the building. Some navvy works are being executed in connection with the future employment of one moiety of the Champ de Mars. The Minister of Agriculture has one million of francs, the proceeds of the franc lottery, to convert the quadrangles into a thing of beauty. The City of faria wishes to eject the War Office altogether from the site; and as the Legislature will hare to decide, the Municipality will likely gain. There is another point, and a sad one, from which the Exhibition can be viewed; the numerous, what may he called, Sheriffs* sales, that are taking place. Humble speculators stoked their all to ?nah> their fortune by the Palace, and were assisted by friends; they have now to face reckoning day; and as tbe small creditor, is in torn pressed by the gnat one,there is no rest for the debtor; at the public auction mart most beautiful things can be had for a song; there are no purchasers, because no person is inclined to nik a son when there is no evidence of the good coming, and even f omitnre brokers Biffiw from that “universal glut,” alleged' to I be the cause of all our commercial miseries. It is also worthy of note that few artistic are coming off, and that Continental send no consignments of ohjei* cT art; rfvt' the fashionable cocottes are disposing of their goods and chattels to a gratifying extent, and fewer golden tressed princesses are to be met with in the leading thoroughfares, « mailing of musk and insolence,” in dashing equipages; liverymen ■ decline to speculate upon, or to farm vice. Hard times and a serereEepublie are crushing out some of the great sins of great cities; there is less extravagance abroad, and pleasure* are enjoyed moderately and for pleasure’s sake. Hot that we mean to forego our cakes and ale i thus, for Instance, the masked balls will open in January as usual, and fast life be thus made to substantially contribute to the relief of the sick in body and estate; even a brilliant carnival is looming in' the . distance; King Pleasure will levy bis usual demand for masks and false noses; tbe age of indigestible sappers and fiddlers is not dead. Bn attendant, sledges try to turn out and to astonish the natives ; ladies appear reclining in them with the ease of a Laplander in hu Iralneau, and show off their furs, if they cannot their driving dexterity. It is fortunate that at this moment the Prefect of Police has made some sensible alterations in the regulations for tiie "takennp.” AOommiseary of Police will henceforth have the disowtionaTy power to deal with revellers or rowdies, dismissing them, binding them over to come and appear, or locking them op, was tie invariable plan hitherto, aad there den with the detntvsot eociety: the refined mind come to grief bad-only one remedy, to tear his lines* into strips and make a rope to hanghimself. . The death of the Princess Alice has been dealt with ina most touching muaatt by the French; quiet and domestic a* the dece««» was.it is only by her obituary that Kanee EhsSw bourbood, and even corresponded wto her* The fact of her being the favourite eisfe*®* the Prince of Wales, and her hereto oursmg of him, has bi*t increased the her character, while deepening .the and sincere sympathy for her untimely d< Sfoco the old cemeteries are dosed injaris attending a funeral is now no joke.fej ° n ® caUedupon to discharge the. la*t friend, Unless you are riok OT h politeness obliges you to follow thejprooeMw . tery is situated, and the road is knee P

with mud inwinter,aadthe paane’trilfc.dust in summer. The Municipality is being pushed by citiasns to eraato the new St Miry's cemetery., to which a railway will conduct the dead and (ho living. The locality is in the neighbour* hood of Montmorency, dear to Rousseau, his sentimental flirtations, and cheery parties. The Municipality postpone the deoition till the new Sensto be installed, aa the Church opposes the proposed Necropolis, alleging the distance will tend to diminish that religion cf the dead so natural to Jfoenoh people —once a year, at all events. > Another T motive for the delay is the proposition to estahlsh a crema* ting apparatus, for the accommodation. of (hose who prefer, in their laat will and testa* meat, to be incinerated rather than intoned. ; In the meantime, an " ‘Dm Company ” is to founded. They will do all that is necessary in the matter; to secure the respectful and religious burning of corpses, according to fixed prices t they wiU supply urns, aa the marble confraternity at present do tomb* •tones, and, if necessary, will store (he urns With their contents, aa certain establishments do furniture all the year roond, or carpets during the summer months. ! The photographer Pierie Petit, at present, takes very satisfactory photos by the electric light Clients allege the "eyes" come out totter in the portrait than with ordinary daylight Those I have seen are capital,and, Move all, devoid of what are called atudio, smuts.

i Art will be crushed by the favours the Republic is bestowing upon it. The proposition is now being vety mvourably oonsiaered to make'the models of those celebrated oastlea that only exist in history. Visitors to the Exhibition saw the idea realised in the pretty model of the Ohkteau de Fieriefonda. The next attempt will be to re-make the bid Louvre, on which it is wall known the present building rests.