OUR PARIS LETTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5628, 10 March 1879, Page 6

OUR PARIS LETTER.

[took ouh ovnr coebkspondent.l Jan. 18. , Where are we now ? The country has done' its duty well in ‘eturning a Conservative Republican majoriy to the Senate, to work hand in hand wr a the Chamber of Deputies. 1 The elections of Tan. 5 appear to be the complement of the Ei volution—peaceful and legal this time—of 17.19. The Cabinet, or at least its chief, M. Difaure, does: not appear to comprehend the magnitude of the change. 'The Republicans, master of tiheir house, wish to occupy it j but it contains many residents, their mortal enen ies, who will not retire, and the Ministry laoi i the courage to apply the broom. The legislators are very determined ;to eject all obnoxi jus functionaries, who have made themselves conspicuous by their unrelenting hate to tl e Republic. No dynasty on arming at pover has ever preserved its

<foes atbAhe expense of its friends, yet this - contradiction is what many demand. The • declaration-programme of Ministers neither < responds'to the wants nor opinions of the country. It ie paved with good intentions, like a certain place ; however, France wants no promises, but immediate actions; and in this sense the manifesto finds no echo either in Parliament or the nation. Ministers must march or retire; having waited ten years to ■■ secure self-Qovemment, France has the right to demand its loyal application. There is no want of men to govern ; there are as able administrators out of office as in functions. The rumours are very general that the Marshal does not exactly understand the situation, and that after - all' something - can be done by opposing personal to national . power. Vanity of vanities; the Marshal must knuckle down or retire, and whether the . latter be an affliction or a blessing, it must ■take place in any case 22 months hence. There are two capital questions at issue; the 18 supreme military commands —for each corps d’armee is a veritable independent army —are in the hands of almost reactionist . generals. Instead of retiring after throe years? service, as required by law, they have been aimply retained in their positions by a simple Cabinet decree. The Republicans demand that the law be applied, and generals friendly to the constitution nominated. Then the judicial bench is notorious for its animosity towards the Republic. Many of its members have shamefully committed themselves—one was fined 500 f for his political misconduct recently—and yet they are left 'Unmolested, even where it is in the power of the> Cabinet to inflict a disgrace or a removal. It is not exorbitant to demand the purging of the justice seat of injustice. Respecting the clerical question, the Government has spoken up. It will keep the clergy in the way they should go, and the clauses of the Concordat will cease to be a dead letter. This is all the most Red Republican demands. At the present moment there are in France only two classes of opinion—ultramontanes and liberals, the former being no longer specially favoured must combat modern France now on equal terms. The changes m the War Office are notmore timely than necessary; the present heads will not henceforth permit any more . playing at coup d'etat: the new regimental flags—replacing those lost during i the invasion, have been commanded; beneath the spear-head Is a medaEion, . composedof bronze laurel leaves, with the initials : R. F.; j»nd to think, intrigue and conspiracy, keptoackthis’among other definite matters till the present. Able Republican military officers, who had been pushed aside for their opimons, are now receiving the reward for their fidelity. The long-deferred appointment of M. Ghallemel-Lacour, as Ambassador to Switzerland, is the first decided Republican appointed to represent the Republic —qr “France;!’ as the official journal blundered the nomination. The gravest of all questions is the impeaching of the de Broglie Ministry. No one doubts but that they well merit it after their violences and oppressions; but is it politic to arraign them? The deputies and senators just returned from their constituencies assert the electors insist on an example being made of the evildoers, so that it is not impossible they will be judged and condemned—but not to the guillotine. It is only in the journals that French politicians cut -off each other’s heads. But the difficulty is not in the ministers-: it is the fear that the accused, after using the poor Marshal and abusing him, will, in their defence, produce some compromising documents that would necessitate his resignation. By the letter of the Constitution he will be held irresponsible. But if MacMahon resigns, France wElnot the less survive him. The Republic was established independent of him, and despite him and M. Greyy is quite ready to step in the vacancy. ' It is alleged, that France would be lost in the eyes of civilised nations, by having a civilian at the head of the Executive, and more especially one who could not ride at a review. , Now, Napoleon 111. was a splendid rider; as for his military talents, no one believed in them but himself; yet France considers 18 years’ loss of liberty, the disasters of Mexico, and the consequences of Sedan, too heavy a! price for accomplished horsemanship and gold-laced cocked hats. Equestrianism and military knowledge did not save Charles X. from dying a devotee in exile, and thongh Louis Phillips distinguished himself at Talmy, and rode superbly when Fieschi popped at him, he was not the less urged to call a cab and drive out of France. Thiers was a capital President, was a civilian by profession, but a soldier in thought, word, and deed. He was accused of not knowing how to ride, and hence incapable of ruling or representing his country. I have seen an excellent portrait of the deceased President in the saddle, and right well he looked ; and it must not be forgotten he was on horseback, and received his baptism of fire, when Fieschi exploded his peculiarly infernal machine at the King and his cortege. It is a Polichinelle secret that there are generals in active service who do not know how to ride, and that, pending the invasion, civil engineers—Freycinet, the present Minister of Public Works—set battalions in the field better than professionals, several admirals were transformed into generals—with the Army of the Loire, the “horse marine” officers won compliments even from the enemy. In a little.time the hurly-burly of the transition period we are going through shall have passed, and then France will settle down to practical legislative work, for which the nation hungers and thirsts. There is the vital question of obligatory education, and next, the regulation of commercial treaties. People have not pronounced loudly enough to be heard for free-trade, but they have against exclusive tariffs. The Marquis of Salisbury’s letter to the Spanish Government, promising a revision of the duties on sherry and port, is an “eye-opener” for the French. The wine-growers of Medoc, the silk and velvet manufacturers of Lyons, the agriculturists of Normandy—that “kitchen garden of London” —are astir. They will be followed by the small producers—in the aggregate large manufacturers —in carrying a war into the camp of cotton-spinners and iron-masters, who do not appear inclined to execute a reci.procity treaty,-save that it be all on their side. The French revenue is sound, and continues to have an excess of receipts over expenditure. No great remission of taxation can be expected, as much remains to he executed in the reorganization of the defences of the country, in national education, and internal means of communication. It is wonderful and incomprehensible how the French manage to get along during these pinching times. There are thousands with-, out employment, who would be anxious to work half, or any time at all, ard those who are employed do not receive much wages; yet all live, and well too, in the quarters of Paris where artizans and labourers most do congregate. There are to be found the best stocked provision stores, and the food of unexceptionable quality; the shops are crowded,’; and the transactions are all cash; I believe the secret of this is, that Frenchwomen work in their own way as severely as their husbands and brothers, and at a great number of trades too, not in factories, but at their own homes, and thus keep the pot boiling. I would suggest that economists at the present juncture, when labour problems are ns puzzling as squaring the circle, ought to {consider the feminine element in the Continental market, and its influence on the price of labour. The National Lottery appears to be at last all right; confidence seems to have reappeared in the soundness of the tickets, as they are jelling at tepectable premiums. I think this galvanisation is largely due to the show of prizes being thrown open to the public. There can be no doubt that thousands of the prizes are magnificent; with what a gusto visitors crowd around the silver service,valuel2s,ooofr; and the tiers of diamonds, and the bracelets, the rings, the watches. Here the ladies throng—retire, come back, consult the registers, note the number of the big gooseberries, and look that their tickets are safe. I observed one agriculturist measuring a threshing machine; doubtless he had awarded this prize to himself in advance, and wished to know was it too large for his barn: a philosopher could read the characters of the public, by judging of their grouping at 2 prizes: I noticed two young women,

inachto ;„a few, br?ad and butter misses were rattling their Sneers over the keys of a piano, ns if they had won it; While somevisitors close by growled at the freedom taken with other people’s property. The proprietor of a journal told me the other night, that in a moment of philanthropic weakness he announced lie would register the tickets of his readers and look after their prizes. He has received no less than one million of numbers to examine. He intends to apply to a Bank to loan him a few clerks quick at figures. The French do not stint their praise at the manner the English have done their work in Afghanistan j when fighting is to be done, the maxim of Napoleon X. is sound strike quickly, and strike strongly. As for Turkey, pebple have given up even reading the telegrams from Constantinople; but opinion would not be the less delighted to see the Russians the - other side of the Danube. A French correspondent in the neighbourhood of Adrianople attests that the politeness of the Russian soldiers is admirable; they act as porters at the railway stations; carry your luggage to your-hotel, and will wade through sheets of water in the street to point out the shallowest position for your feet. In the plains of Bulgaria the Russian soldiers build exceedingly comfortable warrens, which they burrow in the soil, and only raise the roof a few feet above the surface of the ground. In this upper portion is the window and the chimney. The hut accommodates 15 men ; a wrinkle to those about furnishing on the half or the whole credit system; the furniture consists of stools, a table and a sofa, all made of earth.

A young Hungarian Princess has just been arrested with her Lovelace in this city, and returned to her papa. The seducer passed himself off as a baron; he was but a valet at a neighbouring nobleman’s house ; this he confessed in the presence of the poor girl, and further, that the money they had been living upon for the last two months, was the proceeds of a robbery at his master’s expense. General Grant cannot complain of the manner in which he has been received here; the reception d'adieu, given in his honour by the American Minister, General Noyes, was very brilliant, and crowded. It was the common topic of conversation during the evening, how .shabbily Uncle Sam pays his Ministers. General Noyes has but 75,000 francs salary a year, and has to live beyond it, to keep up position. -M. Washburne saw no company, being as poor as a church mouse. Surely the Great Republic ought to be able, like France, to pay for her glories. General Grant seemed fatigued, and has grown, thin; he must sigh for a haven of rest, and liberty for weeks to puff clouds. What a model the Ring of Holland is for bridegrooms; the first thank offering he made was to order the portrait of his mother-in-law to adorn bis locket.

A new guide to France, just “revised and corrected,” thus described “ Ham, chief town in the department of the Somme, with a celebrated prison-castle, in which is incarcerated, at the present moment, Louis Napoleon.”