NEWSPAPER BRIBERY IN FRANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 851, 21 March 1868, Page 15

NEWSPAPER BRIBERY IN FRANCE.

In the Corps Legislatif, some fortnight ago, M. De Kerveguen caused a very unpleasant sensation by some remarks or the liberal press of Paris. He reminded the Chamber lhat certain papers which were vigorously scolding the Government last spring for not making war upon Prussia, suddenly veered around and advocated a pacific policy. He had received several letters about this curious fact from Berlin. He had now found an article in a journal for which he did not hold himself responsible, but which he would read to the Chamber:

" Berlin, Dec. 2. —The bill for a loan of sixty millions of tlialers has been presented. It will no doubt pass. The financial situation here is brilliant, and therefore the Liberals grant all that is asked of them. * * * The average amount of secret service money for years past was 35,000 thalcrs, but it has been observed with the greatest astonishment that in ISGG the stun swelled to 729,000. Now, it is notorious in Berlin that the greater part of this sum was employed in bribes to foreign newspapers. It is especially said that 400,000 thalers 0 ,000,000f) was absorbed by the French Press, and principally by five leading Liberal Paris journals."

MM. Gucroult and Havin : We protest.

M. de Kerveguen, continuing to read : " And whose names 1 can give you, if you wish to have them." M. Gamier Pages : This is a calumny.

Several Members : Go on ? go on

M. de Kerveguen — "A certain great journal, which boasts of having a million of readers, received six hundred thousand francs ; another, a more stately one, which pretends to have its entree to salons, and affects high society, pocketed only three hundred thousand francs, because, having terribly declined from its former greatness, it now lives only by the favur of those Governments which are good enough to honor it with their confidence. — (Laughter. )— This old organ of well

1 bred people has now a very limited circa* lation. A third journal, which dates from the Italian campaign of 1859, got only onehundred and fifty thousand francs. This, considering the services it rendered to M. de Bismarck, was the worst paid of all. — (Interruption and laughter.) It is true that it would have been, throwing away money to pay it highly, because it would cheerfully haveworked for nothing against a Catholic nation. And, moreover, this journal having learned that its brethren were better paid than itself, now speaks very tartly of Prussia and M. de Bismark. The fourth organ, a younger paper still, was valued at but one hundred thousand francs. The fifth, which had then just come out in a rew character by reason of a change in the proprietary, was thought worth 250,000 francs. You will, perhaps, be astonished that I should be enabled to give you such precise details. The thing is, however, so simple, and so well known here, that I am entitled to be astonished I thai you si ould be ignorant of it. v There are hundreds of German correspondents in Paris, and we are far better informed of what goes on in Paris than you are who live there. "

MM. Havin, of the Siecle, and Gueroult, of the Opinion Natkmale, have called upon M. de Kerveguen to prove his charges before a " jury of honor."

The latter gentleman has accepted the proposition. The jury will consist of MM. d'Anclarre, Marter, Marie, Jule3 Favre, and, perhaps, President Schneider.

The Saturday Review continues to urge that the art of governing has been lost t> us, and that the duty of governing hag fallen into contempt. , The chapel of St Thomas, Douglas, Isle of Man, has been closed, in consequence of a dispute as to the right of presentation between the Bishop and the Vicar of Braddon, in whose parish the church is situated. The services can only take place under the license of the Bishop, and t>he Vicar has the power of inhibition ; and as both have exercised their negative powers, the affair has come to a dead-lock, and the Bishop has withdrawn his licence

The Skin axd the Use of Cosmetics. — Such being the skin — so highly organised,, so delicate, bo multifarious an organism, so wonderfully made, one having so many things to do — is it reasonable to think we can abuse the skin by laying on pigments at random with impunity ? Believe me, not. If I touch a wasp with a drop of oil, the wasp soon dies suffocated. Breathing wholly by apertures through its skin, the oil fills up those apertures, and the insect dies in consequence. "We human beings are not so badly off as that. We have lungs to bivathe wittr though wasps have not ; hence nothing laid upon the skin to occlude our skinpores would have the effect of suffocatmg us suddenly. The use of such is very prejudicial nevertheless, and should ever be borne in mind, when the use ©f skin-cosme-tics is contemplated. Thi* is not the worstthat may happen. The human organism miy not only b- injured through painting or varnishing Jarge portions of the skin, so that it can no longer breathe or transpire ; another injury may come through the further evil of injurious thiuf s absorbed and taken into the syst<-m. Thus, to take an imaginary case, if perchauce the fashion should ever dawn and come into vogue of rubbing Hue mercurial ointment upon the skin, m the interests of promoting some imaLinary beauty, the effect would soon be de>th through salivation. Such a case isimpossible; since the time of the ancient Britons nobody in this country has been thought thi* more handsome for being painted blue. Still, the as^umpt'on is not valueless. Though mercurial preparations be not used as skin-pigments, they are fr.-quently used — and worse, arsenic — as depilatories applied to the skin to accomplish the removal of superfluous hair. In this way the result has frequently been injurious ; in some cases fatal. Lead preparations, again, are to be guarded against solicitously. Painters who get smeared with. white-Lad, printers who handle pnntxng- types (the ms'tal of which is partly lead), plumbers and smelters and o hers much concerned ia handl,ng the metal lead or its compounds, are ever subject To incur that frightfuldisease lead colic and palsy. I myself knew api inter wh ■ di^-d from this cause. These f'.cts may serve to ft* on the mind the carewith which le-id applications should be regarded. Occasionally flake- white, which is none ether than white-lead, has heen u;»ed to impart whiteness to the skin. The practice is dangerous beyond my power to reprobate. Suffering, up to torture the most awful, ending in death, is always imminent. Another reprehensible custom, involving the cosmetic use of a lead compound, is the following :— Upon the face or other." visible skin a pimple is s«en. or other eruption ; whereupon, at the instigation of some old woman who cures with simples — using nothing strong— a wash of Goulard wateri 3 applied again and jo gain. Now » • oula -d water is none els« than a soluble preparation of lead, adapt* d in the Inchest degree to the absorbent; capacity of the skm. It is absorbed into the system, and tvil effects arise, few knowing whence they come. Goulard-water is no simple believe me. It may be used ia certain cases with advantage once in a way ; but no doctor would dare to use it over long periods, as certaiu old women do who cure (and kill) by simples.