Parisian Notes..

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 2, 10 October 1890, Page 2

Parisian Notes.

The Chamber of Deputies have recently paflsed a resolution appointing one day in the week a day of rest for women and children. An attempt was made to have Sunday chose a as the day in question, but the motion was defeated. Still the fact that of 514 deputies present 210 voted in support of the motion has some auspicious significance.

The death of Sir Richard Wallace has excited « good deal of interest. The deceased, however, was chiefly remarkable as a millionaire, of doubtful origin, and whose wealth had been bequeathed to bim by the late Marquiß of Hertford, to whom he 19 supposed to have been in some way related. He owned among the rest a place celebrated for its beauty adjoining the Bois de Boulogne and known as Bagatelle. He was also the absentee owner of estates in the county Antrim, which, a little time ago, he had offered for sale to his tenants, rejecting, however, the prices they were willing to pay for their holdings.

By the death of the Duchess de Persigny a lady who recalled the memory of Napoleon 1., has passed away. She was the daughter of Marshal Ney. The Duchess bore a repute for eccentricity, by which , it was said, she sometimes startled the fashionable world. The Queen of England, indeed, was accredited by rumour with refusing to permit of the reappointment of the Duke de Persigny as ambassador at her court, because of her displeasure at the conduct of the Ducbese. Both the Duke and Duchess, nevertheless, were strongly attached to English customs, and their household was regulated as much as posiible in accordance with them. Their sons,in fact, were instructed in boxing, as de rigueur, among their other lessons, and a solemn German tutor conducted them periodically to a professor of the noble art, whom he also, though with some degree of wonder, considered as indispensable in an English education.

The celibataire occupies at present a critical position. It is, in fact, proposed to make him pay a tax for the immunity he enjoys from the cares of married life. But is there not an implied slight offered to the fair sex in representing the eingle life to the world as worth paying for ? The tax upon bachelors may certainly be looked at from more than one point of view.

A sensational statement has recently been published in a volume brought out by an author of come standing, to tbe effect that Prince Bismarck, in order to force Napoleon 111. to refrain from opposing the Austro- Prussian treaty of 1866, had threatened to revolutionize Germany — notwithstanding the inevitable fall of the house of Hohsnzollern. If this statement be true, the wonder is not that the Prince has been at length deposed, but that he was ever permitted to occupy the position filled by him. The statement, in fact, seems hardly credible.

Among the features of the day is the increase of insanity in France. The matter is not the less deplorable, or indeed the less suggestive,becsuse an increase of drunkenness is assigned as the Bource of the evil.

Suicide also averages high. A case that has given rise to much commiseration is that of a family of eight persons, a father and mother and six children, who, with theexceptiou of the mother, were lately among the v etims. The fumes of charcoal were the means chosen, provmg fatal in every instance except the one mentioned. A state of trance is supposed to have saved the woman's life by preventing her from breathing the noxious vapour. Poverty, and unwillingness to apply for aid, were the motives of the terrible deed. The case is Baid to reflect discreditably on the manner in which the public charities are administered. Th s, however, is only consistent with the general condition of things now obtaining. Mile. Louise Michel has been released from prison on the plea of insanity. The lady herself, however, has not made any such plea. Oa the contrary she loudly complains of the indulgence shown her, declaring that it ruins her reputation and robs her of all her influence, She describes herself as still abounding in intellect. She, in fact , utterly scorns the position of the maniac even though it includes liberty. Possibly it would be generally preferable to be sane Bnd in prison rather than crazed and at large. The Fieemasons have of late been making themselves conspicuous by their scandalous opposition to the Christian burial of men who had belonged to their society, but who repented and renounced their connection at the point of death. Some glaring cases of this have recently occurred — admirably illustrating the Masonic character.

A statue of Joan of Arc has been lately unveiled with imposing ceremonies at Nancy. An attempt at a demonstration was made by representatives of the party of irrehgion — who yet daie to claim the Maiden as belonging to them. The citizens, however, give these gentlemen a cool reception, and the chief feature of the celebration was a fine panegyric delivered in the cathedral by M^r. Turniniz, the Bishop of the diocese. Devotion to the memory of the s intly heroine is rife all through the country, and it would almost s j em as if the decision of i he Ctmrch was anticipated in the eulte paid to her Pilgrimages to her birth-place at Domieoay are frequent and crowded.

Speculators in Japan are buying up all the rice and holding it fur excessive prices, while, on account of the failure of the crop, the poor people are starving,