PARIS.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 52, 30 July 1874, Page 4

PARIS.

(From a correspondent of the “ Press.") June 2. Political events arc shaping themselves, and will very soon impose. For the instant the silence or defensive attitude of the new Cabinet is as secondary as the voting of something constitutional. The eyes of the country follow with anxiety and fervent wishes for success, the adjunction—not coalition of the moderate Royalists, or independent Orleanists, with the circumspect Republicans, to form a majority in the Assembly sufficient to proclaim the Republic for seven years, and placing MacMahon as its constitutional President, with arrangements to obviate any inconvenience flowing from his death or resignation. The progress of Imperialism compels the union of parties who desire to be spared a restoration of the Second Empire ; and as only the latter and Republicanism seriously occupy public attention, the issue of the negotiations for the union of Moderate deputies is looked forward to with anxiety. Accomplished, this salvation majority will dictate to the transition Cabinet its programme, or will supersede it, and bring matters gradually, calmly, and legally to that loug-sighed-for desideratum—the dissolution of the Assembly, Will the royalist tail, in presence of the common danger, follow the sage advice of him who was once one of their own—Thiers —and perform that act of reason—vote the Conservative Republic ? Acts alone must show, for the current history of Franco must now be devoted to action. Legitimists and Orleanists are as dead in the country as the Leaguers and Frondists. They accidentally possess an obstructive power in the Assembly. By the desired secession of that section of the liberal royalists, known as the Centre Droit , Orleanists can yet make a little of the amende honorable they not only owe to France, but to the liberal world. It was their late De Broglie ministry that succeeded in throwing confusion into the public mind. Too blind to perceive it had no chance in modern France, Orleanism in its fury attacked everything Republican, replacing officials of that, profession of faith by even agents of the ex-empire, having none of their own. Were the present condition of things to last, Imperialism might count upon success from the fatigue and disappointment of the people in Conservatives and Moderates to found even a limited stability. For political feebleness and depression, Imperialism would be hailed as a grateful tonic. But before, France would afford the strongest proof of her decadence—accepting a Bonapartist regime in fault of capability to govern herself—st is but fair to honorably t ry the Republic with republicans first. We have had that form of government with Rods, with Monarchists, with even Bonapartists, but not yet with Conservatives, who are at the same time Republicans from patriotism. When the Republic shall be decreed as the legal form of government, and conspiracies against it punished as treason ; when its friends and not its enemies shall be entrusted with its control and direction; when the state of siege shall be raised and the machinery of arbitrariness discarded as well as intolerance towards opponents • when the free working of the elections shall be left to the electors, and officials and also the clergy ordered to mind their own business ; when every Frenchman shall be eligible to serve his country, and free to adore his political

saint so long as the idolatory does not exhibit disrespect towards what exists and disobedience towards the law—then France can count upon being great, glorious, and free. This experiment has yet to bo tried ; the preliminaries for its execution are being executed. If they fail through the perversity of moderate politicians, of men who have eyes but refuse to see, who have ears but decline to hear—then Imperialism may be righteously invoked ; this time with a full knowledge of its ways and means. Not only would an unexclusive and sagely administered Republic secure the greatest happiness for the greatest number at home, but would be the strongest pledge for peace abroad. Any dynasty that the chapter of accidents may restore to France will bo fatally driven to seek popularity by taking up the Alsatian question ; hence danger and tribulation. Only the Government of the nation by the nation can keep this unsettled account in the back ground—make it wait. Prussia will never provoke France before the latter be ready to take up the glove, for she has alliances to secure as much as to replace, and re-organise her military inoth'iel. The French are sobered by late events ; they have not the slightest inclination to rush in where angels fear to tread. They laugh at Prussian taunts, and the German canards, that they mean to absorb Belgium, and to oppose a revised edition of the Hohcu/.ollern monarchy in Spain, are as amusing as their own. Franco has for line of conduct to gain strength by reposing ; to repair what is shattered out of the savings of a higher developed industry ; to husband power by accumulating wealth ; to merit esteem by being wise, and thus command success. She knows the time is coming when her alliance will be sought in the market, and when the opportunity arrives for redressing the Shylock clauses of the treaty of Versailles, European Governments will be then actors—not as in 1870, spectators and candid friends. Germany may be excused being in a hurry to discount the future and the inevitable. Her bloated'armaments arc for her an exhaustion, and in removing and shutting up bishops, in seeking new ones, in watching the socialism France has bequeathed to her advancing in her body politic, she has enough of work to occupy her for several years. There is no reason why France ought not to prove as good “ big brother” for Austria and Italy as Prussia ; and Spain may yet settle down into something rational and comprehensible, so as to wooed. If England decides upon remaining an Indian and a colonial instead of an European power well and good. There remains then only Russia to flirt with, to wed, or to jilt, according to circumstances. One thing is certain, the age of platonic alliances and International Societies of Arbitration is past, To fight together through thick and thin constitutes the only bond henceforth between civilised nations. Parisians do not allow politics to interfere with their enjoyment of life, and all they perhaps feel inclined to demand from aristocrats become republicans or republicans become aristocrats is “to keep out of their sunshine.” The wish is very general this year to reside in the country, as before the invasion. Citizens may be excused a natural desire to enjoy green fields after a seven months surfeit of discussions of some thousand forms of government, and Brogdignagian controversies relative to the big and the little ends of eggs. This rush to spend the day far from the turmoil of the city is a proof that business is not so very bad, for the French character, is opposed to spending a sou on a luxury, if such would cripple the wants of necessity. It strikes me that the babies are more numerous, and that there are more youngsters in general ; proof that the population of France will pick itself up. The number of young married couples is very apparent, and who feel proud of their olive branches. Then the fair sex have emerged from that compulsory economy which condemned to make their old toilettes go as far as possible. Costumes are everywhere as fresh and as varied as the flowers, displaying that instinctive taste which only a Frenchwoman possesses, and that enables her to become charming with elegant nothings that only cost but a few sous, but never degenerate into gewgaws. Some hold that it is their natural gracefulness of carriage which enables French ladies to appear to such advantage and at so trifling an outlay for clothing. Be the cause what it may, every Franqaisc has the look of being well-dressed, that is. her dresses mould her figure ; there is nothing heavy, nothing too much, nothing disproportionate, and above all, no mistake about colors.

The banlieuc of Paris comprises the petite and the yrande ; the former includes a circuit of some seven miles round the city, and is chiefly occupied by families whose “ heads” have to come daily to Paris, returning to dinner. Every railway terminus has its social characteristics in summer. On the eastern and northern lines the very wealthy and the very fashionable have their residences ; on the south the bourr/eoisio annuitants, and well-to-do workpeople. Saturday is the grand day for the tradesman and his family, when they occupy their villa till the following Monday, It is, however, the western line that is most crowded by the financial, official, and journalistic worlds ; it traverses the most picturesque districts in the vicinity of Paris, and is the favorite outing for strangers. Nearly every gentleman carries a sac or a portfolio, and presents the air of having to support the world on his shoulders, were he not balanced with sundry small light paper parcels, made up to hang from his fingers by a special knot, and that twinkling little eyes can only divine the contents ; parcels, that no clerk of the octroi would desecrate by examining, and that stimulate children to “lisp in numbers” by counting the trains and the hours, till both arrive for them. It is said many nurseries escape from being put under martial law, by the prospect of such articles do Paris.

Thu guild of literature is anything but a peaceful corporation. It has been called upon to expel four of its associates, who have been condemned for their Communist proceedings. The committee, or jury, of discipline, ejected on a divided vote, two of the obnoxious literati, rather insignificant people, but declined to eliminate cx-Forcign Secretary Gronsset, who has escaned with Rochfort and Felix Pyat, This is an odd kind of purification for a society communists, by retaining the chief sinners. However, they manage these things differently in France. It would be better to not recognise politics at all. but then the Government could hardly be expected to continue a subsidy to a society that could not decline application from Felix Pyat for money to live, or from Gronsset. to defray bis travelling expenses from New Caledonia, The only question not

examined, is the utility of the society itself. The calamities of the expelled authors will be brought up on appeal, and the ordinary tribunals will be invoked to order the expulsion of Felix Pyat. Literature, like journalism, in France is unhappily to a great degree, a matter of personalities, which naturally neutralises much of the good that might otherwise be effected. At the grand national steeple chase Parisians were drowned; at their Derby, they, as a compensation, were roasted. Never was the heat so torrid as on Sunday last, and never was the crowd so great, and the appliances for slaking thirst so deficient. How the Count de Paris might have earned immortality had he ordered out a few barrels of wine from his uncle D’Aumale’s cellar ! Not a racing man but would have voted the duke Stadtholder then and there, with the reversionary interest to the nephew. A ride to Chantilly, even on the steps of the railway carriage, is worth undertaking to see the forest in the month of May. That happy being, “the lover of Nature,” will be rewarded ; and if he have in addition a feeling heart, he could sympathise with thousands of his fellow creatures who lost their “ good bit of money ” owing to the favorite being eclipsed by the nose of an outsider, whose lowly merit no one estimated.

A curious innovation in high life marriages is to be noticed—that of only inviting young, and, above all, single persons to the lunch ; the grave and heavy relatives being united at a monster dinner. It is also a compliment of a delicate nature for the bridegroom to present the bride with a Prayer-book printed in as many languages as she speaks ; the vir/nettes also to be as expressive as an additional tongue. Since January, the practice is becoming more general for French newly-married couples to travel during the honeymoon. The carriage accident by which the Due de Mouchy, husband of the Princess Murat, had his thigh broken in four places, reveals a phase of social manners. The French seem to be going mad on the subject of horses, whether for racing, trotting, or for vehicles ; and among the eveme de la creme of society the success for a gentleman’s brougham is to have it yoked to a horse of run away pretensions. and driven by a lad—a smart tiger, who, as in the case of the Due de Mouchy, has not the strength to control the animal when indulging in the preliminaries of a bolt. To commit your life to such an inexperienced arrangement is considered high courage. To go out in your carriage, and return with broken bones on a stretcher, is truly a droll fashion.

Some reprisals are taking place respecting Banyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.” There are two editions circulating in France—one is altered to suit Catholics, the original being accepted by Protestants. The latter are now bringing out their volume with the Catholic title.

The “ Murphy” family have become in France “ Morfi or Morphi”—tracing their origin from the Greek, “6 Morphi.” The learned seem to have at last established that it was a member of this classical family, who was guilty of ordering a roll of the drums to drown the voice of Louis XVI when on the scaffold. Two other points are occupying the attention of antiquarians—was “ Cinderella’s slipper in glass, and was the Man with the Iron Mask—velvet was the real material—an ancestor—as well as the elder twin brother of Louis XlV—of Napoleon I?” If this relationship were established-, it might explain why the Legitimists and Bonapartists manage to so often stable their horses together. Perhaps this may account for the boast of the Imperialists that their chief unites the blood of Divine right with the doctrine of appeal to the people. No new feature in the way of suicides, save that a widow has drowned herself out of grief for her husband, thirteen months dead. Sorrow is thus not the less severe for being ripe. f

The “ Figaro” newspaper, ever given to surprises, announces as a premium to subscribers a watch, which, in addition to other marvels, will remind them when subscriptions fall due.