The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-29 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

THE DEMI-MONDE AND THE STAGE.
(FROM OFR OWN CORRIRSPONDCiT.)
PARIS, MONDRY EVF.NING.

While the whole Paris press has not twenty
lines about the Gladstone banquet, their columns
are crowded with details of another soiree, of a far
different kind, which took place on the same
Saturday evening a few hundred yards from the
Grand Hotel. bidlle. Cora Pearl that evening
made her debut in the character of " Love" in Offea-
back's Orphie auu Enfers at the Theatre des Bouffes
in the Passage Choiseul. Who is Mdlle. Cora
Pearl ? The question is difficult to answer con-
es nablement. Ido not apologise for using a French
word, because I shall be compelled to use many more
in the course of any attempt in pursuanceof theduty
forced upon me in my position as a Paris corre-
spondent to give English readers some slight idea
of the nature of the sensation caused in Paris by
her appearance upon the stage. The event will
afford ample materials for new editions of M.
Veuillot's °deur* de Paris, and a charming book
just published by MM. Texier and Kaemfen called
Paris, Capitals du Monde. Cora' earl is an English-
woman, and one of two claimants to be the original
Anonym*. For some years past she has been what
is called a selebriti in Paris. It is said that she keeps
12 horses in her stables. She is a good whip, and
her " moms" is in great part attributable to her
frequent appearances in the Bois de Boulogne,
driving herself in variously constructed carriages
and in infinite varieties of fast costumes. The
management of the Thatre des Bouffes, which has
been in difficulties, was as much surprised as
rejoiced a short time ago to receive an offer from
Miss Cora Pearl to appear as "Love," in a costume
as near approaching to the realistic notion of the
character• as the itispecteur des mews could
be persuaded to allow. It would appear
' that this functionary did not show himself
severe on the occasion, for the reports say that
Cora Pearl was dressed in a diaphane co&
tume, " qui commence bien au dessus du genou
pour se terminer Bien au dessous do la poitrine
et se prite dana l'intervalle aux explorations les
plus audacieuses." The attraction was to see by
strong gaslight and the aid of opera-glasses, on
vulgar stage-boards, the real form and features of
a personage which the non-privileged public had
only been wont to admire in the manifold ampli-
fications of skirts and crinoline. This at-
traction—such are the manners of modern Paris
—raised the prices of the most uncomfortable
single seats to two Napoleons, of certain boxes—
and the boxes in the Lilliputian Bouffes Theatre
are all very small—to 201., and of stalls to iil. A
frieean d'attente, we are told, awaited the appearance
of the dibutants, who came forward with her stays
and slippers—almost her only clothing—glittering
with diamonds. The fine fleur of French aristo-
cracy attended the performance, but so much
pudeur yet remains in Paris that the ladies in the
audience belonged exclusively to the denti-monde.
Among the princes, ambassadors, dukes, mar-
quises, &c., belonging to the fine fleur aforesaid,
the reporters remarked :
Prince Napoleon, who sat concealed in a private box, le
Due de Mouchy, le Prince Acbille Murat, le Prince d'Aren-
berg, le Prince Mustapha-Pacha, le Marquis de Scepe►u,
Kbalil•Bey, le Vicomte Darn, le Duc Hamilton, le Due de
Caument la Force, le Marquis de Coma, le Prince de Swami,
le Due de Rivoli, Nips, Ambaseadeur d'ltalie, le Marquis
de Mornay, le Due d'Acquavivs, le Vicomte de la Fee-
ri&e, le Compte de Colobiano, le Gontaut-Biron, Pietri,
Mlles Claparede, de hfourgues, de Kergolsy, de Castel.
bajac Saint-Priest, Ernest Andre Garcia, Antonio de
Expeleta, George et Maurice Frewee-Rahnbaad, de Merle-
moot, Henri Cartier, le Marquis de Modem, le Vicomte
Davillier, Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angely, Is Marquis de
Rennepont, le Comte Ed. de Viel-Castel, le Vicomte de
Brimont, le Vicomte de Turenne, is Comte de Montaaulmin,
le Vicomte de Cowie Brisaac, de Laureston, Blount, Emile
Angier,Camille Doueet, Auber, Ms* Auguste Vaequrrie,
etc., etc., et taw los represestmals do la grade et de la
petite press&

The performance appears to have been below
contempt. The clibutante, as might have been ex-
pected, had not any artistic qualities whatever.
She unfortunately, says one critic, had not only
to show her physique, but to speak, sing, walk, and
even, pa urre fille, to try to be espilgle ; and all these
attempts were such ridiculous failures, that it was
impossible for a French audience to appear even to
admire them. The demi-monde alone was visibly
delighted at the discomfiture of one of its envied
rivals. The Opinion Nationale says that all wives
ought to send their husbands to the Bouffes,
as a sure means to get them disenchanted, and to
make them say when they see Mabille ladies, jai
qne ca a/a ma /eon. I think this is a good
saying with which to close an unwilling notice of
a very disgusting subject.
Business at the Bourse was quite insignificant.
Bente closed without change.

THE LICENSING SYSTEM'.

CONFERENCE.-(THIS DAY.)

A conference of gentlemen favourable to a
revision of the licensing system was commenced in the
lower hall, Exeter-hall, to-day. The meeting was very
thinly attended, there being only about a dozen gentlemen
on the platform, and little more than twice as many in the
body of the room. In the absence of the Earl of Shaftes-
bury, who was to have presided, Lord ELIOT, M.P., took
the chair. Soon after the proceedings commenced Dr.
Manning, the Roman catholic Archbishop of Westminster,
entered the room and took hie seat on the platform.
Mr. R. TURNER, the secretary, read letters from Sir J.
Rowring, Mr. Goschen, M.P., General Sabine, the Bishop
of London, Mr. Matthew Hill, Mr. J. S. Mill, Sir T.
Hastings, the Dean of Carlisle, Lord S. G. Osborne, Mr. T.
Taylor, Mr. Kinnaird, M.P., Dr. Fairbsirn, Sir F. Crossley,
the Rev. Newman Hall, Lord nary, and a number of
other gentlemen, all expressing sympathy with the objects
of the meeting, and apologising for their absence.
After • few introductory observations from the CHAIR-
RAN,
The Rev. Sir LOVELACE STARER coved the first resolu-
tion, " That in the opinion of this conference the present
number of houses licensed to sell intoxicating drinks to be
consumed on the premix es is roil yconsiderably in excess of
the real wants of the population.” He said in his district
the evils from drunkenness were many and great. Many
schemes had been devised to put a stop to the drunken-
ness which existed, hut in his opinion, and in that of
many others, nothing could be done without a revisica of
the licensing system. In the borough of Stoke there were
more than • thousand houses licensed for the sale of
drink, of which 243 were public-houses and the remainder
beer-shops, • number far exceeding the wants of the
population.
The Rev. HDIRT SOLLT seconded the resolution. He
adduced • series of facts for the purpose of showing how
the licensing system interfered with the establishment of
working men's clubs where the working man could Sod the
companionship which he now found in the public-houses
without their attendant evils. But he had found that
where a working men's club was established • public-house
was almost sure to spring up. A club was esta-
blished at Notting-hill which did an immense
amount of good, but a license was applied
for for a house close by, and though •
lion against it was signed by many respectable ir.
habitants, the magistrates granted the license. The
evils attendant upon the present system were incalculable.
The licensed houses in London, allowing 21 feet frontage
to each, would if placed aide by side, extend 38 unites, and
Mr. Leone Levi calculated that the working-classes alone
expended sixty millions sterling per annum in intoxicat-
ing drink. He found also that there was • vast amount
of canvassing going on among the magistrate", and espe-
cially when a new neighbourhood was springing up, at
which there was no wonder when they considered that the
granting of a license for the sale of spirits enhanced the
value of a house 100/. or Mi. a year. He did not mean to
say that the magistrates were corrupted, but he did say that
they were subject to undue influence. There could be no
doubt of the evils of the present system, but the question
was whether the present was necessary. It was
kept up toeupplythe sup wants of the working-class.
The upper classes, who formerly resorted to taverns, no
longer did so, but had their clubs and their literary insti-
tutions, and there was no reason why the working men
should not have institutions of a kindred character.

Mr. Lvoe, chairman of the petty sessions of Burton-
upon-Trent, who said he attended at the request of Lord
Lichfield, defended the magistrates from the charges
brought against them by Mr. Scilly, and contended that
the greatest evils of the present system arose from the
beer-shops, which were not under the control of the
magistrates. In his neighbourhood there was another
dam of licensed dealers, who were lower even
than the ordinary beer-shop keeper, and thew
were persons who paid for theit license a sum of :is.
• year for the sale of beer at lid. a quart, but they sold
beer which was of an intoxicating character, and at all
hours, and it was almost impossible to reach them so as to
bring them within the law, for their invariable answer was
that the persons drinking in their houses were lodgers,
and this it was difficult to disprove.
Mr. Weirivef a., who said he attended as one of the de-
putation from Kendal, moved an amendment by inserting
the word " supposed " before wants, which he said would
render the resolution more acceptable to those who thought
that intoxicating drinks were not necessary at all.
Councillor THOMSON seconded, and
The Cola ulnae announced that the gentlemen on the
platform acquiesced in the amendment.
Archbishop blanetee said, when the committee in-
vited him to take part in this conference, he
answered that he would take part in it because he
cordially concurred in the object for which it was
convened. He understood it to be this, to ask of the legis-
ture to retrace certain steps that it bad taken. It appeared
to him that they were not met there to-day to speak
common-places on drunkenness, nor to give statistics to
the extent to which it prevailed. If that were necessary
Mr. Solly had already done what was more than enough.
He thought also they were not there to discuss the moral
remedies without which the legislative remedies were of no
effect, but todismass one simple subject, namely, whether past
legislation had not given most dangerous facilities and
therefore multiplied to an immense extent the inevitable
temptation which caused their labouring poor to fall into
the state of drunkenness. On that point the experience of
more than thirty years, one half among the poor in a
countay district and the other half among the poor or
London, convinced him that this war true, and he did
believe that the number of places where intoxicating
drink was sold, spirits or beer, was greatly in excess of the
wants, real or supposed, of the population, and that this
number ought to be diminished. He could give an example.
He could recollect when the lowering of the duty on
spirits caused a great increase of the consumption of spirits
in the country, and he remembered also the introduction
of beenhope which invaded all their country villages. He
remembered also that when he was in the country he sup-
ported • plan by which beer should be carried to the
houses of the poor instead of its being consumed in the
bcershoput ; but those who supported that system
were utterly driven out of the field. He now came to
London. In a street close to Buckingham Palace, where
his duties caused him every morning about the hour of R
o'clock to pass to and fro, he remembered counting within
200 steps not less than nine gin-shops. If anybody could
say that this was not greatly in e:.cess of the real or sup-
posed wants of the population, he should very much like
to know what was. And one fact might be noted in the
north-east of London especially, and that was that in the
new neighbourhoods where there was not • house finished or
occupied, they might see • large house at the corner of
every new street—a large home which was intended for a
future gin-sbop. It was quite clear that the whole of this
had become • trade and speculation on the weakness and
infirmity of temptations of our nature. It appeared to him
that this was a legitimate subject for legislation,
just because the legislature haul done the evil, and so
without irreverence to the wisdom of parliament he
might be permitted to say the legislature must
retrace its steps, because the legislature had
gone astray. He had watched the effect of the two
actahe had referred to for 30 years, and he was convinced
that the vice of drunkenness haul extended itself among
our labouring classes, and that it bad spread to
women and children of twelve years old and up-
wards. For the last twelve years be had had much ex-
perience of reformatories, and he could bear testimony to the
fact that the drunkenness of parents was the cause of
filling their streets with those unhappy and abandoned
children. It seemed to him that they were within the
limits of common sense in asking that a change
should be made in the law so as to diminish
these ,facilities, which he was convinced the legislature
never foresaw. He had said quite as much as he
intended, and perhaps rather more. But there was
one point which, if he were to allude to without tres-
passing on the patience of the meeting. He 'OM that
it was intended to ask of the legislature to limit the
facility for obtaining these licenses. It appeared to him
that that was very wise. There was one point not
touched upon in this resolution, and he thought)
wisely, he meant the question of these houses being
open on the Sunday ; but he was convinced that until
the subject had been dealt with, all that had been done
would be of little use. He believed that in a part of
Ireland, by moral influence, the public houses were entirely
elated on the Sunday. In the town of Tipperary there was
not • single public-house open on the Sunday!: that had
been done by local influence ; but unless the legi slat u re made
it universal, they would never apply an effectual remedy.
It appeared to him that all they could do in the applica-
tion of moral remedies would be useless in great part
unless the legislature retraced the course it had taken
in times poise. It was, therefore, to assist in the
labours of so many zealots men whom he Mir
around him, that he haul attended at this conference in
order to do what he could to abolish a vice wLic., a as

breaking up the domestic life of the poor Loan, 4,4
more than that, wee withering and destroying the Sower
and promise of the future—the children of Engiapd.
(Chasm.)
[The conference was proceeding when our report mg