New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-28
FRANCE.
New.Year'u shows and Festivities-LOuis Ma
poIeon- Political Prisoners - Persecution
of the Press-Paris Streets-CuriOus Dis
r0VeFy.
Correspondepee Of Dc Trlbune.

Correspondence Of The Tribune
PARIS Thursday, Jan. ?. 1851.
The festive reioicings Of the past week have oc-
curied the whole city, to the almost total exclu-
sion Of every other topic, and ample justice seems
TO have been done to the various preparations
made by all classes of society, each according to
the measure Of its possibilities, in honor OF the
double festival of this pleasant season, the bright
est of the social year.
The brilliant effect Of the shops Of Paris, IN the
full glory of their holiday display, is prOverbial;
and this year has been ushered in with profession
of elegance and luxury in no degree behind the
traditions Of its predecessors. And how admlra-
BILE are these creations of the inventive genius OF
MAD-tbese triumphs Of Human Labor over the
Rightly of Matter-shaping, molding, purifying
the inert, heavy substances which lie around him
and solicit the Transforming and identifying &C
ton of bis hand and achieving, through patient
effort. "and the long result Of Time the miracles
Of use. comfort and artistic beauty which measure
the upward march of humanity from the hut of the
Savage to the palaces of the Nineteenth Century
The contrast between the grace and beauty OF
these exquisite products Of Art and Industry, so
lavisbly provided for the qualification of the Few
and the ignorance, brutality and misery OF the
MANY, which strikes the eye of the locker on at
every instant in this capital Of the Old World, is
very painful bat these shadows Of the brilliant
picture are relieved by the indications OF Progress
everywhere apparent, even in those spheres
which, at first sight, seem most hopeless. The
SUBMITS of the loftiest mountains are first gilded
by the rays of the rising SUM- bat the world rolls
| MI al eu1na VII
lowliest valleys.
A very formidable programme Of the reception
at the Elysee on New Years Day was published
| in the Monife1v of the 3Oth These receptions,
| which included the representatives OF every
branch Of the Government from the ambassador
of foreign powers to the Rectors OF Universities
and the Syndics OF the various Industrial Corpo-
ratioDs, began on the evening Of the 3lst Decem-
Der, and were continued on the LIST January from
II O'Clock A. NJ. till far into the afternoon; and
must have been sufficiently fatiguing to the Pres
ident, whose health, undermined by excuses
| which it would be difficult to enumerate without
shocking the susceptibilites Of ears polite Is
bv no means equal TO the enormous demands
made upon it every day by the love OF display
and the Sy baritic tastes of the present occupant
| of the ElyS6e Bourbon.
Meantime the subordinate agents of the Co.
vernment push on their schemes of repression as
vigorously as ever. The prosecutions which have
been attempted with view to discover and pun
| ish the Dir Decem5risteS, whose scandaous vlo-
lence, falling with fsticuffs and cudgelings on all,
without distinction OF party, who declined to
shout Ttre FEmpereur, on the Presidents return
| from Rouen, have been rendered entirely abortive
by the various functionaries, who constitute the
! Police and the Courts, and who, dependent sole
| " on the Executive power, are all leagued in the
service of the President.
The Investigations provoked, from time to timo,
by the Republican party in the Assembly, with re
gerd to the treatment Of the immense number Of
citizens now imprisoned for political ofenses,
many Of whom have died from the insalubrity OF
the cells, and the insutliciency aud unwhoesome-
ness OF the diet, invariably stifled. la some
parts Of the country the curfew has recently been
! revived, and few days ago the Project OF Arde
! che issued a circular forbdding the admission,
throughout the department., OF any journal or pam
phlet containing the trial OF ather Gothand and
notifying the various civil functlonares that In ia
/ ture ALL journals, arriving from the rest of the
1 country were prohibited
The various laws against the liberty OF the
| Press are enforced with the utmost rigor against
the Republican journals domiclliary visits, the
abstraction and opening Of letters, and the arbi-
trary arrest Of those who, by a written or a
! spoken word, render themselves obnoxious 10 the
reactionary party, matters OF daily occurrence.
A poor laborer Of this city, the father OF large
family dependent on his exertions for their daily
bread, was condemned, a few days ago, TO four
month imprisonment for having sung democratic
song at a cafe and cried Cire la republlque demo-
cr0tiQre Il SOcidke!"
The horrible relations of the late trial Of Father
GOthand, Just alluded to, have created profound
impression throughout the country it is the fourth
Of these irightful dramas in which priest has
been the principal actor, which have occurred
within a few months.
On an old historic site, like that Of Paris every
step reminds one of the Past the very names
OF the streets bring up old memories, and invoke
the shades Of the departed especially IN the
most ancient quarters of the city, where the
names OF Pepin, Childeric, Clovis, and Charles
Msrtel, carry one irresistlbly from the brilliant
metropolis OF the present day back 10 the old
mes when hourished those ancient worthless,
and when ali Paris was contained in the little is
land on which stands Notre Dame, and which is
now but a speck amid the oSean Of quarters and
subUrbs that make up the still growing city. The
names of these old streets often as quaint as
the hall oblterated epitaphs that one finds in
ancient churchy ards, and doubtless indicate some
forgotten legend Of former days.
There is the streetof the Dead Tree, OF Pepin's
Bow, OF Aubry the Butcher, OF 81 Denis little
Oven, OF the Hermts We'll, OF the Well that
talks, Of the Flying Heart, Of the Fishing Cat Of
the Infant Jesus, OF the Woman without a head,
Of the Iron Mil, of the Rosy Children, of the
Shivering Woman, Of the Great Hower, of the
Little HOwler, of the Golden Hand, of the Great
Andirons, of Evil w ords, Of BAD Counsels, Of the
White Peacock, ofthe Five Twenties, OF ST. Johns
Bsndsge, Of the old DOvecote, Of the Abbot with
the Sword, OF the Wooden Shoe, Of the Little
KEeading Trough, &c. and host Of others OBJ
jectionable, sometimes on the score Of coarseness
sometimes on that Of undue length and complica
tion. The city authorities are just now busy in
changing the names Of many Of these streets; il
is to be hoped, however. that the more pictur-
esque of these old names, those which evidently
sarXad 70 nernetnata snma anciant tradtinrs