New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-12-31
AFFAIRS OF FRANCE.
from Our Own Correspondent.

PARIS, thursday Dec. 10, Zoo
Il was not my intention 10 say a word OF the
prospects OF peace in this letter. was purposing
10 commence with O few novel remarks on the
weather, when my eye lit upon pair OF sentences
in a newspaper, which treat this matter of ''pa.
"cifc news" so ably, l may say so exhaustively,
that | cannot refrain from quoting them: What
" still remains unknown, is the secret OF the Cabl-
"nets; this secret is well kept. No one, indeed,
lean tell with certainty what has been or what
sis TO be the result of the last deliberations of the
"Cabinets " There is nothing more 10 be said
ON the question of fact. Public opinion continues
TO be rather hopeful.
1t was objectionable oversight on my part not to
add TO my last weeks list of American Knights of
Honor The then newly decorated Cheraiers, Messrs.
Field, Goodyear and Hunt. Mr.. Field received
the decoration for being Ex-President OF the Amer
lean Commissioners; Mr. GOOdyears india-rubber
merits earned him the CT 1873, as they had already
earned him the Grand Medal of HOnOr-a comb-
nation of high recOmpenses that has been allotted
70 none other of the twenty-five thousand exhib-
itors; the decoration of Thomas Sterry Hunt was
recognition of his extraordinary merits as theO-
retica chemist. His papers, read before the Acad-
envy of Sciences, and certain earlier essays pub
lished somewhile since in the United States, have
made his name well known here among men of
| science. Mr.. Hunt was member OF the Ca
madam Commission at the Exposition, but
| is a Connecticut man by BIRTH | do not
know of any younger American knights than
! the abOve.named, although it is quite possible
| there are SUCH | have remarked more than
once upon his Majestys turn for dry practical
| Joking, and this beknighting of our model repub-
icans may be but another illustration of his pleas
ant ingenuity in throwing dust into peoples eyes.
| 1t would not be strange at all if he were now to
| decorate Colonel Colt for his pistols, Mr.. Ban-
chard, for his ship-tmber- bending machine,
| Mccormick for his reaper-nay, why not our
venerated chief Horace Greeley, for his in
photographic and chromoglyphotypic printing
and that would be joke.
| But about this Legion of Honor. Since it is
likely TO be recruited so largely from the United
States, it may be interesting to your readers, at
least TO such as are DESTROYS to enlist, 10 know
something of what it is.
Hstoricaly The various orders of bnighthOod
exs ing under the dncien regime abolished by
the Constituent Assembly and the Convention.
When BOnaparte had become Consul for life, and
was aiming at still higher position, he felt the
lack of that element of power which other
European rulers possessed in their royal faculty of
comforting knightly Orders-the inexpensive recon-
pense of valuable services. And SO, after over
coming many hinderances, he obtained the legs-
atye sanction for the institution of the Legion OF
Honor, 80 Foreal, year of the Republic, (May
10, 1902 1t was strongly opposed in principle
by the democrats OF those days, and was greatly
ridiculed by the royalists, who saw in it parody
of the ancient orders of nobility. The democrats
had reason for their opposition. The mockery OF
the rOyasts was absurd; for if there was anything
good in the essential nature OF the old nobesse and
the old orders of knighthoOd, it was that they were
conferred in recognition of personal service and
merit. This quality preserved, in theory IN the
Legion of HONOR for in it, as originally In the or
ders of chivalry there is an element of democracy,
or rather Of equality. The chevalers are supposed
TO stand on equal footing as chevaliers. The dis
tinctiOn is conferred on merit. 1t is equally the
reward OF military services OF services III the civil
administration Of scientific, literary and artistic
merit. That is the theory. AS with US, the theory
is to give Offices to persons competent to NIL them
The first nominations made by Napoleon
amounted to ,723, of which 6 772 were conferred
on military men; before the close Of his Imperial
career he made 40, 500 more, of which only 400
were conferred on civilians. The statutes and in
sigma of the Order underwent some changes at
the hands Of the restored BOurbons, who could
not be expected to look upon it with favor Ii
was, however an institution TOO well suited %
French tastes and too firmly grounded III French
habit to be abolished. Louis Philippe was lavish
in his dispensation of crosses of which civilians,
men of science, letters, art merchants and ma
chinists received from their citizen King more
than their wOnted proportion. This Iiberality was
sharply censured by the Prince President, Louis
Napoleon, on the occasion Of a distribution 10 the
army one day on the Champs de Mars. Himself,
when on his electioneering tour to the South of
france in the autumn previous TO his election TO the
Imperial throse, threw them ont right and left at
the rate OF twenty or thirty daily. During the last
hive years there has been so much patriotic zeal,
and during the last ten years so much military
bravery " reward That the lePiOn st the present