The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-02
Il n a N q II .

jules FaVre and the Emperor Spicy
Exposure of Imperial Shams-ImmO-
Fality of the French Stage and Court,
Etc. Etc.
PARIS, March 16. - After week OF com
paratively unlnteresting debate in the Corps
Legislatit, Jules Favre, the leader OF the oppo-
sitlon, electrified that body yesterday with an
address which would have made the Emperor's
ears tingle if he had heard it, and which must
have "got his mad up" little when he read 1t
this morning, TheEtext was the paragraph in the
address congratulating the Emperor upon the
stability OF the interior regime and institutions
OF France.
The Emperor, al the close of his last address,
at the opening of the Corps Legislatif, put an
efectual stopper upon the hopes OF the liberal
party that there was TO be any further extern
sion Of liberty in France. "There had been
enough talk about this the Emperor said, in
substance, and "the great desderatum now was TO
increase the physical prosperity OF the country
and improve public morals" Into these propo-
sitions of the Emperor Jules Favre pitched
right and left, yesterday, charged his Majesty
with having utterly failed to fulfil his pro-
misses, called the empire negative and a
parody" of the system of 1889, OF which it pro-
1essed to be q continuation, demanded the
liberty of the press, the right OF reunion, and
that electoral liberty now ehectually crushed
out by the system of Governmental candidates.
He closed his speech with the following remark
able paragraphs, which must be gall and worm
wood to the ''poweIs that bc":-
"In regard 10 the exterior policy, il the country
had been master of its destinies we should never
have witnessed these distant expeditions which
have SO greatly compromised our interests. We
should not have sent to die on the other side of
the Atlantic so many young men whose arms
would have enriched our soil. We. should not
have seen millions wasted in Mexico in behalf
of an enterprise the least fault of which is that
il is impossible. These millions would have
been usefully employed in bene6ting France
and her colonies.
GAS to the interior regime, we are sometimes
told that the passions are completely appeased
efil ntifner hot
parties are always armed, and that our Hberto-
should still be refused us. Public mo- 20 30
spoken of. If you would have gocS 9IG las arr, aIe
must make citizens; to make 1eNs voI I6nst yUf
have Institutions Ions whop can form them France
u moral dignity and graandeu If YOU YOU will viii
interrogate the literature of the present day,
which is the expression of public morals, you
will be driven to some unfortunate conclusions.
"You have decreed the liberty of theatres, and
with the censorship you do what you please
upon the public scene, and what do you show
Us there? Great God! you force man with
any sense of decency to keep away from thus
privileged temple in launching at him this
sort OF insult. i desired to speak of virtue
and devotion. These are no longer actuali-
ties, and l am driven from the temple conse-
Grated to them.'
'What do you make of the French scene
You have made it a scene of hbertnage and
shamelessness;. you expose upon it disgusting
nudities. You have in your hands o law made
tories, and you begrime the child upon the
scene of privileged theatre in making him rep
resent the type and model of degradation and
cynicism, TO the scandal OF all respectable
people. And then you open odis DedsqLeS, and
you say:-Come and amuse yourselves, and
drink from the cup which | put to your lps.'
As for me, say to you, France wants some
thing else. She wishes to have the power of
exercising her liberties. We are nothing If we
cannot raise our eyes towards Heaven, and we
cannot do that il we are not tree."
There is an immense deal of truth in the
trenchant remarks of this salient, sturdy leader
of the opposition in the French Corps Legislatif.
He and thousands of thinking men ia France
mourn over state OF things in this capital
which approaches very nearly to that which
existed in Rome just before its downfall, and
which explorations and excavations prove to
have been the moral condition OF Herculaneum
and Pompeii at the time they were overwhelmed
permitted to be spread through France, and
which is represented by such types as "Fanny'
and Daniel" of Feydeau; Salambo" and
MADAM Bovary" of Flaubert-the wellknoWI
and immensely popular works of Paul de Kock
and his SON and successor, and the inheritor o
his meretricious qualities and fame, Henri, il
sapping the foundation Of morals OF the presen
and rising generation of France, and 1t is 10 thi
class of works that NJ Favre alludes.
Any one who has seen the show pieces Of th
.Btche duI BOts and the Ldr1terRe Mdgiqlle
in each of which the 'well.formed and beautiful
young ladies" advertised for seemed LITERAL
determined TO "outstrip" all Others, and VIII
has observed the astonishingly small quantit
of dress and the astonishingly large quantity o
body which is permitted to be exhibited upo
the boards OF the Paris theatres, will well III
derstand what he means by his reference t
them. The 'infant" he speaks of is "Fanfa
Benoiton," !" in Sardou's piece of the Fdn1me b
nOtiCn which has been running now at tn
Vaudeville nearly hundred and fifty night,
This type of the sunny childhood of Paris is
yOungster of eight years, who seems to hav
thoroughly studied Machiavelh and has no fait
in his race; who is bldse; who CANDLES an
makes corners" in the style of an old stoc
broker, at the "bourse" which the children use
10 hold in the garden of the Tuileries for the e.
change and sale of postage stamps and VIII
finally attempts to rob his fathers safe to max
up for his losses.
He who has witnessed the scene of riot an
debauchery on the Sunday MORNINGS of the 6d
mdSques at the opera will not wonder at his r
ferring to them in this connection. Indeed, a
who have observed in Paris the constantly an
rapidly apparent fading out of decency an
public and private morality, who sees the sho
windows on the most public thoroughiart
hlled with photographs and pictures which 4
decent woman or man even can look at withol
shame; who see the "fast women of the dem
monde Haunting in silks and lAees, driving the