Litchfield enquirer., 1872-04-25
..E Nfs!ai3TRE RaAlcHE Aui 4 cosite.npory Story.


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 When young TsieniacLus was undergo ing his competitive examination for the kingship of Crete, one of the questions set hiin was to eetine happy man; and the wise Mentor Rflo stood behind to prompt him, eonformably to t practice since abolished i'll competitive examina- tlons, bade him answer that the really happy man was ke who considered him. self so. Admitting this definition to be correct, then h le Comte Fortune de Ris, deputy of the National Assembly, who rented 2 first-hoor flat ill honse of the Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris, where 10 eats or parrots were kept, was the happi- est man out. He had every thing to make him happy, and sense enough to know it,-a handsome face, good figure, fine health, an income larger than peo- pie suspected, though he passed for rich h,-and nn profession, save that of en- toying himself, which is pleasant profession when one succeeds in 1t. In age, M. de Ris was two and forty, but looked younger; in complexion, horid and iovial; in stature, the same height as other frenchmen. In a general way lie was blithe-tempered, witty, and so thoroughly agreeable with women that he numbered more of them on the list of his intimate friends than would have sufficed for the vanity of ten less favored beings, even supposing these ten to have been covet- ous.
 But M. de Ris was not happy because Nature had ordained it so beforehand, just as she settles for us whether we shall have brown hair or red. He was happy because for the conduct of his life he had laid down ccrtian simple rules which ex- perience had taught him gave happiness to others, and which he never transgress. ed. In the first place, he never spoke ill of people, but suffered them to think that he admired them sincerely all round; an illusion which did them no harm nor him either. In the next place, he always kept his word ,--a surer recipe for cOntentment than many persons appear to imagine, though 1t must be stated that he avoided such rash promises as swearing to love one woman eternally, or vowing that he would never shake hands with such-and such friend again if he did this or that was contrary to the public mood. M. de Riss third rule was to render as many services as he could, and always to do so in such an enthusiastic way as to make the person obliged esteem that it was he, the recipient, who conferred the favor by accepting it, and that the donor was touched to the the heart, oyerjOyed and proud beyond measure, at so much condescension. This, after mature refec- ton, was the only mode M. de Ris had been able to devise for preventing that each benefit conferred should become a cause of undying enmity. By leading per sons to believe that in accepting his mon ey and not returning it they were placing him under lasting obligation, he had put matters upon footing satisfactory and honorable to both parties. The counts fourth and most important. rule absolute was to eschewspolitics.
 Now this, for deputy of the Assembly, was rather a knotty problem; but M. de Ris was not a deputy through any fault of his own. He had been returned in the winter of 1871, after the equalization of Paris, when an assembly had been hastily convoked to meet at Bordeaux, and con- stituencies were selecting the most popu- lar men they could find, without much reference to their tastes or their fitness. M. ke Ris was nominated by the electoral committee of the department in which he owned country seat, and had been re- turned out of hand. He was much cha grined by this result, which was commu- nicated to him before he had yet left Par is, where, during the seige, he had fought with distinction as 8 commandant of Gardes Mobiles. His first impulse was to send in his resignation, and it is even said that his letter on this subject was ready signed and sealed; but somebody pointed out eloquently that in times of trouble 8 man owes his willing service to his coun- try, and somebody else produced such telling arguments to show that deputy need not know more about politics than any ordinary man, that M. de Ris gave in. He took his seat at Bordeaux in the very centre of the Assembly, ,-so centrally, in- dsed, that if you had drawn 8 string from Pres. Grevy's chair right across the cham Der, you would have found Count de Ris at the end of it. This meant that he was 6 'tneutral;" that between Henry V., the Count of Paris, Napoleon TIL, and the republic, he had no choice whatever; and that on every. occasion where his vote was called for he intended recording it in such a way as not to compromise him. This was rather like tight-rope dancing, but M. de Ris's logic on the subject was un- 'sIf make selection" said he, ''before I know which of the four is going to win, I shall be obliged to adhere to it during the rest of my life under pain of being thought a renegade, which is absurd. The Count of Chambord is . prince of great honor, whom I venerate; the Count of Paris could hold his own in point of intelligence with any sovereign or president in Christendom; Napoleon III. was always extremely gracious to me, and decorated me with his own hand without my having ever asked for such favor; the empress also is charming; as for the re- public, to declare myself an anti-repubi- can is to say that I don't believe we French are capable of governing ourselves, which is an opinion only good for foreign CTS. The party-whips endeavored to shake this neutralism by adroit fatteries, and the party wits to undermine it by banter; but M. de Ris was impervious to fattery; and when tackled by 6 wit, he put his case in nutshell by saying, q know four ladies of equal beauty,-the Marquise de Rosecroix, who is Legiti- mist; the Countess de Potofeu, who holds for Louis Philippe IT.: the Baroness de Diamantelle, who is enamoured of the Napoleons; and Mime. Garrulet, the depu- ty's wife, who is Republican. If were to enlist on the side of one of these ladies, the doors of the other three would be closed to me; and that do. not want D Whereat the wit would laugh, and let M. de Ris alone. In France they always let 6 man alone who knows how to defend himself
 It should be mentioned in passing, that M. de Ris's independence was not quite the effect of political poltroonery, though foreigner might have opined that there was strong spice of this foible fayoring it. His was rather the electcism and sceptic epicureanism of politics. He thought there was something good to be said for every party, and said it. He also thought that to pin ones faith to a set of doctrines which may be as unwearable in a year as last twelvemonth's fashions,- to cast in one's lot with particular ay- nasty or system which may be less long of life than deciduous leaf, is the act neither of clever man nor of wise one. There was friend of his, who, towards the close of Louis Philippe's reign, had Al s.-4. AL