The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-08-08
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AoOerttstr.
AUGUST 8
OUR PARIS LETTER.

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defensive attitude Of the new Cabinet is as secondary
as the voting Of something constitutional. The eyes
Of the country follow with anxiety and fervent wishes
for success, the adjunetion-not eoalition-of the
moderate rOyalists. or independent orieanists, with
the c~ircumspect Republicans, to form a majority in
the Assembly, sufficient to proclaim the Republic for
seven years, and placing email as its Constitu-
tOnal President. with arrangements to obviate any
inconvenience flowing from his death. or resignation.
The progress Of Imperialism compels the union Of
parties who desire to be spared n restoration Of the
Second Empire, aud as only the latter and Republi-
canism seriously occupy public attention the issue Of
the negotiations for the union Of moderate deputies,
is looked forward to with anxiety. Accomplished,
this salvation majority will dictate to the transition
Cabinet its programme, or will supereede it, and
bring matters gradually, calmly, and legally to that
long-sighed for desideratum-the dissolution Of the
Assembly.
Win the royslist tail. in presence of he common
danger, follow the sage advice of him who was once
one Of their oEn-Thiers-and perform that act of
reason-Totc the Conservative Repuhlic7 Acts alone
must show, for the current history Of France mus,
now be devoted to action. Legitimists and Orleanists
are as dead in the country as the Leaguers and
FrOndists. They accidentally possess an obstructive
power in the Assembly. By the desired secession of
that section Of the liberal royalists, known as the
Centre Droit, Orleanists can yet make a little Of
the amsnde honorable, they not only owe to France,
but to the liberal world. II was their late de Broglie
Ministry that succeeded in throwing confusion into
the public mind. Too blind to perceive it had no
chance in modern France, Orleanism, in its fury,
attacked everything Republican, replacing officials of
that profession Of faith, by even agents of the ex-
Empire, having none of their own. Were the pres
emit condition Of things to last, Imperialism might
count upon success from the fatigue and the disap-
~pointment Of the people in conservatives and moder-
ates to found even q limited stability. For political
feebleness and depression, Imperialism would be
hailed as a grateful tonic.
But before France would afford the strongest proof
of her Misunderstanding q BOnapartist regime in
fault Of c~apability to govern herself-it is but fair
to honorably try the Republic with Republicans first.
We have had that form of government with Reds,
with Monsrchists, with even Bonapartists, but not
yet with Conservatives. who are at the same time
Republicans from patriotism. When the Republic
shall be decreed as the legal form Of government,
and conspiracies against it punished as treason.
when its friends, and not its enemies, shall be en-
trusted with its control and direction; when the state
Of Siege shall be raised and the machinery of arbi-
trariuess discarded as wen as utterance towards
opponents; when the free working of the elections
shall be left to the electors, and officials and also the
clergy ordered to mind their own business; when
every Frenchman shall be eligible to serve his coun-
try, and free TO adore his political saint so long as
the idolatry does not exhibit d~isrespect towards what
exists, and disobedience towards the law-then
France can count upon being great, glorious and
free. This experiment has yet to be tried; the pre-
liminaries for its execution are being executed. If
they fail through the perversity of moderate politi-
clans, Of men who have eyes, but refuse to see; who
have ears, but decline to hear-then Imperialism
may be righteously invoked; this time with a full
knowledge Of its ways and means. Not only would
an unexclusive and sagely administered Republic
secure /" the greatest happiness for the greatest
number at home. but would be the strongest
pledge for peace abroad. Any dynasty that the
chapter Of accidents may restore to France will be
fatally driven to seek popularity by taking up the
Alsatian question-hence danger and tribuIation.
Only the government of the nation by the nation
can keep this unsettled account In the back ground
make it wait. Prussia will never provoke France
before the latter be ready to take up the glove, for
she has alliances to secure as much as to replace and
reorganize her military maferiel. The French are
sobered by late events; they have not The slightest
inclination to rush in where angels fear to tread.
They laugh at Prussian taunts. and the German
canards, that they mean to absorb Belgium and to
oppose a revised edition of the Hohenzollern monar-
chy in Spain, are as amusing as their own. France
has, for line of conduct, to gain strength by reposing,
to repair what is shattered out Of the savings Of a
higher developed industry; to husband power by ac-
cumulating wealth; to esteem by being wise, and
thus command success. She knows the time is
coming when her alliance will be sought in the
market; and when the opportunity arrives for re-
dressing the Sbylock clauses Of the treaty of YER
sailles, European governments will be then actors
not as in 1870, spectators and candid friends. Ger
many may be excused, being in a hurry to discount
the future and the inevitable; her blosted ornaments
are for her an exhaustion, and in removing and shut
ting up Bishops, in seeking new ones, in watching
the socialism France has bequeatbed to her advanc-
ing in her body polite, she has enough of work to
occupy her for several years. There is no reason why
France ought not to prove as good a "big brother "
for Austria and Italy as Prussia, and Spain may yet
settle down into something rational and comprehen-
sibla so as to be wOoed. If England decides upon
remaining an Indian and a Colonial, instead of an
European power, well and good; there remains then
only Russia to hirt with, to wed or to jilt, according
to circumstances. One thing is certain, the age of
Platonic alliances and international societies of arbi-
tration is past. To 6ght together through thick and
thin, constitutes the only bond henceforth between
civilized nations
Parisians do not allow politics to interfere with
their enjoyment of life, and all they perhaps feel in
clined to demand from aristocrats become republi-
cans. or republicans become aristocrats, is " to keep
out of their sunshine" The rush is very general
this year to reside in the country, as before the in-
vasion citizens may be excused a natural desire to
enjoy green fields after a seven months sursit of
discussions Of some thousand forms of government,
Brobdignagian controversies relative TO the big and
the little ends Of eggs. This rush to spend the day
far from the turmoil of the city is a proof that bust
ness is not so very bad, for the French character is
opposed to spending a sous on q luxury, if such
would cripple the wants Of necessity. 1t strikes me
that the babies are more numerous, and that there
are more youngsters in general; proof that the pop
ulation Of France will pick itself up. The number of
young married couples is very apparent, and who