The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-10-10
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOrrtiser.
SATURDAY. OCTOBER 10.
LETTER FROM FARANI.-No. 3.

pect 80 shifting and Kaleidoscope have been the
! arty combinations Of last month that | must enter
into details, and form a plausible whole Of what ap-
pears at first sight nothing but chaos and confusion.
The Bonapariist conspiracy, as | have stated before
when discovered, showed 70 the government and the
Assembly the extent Of the danger they had been ex-
posed 70, while the untimely disclosure Of the we'll
laid mechination gave a final blow 20 the hopes OF an
Imperial Restoration. Both the Monarchists and
Republicans united against the common unprincipled
foe, and q majority was formed which voted, IN the
excitement Of fear, the immediate discussion Of the
Constitutional Bill prepared by Mr.. Casimir PeTier
for the consolidation Of the nOn-descript Republic
then existing into q well defined form Of government
with Marshal Mcmahon as President for seven years.
Two other bills had been laid before the Assembly
one on behalf Of the 9 Septenuat" leaving the pres
et to take care Of itself, and postponing all questions
Of definite legislation till after the expiration Of the
term Of power Of McMahon in 1880; the other, IN
favor Of the Monarchy and Count de Chambord, the
last Of the Bourbons. This last motion was made by
the Duke Dc la ROchefoucault Bisaccia, the Ambassa-
dor Of the French Republic at the Court Of ST. James,
who was using his influence against the very govern
ment he was serving in an official capacity
When the peril is over, the good resolutions. die
.Gted by the impending calamity, are soon forgotten,
and the Constitutional Bills, deemed so important on
the 10th Of June, were 3 weeks later in the pigeon
holes Of the office of the COMMITTEES Of Thirty, who
being mainly composed of Monarchists, refused to
adopt and endorse Mr.. Casimir Perier's views. On
another hand the bill for the restoration Of the Count
de Chambord could not be urged before the Assembly,
still less before the country. In this cruel dilemma
"a OL4AAANA AAAA4IA u Z bAAA8 II BAONACtgh5 VI
which tended to the maintenance of the equivocations
Of Marshal McMahon's Observation-Disclosures
meDt.
In the meanwhile, the prosecutions were actively
carried on against the BOnapartist conspirators, and
so serious were the charges against them, that, had
it not been for the early propagation Of the Assembly,
some deputies, and Mr.. Rouher amongst them, would
have been made ansWerable for the leading part they
took in the matter. Some curious facts have come
10 light which l think may prove worthy of perusal.
Mr.. Pietri ex-Prefect of Police and Mr.. Rouher ex-
Prime Minister Of Napoleon III, were the chief pro-
motors OF the plot; they live IN houses situated IN
different streets, but a secret door leds from one
dwelling to the other, so that a person entering at
Mr.. Rouher's door can come out from Mr.. Pietri's,
and vice versa. The police Investigations have long
been bafhed by this ingenious arrangement. One of
the domestic attendants on Marshal Mcmahon had
been bribed to send daily reports Of the Presidents
actions. You will understand my abstaining from
expatiatiDg on such private matters, where the sub
lime and ridiculous play very amusing and promis-
cuous parts.
But the last, not the least is to be told. You doubt
less remember that, in the course of Marshal BA-
zaine's trial, emissaries of the French Government,
declared having given to Colonel Stofel dispatches
for Mcmahon, which the former never transmitted
aud even denied having received. In those dis
patches Mcmahon was told to disregard the advice of
the Empress and Of her advisers and instead Of pro-
ceeding to Sedan, 10 rally his army nearer to Paris.
It~Was important for the Bonapartists to stop the
mouths of the indiscreet despatch-bearers, and they
tried, but in vain, to bride them. \ record of the
transaction and of the attempt made has, it is re-
ported, been found in the archives of the Secret
Society.
You can easily fancy the uneasiness arising from
those contests not unfrequentiy disturbing the public
mind. Marshal McNlahon thought it advisable to
show to the dissatisfied that he had, at any rate, the
power to keep them down, if need be, and the means
of ruling with a firm hand. On the 2Sth of June,
he passed n grand review of troops $4,000 en) on
the race course of Longchamps, and issued the same
day a proclamation to the army, in which, after
bestowing on them the usual encomium for the pre-
cision of their movements he makes use of the fol-
lowing significant language: 1.-The national As
sembly has given me for screen years the executive
power, and has placed in my hands, for that time,
the safe-keeping Of order and public peace. This
part of my mission likewise belongs to you. We will
fulfill it to the last, maintaining everywhere the
authority and respect of the laws"
This document, much commented upon, created
no little sensation. Did the President aim at a Die
tatOrship? Was he tired of the evident reluctance
Of the Assembly to organize his Government? Such
was at least the construction placed upon it by one Of
the leading newspapers of Paris, the Figaro, and
many violent articles appeared in it to urge the
Marshal TO adopt that course and dissolve the As
sembly as Napoleon had done in 1852. The news
paper was allowed 10 go on UNPUBLISHED for a long
time, but at last overstePped the limits of permitted
controversy, aud Its publication was stopped for 10
days, which caused the owners a dead loss of 80, 1000
francs for q fortnight suspension | will give you n
specimen OF the tone of the Figaro at that time
Leave all hope, you Deputies of the Assembly
whatever you do, the Marshal is there for seven years.
Here | am, here l will stay. You took the hero of
Magenta out of his sphere, and you thought he was
q man OF straw, but he proves to be a man of iron.
He is stronger than you. You are nobody. The
army knows none but him, shall obey none but him,
shall follow none but him"
After the Presidents proclamation to the army,
the Legitmists saw plainly that it was his firm inten-
ton to hold the supreme authority for seven years,
and that he would dare to keep Z" the descendant of
st. Louis waiting at the door of the Septennat."
Then there was a concert of determinations against
the Duke de Broglie Such was not the under
StQn6Iun- thGv had hnap npaairal bu tho fhap Dripa
Minister'S promises He had declared to the mon
archists, in order TO get their votes for the Septennat
in November, 1878, that McNIahon's would be but n
sham-Goyernment, under the protection of which all
Intrigues could be carried on for the return of Count
de Chambord. The Septennat had been invented
merely TO Illustrate the hopes of the Republicans
and TO prevent a dissolution of the Assembly and
new elections which would but prove advantageous
to the Republican Cause You may well under
stand their disappointment, when the Presidents
declarations indicated that he, at least, took the
power without reserve, and that he wss in earnest
about keeping 1t. Then was 1t time for Count de
Chambord to reply to McMahon's pretensions by a
countermanifesto But this time the President had
lost all patience, and the royal document was STOPPED
as soon as printed, the newspaper PUniOR, which
had published it, being besides obliged, by order of
the Governor Of Paris, TO suspend its publication for
two weeks. We are yet, as you see, under the iron
rule Of martial law, not only in Paris, but in more
than half of the departments of France, and that
Yexation system is still in force three years after the
termination of the war. The French are certainly
learning what patience and submission are.
When the legitimist organ was suspended, and the
message of the Bourbon candidate treated as if il
came from any common pretender not authorized by
- the divine right Of God" the indignation of the
Right knew no bounds. Both Right and Left, exas-
perated at the repressiye, but now impartial meas
ures of the government, combined once more in a 4
spirit Of revenge, and q vote of censure caused the
Cabinet, selected by Marshal McAIahon in the month
of May, to send in their resignation. We have our
ministerial crises more often than in happy Hawaii.
The President of the Republic refused to accept the
designations and sent on the 9th Of July a message to
the Assembly. He reminded them again that they
had appointed him as Chief Of the Executive for
seven years, even before laying the basis Of durable
by which he could govern. Having ac-
cspted the trust he meant TO keep it, during the
period mentioned. and was prepared to defend it
against all competitors. Now they must also do their