The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-10-03
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOrrtisrr,
SATURDAY,, OCTOBER 3.
OUR PARIS LETTER.

every NA-=E+~N - N-ANAANlLE" - - ~A--- 49," ~
say the Assembly is p~owerless to constitute any form
Of government, and ought to dissolve. It will likely
DO Ieiiher; it will hold on. Public opinion seems to
becoming p~aralyzei, and the successive disapPo!nt-
ments the nation has experienced, in hoping against
hope, for a termination Of the uncertain, Il proving
a WEAKNESS Of the flesh. and producing the tran
guilty which i associated with fatalism. The cOun-
try worked itself up 10 believe the Republic would
be voted, but the government stepped in at the
twelfth hour, extinguished the salutary solution,
while proposing nothing instead, for the personal
Septennate will never be constituted by the present
Chamber, aad a new one would %summarily reject q
scheme accepting the Marshal for a Constitution,
with the reycrsionary interest Of anarchy, on his death
or resignation. To adjourn the Constitutional laws
is not a solution, and the Marshal has made a mis-
take in retracting the urgency he demanded in his
message for giving at once definite institutions to the
country he has also made q lamentable blunder in
refusing 10 lean on a compact body Of conservative
Republicans only too willing TO frame bis Office with
constitutional safe guards; be has decided 10 ride in
company with radically divided monarchists, who
have other saints (. worship, and at most can only
give the Marshal the second place in their affections.
The role Of the Assembly may be considered as
ended; nearly one-half Of its members demand the
dissolution, which can be avoided for a time by the
recess. Indeed for all useful purposes, the House
might adjourn till the end Of the Septennate; it
chants q De PTofuH3is over the Republic, which the
nation holds beyond doubt TO a TIE Deum. IN pres
EuCt u l4Slu NyuNA IASN4OlS Va INCONSISTENCIES VII
the part Of legislators so hagrant that it is q waste Of
time abiding TO them; of the maintenance Of the state
Of siege, now four months in vigor over the half Of
France, Of the postponement OF nearly all funda-
mental measures Of reorganization; Of schemes for
ensuring the triumph Of parties rather than of the
cOuntry-confdence, ever n plant Of slow growth,
cannot be blamed for showing no signs Of yigor, and
security must be excused for remaining suspicious.
The last preoccupatiOn with employers of labor is the
sumption Of work; the serious and growing def
ciencies in the weekly receipts of the railway COM
rnnaa n1Tla tho lnnwaEEn1 EFofan Of unrRnw nnl
compulsory idle hands attest the decline of industry.
Foreigners engaged in commercial pursuits loudly
complain Of the stagnation Of affairs, and having
made all the retrenchments possible TO bear up against
what they expected would be only a passing depres-
sion, several here left, and other are preparing to
depart. Each iadusTiei that so r%etires, brings away
with him to Belgium, Italy, or Germany, q number
Of clients that France will lose for ever. Business
cannot sustain a succession of political shocks; it
must have the belief, as well as the assurance, of
definite tranquility.
The misery is beyond doubt very great not only
the journals assert it, but the sad fact can be ascer-
tanned in daily intercourse with society, in the evil
dence Of closed shops, and next to idle shop-keepers
who cOurageously struggle on for a good time coming.
Yet il is inconceivable in presence of these facts that
royalist deputies can shut their eyes and refuse the
means Of removing the oppression that weighs upon
everything. Most respectable looking persons may
be encountered in any street selling toys, tape, rib
bons, &c, essaying this resource for gaining an
honest meal, before begging or applying to the
charity fund, for the French are too proud TO solicit
aims, but never 100 independent TO work in any way
however humble, provided it be not dishonorable. |
have seen on many occasions individuals picking q
crust of bread out of the gutter, cleaning it, and re-
firing TO a remote corner to eat ii. 1t would not be
justice TO draw from this gloomy picture, which is
but in any case ephemeral, the conclusion that the
country is either slowly dying or in decadence. The
nation that has paid five milliards, which is never
happier than when fully at work, which is saving,
and proyerbially sober, does not possess the germs of
dissolution. The present crisis is what Theirs some
time ago called q g stoppage " in the history of the
So a~I lk nn ln - kara q ehn nnnNr
which if divided by four contending parties, would
be otherwise than distracted, and unable to be any
thing bli j ggo else f Sg Is & t tnSdrlh + j. hn99u fS5S hs saasr if shss as n}fRGes
French. Much of this resignation is to be attributed
TO the instructive love of the masses for that wise and
sagacious Republic, which would cease to make
France the appanage Of one rather than of all. Re-
publicanism in this country is not q matter of theory
or personal liking it is o necessity, the compromise
suggested by events.
Were the state of siege raised, and the press allow
ed to re-enter under the regime of common law, the
further continuation of the Assembly, or its more or
less heightened adjournment, would be less painfully
felt. The press could speak at its risks and perils,
but it would be free to sound the alarm for the gov
errors as well as for the governed. Under Louis
Philippe a journal was fined 20,000f., the Second En-
pire never exceeded 6000f, and when it suppressed
a newspaper, it gave three solemn warnings before
hand. BY the siege law q mere stroke of the pen
stops q journal. The Figaro which had lately been
suspended for fifteen days, estimates its loss at nearly
100000. 1t gave its staff twelve days holidays to 90
|
and supplying gratuitously the necessary railway
tickets. 1t is strange that press punishments never
produce the slightest good, and while endeavoring to
Ignore the influence OF newspapers, governments aim
TO found organs that will represent only their views.
\ newspaper prosecution is never considered any
thing else but a political persecution in France. the
consequence of being disagreeable to the authorities,
and which would be dispensed with were the opposi-
ton in Office.
As an illustration of manners and customs, the
government has become journalist. Believing that
the 200 daily and weekly periodicals published in /
Paris, Of all sizes, shapes, prices, and aims, were in
sufficient TO instruct the population, q new print at
one sous per number, has been produced. 1t en-
deayors to be as full Of information as an egg is of
meat, and as varied as an encyclopaedia. Special
classes are allowed to subscribe at reduced terms.
The marvel is, to have the advantage of being ex-
empted from the taxes that weigh on other publica-
tions, q fayoritism which will bring the little stranger
forward for q public examination in the Assembly.
Among other attractions, the print has its romance;
no publication Of the kind could exist without its
serial novel. its feuileioH. 1t is calculated that
twelve millions Of individuals in France, belonging
to all classes of society, read a chapter of n romance
per anuum for a total. Now what temperament can
resist this regime ? and as if one story at a time was
not sufficient, some journals give two. It is the part
Of the paper that pays best, and that must be paid
for. 1t forms perhaps the principal intellectual food
Of the French; now a romance is dangerous precisely
because II Is a romance, and the yirtuous novel is not
n whit better because it creates only Don Quixotes.
Also, after a romantic man, there is nothing more de-
pl0rable than q romantic ration; and the novel;
which seeks the reader in France, is so cheap in form,
that ii is seductive. 1t is in addition an important
means Of propagandism, and the Second Empire
never neglected its agency to keep alive the Napo-
leonic legend, indeed a member Of the Corps Legis-
latif defended the trash on the grounds that the
t~euttet0n created a taste for reading, and was the
product Of intelligence. Strange way to encourage
taste for good works by the perusal Of bad ones.
Much yet remains to be done fer the scattered dead
who fell in the late battles around Paris. The little
hillocks that mark the last bivouac Of q 6rdre, are
gradually disappearing; the crosses in wood have
fallen down, and the weather has obliterated the
epitaph; crowns have faded or have been blown away.
Nowhere is this more perceptble than in the neigh
b0rhood Of Buzeural, where the last fight and the
'tOrrential sortie'' occurred: Friends could DO much