The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-02-28
OUR PARIS LETTER.

PARIS, January 18th, 1874.
Politically it is but of little importance how
often the singers be recast, so long as the music
itself remains unchanged. Possessing no states
men to direct her affairs, France has no loss to
deplore when her Ministers are either defeated or
dismissed or resign, the better to remain in office.
Actors and spectators since months past understand
this comic opera, which is enjoying a forced run.
Every Ministerial d~iscomGture is known in adj
vance will be arranged, replastered but the cheek
will not be forgotten, and every new shock induces
fresh debility. This eXhausting process may be
long. even trying for the heir-apparent-in the
present case the country, but the issue is certain to
be fatal. The living and the hopeful can find
pleasure if they choose, in the struggles more or
less agonizing of such a m~oribund as the existing
Assembly, which like Robinson Crusoe claims TO
be monarch of all it surveys, though its right is
disputed by a people. Every fresh repulse for the
party which Is devoted to oppose the wishes OF the
country. is additional lead in the wing. Since the
reinquishing Of the policy inaugurated by Theirs
that of rallying all moderate men to literally
concur in bowling to the manifest verdict Of the
country for Il wise and real, not an extreme or
mock Republic. matters have only progressed from
bad to worse. France is now suffering from the
determination Of men to govern the country in the
interests of party. Hence, the absence of all gov
eminent, as Ministers labor to make the mountain
come to them. How can the Republic produce
stability. when II is only decreed az provisional,
and even this is refused organization? The electors,
as patient as Job, await the moment when they
shall be called upon to elect a new Chamber, as
the present cannot continue TO survive after pass
ing Constitutional laws. Inc OStenSlDle OBJECT
Just now is TO manipulate the electoral Dody-tO
make it monarchical, anything, rather than Repub-
lican. Hence the grOtesque crusade against uni
yersal suffrage, now one of the estates of the realm
and Of contemplated fee faw FUN laws against the
press. 1t is the same spirit which has pushed the
Ministers to propose converting the $4,000 mayors
and their assessors into electioneering agents. The
safety of France it seems depends on this social
reform. The Assembly thought otherwise, by re-
iecting its consideration in the morning, 10 vote
the opposite in the afternoon. Every superseded
mayor, will become an opposition election agent,
with the strong motives against the royalist gov
ernment-convictio and resentment; and parish
toner's will be more inclined to listen TO the mayors
they spontaneously elected, but who have been
dismissed, not on account of inc0mpetency to ad-
minister the affairs Of their Commune, but owing
to holding opposite political views. rather than the
successors imposed by the Home Office.
1t is supposed that by thus centralizing the
humblest functionaries, the government will be
able to retuEn the official Candidate spectre that
has vanished with the late empire, and under which
voters marched 10 the poll between a policeman
and a gendarme. But Sedan and Metz have opened
the eyes of electors, and universal suffrage has
grown robust and manly Of late. Indeed, since
May last. the mOnarchists have been in possession
of power, they have swept away all they could OF
officials and journals tainted with Republicanism,
and still tue country has become more Republican!
In 1851. the populace only was Republican to-day,
the bourgeois is a. much so as the workman, the
rich, as much as the poor hence, the difficulty OF
drafting a scheme of voting that would produce a
special class favorable to monarchy.
The most remarkable circumstance to note is. the
perfect tranquility which everywhere reigns, and
this. despite an administration that is irritant rather
than conciliating. and Independent of martial law
and bayonets. The nation is resigned, feeling
certain of victory. 1t remains calm when officially
illuminated. and only laughs now when a Minister
announces the country to be in danger. The bug
bear is as much seen through as the order" OF
Napoleon Ill, both had the same consoling effect
as the parsons "Mesopotamea in his sermon,
had on the old lady. However, so long as Minis