The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-08-07
THE PACIFIC
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ATGrST
OUR PARIS LETTER

In the eyes OF some Of the Ministers, the Re
public will be most perfect when it viii be least
republican, and the same eounselors seem 20 for
get that the present Constitution is intended for
other presidents as well as Marshal Mcmahon.
The Chief Of the Cabinet, ". Buffet, is no enthu-
siast for the Republic. and wishes to fashion it
till it becomes as incomprehensible as his recent
hobby, the dead and gone Septennate. Asatran-
sition minister he is about as good as any other,
but he seems inclined to 60 away, the more no
person gives him the slightest cause for departing.
To abandon a ship when all is serene, is quitea
new kind Of government. But France would not
che less survive the separation, and the people
would not become 2 whit more monarchaI they
will have even the last word, and that is now to
have the Republic honestly seated, and the Pub
lie Powers Of the country settled in good faith.
The hitch at present springs from the desire Of
the government TO have the President, not the
Assembly, supreme In the conVocation of the Leg
~islature that is, to invest the President with
powers akin to q monarch. If the signature of
one-half the legislature plus one could be obtain
ed, then the Chief Magistrate would be bound to
convoke both Houses. All this looks suspicious,
especially the vivacity and determination to carry
it. 1t behoyes the Republicans then to keep
their eyes open, and to elect from among the Sen
ators and Deputies of all parties, a simple Vigil
lance Committe, charged, not like the Permanence
Commission TO meet periodically, catechise min
listers and receive no enlightenment, but to simply
unite only when they believe it is urgent to sum-
mon the legislators. No President of a French
Republic ought to be left in the possibility of dis
pensing for seven months with the Legislature.
This independent power of conyoking becomes
the more necessary, when the ministers think it
unnecessary to bind the President from declaring
war. The President can be put on his trial, tits
true, hence the greater importance for a Perma-
nent Committee of Legislators, authorized to sum-
mon their colleagues, when an impoiitic act of a
foreign minister would require to be repudiated.
Had such o salutary constitution existed in July,
1870, France would not have had to bear the
penalty of the criminal war declared by an En-
peror who had apparently lost his head, when his
empire was settling down for sinking. If NJ.
Buffet persists in opposing the election of deputies
by the Scrutin de iiste, when the electoral bill
comes on for discussion-the S0iOns deem such a
bill to be necessary, he will certainly be defeated,
and will have to bear the responsibility of pro-
voking q crisis on the eve of the general elections.
The country does not want him to Iegislate, but
to administer to execute the decisions of an
exceptional Chamber. In the present state of
the nation, when the paramount object is to elect
men truly representing its political feelings, the
SCTHLtH US tkSLS Cdu dlOue prOuucc CduuludLeS OF
well-marked opinions. 1t would be deplorable
for France, were she to be endowed with 4
Chamber, counting as many tails as the present,
by the coming elections. The people also are
now very determined to oppose ali plans, not
meaning the straightforward organization of the
legal Republic; and will tolerate no propositions
insiduously concealing reyersionary interests for
pretenders.
That which most consoles at present everybody
and every interest is, that we are to have no war.
Every person repudiates having put warlike ru-
mors in circulation and would only like to catch
the kDaves who did so; the Gar, the Emperor,
Kings, nations, peoples, all desire peace. In
principle, all soyereigns detest war, protesting
their desire to avoid it, and finishing one day
by declaring it. War is truly hated-wheni it is
unfortunate. When Octave FeuIllet was pre-
sented some years ago to Napoleon III, on his
being elected an academician, one of his sponsors
was Villemah. Gentlemen - said the Emperor,
81 work he was then compiling his Julius
Cesar SO as to become worthy of you"
q You are right, SIRE replied Villemain tartly,
60 it is better to ransack old battle fields, than to
make new ones"
The professions in connection with the Fete-
DietV, held on Sunday last, passed off admirably
not the slightest disturbance, but everywhere
marked respect. The presence of the military,
and their music, added much to the sclat of the
fete in the garrison towns. People really do not
meddle with these professions, because they are
ostensibly religious the pilgrimages alone pro-
woke the opposition. and even these are being
now viewed as harmless, unless they directly
reflect on the Republic or are attended by officials.
After politics, races, exhibitions, and fashions.
Parisians are not to-day what they were formerly,
full of serenity and contentedness, considering
the city to be theirs exclusively q Partisan is
now peevish and poverish. speaks informulas, as
if he had an electric apparatus in his stomach.
Nothing satisfies him, and be is degenerating
into a citizen of the world. The flower show
was exceedingly attractive, was held on the terrace
of the Tuilleries gardens, and left nothing unsat-
isied to the eye, IN point OF tasteful arrangement
and organization. But the show was better,
when the society held Its display in the Palace of
Industry, along with the exhibition of Saturday.
These are the occasions on which to estimate the
popularity Of celebrities and the vagaries Of
fashion. Theirs and his lady are the observed of
all observers, and received something like an
ovation. 1t is felt that he also had a finger in
the pie which led to peace. AS for fashion, the
ladies' high heeled boots are enormousa and compel
them to adopt a Greecian bend =" to prevent
their falling yet the Oldest inhabitant can re-
member the time, when ladies boots had no heels
at all, or so snail, as not to be viewed as such
they had then shoes; shoes for the morning,
noon, and evening, with white, black, and rose
colored stockings to match, with strings, that,
knotting on the shoe, twisted artistically around
the leg like the devices Of a mirliton.
Another innovation is the prevalence of wasp
waists, which, like life, is but q span. The
mode IS TO DC sIenuer as u consequence the
ukase is issued to be thin, and forthwith the
~votaries of fashion, like the moutonS Of Panarge,
follow suit. The empire of the bees has disap-
peared, so we are under the official rule Of the
wasps. Formerly it was requisite to have short
waists and full corsages, and the women of
Rubens were considered as the model of the day.
By what mystery does it arise, that ladies who
were so plump yesterday axe to-day so slim?
Head-dresses are still bouquets, and formerly
they were composed of vegetables. as being more
simple, if not more : natural" Leonard, couture,
of Marie Antoinette, made a turban for the
duchesse de Luynes out of one of her chemfsee,
and it was pronounced admirable; on another 3.
occasion he made for Nine. de Matignon an ador-
able couture, composed of q young artichoke, q .
head of green broccoli, 4 carrot, long radishes,
arranged in a red striped napkin. There are no
limits 70 this rnnins That ras the TING also