The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-03-20
TIE PACIFIC
SATURDAY. MARCH 20.
OUR PARIS LETTER.

EAklsb 0GbudIy LIN, 1910.
The Assembly cannot even constitute a Ministry.
and it is useless specializing about what may fol-
low its inability, which will be definitely tested
in a few days, to pass projects for the Organiza-
ton Of the country. No one approaches the
hereafter, though craftsmanship is said TO be
wisest the more it can foresee. The regret is
very general, that the Marshal should have deliv-
cred bis last message, which was uncalIed for,
and has not only placed him in antagOnism with
the united minorities in the Assembly, but forced
him to take his stand on Orleanism, which is the
weakest and least popular Of all the existing isms.
The Marshal demands that his powers be defined,
and to leave everything indefinite till his term of
ONCE expires, when all parties could grapple each
Others threats TO settle the question of supremacy.
This the nation will never consent to, in order to
oblige any pretender. 1t insists on the House
being put in order now. and the present employed
TO make provision for the rainy day. The very
fact OF forcing forward the project for a Senate,
apart from, and independent of, defining first the
form Of government it was destined to serve, was
too openly Orieanist to receive the support of the
other parties. Orleanism thus has played its last
card, and lost. In the general elections it will
disappear 1t has been on its trial since the over
throw of Theirs, and has been found wanting.
One remedy is clear-tbe dissolution, and Marshal
Mcmahon may rest assured, if he adopts that
programme, he Will have the Z" entire nation for
lovers - but be viii have no longer a royalist
majority; the popular vote will fat the Republic,
and the Marshal has never ceased to recognize
the Sovereignty Of the Chamber. The party
that is afraid of the ballot boxes is q party con-
demned in advance. The Gordian knot is about
being cut; it will be as merciful as it will be
timely, as really the country is worn out with
the exceptional state OF things, and with the
chronic sterility of the Assembly. The people
desire only tranquility, to find work and to exc
cute it, to be restored their necessary liberties,
and to be treated rather as men, than as children,
by every government that may succeed to power.
The crisis In the Reformed Church of France Is
becoming more grave; the difference of opinion
between the Orthodox and Liberal Protestants,
more profound. Already the cry of " persecu-
ton " is raised, but it is to be hoped the govern
ment will settle the dispute by measures of
Gagacity and moderation rather than by any
stretch of authority. A recent decision Of the
Minister of Public Worship, rather leans to give
time to the Orthodox to concert their plans for
ousting the Liberals from the churches they at
present hold, and where the Orthodox are at the
same time in a minority. 1t is not a question of
dogma, but of ecclesiastical discipline, which
separates the antagonists, now rapidly becoming
belligerents. The Liberals or Nonconformists,
~reiterate their determination not to accept the
doctrinal DEGREES of any Synod, and the govern
ment inclines to back the Synod, doubtless be-
cause it is an authority. Public opinion in
avs NV ySN DNNA oRPNNANN " oNN NAoN
would at present only envenom the quarrel,
which ought to have been regulated after the
family pattern originally but it is impossible to
believe that opinion would look on with indiffer-
ence at one-half CT French Professionalism being
shown the door, because it will not subscribe to
the rulings of the other.
In self defence the Lord Mayor is justified in
returning to London there seemed to be a con-
spiracy on the part of his French admirers to
breakfast and dine him to death every succeeding
L. Al
cessor. His Lordship brought bis Sherifs and
trumpeters with him, but it appears he forgot his
medicine man. Parisians have certainly wed in
paying him all honors, and his beautiful steeds
must have made the mouths of hippophagists
water. God Save the Qneen :" was In fair way
OF cutting out the I" Marseillaise, - especially rs
the Republican air has become questionable
under the Republic. Had {" mi lord Stone," time
and stomach to remain longer within our walls,
AZ Rule Britannia " would have succeeded Madame
Angot on the barrel organs, and Siraudin would
certainly have brought out Union Jack 6onbons.
There are no less than five different photos of his
Lordship offered for sale, in which Baron Hauss-
mann does duty for him, and doubtless he will
leave behind him more honorary dentists than he
has teeth, and these are said to be au conplet. It
would not be surprising if Sardou wrote a tragedy
or moving drama, introducing the civic authori-
ties of London the unused up materials of his
Ia Hane, might be truated to profitable account;
just as the manikins representing his dead Guelfs
and Ghibelines, now do the part of jewellers in
the ~triumphal car of Orpheus. The Parisians
will gratefully remember the services rendered to
the Inauguration of their new opera, by the
presence of the London authorities; the Lord
Mayor came like some Magi to salute its access
sion entering like q fairy king, in the midst of
marriage of Cinderella. But though the French
would laugh at such q ceremonial, if originated
among themselves, would view it as no higher
than a masquerade, the most thoughtless feel,
that the quaint forms and ceremonies connected
with the Doge Of London, unite the present with
the past. novelty with tradition, recent laws with
antique customs, contemporaries with ancestors
they mix " the ashes of ages with the c~onstruc-
tions of progress, " and embalm some fragment Of
history and perpetuate the triumph of some pop
ular right. This moral has not been overlooked
by the modern Athenians, who after all are not
Iconoclasts at heart.
Though officially inaugurated, the new Opera
is not yet finished; the left wing, the section in
tended for the Imperial family, is unachieved,
fault Of funds. Loans had to be negotiated to
enable the structure 10 be opened as it is. A
sum of 200 900 francs is necessary to provide the
proper fittings up for its illumination alone,
which for the facade, will consist of bronco fig
ures Of mammoth dimensions, sustaining reflect
ors. The library has yet to be installed and has
accommodation for a series of shelves over two
miles in length the emusic hall" will include
manuscript music copied or to be copied, as we'll
as compositions never yet represented or executed.
Not the less curious win be the Jewel ROOM
where all the barbaric pearl and gold is preserved,
and though but imitation possesses not the less a
great value. The decorations alone employed in
the fourth act Of FAfricdine, are estimated at
25 900 francs. Among other ~incompleted works
are the ~smoking-room, the restaurant, and the
lift. The restaurant will be open to the general
public, as well as to the frequenters of the opera.
The smoking-room will be so constructed as to
ventilation that not a puff will be able to stray
into the huildin0 and the lik Ia intandad oply Gov
the aged. The execution of these works, but
above all their decoration, would require some
millions of francs to accomplish. The representa-
tions now are very sober in comparison with the
gala opening; it is like the banquetshal deserted.
Many are OF opinion that the prices are fixed at
too high q rate. and If the new lyrical theatre