OUR FRENCH LETTER Special correspondence of the HjtsAU PARIS December 28 1383 The French have got it into their heads that by the accession of Earl Derby to the cabinet the Egyptian question will be satisfactorily settled set-tled and in their sense His lordship lord-ship has restored Cetaweyo in a manner to make John Dunn leadoff i lead-off in a Hottentot reel Why then I not expect he will secure by his influence in-fluence all that France requires in Egyptthe restoration of the dual control for that is what her acquired ac-quired rights mean but which she forfeited by shrinking to defend them Shrewd heads remark that I while England indulges in disinterested disinter-ested phrases and generalities she is not the less steadily settling down in Egypt Beat passidens In the interests of Egypt even England ought at once to clearly explain what she intends doing independent of France for the latter will only be content with the impossible an exequo status in the political government gov-ernment of Egypt Naturally all the French correspondents on the Nile ridicule the present administration adminis-tration of Egypt Be their remarks just or iininst England ought now to jallbacko on all the European powers and so regaining re-gaining her liberty proceed with the reforms demanded in Egypt There is a point at coaxing or stroking down of the French that ought not to be exceeded as the intention would be misunderstood misunder-stood Gambetta is said to be slowly pulling through his combined mala adies His case seems to be shrouded in designed mystery Few believe the medical bulletins except ex-cept In the sense of an epitaph The better the patient is reported to be the greater number of doctors called In Charcat the renowned alienist has been summoned to examine Gambetta that which has given rise to many comments The invalid is now rumored to be a martyr to Brights disease and since he has been ordered ass milk the conclusion conclu-sion has been jumped at that he is in the last stages of galloping consumption con-sumption There is not the proprietor propri-etor of a patent medicine but has forwarded his panacea to Gambetta not an old womans curebut arrives per every part Even devout people send him charms and relics he the notorious materialist Nothing Noth-ing but a reappearance in public can set all the surmises about Gambetta at rest The important fact to notice is that beyond curiosity no marked public interest is exhibited as is the case when a great mans life is in danger The publication of the Memoirs of Comte Horace de VeilCastet and which throw such a lurid light on the history of the Second Empire from 1851 to 1864 occupies for the moment all attention The comte had his entrees at the Tuileries and to all the upper stratum of Bona partist society as one of our own Yet he noted down every day everything connected with the inner in-ner life of the then rulers of France As director of the Louvre museums he had every opportunity of playing the role of Asmodeus The comte was separated from his wife but consoled himself for the loss by taking for mistress a creole lady from Reunion On his death he bequeathed to her all he possessed misery plus twenty volumes of Memoirs Since the fall of the empire em-pire this mistress in order to live offered the manuscript for sale to several publishers who declined till Haller of Berne purchased them I About 1000 copies were smuggled i into France but a seizure was demanded de-manded in the name of the counts family j the authorities were thus C able to secure twentyfive copies A I reviewer states he secured his copy by placing it in the pillow of his babys cot when the police came to seize The volume is exceedingly spicy with the naked truth revealed re-vealed about everybody who was anybody All the public men are shown up in dressing gown and slippers slip-pers Prince Jerome Napoleon and his papa areterribiytreated the D uc de Morneys smart speculations are catalogued with a minuteness that ought to make Sir Robert Peel happy for remainder of his life One curioug chapter introduces to the emperor and empress consulting consult-ing the turnIng tables as to the te suIt of the expedition to Mexico Baroche is depicted sobbing for more income to keep up the position posi-tion of his family when the emperor empe-ror drops 30000 francs into his hat There are some racy notes on foreign for-eign celebrities such as the ex queen of Spain Dumas fits another an-other litterateur comes in for few pTagay knocks The account o fs the coup d etat is frightful in its i matter of fact coldbloodedness 2600 citizens were masacred for defending de-fending the law some of Canro berts soldiers having llesitated they returned to storm the barricades when assured they would receive a i gratuity of 16f each The work apart from its unpalatable revela tionsand the broadness of many of the details is well written for the I author was an edupated man He > was the cheil among the Tuil erie folks takin notes that his i povertystricken mistress prints It is rare prohibited fruit The speerits have turned up j we thought at least in France they were as extinct as the dodo How everthe faithful among the faithless have had a gathering and Paris has i been selected as the centre for the 5 cosmopolitan debris to rally The 5 authorities do not object to this but t simply to individuals obtaining money for photographing extinct relatives and rapping up departed de-parted worth The audience con sisted chiefly of welltodo middle class people officers laid up in ordinary or-dinary and indeed some pretty girls that would make a skeptic drink to Allan Kardecs health But iiichelec states no movement can succeed without the fair sex One i 1 of the spectators was very happy I he was able to converse every night with his deceased daughter who I assured him lately he was formerly I king of Spainthe Old or Philip not stated Another enthusiast avowed he had Troppmans spirit I in him that which ought to necessitate neces-sitate the application of the guillotine guillo-tine for a second time to that terrible terri-ble murderer I i A monarchal writer who is satisfied satis-fied the republic will soon be as tad as the cities of the plains devoted Christmas day to study the coming solution of our political situation he found it in Daniel where the prophet alludes to certain peoples having been weighed the balance and found wanting adds he who will occupy the throne will be aged 62 or 61 years Now concludes the writer the Comte de Chambordis 02 and the Due dAumale wIll be that age next year j hence the connection con-nection between Teuterden steeple and the Goodwin sands In Cardinal Donnet France has lost a model prelate who did much for the revival of Christianity and the Catholic religion He was liberal lib-eral tolerant and a broad church man ne never allowed politics to I get mixed up with religion Rumor said he was like Enxile de Girardin i a natural son of Louis Philippe 1 He loved retreat and silence was veiy simple in his habits and eschewed es-chewed all titles he received his visitors when making his toilet he loved rural pursuits he said Cardinal r Car-dinal Mattieu represented theology Cardinal Darboy jurisprudence I Cardinal JBonnechare politics while I represent agriculture His great I pleasure was to mix among the I peasants On one occasion he was driving past a field and saw a poor farmer endeavoring to hood some stocks of corn against threatening rain He pulled up ta and he and his secretary lent a hand When near 80 years old he I crossed a stream on horseback and 1 in the depth of winter to arrive in II i i time at a parish church where he had promised to officiate In his youth he was very delicate and i in a speech in the Senate on the untimely j r I un-timely burials bill he stated that when a student lie was so ill that I he was certified to be dead by the I doctor and conscious of all that was passing he by a supernatural effort I rose up in his coffin as the lid was preparing to be nailed down We were all prepared for a dull I I Christmas and so were not disappointed disap-pointed at its being realized Ai j dripping slippery day suggestive of anything but mirth but of stopping I within doors and acting on the sage motto of early to bed even without I with-out roast beef or plum pudding I Fortunately it is the period of the year when concierges and servants I I in general are politeness itself for I New Years Day is at hand when their annual gratuities fall due like I death and taxes in point of certainty cer-tainty There was the consolation in seeing the children happy in counting their great expectations I brought to them by St Nicholas It recalled our own souvenirs I and we had the melancholy mental pleasure of taking stock of all our elapsed Christmases How many of us could have wished to say as in the Silver King Oh God put back thy universe and give me yesterday yes-terday The Christmas eve midnight mid-night masses were fairly attended but the succeeding supper parties were limited and bills of rare economical eco-nomical Louis Michel offers on the part of herself and sister and brother anarchists an-archists to give their services gratuitously grat-uitously in demolishing what rests of the Tuileries They are veritable gluttons to say they are not content con-tent with having burned it down Another gourmand is M DeLes seps not content with cutting isthmuses isth-muses he now is at work to flood deserts He has aided in the formation forma-tion of a company to execute Commandant Com-mandant Rouaires scheme of letting let-ting in the Mediterranean through Algeria into the Sahara A new history of England has appeared ap-peared In reply to the question What were tl chief events during the reign of Charles YIP A terrible terri-ble plague and a tremendous fire