Show I OnJL FRENCH LETTER > t j Special cbrrespondenco of the H ALI AL-I i r P AllIS June 271883 1 Twentyfour hours are allowed every condemnedto curse hisjudges TJhe anarchists are largely availing themselves of the priyillege to anathematize an-athematize judge jurors witnesses officials and the government for convicting Louise Michel and C3ii demoting herto six years imprisonment imprison-ment to be followed by ten more of police surveillance which for a lady of her disposition is more galling than a residence in jail Louise Michel has long ceased to be a danger as a political oddity even she has been played out It was not for her wild talk but her wild acts she was convicted The adders ear was turned to her rant ings but the moment she headed a mob ahd directed the pillage of shops the jury on behalf of society saidhalttherV The verdict is the more significant as the jury was composed of small shopkeepers whose politics may safely be assumed as-sumed as republican Louiseis not a dangerous criminal nor altogether a qualified lunatic In any case seclusion se-clusion and gratuitous douches will do the old gal no harm Her followers about twentyfive kmves and fools have resolved to individually look after the members of the jury the judge etc All that is theatrica they will speak daggers dag-gers but will use none They denounce the radicals every type from Eochefort downwards The deputies of the extreme left are also tabooed yet neither of the repudiated repudi-ated will disown formally the anarchists an-archists and the latter derive what little importance they possess by the inertia and cowardice of the former It is the situation of Sgane relle beating his wife Instead of seeking a di vorce she sim ply retorts And if it pleases me to be beaten P I The Tonkin question is in the statu quo stage Foreign minister M CnaHmellaCour is viewed as having bungled the whole business by his discourtesy and snubs toward the Chinese ambassador the Marquis Ising People would not be sorry if the state of the ministers liver necessitated a continued residence resi-dence at Vichy till the Greek ka lends Foreigners who are unanimously of opinion France is on the wrong tack in her spasmodic effort to become a colonial power of the first magnitude also agree no good is to be effected by warnings however sublime or from friends however candid She will find out her mistake mis-take soon enough Experience is the best of schoolmasters though the fees are sometimes very heavy People here desire to know where is the second Suez canal question now M De Lesseps boasts that he and the English government have arranged the whole matter satisfactorily long ago Interest in the Channel tunnel has dwindled down to zero i only the sea sick keep harping on my daughter The special correspondents who have been at Moscow are now summing sum-ming up their letters the meat valuable val-uable part of their task They al admit that the Czar is pledged to reaction and that his last card must be a war As there Is no public opinion in Russia there are no party divisions no tangible pro gramme to forma gauge It is not the less agreed that Alexander the Thirds coronation was the first ever celebrated where the Czar was io isolated > i-solated from his living subjects The Russian empire consists of thirty different races of people Life there is not individual but collective col-lective There are but two cities Moscow and St Petersburg the remaining re-maining towns are viewed but as accidents In other countries the urban population constitutes one third of the whole in Russia but of the onetenth St Petersburg and Moscow are the only cities perhaps in the world whose inhabitants are in part peasants It is therefore not astonishing to find the workpeople work-people in the factories of these cities engaged on the conditions that they will be allowed vocation to sow their fields and reap their harvests There are no masses of proletaires couseqently no work for demagogues In Russia there is no caste no privileged classes The functionaries function-aries can be ennobled and every Russian Rus-sian is eligible to be functionary The peasants by the village commune com-mune are the proprietors of the soil of which each has his share It is said that Peter the Great built St Petersburg to act as a window by which Russia could look Out on Europe Eu-rope To build up or to keep open that window represents the struggle strug-gle between old and peasant and modern liberal and traveling Russians Rus-sians The government ignores all couches between the functionaries and the peasants Time alone can decide if it be wise The habitual criminals bill will be voted with what is called the Draconian clause viz that every criminal three times convicted will be shipped to a penitential colonyfor the moment New Caledonia but Madagascar is to be the Van Die mans Land No philanthropic considerations con-siderations will be allowed and they are the working classes that clamor forthe severity But there the cities swarm with habitual criminals crim-inals and the reports from New Caledonia that the majority of the convicts remain incorrigible and indomitable > in-domitable have strengthened the cry to rid the home country of kindred kind-red outcasts The precipitate departure of the Queen of Spain and her two babies for her mothers residence at Vienna gave strength to the reports in circulation cir-culation that their majesties had a battl royal where jealousy was the cause King Alfonse is said not to be proof against the eyes and the shawls of the fair Andalusianc sirens that would shake the 8aint hip of an anchorite He is reputed to be a Henry IV minus Gabrielle To deny the rumor the telegrams exchanged ex-changed between the king and queen since her departure have been published to prove the spouses are still in their honeymoon It is anew a-new kind of blue book and has caused fits of laughter The journals parody the idea and the music halls have made the incident the base of the wittiest of Sayntttes The telegram tele-gram where Alphonse states he adores his motherinlaw is perfect per-fect The Due da N is an hidalgo of the bluest of blood till two years ago Le was as poor as a church mouse when he married a rich retired re-tired staymaker aged 50 She paid his debts and set ties all his lavish expenditure stipulating only that every account should be presented in her name She ransacks his desks to find love letters and regularly chastises him Having discovered his I aison with a pretty actress the duchess demands a separation The duke produces a tailors account where a suit was made for the duchess she is very stout to enable her to rake in male attire A humorous controversy is taking place to demonstrate that the French system of scratch duelling with foils is only another form of vivisection vivi-section The Prince of Montenegro is here fie looks very noble and warlike heiR he-iR 42 years of age and father of nine children His wife is reputed repu-ted to be the loveliest princess in Europe The prince studied at the Lyceum Louis le Grand and I the first visit he matte after his arrival was to drive in a cab alore to the Lyceum and spent an hour in close chat with the head of the infirmary a Sister of Charity and the only official contemporary with his school days over old comrades and their destinies Dear is the schoolboy i pot We neer forget though there wa are forgot Trompette GambetUs famous cook is now living retired in Tour aine where the ex cooks of the ex Queen of Spain and the Empress of Russia are passing the evening of their lives also Trompetie has had three toes of his left foot recently amputated for gangrene He was offered 60000 francs and a staff of twentyfive assistants to direct the feastings at the Czars coronation but declined Cook rest thy cook ings oer Trornpettes greatest feat was the dinner given in Dec mber 1881 when Gambetta was prime minister Of 150 guests fiftyseven were diplomatists the dinner was superb The Turkish ambassador was of opinion that Trompe ought Ito I-to be appointed after his death head cook in Paradise and it was I approved mem con The preparations for the celebration celebra-tion of the 14th of July are not as I perceptible to the naked eye as these I of former years This may be due i to the depression of business not political indifference I The AntiSemitique is the newest journal that has appeared It is a hard time for the Jews However I have not heard that any persons have yet cat the Eothschilas To collectors of curiosities the skulls of sixteen notable individuals individ-uals connected with the first revolution revo-lution are for sale The Chefdoeuvre of Dumas pete is Dumas fils Louis Philippe opposed op-posed the erection of fortifications around Paris The populace then cried A bas Louis Philippe Vies les fortifications I The popular cry is now A bas les fortifications Ito I-to make building sites for workmtns villas The discovery of eleciric telegraphy tele-graphy is claimed for an organ grinderMonsieur Van Westen When Charles X sought refuge at Holyrood Castle after the 1830 revolution revo-lution the Duchess of Hamilton was his chief guest Oa her leaving Edinburgh she was accompanied with her beautiful daughter Lady Susan aged 15 to bid the old King adieu his majesty gallant as when due d Artoi refused to kiss Lady Susan as solicited saying My winter SO years would only fade the rose and be an outrage to spring |