The Paris Municipality is very angry because its President was
not invited to the Lord Mayor's international municipal ban- quet. It appears that Alderman Stone was not to blame. He, poor man ! did not know whom to ask, so he inquired of the Minister of the Interior, and the reply was in favour of M. Duval, who, as Prefect of the Seine, represents the Government, not the Municipality. Their representative is M. Floquet, a Radical barrister, who is hated by the Conservatives because he cried " Vive la Pologne ! " when the Czar was passing. The Councillors, therefore, have censured the Prefet, who has
replied that he shall take no notice of their censure, and the struggle between the Council and the Prefecture may lead to serious consequences. As the idea of the whole ceremonial was the grandeur of municipal self-government, the invitation of the Prefet by himself was a mistake, but Parisians may rely on it that it was not caused by political feeling. The Lord Mayor would dine M. Rochefort or M. Franclieu with equal hospitality and indifference.
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