TRANCE AND ENGLAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 246, 16 October 1880, Page 4

TRANCE AND ENGLAND.

(Argus correspondent.) At the Cherbourg fetes Lord Northbrook and Admiral Kiders, the Governor of Portsmouth, presented the compliments of Her Majesty to the President of the French Republic, who returned the compliment by a visit on board the Enchantress. In the evening at the dinner given at the Town Hall by President Grevy, the Minister of the Naval Department, Admiral Jaurevinberry, in his answer to the President's speech, alluded in the most delicate way to his visit, remindidg his hearers •* that the English fleets had formerly had frequent encounters with ours and fought with ours many a well-contested battle, whose names are written in the page of history j but that for the last sixty five years the two navies had always been friends, and are destined ever to be so henceforward.'' These words were received with tremendous cheering,and louder cheers still responded to the conrteous and humoristic reply of Admiral Riders : — " If in old times an Englishman had come to France and seen what we have seen today, your magnificent squadron, your splendid arms and equipment, your able seamen, he would have hastened to recross the Channel, saying 'Now John Bull, pull your purse out of your pocket, and lose no time in building and fitting out your ships.' To-day it is no longer so, and the English will be glad to hear of the magnificent state of your fleet." He ended by Baying that the long space of time which had gone by since the two nations fought so obstinately and bo bravely together, was a sure warrant of lasting peace in the likeness existing between the two Gov- I ernments, which, "though different in J form, are grounded on the same liberal and parliamentary principles, and betoken the lasting union of France and England for the triumph of civilisation.