THE ENGLISH VISIT TO PARIS. [From the Times, April 16.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 425, 29 August 1849, Page 3

THE ENGLISH VISIT TO PARIS. [From the Times, April 16.]

The proceedings of the English visitors in Paris have been highly interesting, and not a little characteristic of the two parties engaged in the entertainment. The reception ot the strangers was divided into a succession of scenes between Boulogne and the French capital, in each of which the true cordiality of a welcome was exhibited under a different form. On their arrival in the metropolis they were waited upon by the officers of the National Guards with a generous offer of "any kind of demonstration that would he most agreeable to them." Had the selection of this entertainment been put to the vote of the visitors, the result might, perhaps, have been curious, bat they were sa ed from the awkwardness of the decision by being fairly treated with every kindness which a Parisian could devise. They were harangued, lionized, and fdted. They were invited in a body to a soirie at the Hotel de Vilie, and an entertainment at the Hotel dcs Princes. With a delicate deference to the deficiencies of their visitors, the French militaires laid aside their professional costume, and descended to the common level of a civil garb. With a less felicitous flattery they adopted the presumed taste of our countrymen, in the more substantial parts of the entertain-

ment. We only wish that any remarks of ours could relieve us of the penalties we are thus made to pay for our national appetites. It appears to be the confirmed belief of every people under Heaven that nothing short of ox flesh and alcohol can satisfy the daily wants of an Englishman's stomach. Spirits are considered as necessary to us as water to a Polar bear. Even Shere Singh put a bottle of brandy on the breakfast table of the live Dragoon whom he had taken prisoner, and we fear it is probable that in this case his opinions were not shaken by the result of the performance. But it is not without a personal interest in the subject that we here, for the benefit of our Parisian friends, wholly disclaim any unchangeable predilection for port, sherry, roast beef and rum. We no more want a steak when we enter their delightful caf4s than we want a fo» when we are walking in the Place de la Concorde. We accept with the greatest readi- ess both their cookery and their atmosphere, and are only too happy for a few days to lose sight of our own. The visitors were strangely perplexed in returning the proper acknowledgment to these hospitable compliments. We remember that when the Great Westei'n&rsi crossed the Atlantic she was welcomed upon her arrival at New York with the combined music of two splendid bands, one of which was playing "God save the Queen," and the other "Yankee Doodle." Being destitute of any sweet instruments, and having no other means of acknowledging the salute, the steamer rang her bell violently, and, with this addition to the concert, steered between the harmonious crown's "on either side of her. Our countrymen seem to have resorted to an equally natural expression of satisfaction, for at one brilliant ball, after an interchange of gesticulation, in default of a common tongue, they retreated to a corner of the apartment and gave three hearty cheers. One individual of the body, more enthusiastic or more inventive than the rest, proposed that upon their visit to the Opera Comique they should testify their politeness and their gratitude by throwing each of them a large bouquet of camelias on the stage, but a sagacious " inhabitant of Stratton- street, Piccadilly," whose name has been indelibly entered upon the records of the transaction, demonstrated by a familiar process of arithmetic that such an act must have the effect of wholly extinguishing the performance, and the idea was accordingly aban- ' doned. Opportunities of more serious edification were not withheld. Every species of economical or scientific institution was thrown open to the visitors from the English shores. Two galleries were set apart for their exclusive use in the Hall of the National Assembly. The brother of the Emperor himself attended at the Invalides to show the tomb of Napoleon, in th« presence of which veritable monument the historic doubts of our countrymen may at length have been quieted for ever. There appears to be a general feeling of regret, not perhaps very unnaturally excited, that these most hospitable demonstrations on the part of the French people should have been forestalled by a deputation so irregularly constituted as that under the chairmanship of Mr. Lloyd. Yet we hardly know, upon the whole, whether there is much reason for dissatisfaction;* The "deputation," or "association," or whatever it be called, is probably what it has represented itself to be — an accidental assemblage of individuals of the middle class from London and other large towns of England, without any official character or pretensions, who have availed themselves of a short holyday to visit a city to which they conceived themselves, in some sort, to have been bidden. That they intercepted an entertainment bespoken by other parties may indeed be true, and that the Parisians were entitled to a somewhat more distinguished and decorated embassy is beyond a doubt. But these circumstances need not, and we trust will hot, destroy the moral of the interview. The cordial friendship of the entertainers, their lively recollections of the attention they had themselves experienced, and their sincere endeavours to approve their goodwill as that of one people towards another, are inciJeuts which overpower in their significance the minor details of the transaction. It should be remembered, too, that a fairly selected body from the middle classes of this country would be precisely that kind of deputation which the occasion required. The visitants to this country were the National Guards of France — a force mainly composed of those same classes who have returned the visit. Between these parties there is that stiict community of interests and feelings which lends instructiveness as well as attraction to this kind of intercourse. None better than the tradesmen of England can assure the shopkeepers of Paris of the benefits of peace. In no places would the toasts of the National Guards to the eternal amity of France and England be- more heartily echoed tbao in Manchester or Leeds. We hope our readers did not overlook one remarkable incident .in this series of enter-

tainments. The hand of the 2d Legion of the National Guards, upon the entrance of the English vishcrs into a oall-room, played not only •* God save the Queen," but even followed this national anthem by the less innocent air of " Rule Britannia." That this celebrated strain, supposed to embody the most invidious pretensions of Britain to the dominion of the waves, and attacked by one of the most famous of French writers in terms which Tom Paine's pamphlets hardly earned from Burke, should be played in the second year of the Republic, in a Parisian saloon, and in honour of an English visit, is a fact which we trust M. Michelet will not overlook if he ever bestows on the third French revolution the pains with which he has honoured the first. But it is precisely such declamation as that to which we refer which such visits as these will serve to confute and demolish. II the French and the English people have but more of these opportunities for ascertaining each other's sentiments and appreciating each other's worth, it is neither M. Michelet nor M. Louis Blanc who will hereafter succeed in getting them by the ears. So far are they from being natural enemies that there are no two people whose best interests are so wholly concerned in their remaining Iriends. It is this undeniable fact which brings even the hyperbole of compliment within the limits of reason. F'ance and England have such irresistible motives for living in peace with each other that they cannot be exaggerated even in the fervour of a banquet or the enthusiasm of a farewell.