A DISTINGUISHED FRENCHMAN.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 25, 4 January 1864, Page 3

A DISTINGUISHED FRENCHMAN.

(From the Melbourne Leader A) For the following amusing narrative, we are indebted to a French writer: — " When we put our foot on board of the steamers which convey the traveller from Suez to India, we find ourselves on the English soil. British society is represented there in its entireness, with its prejudices, with its divisions as distinct as those of the Hindoo castes. On one side is the aristocracy of rank and fortune, enjoying the first-class places, the choicest luxuries, all the refinements of the most magnificent existence ; on the other are the poor fellows who, not being able to pa}* to the steward on board a bun dred nnd sixty francs for every day that the voyage lasts, must resign themselves to take the position of pariahs, and to bear the ineffaceable mark which the adoption of second class places necessitates. Shut up within the narrow limits of the vessel's most uninviting part, they are obliged in silence to undergo all sorts ol economical experiences, to sleep beside the furnace, and fo live on the food which the domestics belonging to the vessel and to the firstclass passengers are too dainty to taste. These exorbitant distinctions — a result of the manners and of the social conditiou of our neigh liors— serve the interests of the steamboat company, while they flatter the vanity and pride of the first-class passengers, who know that they are not destined to see sitting at their banquetting table, or moving in the saloons where daily balls and concerts are held — that which they regard as the most odious thing in the world — poverty. Sometimes, however, these prejudices expose them to terrible disenchantments — to cruel mistakes. To illustrate this assertion, it may suffice, I think, to narrate what decured whilst I was travelling in India to Loid H— — •, who had recently been appointed/Governor of Madras. On his way to his high post, this sovereign of twenty-three millions of souls, and of 21,000 square leagues, met at Suez, installed in the mo^t comfortable cabin of the vessel, a Frenchman, whose costume, "whose language, realised the conventional, type of the perfect gentleman. His boots and gloves were irreproachable ; judging from the effeel, his razors wero in perfect order; his while cravat and his cambric shirt were superbly spotless; At eveiy repast he bad a change of attire, notable for every- characteristic of the most advanced modern taste. If-hetra-telled without servants — if he-had inscribed on the register ef the vessel nothing but a simple baptismal name — -ne had doubtless good reasons for remaining incognito — political reasons, perhaps. And if, judgi ng.f Rom the enormous -mass of his 1 ugga ge; he~might have 'been taken for "a "travellings bagman , ■ carrying to the East 1 Specimens! of all- the Parisian' manufactures,' yet/his sententious speech, the gravity^ of /his gestures, his., haugthy and somewhat ironical reserve, especially when -, /face to face with the productions oi" ' the purser's kitchen and cellar, were hostile in a.moment to a supposition so degrading. Besides, a count's coronet /was conspicuously stamped- on eaefrfbf bis numerous packages. Mereover, hie spoke with! the greatest- apparent knp^fedgejpf the highest society at/London dhd Pkiis, of the balls of/of Lord Cm the fete? bfcCourit -W7 /^ .< vs the dinners of^Barou-rlt ::?AAAjIAA. ; Oh all these * -things :he7/gaye;-Bhch::v/miriut_e L /details that the listeners were , : ./cbmpelled to admit that he must |h/aye| taken, a personal part in those .pomps; -of 7 the, grand European world. .;In , addition, some words dropped;' as/if inadvertently, in- conversation,- gave -the impression -that' he had been exceedingly intimatewith Lord. Dalhousie, arid that the Governor-General was expecting him at Calcutta! All these circumstances, brought together weighed/ commented on by" the anxious; curiosity of his travelling ' companions,' induced these, and foremost among (herri Lord Hy; .'. . . • .1 P concl ude. that_this myster-: ious personage must be a commissioner sent by .the French, Govern ment /to its establishments in india,ior//^ /the very least the Governor oi/Ghandenagor.: This being 7vadmitted, the .stranger; A became : naturally the lion of the/ vessel, the point of admiration," the centre of attraction/for: all the, smair select society on board. 'Everyone sought- to * converse with Irim, or to gain his attention. His superiority in

all tliirigs-'Was xncoritestably established. Lord H..7..i proclaimed him: without a 'rival at; whist./wpuld not have) any^ other partner at tho game, and esteemed himself happy to see seated on his right. hand at dinner a Connoisseur who mercilessly rejfcted into the:lowes; degreesof the ' vinqcole hierarchy 'wines which were represented as the product of the first vintages. Intrutli, this Frenchman was; plainly a man of Universal knowledge and culture. At the concert of -the ,day, ,and at the moment when Lord H— — and. he were blending together the odorous smoke of their cigars, or coriiparirig their opinions on the men and the affairs of Europe, he -was seen approaching in a nonchalant way the performers— -to blame a wrong or discordant note, or to approve with; a protecting gesture a difficult passage victoriously, achieved. To the tea-tray he brought' the same magisteral condescension ; he did not disdain to give his opinion as to the best composition of the precious beverage, and seemed to know as well as Robert Fortune himself, all the varieties of the aromatic plant. Happy, then' the young- lady who, charged with the difficult functions of Hebe, succeeded in exchanging for an approving smile, the delicious cup and the no less delicous loast-. which she had prepared for this privileged mortal ; for it must be said that, though he had very visibly doubled Cape Forty, he could still be - justly regarded as a fine looking man ; and the prevailing belief was that he was a bachelor. Thus, king of fashion, he leigned in the steamer from Suez to Ceylon, where he pleaded an indisposition as a reason for refusing an invitation to dinner which the Governor of the Island had sent him. From Ceylon to Madras, where Lord H pressed him, but in vain, to land, and nearly broke three of the Frenchman's fingers, with so much energy at the hour of separation did he testify hi* regret and esteem ; and, finally, from Madras to Calcutta, where his kind travelling companions learned, to their astonishment, that he, whose ascendancy they had courted, whose ease they had admired, whose demeanor they had applauded, whose suffrages they had sought, was nothing but a skilful Paris cook, whom Lord Dalhousie had carried away for a season from the gastronomers of the west to place at the head of his kitchen. One needs to be an Englishman to comprehend and to divine the confusion of the dupes of this voluntary mystification On my passage from Calcutta to Madras it was the subject of conversation of all the Europeans. It was talked about, and, perhaps, is still talked about, with as much of sadness as of mirth ; and I am sure that in all India no one but Lord Dalhousie himself laughed heartily at it.