PRESENTATION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMMISSION, MELBOURNE.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3735, 14 December 1880, Page 2

PRESENTATION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMMISSION, MELBOURNE.

The Feench Government has performed a munificent act in the handsomest manner. On Saturday, by the hands . of its consular representative in this city —M. Belconr, Commissioner-General, of France at the International, Exhibition— it presented to the President of the Com-, mission, on behalf of the. Government of this colony, the contents of an entire court, : inclusive of a valuable vase from the national porcelain factory at Sevres. These gifts comprise a complete library of books, maps and plans—illustrative* desonptive,!: and historical—in connexion with the general, departmental, communal, and penitentary administration of France, They show how the various charitable institutions, courts of justice, prisons, lunatic asylums* - police barracks, roads and bridges, hospitals, creches, and asylums are construe- i ted and administered. They comprehend reports, statistics, rules, and other documents bearing upon these institutions; as well as a set of maps and geographies! - apparatus, furnished by the war office in Paris, and isometric views of the , great fortified port, and harbours of France; and they also comprise some choice folios, published at the cost of the French Government, and containing such? a history of the capital city, and such r. description of its ancient and modern monuments, as we believa to be altogether; unique in European literature. Some of- ! these monuments, and their superb in- ; ternal decorations, perished during the frenzy of the Commune, and the engraved illustrations of them have acquired additional interest and value in consequence. The educational exhibits, from the department of Public Instruction, are not the least important or least useful of the items of this really splendid donation, for which the best thanks of the whole community are due to the French Government, especially as it is the sequel of many handsome gifts previously made to the trustees of the Public Library in this oity. There was something very graceful as well as thoughtful in this act, when viewed in relation to the occasion upon which it was performed; since the tendency of such liberal and kindly deeds must be like that of the Exhibition itself, to deepen and strengthen the ties of amity and interest which bind, or should bind, the various civilised nations to each other, and to beget that mutual knowledge, respect, and esteem which form the sonndest bases for a permanent good underetanding. It is far better for nations to present esch other with books than with bullets.