55

57

14

13

58

14

98

54

Taylor's Visit to India, China and Japan, 558 The Baltic Question,

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 593.-6 OCTOBER 1855.

From the Times and its Paris Correspondent. THE QUEEN AND THE EMPEROR.

London, 18th, Aug. Saturday.

be expected of her by the most exacting ally; the noble and magnanimous policy which her Emperor has pursued in the face of all Europe, and in marked contradistinction to all its VARIOUS and checkered beyond the ordinary other Imperial rulers, forbid us for a moment lot of those spots of earth which man has chos- to entertain the idea that the time will ever en for his habitation have been the destinies come when so much common glory, so much of Paris. The mud village of Julian the mutual esteem, will be forgotten, and the days Apostate was not more different from the of old jealousies and animosities return upon pompous capital of Louis XVI., nor that cap-us.

ital from the beautiful city that now spreads It were curious to speculate with what feelitself over the valley of the Seine, than are ings and with what emotions the illustrious lady the circumstances of this day from any which who will this day enter Paris will view that have preceded them during the long annals of beautiful capital of which she must have heard French and English history. English Kings and thought so much, but which alone, have, ere now, swept along the streets of Par- amid the brilliant circle in which she moves, is, but they came to claim a kingdom which she has by her exalted rank been prevented they could not hold, or in triumph for victories from visiting. The enormous facilities for to be speedily and bloodily avenged. It is a travelling now possessed by all ranks have incurious fact, that never since France was con- troduced a singular anomaly into the position solidated into one nation-and before that time of crowned heads. We do not speak of the Paris had no right to the title of the capital petty Princes of Germany, who seem to be of France-has an English monarch entered forever on the wing from the Court of one her gates in peace. Henry V. went there, patron to that of another, but of Sovereigns indeed, to celebrate his shortlived triumph, like the Queen of England, whose movements and Henry VI. to assume a crown, which soon are great historic events, not to be lightly unglided from his nerveless grasp. Charles II. dertaken, nor accomplished without the utmost was there as an exile and a fugitive, and James care and forethought. Such personages are II. concluded his dishonored life under the singularly placed. Living in the utmost splenshelter of the power of the Grand Monarch. dor and surrounded by the most dazzling magNow at last, in the fulness of time, we witness nificence, they are yet debarred from those a spectacle which our rugged forefathers prob- spectacles of beauty and grandeur which forably never desired, and which we, however eign lands afford, and which are open to so anxious, could never have hoped to see-the many thousands of their subjects. The taste interchange of offices of the most cordial is formed and its gratification withheld, and friendship, marking not only the sincerity of it is therefore probable that no one ever enindividual regard, but the union of two great tered Paris with a mind more trained to adnations never hitherto wont to interchange mire its innumerable beauties and attractions, other courtesies than those which diversified and to appreciate the spectacle so long withthe brief intervals of a conflict extending, held of an elegance and splendor for which with little intermission, over a period of eight the world knows no parallel, than the Queen hundred years. Ten years ago indeed Queen of England. The time chosen for the visit is Victoria met at the Chatteau d'Eu the then as auspicious as all the accompanying circumSovereign of France, but the happy omens of stances. The weather is splendid, and the that day were clouded shortly after by events period of the year promises to us as long a which, though they did not shake the amity of continuance of bright suns and blue skies as the two nations, introduced a coldness between consists with the variable temperament of a the two Royal families never wholly removed northern climate. Both countries are cheerduring the remaining days of the dynasty of ed by the prospect of an abundant harvest, and Orleans. It is with no such misgivings that the gratifying consciousness that their materiQueen Victoria goes to return the visit so al prosperity is so firmly based that war itself Royally paid to her a few months ago by the with all its miseries has been unable to shake present Emperor of France. The energetic it; above all, just at this auspicious moment support which France has so nobly and un- the thick and threatening clouds which have flinchingly lent us in so many common dangers; hung so darkly over the commencement of the the vigor and good faith with which she has campaign have rolled away, and success, so performed all, and more than all, which could long waited for and so coy in her approach, has

DXCIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. XI. 1

they have solid reason to rejoice in the goodness of their cause, in the union of their counsels, in the success of their arms, in the prospect of an honorable peace, and, above all, in the firm persuasion that they have at last inaugurated an alliance destined, as they hope and believe, to endure as long as the war and discord to which it has so happily succeeded.

PARIS, SATURDAY, Aug. 18, 6 P.M.

come at last in full radiance. From the Bal- and conceal their despondency,-not at the tic and the Black Sea arrive almost simultan- prompting of a frivolous spirit, which seeks eously tidings of two great victories, and what for shows and spectacles to drive away serious was perhaps, under the circumstances, most thought, but in the full consciousness that to be desired, France has the honor of a share in both, while England can only claim part in one. On the island fortresses of Sweaborg the English and French navies have demolished with incredible ease, and without loss, the arsenals and storehouses in which Russia had treasured up those vials of wrath which she was one day to empty on the heads of her Scandinavian neighbors, and on the banks of the Tchernaya French and Sardinian valor has driven back the fierce attack of Liprandi with little loss, and yet with terrible slaughter. It would be difficult to give an exact idea of It is in the moment of triumph, in the first Paris for the last two days, of the animation, blush of victory, when it is beginning to re- the life, the activity, which pervades every ward on a scale more commensurate with the part. Not a railway train arrives from north, merits of the allies so much devotion and so east, or south that does not contribute its carmany sacrifices, that Queen Victoria enters go of human beings to swell the population of Paris a memorable personage, with whom the the capital, and the stranger who now visits it French nation may associate success and glory, may, without leaving the Boulevards or the and the idea of a peace which such successes Champs Elysées, see the quaint costumes of must, one would fondly hope, restore to us. various remote provinces. During the liveIn this symbolical union of the two peoples, long day the streets and thoroughfares are this interchange of acts of courtesy and friend- thronged with strangers, and at nightfall it reship between the two greatest Sovereigns of quires no small exertion to make your way on the world, we see the germ of a state of things the side-paths. The beauty of the weather which we cannot contemplate without a feeling contributes to swell this ever-moving tide of of thankfulness that we live in these latter population, and the wonder is where they can times, and not in those which have gone before find lodging. As for provisions, they are rapus. It is said that between England and idly reaching a point not far removed from America the community of interests and the famine price. Classes of industry unknown mutual interchange of the most amicable rela- before rapidly spring up into existence, which tions have rendered war impossible: the same do honor to the imagination of the inventor, state of feeling is rapidly arising between and I have no doubt fill the pockets of the England and France. Their enterprises are traders. A company was started some weeks assisted by our capital and ours by theirs; we since for the manufacture of French and Engare endeavoring to learn from them their ad-lish flags, for the adornment of private houses, mirable method and wonderful power of organ- speculative innkeepers, or publicans. Light ization-they are content to derive from us carts traverse the streets laden with the trisuch improvements as may have been tested color and St. George's Cross, which you may by the practical genius of the nation. We are happy to learn from each other without prejudice, without envy, and with only so much rivalry as seems to be inseparable from mutual esteem.

have had some days ago for the comparatively moderate cost of 3f, but, like every other commodity, they have risen in proportion to the de mand. There are few houses from the Porte St. Martin to the Madeleine where those gloWe do not doubt for a moment that Her rious colors are not waving side by side as they Majesty will receive to-day at the hands of wave together on the hills of the Crimea, and the people of Paris a salutation as cordial and as they will soon wave on the ruins of Sebasas gracious as that which met and everywhere topol. The alliance with England is expressaccompanied the Emperor and Empress of ed in every imaginable form. The wine-shops France in their recent visit to London. While are particularly zealous in this way. You see terror and dismay are shaking all souls in St. inscribed in large letters,-"Vive l'Empereur," Petersburg-while the Russian fleet is tremb-"Vive l'Imperatrice," "Vive la Reine Victoria," ling behind its granite bulwarks at the ap- "Vive le Prince Albert," "Vivant les petits proach of the victorious allies-and the garri- Princes et les petites Princesses," "Vive l' Alson of Sebastopol is reeling under the blow liance Anglaise," and "Vive le Vin et l'Ale." that it has just received, England and France This last compliment to the favorite bevercan find time to keep high holiday, not at the bidding of a despotic tyrant, who forces his people to be gay in order to relieve his terrors

age of the countries has more meaning than a superficial observer may suppose. The master of the house is an agent for the sale

of Allsopp's beer, and he is evidently convinc-| back even now many centuries. Each people ed that true patriotism is best exhibited by a may look back upon them with calmness and large consumption of the national liquids of with pride, for each finds the record of its own France and England. He who drinks not is heroism and its own glory. No better occasion no lover of his country, and a teetotaller is a could have happened to repair by a cordial assopriori a traitor or a Russian in disguise. ciation between two of the mightiest Powers of the world the evil that their enmity had brought upon the world. That glorious deed the Emperor of the French and Queen Victoria have accomplished, and posterity will be grate

Lord Clarendon observed the other day in the House of Lords, when alluding to the Union between the two countries, that there was no longer an English Cabinet and a French Cabinet, but one sole Cabinet whose members were deliberating indifferently at one

The whole of Paris seems suddenly to have acquired a knowledge of the English language, for there is scarcely a shop in which the passerby is not informed that "English is spoken." This notice of the possession of the vernacu- ful to them for it. lar is occasionally of the quaintest kind, or ambiguously worded as the dicta of the Delphic oracle. The Englishman who has got through the elements of the tongue may guess its meaning by the help of the corresponding translation in French. But it is not rare to see our new arrivals horribly puzzled when or the other side of the Channel. From they see on the windows of an eating-house in one of the back streets such notices as this, "Bifsticks. Rosbiff-English spoken, et cuit a point." Or, again, in a Magasin de Modes, "Dentelles et blondes-English spoken avec de broderies superbes." Or, again, "Drab bon marché, presque pour rien-English spoken, a 4 francs la mètre." Or " Bon VinEnglish spoken, a 75 centimes le litre," etc.

ed.

this day, when Queen Victoria makes her en-
try into Paris, it may, I hope, be said with
equal truth, that there is but one people.
The Moniteur has the following article on
the visit of Queen Victoria :-

:

"It is this day that the Queen of England is to make her entrance into Paris. The presence of Queen Victoria in France will be for the inhabitants of Paris, an occasion for tesDuring the whole night the sound of the tifying their sentiments of affection and respect hammer and the saw has not ceased. Struc- for the powerful ally of the Emperor, for that tures have arisen everywhere almost with the Sovereign, whose vast States do not count less rapidity of Aladdin's palace, and at one mo- than 200,000,000 of subjects; in this circumment the great central thoroughfares seemed stance they will be the interpreters for all as if the days of barricading had again return- the nation; the Queen will find here a welThe barricades and arches are there, but come not less cordial, not less enthusiastic than how different the purpose! Lofty poles and that which the Emperor and Empress have restately columns, with flags and streamers float- ceived in London. Certainly, one of the most ing in the air, and tipped with gold, and the important facts of our epoch, so fertile in great multitudes that crowd the public places are no events, will be this visit to Paris of the Queen longer wild bands in arms rushing to shed of England, under the reign of the Emperor each other's blood. Of the thousands of work- Napoleon; this solemn consecration of an almen who are employed to adorn the city and liance now cemented by sufferings and victorender it worthy the visit of a mighty sove-ries in common, and which draw closer still reign many may have figured in other times the mutual sympathies of the Sovereigns. in other occupations than preparing for the What more striking proof of her friendship presence of Royalty. The visit of the Queen can England give us than thus to confide to of England is the seal to that alliance which us at one and the same time her well-beloved three short years ago few would have dreamed Sovereign, who is a brilliant example on the of. It is an event which will be recorded in throne of every virtue, and the young Prince future annals as one of the most remarkable who is to succeed her? France will worthily of the extraordinary times we live in. The reply to this loyal confidence. The welcome reception prepared for her is not merely an given to the Queen of Great Britain will be act of courtesy offered by a gallant and chiv- addressed also to the august spouse so intialrous people to an august lady-it is a politi-nately associated with her high destinies, and cal act of the highest importance; it is the ap- who, by the rare qualities of his mind and by proval expressed by an entire people of the his noble character, has known how to concilipolicy of its Government, and a new and un- ate the esteem and affection of the English mistakable adhesion to the English alliance. nation. From the eagerness which is maniWhile thus welcoming Queen Victoria, France fested in all classes, from the preparations celebrates the reconciliation of two powerful which are making upon the points of passage nations who have effaced in the glorious fraternity of arms the last traces of ancient hatred, whose germs are, let us hope, for ever destroyed. Those recollections seem thrown

of these august guests, it is easy to discern that the population comprehends all the bearing of this great event, that it associates itself heart and soul with the sentiments of the Em