The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-04 00:00:00

Ebetourbric *bserinr,

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1878

INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS.

Paris is never so well pleased as when she is
attracting universal attention, and when her
citizens think that upon her is concentrated the
notice of the civilized world. Even during her
darkest days, and when besieged by the G.-rman
armies seven or eight years ago, a little of this
vanity helped to lessen the bitterness of the
draught which the Parisian was coinpulled to
swallow, ahnoet literally at the point of the
bayonet. Ririe was thought of, as talked
about, all over the glabe, and that was some-
thing. It was not, however, much compensa-
tion for the heavy penalty subsequently paid by
the city in the destruction of her splendid pub-
lie buildings by the Communists. t.-)titl it
brought foreigners by thousands into the place
wle-ii the war was over, and many who might.
not have gone there to see the Tuileries in all
g;iiry, ware vnxiotis to see its ruins. So
Paris was ploa!,ed with the notoriety which it
had secured, and the strangers who poured
into it when peace was finally restored, took
back glowing accounts of the fair city—fair
notwithstanding the scars which had been in-
flicted upon its countenance. The public
buildings were capable of restoration, and not
even the revolutionists could roh it of its beau- ,
tiful climate and clear blue sky
Years have roil- d ..way. and France, having
ras,ed ..irongh a political convulsion which was
prevented by the moderation of public men
free,. deg,,nerating into a national calamity, has
devoted its energies to the organization of
soother Universal Lxhibiiion. Paris is once
more a COl.A32opoqtall city. L. bad an Exhibi-
tion in 1855, when Franee and Fealand were
at war with Bria ; it had :mother in 1867,
after iW wn the power of
Aasfrist At • .!.%ailo'Ra. On both
those occa,ians the Emperor Napoleon was
upon the throne, and %villa in 1855 he may he
said Co have hoer' 41 the ir-Jight of hi,: sal renacy
amongst the tHtions there can b) no doet t
that ty 1867 ;,i; po-ition and influence had
been st•rian,!.;• sh.kn. There can be no doubt,
that the th:ceased nionarch felt this to be Oa
case, and that the war viith Germany in 1870
was u.elertakee. to re-establish that which was
gradually falii;p2: from his grasp. But war is
a game at which two sides can play—a game in
which elle t,f the combatants must inevitably
lose. France lost, then, and has become chas-
ten-A through the furnace of affliction. Of all
the Powers in Europe, she was once regarded
al the mat restless, and eager to incur the
risks of war. Now she anpesrs th- moat pacific.
The Eastern Qaestinu is ti large one ; France
herself engaged in war over it a platter of a
century ago ; but it has now mede Frenchmen
B,,xions to renounce that attitade of contented
acquiescence in gre,,t changes from which
France will receive no direct benefit. Our
neighbours across the water were ones ac.
enstt.aned to boast that when France was satis-
flea Europe was trangnit. Fiance, to all
,
appearance, is satisfied to-day yet the tran-
quility of Europe is anything but assured. But
while uneasiness end alarm prevail on every
i'ranee goes on cultivating the arts of
world to meet her in
p ty
..aea, and snnions the
paeifie riv,ilry at her International Exhibition.
even at a i ne of great commercial depression!
France has beet pnrsning a steady coursetiof
pro;ut.;:7 • •3:4 b-15; astonished ~te
world, x ..-d ~,;sy of ber victurion-;
1•' • ' unp_ eeeden ted

stud 12.4 ...t)

Tw,!ntv-seven years ago, when our first 43- eat
LxhibiLLn vvas opeoea on the Ist of May, Lord
Palmerston called it the Temple of Peace.
"Peace was then the pass word amongst the
nations. So France begins the present month
of May with peace, and with little fear of its
being suddenly disturbed. Let us hope that
the Exhibition will be a great success, and that
one of its rt suits wiil be to subdue some of
those animosities between France and Germany,
which may be regarded as the legacy of war,
We ourselves have often fought with France,
but a different generation now appears upon the
scene, and we can heartily wish France wvil in
her advance upon the path of peaceful progress.
Let the people of Paris rejoice at the sunshine
of prosperity which now falls upon their city,
for they have had their day of trial, and such
an one as London has never experienced.
They have heard their streets and squares echo
to the triumphial march of the invader, and no
one should begrudge them the turn in the
wheel which has brought them life and fortune.
Their Exhibition is held under very different
circumstances from there which surrounded the
opening of the first of those vast hitt/national
shows. The peoples then firmly believed that
it was the pledge of a new era of European
tranquility, longer even than that period of
nearly forty years of peace which closed
, with the first half of the century. Mankind
was convinced that the time had arrived when
the sword was to be beaten into a ploughshare,
and the spear into a pruning hook, and that
the armourers of Europe would speedily find
their occupation gone. The dream went the
way of other visions which come to men
through the ivory gate; and it is not likely I
be repeated. And amid the crash of a wr
which has just ended, and the rumours of
war that accompany our increasing military and
naval preparations, all honour to France hr
setting an example which might worthily be
folloNved—that of teaching the nations how to
live, and to make the best of the manifold pre-
ductions of the world in which Providence has
cast their lot.