The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 14, 1858.

sloe, began to rise—trade in all its branches having,
after long-continued stagnation, began to revive.
The visit in every respect was as admirable as its
political effect was great. The weather was splendid,
the sight presented by the multitude of ships in the
roadstead magnificent, the crowd on land enormous,
the enthusiasm excessive, the thundering of cannon
tremendous, the Emperor and Empress delighted,
the Queen and the English Princes pleased, the
English and French, whether nautical, military, or
civilian, on the best of terms. lam quite surprised
to find that newspapers, private letters, and people
who were there, not only agree in saying that every-
thing went off well without a single mischance, but
in abstaining altogether from those sneers at, and
illnatured remarks about, the English which were so
freely indulged in when the Queen was in Paris in
1855. The very cocked hats of our naval officers,
though uncouth in the extreme, escaped criticism ; nor
was the self-constituted deputation of the House of
Commons, though over•fussy and boisterous, so much
quizzed as might have been expected. So smoothly
and pleasantly did matters run that not even Janicot
of the Gazette de France, as fervent as ever in his
determination to destroy the British empire by means
of leading articles—a peculiarly hard task this hot
weather—not even he has been able to say anything
at all smart against the hated English ; his lies even
have been failures.

I hear that the Emperor has not been so gay for
many a day as since his interview with the Queen of
England. His Majesty regards it justly not only as
a triumph for his policy, which is more than ever an
alliance with our country, but as a mark of personal
friendship to him; and the personal friendship of
the Sovereign of England is of inestimable value to
the monarch of revolutionary France, especially when
he is, as the Emperor called himself, a parvenu. As
to the Empress, she, as I before told you, looks up
to the Queen with mingled gratitude, respect, and
affection; and her joy at seeing her Majesty again
was consequently unbounded. Both the Emperor
and Empress kissed the Queen on meeting and on
taking leave ; the Prince Consort., the Prince of
Wales. and the Duke of Cambridge on those occasions
kissed the hand of the Empress, and with marked
cordiality grasped that of the Emperor.
The Emperor and Empress are pursuing their
" progress " through Brittany, and will be engaged in
it for nine er ten days to come. At Brest and some
other places they were received more warmly than
had been hoped for; but they must not expect in
that province, dominated as it is by Legitimists and
priests, anything like the enthusiasm which has
been manifested in their visits to other parts of the
empire.
The Government, I am informed, has received in-
telligence that at Constantinople serious agitation
prevails amongst the Turkish population, and that a
popular rising against the Christians is not at all un-
likely. The accounts from the Turkish provinces are
also extremely grave. They represent that hoatili•
ties between Turks and Christians are in some
places imminent—in others actually raging. All
this has created great uneasiness in our political
circles. It shows that the definitive settlement of the
" Turkish question " is of urgent importance ; and
yet the difficulties of coming to a settlement are so
great as to appal the most experienced diplomatists.
It is said that at Cherbourg Lord Malmesbury and
Count Walewski had a very long conversation on the
matter, and that they agreed on certain points on
which England and France should act in accord.
Since the Cherbourg interview I believe that commu-
nications have taken place between our Ambassador,
Lord Cowley, and the French Cabinet on the same
subject.
The Emperor was very anxious to have the Con.
ference about the Danubian Principalities conclude
its labours before the 15th, so as to enable the result
to be announced on that day, and thereby give eclat
to his fete; but though anxious to please his
Majesty, the plenipotentiaries have not thought it
prudent to hurry through the matters which are still
pending, and so they will have to sit after the 15th.
Nevertheless, it is not improbable, from all I hear,

that they will agree to sign definitively the resold.
tions they have already come to, which resolutions
concern all the really eisential points ; and the
Emperor, therefore, can, if he think fit, publish then
in honour of his fête. I am told, by the way, that
some of the plenipotentiaries do not like the idea of
matters of grave European importance being treated
as an element in the rejoicings of a Parisian
holiday.
_ _

The Duchess Mathieu de Montmorency, widow of
tha Duke Mathieu, a most excellent man, has just
died at an advanced age. The family of Montmo-
rency, one of the most ancient and illustrious of ell
Europe, is menaced with extinction in the male hoe.
Only four male members of it exist, and three of
them are of advanced age and childless; the
youngest is fifty-four years old, and not married, nor
likely to he.
Sunday is always shamefully desecrated in Paris,
but the desecration of next Sunday will be on a tar
grander scale than usual. It is the Emperor's fête,
and all day long there are to be concerts, halls,
mountebank shows, gratuitous theatrical perform-
ances, and greased poles for young gentlemen to
climb up, and at night these things are to be fol-
lowed by fireworks, illuminations, and other re-
joicings. All Paris will of course be on foot, and the
city will besides be invaded by tens of thousands of
provincials brought up by cheap excursion trains.
Fast and furious will be the mirth and revelry, and
audacious the contempt of one of God's commands.

Some agitation has been caused in the (French)
Protestant community, by the Consistory of Nantes
having dismissed one of its ministers, the Rev. Mr.
Robineau, for having declared himself opposed to the
doctrine of infant baptism ; and by the Rev. Mr.
Mooed, of Paris, and some other distinguished Pro-
testants, having complained of this act as a violation
of the " liberty of conscience " which is one of the
fundamental bases of Protestantism. The affair has
arisen most unluckily, as it threatens to create a
division in the Protestant phalanx of France, at the
very time at which the Papists are assailing the
Protestants with east 3ssive vehemence.

P.S.—The evening journals publish a despateit
from Marseilles, which announces the arrival of
letters from Constantinople confirming wbat said
above as to fears of an outbreak taking place in that
capital. This despatch adds, that the Sultan had left
with several vessels of war to make an excursion to
Smyrna and the Archipelago. His departure at this
moment seems singular, and the reason given for it
is still more so. "He has gone," says the despatch,
"to prove his confidence." The same despatch says
that a conspiracy for the assassination of the Chris-
tians has been discover .d at Smyrna. lam assured
on the eve of closing this letter that the Government
has to-day received new despatches which paint tho
situation in Turkey and at Constantinople in the
darkest colours. Marshal Randon has this day
notified to his friends his intention of resigning the.
Governor• Generalship of Algeria.

THE FOLLOWING ANECDOTE ABOUT CHERBOVRO is
supplied by the Manchester Examiner :—ln our
Ordnance-office there are plans of the works at
Cherbourg quite qs accurate and complete as will
be that model which it is said the Emperor is to
present to our Queen. No thanks for this to the
French authorities, for they were obtained by the
skill, the patience, and the tact of one of our engi-
neer officers. Two or three years ago you might
have met at one of the hotels of that town an Eng-
lish gentleman who seemed one of the idlest of
mortals, and at the same time one of the most ec-
centric in his tastes. It was difficult to understand
why a man who really seemed to have nothing to do,
whose time was passed in strolling in cafes and
in lounging, should have selected so dull a place as
Cherbourg for the very protracted stay he made. No
professional object could, it would seem, have taken
him there, for no one ever saw anything in his hands
but a walking-stick ; and although it is true that he
did occasionally smoke a cigar now on this bastion
and now on that ravelin, no one ever saw him take
the trouble to make anything like the tour of the
enceinte, and among the visitors to the port none
were so incurious as to the works going on.
And
yet all the time that man was making a plan of the
works. His harmless looking walking.stick was a
yard measure. As he trailed it listlessly up and
down, it was doing its work. A pocketinstrument
measured every angle when no one's eye was upon
him. And thus, by visiting in succession during
many months every portion of the fortifications, and
combining his notes, our countryman had at last the
satisfaction of p!acing in the hands of the military
authorities that complete and accurate survey of the
fortifications of Cherbourg which they now possess.
So impossible is it to keep anything secret when
men of energy, skill, and patience are determined to
tin lit out' [lt appears, however, from communi-
cations addressed to the Times that the above story
is, to say the least of it, apocryphal.]