The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-20 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 20, 1855.

THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO PARIS.

1 THE QUEEN AT ST. CLOUD.
(Front the Moviiletsr).
PARIS, SUNDAY Immo.
This morning her Majesty and the ooert heard
divine service. To-morrow the royal party visit the
Sainte Chapelle, at the Palais de Justice.

PARIS, MONDAY MOINIXO.

The Queen, Emperor and Empress, and Prince
Albert, took a drive to the Bois Boulogne at
half-past 5 p.m. The Versailles park will not be
open to the public, nor will the great fountains
Puy

HER MAJESTY'S PUBLIC ENTRY.

(MOM Otrt

PARIS, SATURDAY, el IDNIORT.

" One hour too late," was the general expression in
Paris, when, at 12 minutes past 7 on Saturday even-
ing, the report of artillery announced that the Impe-
rial train, bearing the Queen of England and her
august host, with their respective suites, wu ap-
proaching La Gore of the Che'nin de fer de Stras-
bourg ; and certainly it was a pity that the inexorable
tide at Boulogne should have paid u little respect to
the modern Majesty of England, as, in the
olden time, it did to her Danish predecessor.
But for the hour's delay thus caused in land-
ing, the Imperial train would have arrived at
Paris in broad daylight, when the brilliant
Parisian Inn would have obliquely gilded everything
without burning anything, and full effect would have
been given to the arrangements which no people so,
well as the French know how to get up for those
whom they delight to honour.

There can be no doubt but that the inhabitants of
the fondly styled capital of civilisation had girt up
their loins for a great effect. The excitement had
been simmering for some time, but it fairly boiled
over, during the past week, taking in the
first instance effect on the febrile organisa-
tion of the proprietors of schools and lodging-
houses, who, in their bewilderment, lost every
faculty but that of calculation, and wildly established
the most extravagant tariffs for their visitors, both
provincial and insular. Every train—north, south,
east, and west—brought in daily and nightly
its thousands of visitors, and the pollee cocheree
of the various hotels suffered under a species of
chronic bombardment, that kept the several land-
ladies perpetually &niece r first, because their houses
would not hold any new visitors; and, secondly,
became they could not squeeze a few francs more out
of those who had already taken possession. Not a
tiled floor in Paris, not a wretched mansards, pre-
viously the undisturbed abode of the metropolitan
cats, but was put into requi.ition, and nightly car-
Petted with vine-dressers from the Bordelais, cotton-
spinners from Manchester, students from Gottingen,
and the more peripatetic members of the London
corporation, all of whom were obliged to fraternise
with each other in the most primitive fashion, and
show their zeal for the entente cordial, by paying
the highest price for the accommodation. It
was, in short, a congestion of the nation, and the
local doctors had nothing to do but make the most
possible of the epidemic. The hey-note of all the
preparations was in the first instance struck by the
police, the chief of whom, the puissant M. Pietri, in
issuing his rules and regulations for the reception of
the Queen of England, took his text strangely enough
from the 12th Messidor, 1790, prohibiting the erec-
tion of projecting galleries, the throwing of bouquets,
or, worse than all, the presentation of petitions. The
deputations from the Ville de Paris, from the Com-
munals, and the &milting', and the departments Seine
et Oiss, and Marne, were informed how with ban.
nieree en tete, they might rendezvous in the avenue
of the Champ' Elystros, and then pay their homage
to their Emperor's illustrious guest. Then, the
tasteful and ready artists were set at work, and the
whole line of the Boulevards was soon planted
with poles of enormous altitude, each crowned with
an oriflamme of bright colour and large dimensions,
and the intervals decorated with triumphal arches,
of varied and tasteful design, and a most granitic
solidity of appearance. The celerity with which these
various decorations were got up was perfectly
magical. On Friday bare poles everywhere, rude
ecaffolding and emblematic statues scattered about
in most admired ooefusion, and on Saturday at three
o'clock everything was in its place, the poles raised
their gilded heads high into the air, the oritlammes
Buttered gaily in the breeze, the statues gazed with
sculptural placidity from their pedestals, and the
motley crowd that circulated with difficulty along
the magnificent promenade of the Boulevards had
nothing to do but criticise and admire, both of which
they did with their usual acumen and vivacity.
Those who know Paris—and who does not in
these times of tidal trains and twelve
hours' journey ?—will admit that no other
city in Europe could furnish so magnificent a route as
that by which the royal and imperial cortege was to
pass from the debarcadere of the Strasbourg Railway
to the Palace of St. Cloud. The Boulevard de Stras-
bourg, now rapidly approaching completion, promises
to be the finest street in Europe, and thence, when the
procession turned at the Porte St. Denis into the
Boulevards, there was nothing but a succession of
palatial terraces, each more gorgeous than its pre-
decessor, to meet the eyes of the visitors, until they
again turned at the unique Madeleine, and crossing
the magnificent Place de la Concorde, they emerged
into the avenue of the Champs Elysdes, and crossing
the Bois de Boulogne, terminated their triumphal
progress at St. Cloud. Richly ornamented façades,
shop windows of fabulous splendour, cafés of
oriental luxuriance, thickly stud the whole
line, and nowhere are these various fea-
tures of metropolitan splendour seen to more
perfection than in the new continuation of the
Rue Rivoli, upon which the genius of Visconti may
be said to have fairly exhausted Welt. When to
these accumulated wonders of art we add the occa-
sional decorations, and the countless crowd that con-
tinuously heaved, and surged, sod eddied backward
and forward,with the suggestive blouse for its ground,
and the various provincial and strange teatimes for
its figures, some idea may be formed of the spectacle
which Paris presented on Saturday, the 18th of
August, 1886, when SI Majeste la Reins de la Grande
Bretagne was expected on a friendly visit to her
next-door neighbour, the Emperor of the French.
The military preparations were on a soak of immense
magnitude, although state, not preesation, was evi-

dently the inspiring motive for this portentous
amount of martial array. Forty thousand troops
had been summoned from the outlying districts, while
the whole of the National Guard answered to the
rappel, and together they formed a faros of
nearly 200.000 men to line the whole route,
three-deep, from the Boulevard de Strasbourg to St.
Cloud. The magnificent cavalry of the Garde Muni-
cipals kept the ground, and the Garde de Paris—e
remarkably select body of men—formed the outer
line on both sides of the way. The Imperial Guard
was drawn up in a vast semicircle in front of the
railway, and the Guides stood ready to form the im-
mediate escort of the royal and imperial party
Within the railway itself the greatest activity had
been shown in preparing for the auspicious event.
The extended and ecclesiastical front was profusely
decorated with flags and trophies, and, within, the
decorators had been hard at work for wend days.
The whole of the erection known in Fres& railway
nomenclature as La Gare was covered over with rich
carpeting, and the vestibule was draped with velvet
and gold lace so as to make it a most worthy
royal pavilion. The arms of every town taken in by
the Strasbourg route ornamented the cornioes,having
in addition the royal arms of Eagland in the centre,
figuring like a triton amongst the minnows. Tem-
porary galleries had been erected for the friends of
the directors, and these were soon filled with
elegantly dressed ladies, who exhibited the liveliest
impatiens to see their expected royal visitor. The
accommodation provided fell far short of the demand,
sad one of the expedients resorted to by the ladies of
Paris to gain admission deserves to be recorded.
The invitations were, in the first instance, all dio-
tated by the court, and left out many of the wives of
the directors themselves. A happy thought sug-
gested that a deputation of fifty ladies, in court
dresses, would be an appropriate compliment to a
female sovereign on her arrival, and a proposal to
that effect was sent to bead-quarters. It was imme-
diately responded to, the tickets were ordered to
issue, and, it is almost needless to add, were at once
appropriated by the parties from whom the suggestion
had come in the first instance. The reception of such
an unique deputation would no doubt have been a
most pleasing ceremonial, but unhappily the delay
in the arrival of the train interfered with its success.
The platform was soon filled with persons of distino-
tion, both male and female, in brilliant toilettes or
magnificent military habiliments. Lady Cowley was
an early arrival, and was accommodated with a chair
of state, round which a little court was soon formed
of the ellie of Parisian society. The officers of almost
every arm of the French military service were nume-
rously represented, and none were more admired
than those of the Garde Municipals, who towered
above all others in stature, while they outshone them
in the splendour of their appointments. The burly
Marshal Magnan exhibited quite a collection of mili-
tary decorations; and around him, in all
varieties of colour and gold and silver lace,
were grouped Carabinier, Garde Imperiale,
Genie, Zonave, Voltigeur, and Guides. There
were also three English officers present, Major-
General Sir Arthur Torrene, Queen's military com-
missioner in Paris; Captain Bourchier, his aide-de-
camp, and Captain Bramston, of the Grenadier
Guards. It was a noticeable fact that these repre-
sentatives of the British army seemed to have no
acquaintance with their French brethren in arms.
But the most conspicuous feature in the military por-
tion of the tableau was a group of young continieres
lof the Guides, who marched boldly in and took their
places with entire self-possesaion in the very front of
the company, to the sore bewilderment of some of the
English visitors, who asked eager questions in
every variety of insular French as to the sort
of military service that was expected from such
fragile-looking warriors. Prince Napoleon came
early, and perfectly electrified every one by his
likeness to his uncle, enhanced on this occa-
sion by quite an artistic preservation of the
costume of the Great Emperor. His Imperial High-
ness was at once recognised on every side, and re-
turned the salutes with much graciousness and
dignity of manner. The following directors of the
railway were present, not only superintending the
arrangements, but waiting to assist in the reception
of the Queen :—M. Le Comte de Seger, chairman ;
M. le Dac de dalliers, M. Emile Persire, M. Say.,
M. Roux, M. Dollfus, M. Fol, M. du Bochet, M. le
Baron d'Hervey, M. Baigneres, Mr. Alderman
Humphery, M. Perdoonel, and MM. Bossange,
Vuigner, and Bauvage, secretary and chief engineer
of the line, together with Mr. B. B. Williams, and
some other of the more extensive English share-
holders. When it is intimated that all these varied
groups began to form on the setts& at three o'clock,
and that the arrival of the Royal train
was not signalled until twelve minutes past
seven, it may be imagined that many ex-
pedients were resorted to to while away the time.
Occasionally an individual attempted to rush into the
forbidden space, and immediately the police closed
on him in a body and harangued and bustled him
back to his place with surprising energy and diner-
floe. Then the telegraph was in constant requisition,
and every stage of the royal progress we. duly an-
nounced by the officials. The troops aired their
tactics by performing various mysterious evolutions,
and now and again the presence of a band was indi-
cated in a tantalisinernanner by a bar of "God save

the Queen," which Was evidently under rehearsal. At
last a loud whistle was beard, and all eyes were
turned to the line. The royal train of eight carriages
rapidly approached, and a loud, hearty, sad universal
cheer indicated that her Britannic Majesty had at last
placed her foot on the soil of the ancient city of
Paris. The select company on the platform,'
which could not have numbered lees than two
thousand persons, rushed to the estrade, bearing the
melons police along with them, and were rewarded
by seeing her Majesty shaking hands with Lady
Cowley as she pained rapidly to the vestibule. The
Queen leant on the arm of the Emperor, who wore
the uniform of a general of division, with the grand
eollon of the Legion of Honour ; and Prince Albert,
who wore the dress of an English field marshal, fol-
lowed alone. Marshal Magoon rode on the right of
the carriage containing the Queen, the Emperor, and
Prince, Albert, and General Lawmetine on the left.
In the second oarriage were the Prince of Wales,
Prince Napoleon, the Margot► of Breadalbaae, and
Lard Clarendon.

Her Majesty's suite was composed of the Mar-
&Looses of Ely and Lady Churchill, Ladies in Wait-
ing; Mies Blase!, Maid of Honour; and Miss Hil-
liard, Governess to the Princess Royal. The Marquis
of Abersorn, Hon. CoL Phipps, General Grey, Sir
Imes Click, the Has. Spenser Ponsonby, and Lieut.-

Colonel Biddulph, Equerry to the Queen, were also
understood to be of the party.
Lord Alfred Page.• and General Grey were
amongst the cortege, but by this time the shades
of evening were closing in so rapidly, and the police
were so jealous of intrusion, that it was quite impos-
sible to recognise the whole of the arrivals. Not a
moment was lost in getting to the carriages, and the
burst that was then made by the ticket-holders to
the outside enabled us to see one of the most magnifi-
cent civic spectacles that could possibly be imagined.
The imperial carriages—a splendid train, much supe-
rior to the regal vehicles of England were
drawn up in a long row, their splendid
English horses champing the bits, and the
postillions manfully struggling with their im-
patience. The Guides on one side, and the Garde
Municipal* on the other, were drawn up in compact
squadrons, and their respective trumpets were sound-
ing a shrill fanfare in honour of the great event
At intervals the strains of the National Anthem of
England, beautifully played by the Guides band,
floated through the vestibule, and the whole of the
esplanade was preserved from unauthorised intrusion
by a dense double circle of the pinked grenadiers of
the Garde Imeeriale, who presented a most imposing
and formidable array. To number the sands of the
sea would be about u easy a task as to attempt to
give anything like an adequate idea of the enormous
crowds that filled the whole of the vista. The trouts
and roofs of the numerous houses on each side of the
Boulevard were covered with company as if with
bees, and in the street the people's heads formed a
pavement quite mosaic in its variety. Cheering com-
menced, faintly at first, which meant that the people
had been kept waiting too long, bet, growing
louder and louder every moment, am her Majesty's
gracious manner came to be seen and appreciated by
the crowd. The women, who in Paris speak with
great authority, pronounced her Majesty to he
" Tres gracieuse," and one old lady was pre-
pared to swear that the illustrious visitor had
bowed to her personally several times in the
most marked and condescending manner. Hand-
kerchiefs were waved, good hearty cheers were
given, and both soldiers and crowd converged on-
wards from the sides of the route for the purpose of
following the procession. It was now almost dusk,
so that, although the carriages proceeded at first very
slowly, it was quite improbable either that the people
could get a satisfactory view of their visitor, or that
the latter could judge with her usual discriminating
glance of the magnificent preparations that had
been made for her reception. The triumphal arch at
the Rue Vivienne might be seen in outline,
but its inscription and decorations were all obliterated
by the twilight. The statues of Peace, Glory, and
Justice, the last-named pointing to the code
Napoleon, which were often repeated, might be
dimly seen ; but as a general rule, the effect of the
decorations was lost, as were also the exorbitant
sums which the curious had paid for seats in the
various balconies. 'Eke people, however, crowded on
and cheered enthusiastically, and every repetition of
her Majesty's gracious salute brought down renewed
plaudits. In the meantime the military marched and
manwuvred with admirable skill, so as to cheek
imperceptibly the human tide, without seeming to
offer any serious obstruction. At one moment the
Chasseurs de Vincennes literally flew through them
at the Pas Gymnastique, at another the Garde de
Paris formed squares and paused while the ad-
vancing crowd was perforce obliged to follow
their example. But everything was done and
taken in the most perfect good humour, the only
interruption to military placidity, being when some
unlucky gamin gave a provoking imitation of the
word of command, to the great chagrin of the officer,
who the moment before had been throwing his
whole elocutionary force into its delivery. A pleasing
proof of the forbearance of the military, and the
substantial politeness of the crowd, was afforded by
the facility with which a group of young girls were
borne, rather than permitted to walk through the
crowd. They were the jeunes filks des Charenton,
the pupils of the Empress's school. Dressed in
white, and wearing chaplets, they had waited under
the burning sun during the whole afternoon to pay
their respects to her Britannic Majesty as she passed,
and having done so, might be seen gliding along
with the immense muses of people and soldiers, in
the most perfect cheerfulness and unconcern. Thus,
slowly, but at a gradually increasing pace, Imperial
cortege, troops, and people, made their way towards
the Madeleine.