The Express.
London, England, 1865-08-21 00:00:00

t
.24 865.

Tics itArrims AIMS AT CHERBOURG.
tik :PM ova afiisat counponms.)
OffiIRBOURG, FRIDAY, 3 LIN
The ball went off admirably. The stewards,
apparently considering that on this occasion hospi-
tality to strangers was their first duty, offended
a great many towapeople by not inviting
them. All the °titans of the English that
were invited ; and although, of course, they amid
not all come, a very large proportion of them
attended. The Duke of Somerset, Lord Clarence
Paget, Admiral Mores, and the Lords of the
Admiralty were there. The Cherbourg Hotel de
Ville is a singularly mean building 11111 seen from the
outside, but large irregular wings have lately been
built at the back of it, and there are now two
handsome dancing-rooms, a large picture gallery,
containing many works of art of singular merit,
and a great many corridors and secondary rooms,
which relieved the crowd of the ball. Contrary to
the modern French custom of having supper very
late, and giving no wine before supper, the cham-
pagne corks began to fly as soon as the guests began
to arrive, and at one o'clock there was a capital
supper. The rooms, though very full, were not
at any time inoonveniently crowded. There was
very fair room for dancing from the beginning, and
as the evening wore on and the older folk went
away the danoea became more spirited. The cap-
tains of the British navy wear a great deal more
heavy bullion and embroidery than those of the
French, and no doubt many French visi-
tors were puzzled about their rank. A
great many of the English officers—many more
than I should have supposed— wore the
French decoration of the Legion of Honour,
and these were particularly courted by French
officers. One of these was Colonel Miklnrdo, who,
by the way, speaks very good French. He was
surrounded all the evening by officers, who, I have
no doubt, took him for a field marshal, hich be
might well be from the splendour of his uniform,
his almost venerable appearance, and the number
of his decorations. The young officers of the fleet
greatly enjoyed their evening.
The Royal Sovereign, Octavia, Constance, and
Research left the harbour at 6 this morning for
Portsmouth. The rest of Admiral Dawes' fleet
will proceed to sea to-day, escorting the Lords of the
Admiralty to Jersey and then cruising in the Channel
till my Lords are ready to go on so Brest. The
weather is less stormy than it was. The captain of
the Dauphin, on which I am just going to embark,
thinks the English fleet will very probably not be
at Brest before Tuesday. Frightful stories are told
of the scarcity of accommodation for visitors in
that port. I see the special correspondent of the
Constitutionnet, now there reports the price of beds
as varying from 30f. to 50f. per night, and difficult
Ito be got at that. I remember to have heard that
there is no large town in France where lodgings are
so scarce as in Brest. If anything like the numbers
of strangers that have been in Cherbourg go to
Brest, it is mathematically certain that the greater
part of them cannot pass the night in beds at
all. The Western Railway Company ought to or-
ganise trains morning and evening to take people
out to sleep in small towns and villages a few miles
from Brest ; but even in these, probably, the spare
sleeping accommodation is very small.
The explanation of the omission of a salute to the
English consul at Cherbourg is that he went on
board the Edgar before she had saluted the French
flag. Mr. Hammond is satisfied with this reason.