The Express.
London, England, 1858-08-09 00:00:00

THE FETES AT CHERBOURG

(FROM OUR BPICIA cOREZSPONDINT.)
THE IMMERSION OF THE BASSIN

NAPOLEON.

Acover 7.
I have just returned, hot and weary, from witness-
ing what may be called the Bret failure in the whole
of the Cherbourg fetes. I mentioned in a former
letter that the Bassin Napoleon was to be filled after
• novel plan invented by the imperial engineers, and
I have now to add that the novelty of this plan was
all that it had to recommend it, as it totally failed
when brought to the test of actual operation. To-
day was to have been the day of days in
the week's programme, including the bene-
diction and inauguration of the basin, the
grand inspection of the ateliers, the promenade,
and the ball in the evening at the Hotel
de Ville, but somehow or other the interest in every-
thing has considerably subsided tines the departure
of the Queen of England, and this, with the intense
heat, seems to cart a languor over the place. Their
Imperial Majesties left the Marine Prefeeture be-
times in the morning, and drove round the town,
amid a considerable amount of cheerinii, seeming to
be tie objects of touch curiosity, at least to the
country visitors, and at twelve o'clock the horses
heads were turned to the Arsenal, where the cortege
arrived a little before one.

Having a reserved place, I took care to arrive
some time before that hour, but found that there
would be room for the whole population of
the department in the immense quays of tlmi now
basin. Arriving at the western fort, we fogad
soldiers and gendarmes, and douaniers, and land
and marine artillery, all put into requisition to guard
the entrance, while the wicket through which we
were othaitted would not allow of more than one
passe to peas at • time. The eternal French dram
MIS drumming its hardest in every direction, and a
great crowd, amongst whom were many English,
were bewildering the guardians with variously
coloured tickets, the majority of which were ulti-
mately found to refer to gates totally different, and
at a long distance from that which they had attained
with so much toil, trouble, and peepiration. Even
here, a quarter of a mile from the basin, the work of
decoration had commenced ; brass guns, brightly
polished, were tastefully arranged on pyramids of
shells, and colours were draped in trophies as only
the French know bow to drape them. We were
stopped by gendarmes at every ten steps, and
turned in some new direction, to come again in
courteous collision with the authorities, who seemed
to have a very confused idea indeed of printed in-
structioos and official signatures. The avenue was
lined by the sailors on each side, if it could be called
a line, which Jack—/ suppose as a Frenchman he
must be called Jean—to his evidently sore discom-
fiture maintained in • somewhat zig-zag manner,
breaking away now and then to talk to a shipmate
• few yards off, and coming back as early. as possible
on being recalled by his officer. On arriving at the
reserved places I bound the preparations there for
the approaching ceremony to be of a very modest
character. At the upper end of the basin,
right and left, there were galleries erected, in
which ladies solely were admitted, care being
taken here, as well as everywhere else, to
preclude the rougher sex from too near contact
with the Emperor. In the centre was the imperial.
Evillon, a vary small erection tastefidly covered in
mot velvet, and in the front was one of those
espial arches, which the French know how to
hake out of a few rough boards and a bit of painted
canvass better than any other nation in the world,
It looked as solid as if it had been porphyry or Scotch
granite, and was decorated something after the man-
ger of the gunmakers' arch at Birmingham, on the
Occasion of her Majesty's visit. only that the arms,
either large or small, were not stuck all over it in
quite such abundanoe and profusion. I never saw a
greater variety of uniforms than were clustered
round the bass of this arch, blue and green, scarlet
and grey—every colour in fact that can be had is
cloth, and all of the newest and gayest, in order
Out full respect might be paid to the Emperor's
visit. But in one thing there was a painful unifor-
mity, and that was in the tightness of tho boots,
*lnch caused the slight officers to skip, and the stout
qua to limp, and contributed very pleasantly bother
luxury of the promenade over a flout pavement, laid
down with regard to anything rather than corns and
bunions. The well-known scarlet uniform of Eng-
lead was also present, and looked exceedingly well,
although rather hot, when worn by Sir Fenwick
Williams sad General Codrington, with their breasts
covered with the orders those distinguished generals
bad gained by losing Ears and the Redact There
wets a few English members of parliament scat-
tered about, amongst whom I recognised Mr. Titer
and Biz Denham Norrsys, discussing an ingenious
combination of caisson and sandbag which wu to
have filled the basin in a sort of Niagara torrent, but
which failed most lamentably at the moment when
the grand effect was expected to come off. Seeing
also Mr. Waldegrave, the Speaker's secretary, pre
east, I almost hoped that The first Commoner
In the world" had come over at last to clear up the
perplexities of the French bureaux, bat found cn
inquiry that the right hon. gentleman was not
amongst the latest arrivals. The ladies were very
numerous, and in very elegant morning toilettes,
sad the young naval officers had a congenial occu-
pation in placing them in their convenient covered
gallery, where I almost envied them the protection
they enjoyed from the rays of a nearly vertical sun.
The ceremonial being mainly religious, there was of
conies • large contingent of priests, headed by the
Bishop of Coutance, a mild, venerable-looking man,
wino had already recommended himself to me Em-
• by the fervour with which he recognised his
Megeowe services in the cause of religion and good
~eaf,
Existin his address at the Gaza on Widnes-
i... bishop was in full pontificals, with
and crosier, and rearing the gold episcopal
seta a his breast, and was attended by long trains
of priests and deacons to assist him in the religious
service. On the far or eastern side of the brio the
beautiful two-decker Ville de Nantes (all the French
men-of-war are better models than ours) lowered
our the basin like an immense eagle ready for its
swoop, but her " native element" was as yet to be
eappirel, sad so she could not " glide majestically"
hale lgalor the manner so frequently and with
sea WNW variety of phraseology described in the
newspapue. Butpro tem. she had been turned to
• good purpose. Her quarter-deck was covered
with the friends of the Minister of the Marine, and
her stern gallery crowded with ladies, who must
have had the best possible view of everything that
took place.
A great sight was evidently expected, or else the
interest the French people felt in the completion of
their wondrous arsenal caused them to crowd round
the basin in enormous numbers. I shall not hazard
any arithmetical guess, but at the moment when the
firing of the guns announced the near approach of
the imperial eavakade, l east a glance around, and saw
the whole of the quays, the house tops, and a great
portion of the granite bed of the basin, densely
crowded with human beings. It was also what I
would call a fair, natural sort of crowd, not a
packed one. There were gentlemen and workmen,
mikes and soldiers, women and children, priests and
laymen, all mixed up in a free and easy sort of way,
and the soldiers who were placed to keep them
from tumbling into the immense chasm, into which '
:hey were all excessively fond of peering, were as
free and easy as the rest and did their duty without
the slightest gruffings or ill-humour. Being mq.tly
yortz fellows, they seemed to occupy their time
za in explaintrig to the pretty Norman girl' the

in 01
lad

nature of the peat dock and the purposes for which
it wee intended.

Althenitib;ing favoured in the first instance
with &plass which my ticket informed me was most
reserved, I preferred turning about while be
-"tod rather than being done completely brown all
--which would inevitably have happened
-.seined longer in the vicinity of the imperial
-.Jolly; and therefore I soon found my way to the
bed d the dock, which had been appropriated u a
sort of private boxes for the workmen and their
families, and here I found that standing
VS face to the esiseon, and with the Imperial Pan•
lion high op on my left hand, while the bishopaad
clergy were grouped on the quay to the right, I
should have the best possible view of everything
that was about to be dons. An extraordinary meonas
.of precaution had been exhibited in the military ar-
rangements of the day, The tickets and their
holders were most rigorously examined at each en-
trance, and the foremen in the different woe
were commanded to keep their men drown op
lines within the buildings, and to arrest any one
who attempted to go in or out during the immer-
sion. There mast, however, have been some relaxa-
tion in this rule, as I saw an immense number of
blouse both at the sides and in the bed of the basin.
The gate at which his Majesty entered was devoted
exclusively to that purpose, and the end of the
dock being cut by three slips, no one passed
up the centre Abp but the imperial cor-
tege. A staircase covered with crimson cloth
led from the pavilion into the dock and at its foot
was the inaugural. n one with its coins and inscrip-
tion plate, the fixing of which was to be one of the
ceremonies. I had a good opportunity of judging of
the breadth and depth of the dock as the Emperor
and his court stood in a group at the bottom of the
staircase. They appeared to be little larger than
children, and you may therefore conclude that the
depth and distance front the speaker must have been
something considerable. It sou very difficult in
such a vast theatre for any person to attain any-
thing like an ensemble of the performance, and it
was only the sound of a most unmusical chant which
came floating down the air that announced to me
that far overhead the Bishop of Couts.nocs had com-
menced his inaugural blessing. I was surprised to
see that at a solemn religions ceremony nobody took
off his hat ; but I mast suppose that it was the heat
of the sun and not any want of reverence
that tamed this exceptional 000 duct amongst
the " meet Christian" people in Europe. I
remarked here, as on some previous occa-
sion, that the sacred choral singing in France is
hunk and unmusical, and I am told that this defect
has a great deal to do in thinning the attendance in
the churches. A most earnest and religious Roman
catholic informed me, as I observed on the went of
harmony in the choristers, that it was the same all
over France, and that he never had the courage to
stand high mass, in consequence of the badness of
the singing and chanting.
When the choristers had chanted, and the Em-
peror had manipulated, every new proceeding being
announced by fresh thunders from the great gus—
hy the way, I should like to know how much money
it has cost to keep 1,200 guns firing all the week—
each party retired, and we all waited with com-
mendable patience for the grand rush of the waters
which the engineers had promised us on the letting
off of a given signal. Their plan was much ad-
mired here, but, for my part, I considered it to be very
much like Dr. Reid's celebrated ventilation system
for the Howse of Commons, which was superseded
at last by simply opening the windows. These
gentlemen du genie had placed a caisson with
sluices at the entrance of the dock, and within it,
that is, near the basin, a mound of sand as high as the
caisson, and having a large interval between the
two. The sand wee mined, and the intention was
that when the sluices were opened and the interval
tilled sou that the water began to flow down over
the sand into the basin, the mines were to be ex-
ploded, and a grand torrent of caissons, sand, and
water, was to tumble pall-mall into the dock, to the
gnat astonishment and delight of the spectators.
We waited patiently for upwards of an hour, but at
last the Emperor and his suite were seen to
depart, and this was the signal for a general
rush to the gates, while the operation of im-
mersion was really commenced by opening
the lower dock gate and allowing the water to
flow in in the ordinary fashion. Coming away, we
had another convincing although not very pleasant
proof of the immensity of the basin, for the gen-
darmes stationed at the various gates made us walk
twice round it before they permitted us to leave.
They had been ordered to keep some gate clear for
the Emperor ; and as they were not very sure which,
they hermetically sealed the whole until his Majesty
had commenced his inspeetion of the workshops.
The launch of the Ville de Nantes was to follow
the complete immersion of the dock.

Six o'Ciocx.
The Ville de Nantes has just been launched, in the
preemies of the Emperor, amid salvoes of artillery.

Avocet 8, hoot/.
Their Majesties went to the ball at the Hotel de
Ville at 9 last night, and remained till midnight.
The Emperor walked about in the rooms and con-
versed for a long while with several Englishmen of
distinction. Their Majesties danced two quadrilles.
Theiryeceptios was most enthusiastic.
This morning after mass, the Emperor inaugu-
rated the statue of Napoleon 1., and made a speech
in which the following remarks occurred :—"lt
seems," he said, "to be a part of my
destiny to accomplish, by peace, the great designs
of the Emperor conceived by him during war.
His principles obtain their triumph at the pre-
sent day, by the force of reason. It is
thee, for instance, that the question of the freedom
of the seas has in our time been solved. Posterity,
, indeed will always be found to realise the idea of
a greet inn. But whilst we refer these great re-
sults to the design of Napoleon 1., we must also do
justice to the efforts which had been niads by pre-
ceding givernmenta. not only by that of Louis XVI.,
but an far beck u Louis XIV. The present govern-
ment, relying on the support of the will of the great
masses of the nation, does not wage war except wises
it is forced to defend the national honour, and the
great interests of the peoples. Let us continue in
this course without distraction ; let us continue to
develop in pease the resources of our country ; let us
invite foreigners to visit as, as friends, not 2.1 rivals;
and let us show that France is a nation in which con-
fidence and unity reign, and that maintaining such
internal union as resists all the passionate impulses
of the day, she abides mistress of herself, obedient
only to the dictates of honour and reason."

The above speech called forth the warmest ap-
plause. The crowd on the quays was immense.

$ P.M.

The Emperor and Empress have just left for
Brest, amidst the enthusiastic shouts of a vast mul-
titude and the roar of artillery.
The weather has been magnificent, and the Jets
most successful. Matty steamers and yachts accom-
pany their Majesties.

ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON REGATTA.
TEN ZMPAROR'S CUP.

NAVAL AND MILITARY.

--•
CHERBOURG, Faros.T.
The leading yacht of the fleet engaged in the
contest for the Stoperoei Cap strived has at lb. 10m.
to-day. She proved te be the Aloe et:isomer, Mr. J. Weld.
She was followed by Commodore this Earl of Wilton's
schooner, the Yin and othrre arrived la quick 1110cosislos.
When dm time allowed foe decrease ot armee wits eampiled,
%wee &reboot tbst the Umalide, yowl, 110 tons, this peo-
party of Lord Loodieboomegh, was the wham. Obi onlvid
it M. Mo.

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9, 1868.

PORTSMOTTTH, AUGUST O.
The Renown, N, mew, Captain Arthur Forbes,
yesterday hoisted the deg of past-Adrobal of the Red, Bh.
Charles Rowe Frommle (appointed to the mama of the
Channel asst), sad ardirad the fart of the Ceounander-in.
Chief, Mr Gawp lisyserer, with 17 Iraws.
The Victoria sad a, with
reysl yaokt, sad the Osborn,
salted this morales for Gravesend, to embark her Majesty
he Antereep.
The Ut, Masan troop ship, Corwmaader J. Macdonald,
arrived stns ithsad •We altamman .trow Cherbourg', with
naval rears who Win prima at the Mr.
C.R.,
Thehas Terrible, m
at dpitheid. paddle-wheel fripte, Captain Gismo,
arrived
The Great Tasmania, one of the Australian clipper line of
patesta, Is expected he to embark troops for India.

WOOLWICH, Asa von,
The T field battery, 2nd company of the iird bat-
talion of Royal Artillery, dommanded by Major H. R. Cram.
forth la mimed to ateemble on tbe Common to-mcarcrat
TheffilAg for laspeolics, aad sabaremently leave=
rises /or enthaekatloa to Indm, where the battery wit/ Wm
the entllery fame ander the oommand of Lieutenant
A. T. PlaillitottA at Bombay. Mace the arrival of the oem-
pay at lead garters from Leith Port, several volastame
Ewa joined for service la India.

CHATHAM, Avo win 8.
Active preparative' ate leaking for the lame& of
the large screw Innate Manny, 40, thw hewed weed In dm
Lila Bevy, ink& VII take pima aelliampiay ase s
melt Au sutassne raw of (albite§ lawa bee meek*ab kr
the micommodation ot swears! thanasis! wad Me-
anie • gallery for the Lords of the Aielr ad mom bans of
parliament. The Mersey bas bean WM hi aci limn parted
of 18 months. As soon as lauschad Oka VU M narleted
•
round to Portsmouth.

-171; irTitorsAxDlllllllfill TOR 111111Ciiirm FLEW.—
Colonel H. Paella, exastatuhag thin divides of &gel Marines
Light Infentry, ham received an order ,drop the Admiralty
that the corps of Royal Marines le to be by 5,000
M, le omeequence of the number of that will De
required dm the Channel diet

DEVONPORT, Aroma
The Cumberland, 70, from the eouth-east west of
America (last from Portsmouth), arrived yesterday. On
ooming into the Sound, she exchanged salutes with ths Im-
pregnable, flag ship of Admiral Si B. Reynolds.
Ships in Harrow: Impregnable, RA, al William. Ex-
mouth, Cambridge, Hawks, Himalaya, Virago, Avon, Red-
wing, Lark, Sylph, Penis (Twit), Lark (Liberia). In the
Sound : Cumberland, eaourge, Nautilus, Reunion (Hatch
frigate).

MILITIA AND YLOYANRT.—The Essex Rifles will
saesmele for duty co the 7th of September... The Emu
Yeomanry Cavalry will useable at ask hood gooneys,
Nizlng, cis the 16th of September, for eight days' duty.
Toilt CAN? AT COLCHESTEIL—Drafts comprising
opine* of 300 °Mows and men telt the amp at Cdakester
Lint week fey service in India The &Mehemet were drawn
from the 6th, 36th, littb, 66th, and other restricts.