The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-09 00:00:00

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

The announcement that the military are to be
gradually withdrawn from the colony has con-
tinued to cause no little excitement and comment
by a section of the prem. Very violent attacks have
been made upon his Excellency the Governor, Sir
P. E. Wodehouse, as the promoter of this measure.
On the frontier another war between the Basutos
and the Free State was becoming every day more
imminent, and was considered to have been acce-
lerated by some imprudent steps that have been
taken by the Free State Government.

The fine weather has come at last, and this week
we have had heat enough to afford us a faint idea
of the broil that will be suffered by the crowds
who are destined to make their tour of the Champ
de Mars in the dug-days. Our neighbours have
been cunning • they have all the shady side of the
Exhibition. Last month the sun, when it got
through the heavy banks of rain-cloud, enlivened
the British section and lit up America and Russia.
Everybody tended to the sunny side, for the shade
was damp and chilly, and men shivered over their
absinthe under the eye of Gousset or Rouzd. But
now the sun is scorching on the western side, and
the crowds having taken their peep at the English
barmaids and at the strange apparatus adjusted for
the manufacture of American drinks, wind round
to the east, and sit to cool under the nose of Char-
lemagne's charger, by the Porte Rapp. The re-
served garden looks cool, with its plentiful waters,
its glowing banks of flowers, and its broad expanses
of tine grass. But there is no shade in it, save in
the cool grots where under-water life is art-
fully exhibited. Only about the fantastic or-
chestra by the Empress's pavilion has anything
like a leafy shade been accomplished. I am
afraid the lack of shade will keep the
reserved garden pretty clear until sundown. The
garden, however, will be a fairy scene on summer
evenings ; and will be the fashionable lounge of
*ssibste mason. *lows in the northern part of
the park, le peaple will congregate and be amused
with the theatre, the Chinese actors, the celestial
demoiselles, the monotonous Arab music, and the
chimes of M. Bollie's forty-three bells—which I
find are destined to be musical in the Cathedral
of Buffalo, United States. But while every day
brings out new points of interest or beauties in this
extraordinary Exhibition, while we are delighted
one day to greet the first play of the great fountains
*A the Pont d'lena entrance, to catch the first
*mina of the Guides, or to take our first ex-
perience of the Chinese tea-house, it is impossible
to be long under the outer colonnade of the build-
ing (where all the Exhibition gossip circulates
freely) without hearing of some new Exhibition
squabble or lawsuit. I 'innocently hoped that I had
parted for ever with the catalogue quarrel. I am
awe the public have had enough of it in England
its well as in France. But it would seem we have
hardly reached the middle of the campaign. A
great action impends. M. Dente having lost his
case on appeal, it having been decided that he has
not the monopoly to which he laid claim, he
is threatened by his advertisers with a lawsuit.
They paid him, they allege, fifteen francs a
line for advertisements in his catalogue,
with the understanding that he had the
monopoly of Exhibition publicity. It being
now decided that M. Dentu could have only
a privilege, and not a monopoly, some of his ad-
vertisers reaten to attack him for having sold
that which he never possessed. M. Victor Eniion
has discussed the case between M. Dentu and his
advertisers in the Echo Aericok' with the intima-
tion that should the French catalogue advertisers
succeed against M. Dentu he has his remedy
against the Imperial Comnoasioners. But this is
not the only Exhibition litigation in prospect. Law
hangs like a cloud over the theatre in the park,
and the actors are whiling away their idle hours in
the refreshment departments. M. Bernard, ano-
ther Exhibition concessionnaire, pretends to have
purchased the right to drag the chair from under
every visitor who has not paid according to his
tariff. Everybody who sits in the Park or Palace
of the Champ de Mars must bring profit to M. Ber-
nard. The restaurant and cafd keepers (who have
themselves paid sf, sterling for every square mitre
of the space they occupy) are about to be attacked
for having placed chairs about their marble tables
.without having settled for
.tjteprwith M. Bernard.
I expect that in this Exhibition even the swallows
pay for their nest room.
In one direction, however, the authorities have
been, it must be confessed, extremely liberal.
M. nevinek, president of the commission for faci-
litating the study of the Exhibition by working
men, has brought his work to a fair conclusion.
It is this commission which established the great
restaurant for working men against the Ecole Mili-
taire (where a substantial meal, including wine,
is to be had for a shilling), and that has thrown
up a commodious building near the Porte Rapp,
capable of accommodating 1,200 workmen at a
time. Bedding for 5,000 men is in hand, and spe-
cial guides have been appointed to conduct visitors
of the working clam through the trades in which
they may be severally interested. Workmen will
be lodged under the care of this commission for
one shilling a day. It is calculated that by the
arrangements made a workman will get two sub-
stantial meals and his lodging for 3s. a day. Re-
presentative workmen—those to whom the tank- of
examining the Exhibition has been delegated by
their fellow-workmen—will receive cards of admis-
sion gratis. Even more than this is done for
French delegates of the working class. With their
ticket of admission each delegate receives 50 francs,
to pay him for his time expended in the prepara-
tion of a report on his trade. These trade reports
will be sent hi to the commission, and will be
published without alteration. Only seven of the
Paris trades have yet completed the selection of
their delegates, but many other elections are now
in progress. It should be understood that this
commission, albeit acting in perfect harmony with
the Imperial Commission, is an . independent
body, whose expenses are defrayed by the volun-
tary contributions of the public. These contribu
tiona have now reached 4,2001., of which sum the
Emperor contributed 4001., and the Empress 2001.
This amount falls very far short of the expenses.
The number of visitors is steadily increasing day
by day. Although it is not possible to obtain an
accurate account of the number of all who pass
the park gates, or of nearly all, we may make an
approximate estimate from the numbers who pay,
and I find that the important or paying class !wa-
tered on Saturday last to the number of 43,781.
The little vapeur mouche, or fly boats, carried four
thousand seven hundred passengers, while five
thousand travelled by railway. Another concession!
and another squabble ! There are only six munches,
or steam water-flies, plying to and from the Exhi-
bition at this moment. It would seem that they
are privileged mooches. They represent a con-
, cession. They cannot carry one-fourth of the
would-be passengers who endeavour to board them,
and yet the Saint Cloud boats are to be seen pass-
ing the Exhibition landing place almost empty.
Here is the difficulty. The mo ache company
has bought the exclusive right of landing pas-
sengers at the Exhibition piers. Now, before the
most sanguine Imperial dealer in concessions ever
dreamt that there would be an international ex-
hibition of industry on the Champ de Mars, the
Saint Cloud Steamboat Company had a Champ de
Mars landing place. The injustice of earning them
off their own landing-stage, during the exhibition
time,because a concession has been sold to the Mouche
interlopers, is flagrant. The Saint Cloud Company
have made overtures to the privileged Moue-hes,
offering them a liberal share of their exhibition
receipts ; but it has not yet been found possible
to satisfy the concessionnaires. It is said that the
111.0(ches will be presently a flotilla thirty strong.
But at present they are only able to tantalise the
crowd who watch their departure from the quays,
and find themselves left to crawl on foot, over-
wearied after a day in the exhibition (and the
fatigue of such a day is not trifling), back to
Paris.

The second flower show, which closed last week,
yielded prizes to M. Deseine de Bougival and
Messrs. Veitch and Son, for their conifer:o. The
fine show of hyacinths, planted by the Prussians
within the shadow of their great guns, brought
them only a second prize. M. Jamain carried off