The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-25 00:00:00

7HE PARIS CARNIVAL.

The usual annual procession of the Bceuf Gras took plu%
on Sunday, attracting as much attention as it has generally
received of late years. But the glories of this carnival show
have certainly passed away. The masqued balls at the
opera continue, however, to attract large crowds of people,
who make themselves as merry and ridiculous as possible.
To a stranger unaccustomed to such scenes, the opera ball
is certainly a strange and moving sight. For some time
the senses are perfectly bewildered by the sights and
sounds that arrest the attention, only to confuse it. The
vast theatre looks as though filled with a crowd of lunatics.
who had become possessed of a strange wardrobe, and
rifling it, had slipped on the garments it contained,
without order and without thought. Nothing can) be
more intoxicating than the sight of the theatre when the
ball is at Its height. Grave people, utterly unaccustomed
to unbend their moral rigidity, often find themselves filled
with animal spirits of the most exhilirating kind, and
under this influence, dash wildly into the throng, emulat.
ing its absurdities, and its recklessness, like people sud.
denly filled with laughing gas. It is well each face is
masked i Many a blush is hidden by it, and many a face
that, if uncovered, would speedily grow confused, remains
secure from disturbance behind its card board armour.
The balls always attract a large number of foreigners—.
English, American, and Russian—who do not a little to
enliven the scene, by rendering themselves the object of
numberless jokes and witticisms, bestowed upon them
with liberal tongue by the " fast " young ladies of the
company. The neighbourhood of the opera or balls
presents the most animated scene until the early morning.
All the cafes, wineshops, and restaurants near, including
those on the boulevards, are allowed to remain open all
night, and the brilliancy which their gaslights shed upo n
the streets, usually quite [dark and deserted a little after
twelve, is most startling. All along the boulevards on
these nights, you see people in full costume, quietly drink.,
ing beer or sipping coffee, with as much unconcern as
though clothed in the ordinary costume of common life.
Paris is well worth a visit during carnival time, if only
for the purpose of seeing it under the strange aspect it
then presents.

The Le Nord has a despatch from Paris, stating that
the Persian difficulty is at an end. Among the conditions
is one stipulating that England shall have a Consul
wherever Russia has one.
THE ADMIRALTY AND THE PRESS.—Sir James Grahani
having been much annoyed at the reports of the squadron,
which found their way into the newspapers at home, wrote
to the Admiral that he had reason to believe some of the
London newspapers had paid correspondents amongst the
officers of his ships. It was very difficult, said the First
Lord, to check the evil, and he did not see how the
Admiral could control it; but it was an evil, and a very
serious one, as such officers, by their misrepresentations,
as well as comments, were producing false impressions
upon the public mind, and rendering the conduct of war-
like operations more difficult. The First Lord, therefore,
direc'sed his attention, if possible, to correct the mischief.
The Admiral knew well enough who these newspaper cor-
respondents were, though few amongst them occupied s
position in the fleet which entitled them to form a judg-
ment ; the less so, as, from want of experience, they were
ncapahle of comprehending what could or what could not
have been done. Not caring what they said of him, her
did not think it worth his while to interfere in the matter.
Before leaving England he himself had been applied to,
to permit the presence of a newspaper correspondent Ott
board his own ship, but had declined, as such a course
would have been contrary to the Injunctions of the First
Lord. It would, perhaps, have been better to have
acceded to the request, as the public would have beers
saved from no small amount of misrepresentation.
SOCIAL STATE or THE FRONTIERS Or NEW SOI7TIL
WALES —A correspondent of the Ovens Advertiser in.
st i
ouns
otfh
se e followingseveral places
am
ouns i ng
his arcocuotuen: t_
describing a pedestrian journey from Sydney to Beech-
worth,
socialworth ' c ogni gives
mentioned one or two things that give Berrima a kind of
pre-eminence amongst the towns on this road. I must
mention another. There are two doctors in it, and my
readers would scarcely imagine how rare
man is on the route from Sydney to Albury. They are
found at Camden of course, at Berrima as I have related,
at Goulburn, and at Yass. But even Gundagai cannotre-
joice in the luxury, much less Picton, or Gunning, or Meru.
lan, the places of lesser note through which I travelled.
In ordinary cases of illness, patients must cure themselves.
In more serious emergencies the only thing to be done IS
to fetch the nearest professor of the healing art that eau
be found. The cost of a medical visit is of course enor-
mous. At Gundagai, for instance, it cannot be obtained
for a smaller fee than twenty pounds, and in cases where
the visit is protracted beyond the few minutes usually
spent in examining the patient, a sum proportionately
increased must be paid. Clergymen are quite as rare,
and a periodical visitation and sermon, sometimes monthly.
in other instances quarterly, is the maximum amount of
religious instruction attainable. On the Sunday I spent
at Gundagai the protestant clergyman from the Tumut,
and the catholic priest from Yass, were both in the town.
The influx of visitors, especially of catholic settlers from
many miles round was remarkable. Some of them had
made a two days' journey to be present at " prayers,"
and it was at all events satisfactory to find that if oepor-
tunities of attending public worship were not so nun). ouS
as were desired, such as did exist were at all events
appreciated. In this town the religious services were
held in the large rooms of the two principal hotels.
Another want sensibly felt was that of schoolmasters. It
seems impossible by any public provision adequately to
meet the wants of a population so scattered, and it is to
be feared the children of country settlers are in too many
instances growing up without any systematic education at
all. In most of the road side inns I put up at, I found,
however, a resident teacher employed to instruct the
children of the family. " Mr. Schoolmaster," as he WAS
called in the only case in which I sat at table with him,
was a plain, modest, respectable looking, and doubtless
efficient man.