The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-22 00:00:00

INTERNATIONAL VISITS BE-
TWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE.
Much has been lately said respecting the excursion
parties advertised for the ensuing summer between the
two countries, owing to the pleasing and unexpected
tarn given to the late party, whose reception in Boulogne,
Paris, and Amiens was so cordial. Agreeing, as we
heartily do with the Boulogne Gazette, which devoted
eight entire columns to an historical recital of the visit,
we say with it—" Honour to Mr. Lloyd for this adroit
1 and seasonable conversion of an excursion party into an
impromptu embassy of international friendship ; and
I success attend Mr. Crisp, the originator and contractor
for their expedition, in those he may hereafter plan for
I the amusement of his countrymen."
Allusion was made to the visit and its consequences
at the anniversary dinner of the West London Literary
and Scientific Institution a few days since, the gentle-
man being present whose preliminary communication
with the French authorities gave the impulse to the ge-
nerous sympathies of our neighbours. The noble room
at the Commercial Hall, King's-road, Chelsea, was
handsomely decorated for the occasion, and the gallery
was filled with elegantly dressed ladies.
G. THOMPSON, Esq., M.P., ably filled the chair. This
gentleman is one of the earliest and most zealous sup.
porters of the institution, both by liberal donations and
by delivering lectures which have always filled the hall
to o7erflovving. He stated how much he owed to the
opportunities for instruction and acquisition of useful and
valuable information afforded by similar institutions, and
spoke for nearly an hour most eloquently amid the re•
peated cheers of the company. In proposing the health
of their vice president, Mr. Lloyd, of Beaufort Lodge,
Chelsea, he called attention to the important results
from that gentleman's management of the late Paris
excursion party, by making it the means of eliciting a
demonstration of feeling in France towards this country,
the value of which it was impossible to overrate. He
highly complimented Mr. Lloyd on the tact and judg-
ment with which he was allowed by all to have conducted
the embassy of friendship. It was a delicate and difficult
office that he took upon himself, but his good sense and
activity in seizing every means of putting the English
character in an advantageous light before Frenchmen had
been crowned with entire success. They were fortunate
in a gentleman of his position as a magistrate, and ac-
quaintance with the language of France. But one
opinion had been expressed on his proceedings, during
the week when he was thus in a proud position, at the
head of five hundred of his countrymen in the French
capital. In the House of Lords the previous night was
mentioned by Lord Stanley the extraordinary and un-
precedented incident of French goodwill being warmed
I even to playing " Rule Britannia," at a grand entertain-
; ment given to Mr. Lloyd and his party. He hoped the
I good feeling now evoked in France would encourage
) other excursions, for nothing would promote more the
objects of institutions like these—the universal cultiva-
tion of science and literature apart from all national pre-
judices. He coupled with Mr. Lloyd's health, " a
continuance of the good feeling now existing between
England and France."
This toast having been drank with all honours,
Mr. LLOYD replied that what the Chairman had said
about the important results likely to arise from the late
visit to Paris was perfectly true. They cannot
help being made invaluable, and it should
be our care that these good results be not
transient. We must reciprocate good offices, and show
Frenchmen that we fully appreciate the value of their
alliance. The late excursion party to France, which had
excited so much attention, had, as the Chairman ob-
served, been made use of by him for eliciting and test-
-1 ing the sincerity of the professions made lately by
Frenchmen towards England. It was perfectly true he
had done so, and the results were beyond his expecte-
-1 tion. He had, from being in Paris in January and Fe-
bruary, a good opportunity of remarking the present
state of men's minds on the late disastrous political
changes on the Continent, and the felicitous immunity
our beloved country enjoyed from the miseries they' en•
tailed. He could perceive that there was conviction in
the minds of all—even the Red Republicans, as they were
called—that there must be something infinitely superior
in the British Constitution to what continental Govern-
ments possessed. No man now attempted to disguise
his real opinions that this was so. He never felt so
proud of being an Englishman as since the 24th Fe-
bruary, 1848. The British constitutional monarchy bad
been borne unscathed through the wild tempest that
swept away many a strong political edifice, hither-
to considered impregnable. The present univer-
sal feeling of respectful admiration towards Eng-
land was a glorious homage to our institu-
tions. His object in taking the part he did on the late
occasion was also to show Frenchmen how little sym-
pathy our country had with their republican anarchists,
who bad been the objects of adulation, by restless dema-
gogues in England and Ireland, and that his party were
very different sort of persons to that body who went over
to Paris 'a year ago to compliment the visionary de-
structives on the mischief and ruin with which they were
overwhelming society. When he (Mr. Lloyd) found that
France had returned to her senses, and that she had, by
a vigorous effort, got rid of those desperate men who
had usurped all power, law, and order, and that
she had now every prospect of a firm Government,
he determined to show his approbation, at least
for one of her wise resolutions. As to the present
form of the French Government, he, as a lover of
monarchical institutions, might, it must be supposed,
have objections;. that, however, was no business of any
one's but Frenchmen. But, as to the spirit of the pre-
sent Government, he knew it was as excellent as it was
popular amongst all respectable classes. Trade was
1 reviving, prices were going up of all manufactured arti
I Iles, the funds were firm and daily rising. This was
the time for Englishmen who enjoyed the advantages of
being unseduced from a right track, to come forward and
offer the tight hand of congratulation to France at her
' progress in retracing her steps. France appreciated the
valve of the moral support of the thinking, substantial,
middle classes of Britain. It was, therefore, right that
, Englishmen should show their approval of the spirit that
i now animates Frenchmen. He wished to see many more
I such excursion partie,; for, depend upon it, lasting
tranquillity (to secure which is the professed object of
war) was more likely to be preserved by a little band,
1 accoutred with carpet-bags and umbrellas, than by
I one a thousand times as numerous glittering in cuirass
! and armed to the teeth with sword, musket, bayonet,
and lance. Mr. Lloyd gave a description of their an-
precendented reception at Boulogne, where be and his
party landed, under a triumphal arch erected for the oc-
casion, and a royal salute of twenty-one guns—an honour
never paid to any before in France but the Suvereign.
He described the ate and ball at Boulogne, and ad-
dresses from the prefects and mayors of Paris, Boulogne,
and Amiens, and other places—a grand entertainment
given them by the Prefect ( he Lord Mayor) of Paris,
where the Prime Minister, the Commander-in--,hief,
great officers of state, judges, magistrates of the corpora-
tion, geLerals and colonels of the army and National
Guard, and more than a hundred memb, rs of the Na-
tional Assembly—in all two thousand guests—attended,
on purpose, as they personally assured him, to show the
value they set upon maintaining a good feeling with
England. He (Mr. Lloyd), as the organ of his
countrymen, had, in addresses to constituted bodies,
and in conversation with the many distinguished
personages to whom he had the honour of being intro-
duced every day of their visit, endeavoured to show
how greatly England desired the well being and tran-
quillity of France. He was very careful and anxious to
explain that his party laid no claim to be considered an
organized body, like the National Guards who came over
to England last year; his party had no prestige whatever,
no official station or specific character, they were simply
what in France would be called Association de ions £n-
fans. This he on all occasions did, as he was tearful,
from seeing himself styled every day in the French
papers " President de Comitie des .Anglais," " President
de la Deputation Anglais," that an erroneous impression
had been made. He had made a point in undeceiving
the mayor and authorities at Boulogne in his reply to
their noble address, and to all the authorities, civil and i
military, he had said the same. The good feeling towards
England at this moment is altogether wonderful. If he
had only the satisfaction of having carried up that ad-
dress to the Prefect of the Seine, which resulted in the
splendid entertainment given them at the Hotel de
Ville, when eleven grand apartments, lighted and
furnished in brilliancy and richness not to
be surpassed at Buckingham Palace, were thrown
open for their reception and that of the dis-
tinguished personages be:had alluded to, invited to meet
his party, and where their English ears were delighted
and surprised by hearing "Rule Britannia" and " God
save the Queen," played by Republicans, and listened to
graciously by Republicane, he should feel amply re-
warded for all the anxiety and labour of the week. Lord
Normanby, our Ambassador at Paris, had signified his
approbation of what he had done to Lord Palmerston,
who had also very handsomely expressed to him his en-
tire satisfaction at the issue of his undertaking. M
Guizot had expressed to him the pleasure he felt at read-
ing the accounts of the interchange of kind feelings on
the occasion. He (Mr. Lloyd) had invited M. Guizot,
as a Brompton resident, to give them the pleasure of his
I countenance and presence this day; but M. Guizot was
obliged to decline from a pressure of occupation, owing,
as he told him. to his intention of being in France again
in ten days, which every one must be delighted to hear.
Mr. Lloyd's account appeared much to please the com-
pany, who repeatedly cheered him. He finished in re-
commending all who would avail themselves of the present
favourable inclinations of Frenchmen towards English-
men, to join Mr. Crisp's excursion at Whitsuntide, which
he saw advertised, for a better caterer and manager of
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OPENING OF THE SHE renntE UNION AND
SHItk.:WSBURY AND BIEN Ail RAILWAYS.--The
opening of these important ine4, which will be the
means of turnishing direct railway communication with
the metropolis and the north to a large portion of the
population and mineral produce of Shropshire, hitherto
without these facilities, is fixed for the Ist of June. The
Shropshire Union runs from Stafford to Shrewsbury,
thirty miles in length, through a rich agricultural dis-
trict, at a cost of 500,0001. Ihe opening of the Shrews-
bury and Birmingham line, being its first section, is from
Shrewsbury to Okengate.
THE CHAILEY MURDEIL—Our readers will re-
member that at the last Sussex Assize-s Hannah Sandles
was convicted of the murder of her infant child by throw-
ing it into a well at Chailey, near Lewes, the jury ac-
companying their verdict of guilty by a recommendation
to mercy on the ground of the destitution of the prisoner
at the time the committed the act. Shortly afterwards
she was respited during her Majesty's pleaitire; and the
governor of Lewes Gaol has just received from the
Home-office an official notification that the sentence had
been commuted to two years' imOsonment with hard
laboui, followed by transportation for life.