The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-22 00:00:00

THE PENINSULAR MAIL.

SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Tagus has arrived with the above mail and 21 pas
sengers, including five officers of her Majesty's ship
Perseverance, lost off the Island of Majao. She
also brings £1,344 in specie and general cargo.
The English squadron, under Admiral Stopford
arrived at Lisbon on the 14th inst.
At Lisbon, on the 17th inst., Exchange on Lou.
don was quoted 541 ; Paris, 5.28 ; Amsterdam ,
421 ; Hamburg, 48 ; Genoa, 5.27. Rentes, 3 per
cent., 461 ; Coupons, 451; Deferred, 37/ ; Bank of
Portugal Shares, 560 ; Commercial Bank of Oporto,
260; Mercantile Bank, 260 milreis.

THE EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND.

EDINBURGH, WEDNESDAY.

Yesterday morning the Empress Eugenie and
suite paid a visit to the Abbey of Melrose, and the
house and grounds of Abbotsford. Like all the
previous movements of her Imperial Majesty, her
journey to Melrose was kept strictly secret, so much
so that when she was seen to drive to the station, a
large number of persons ran to the Glasgow side of
the general terminus, in the expectation that her
Majesty was about to take her departure for Hamil-
ton Palace. The Imperial party travelled in a first-
class carriage by the ordinary passenger train,
leaving Edinburgh at 11.25 a.m., and returning
in the same private manner about 6 o'clock. At
all the stations on the homeward journey, however,
large numbers had collected to see her Majesty, who
was everywhere greeted with loud cheers. Hav-
ing paid a visit to the far-famed and interest-
ing ruin, Melrose Abbey, round which the Em-
press was conducted by the usual garrulous guide,
the party drove to Abbotsford. In the grounds of
the house, rendered classic by the residence of
Sir Walter Scott, her Majesty lingered a consider-
able time, and was then taken through the house
of the great novelist, the library, the armour, the
personal relics of Scott, and the many curiosities
of the place being pointed out by the persons in
charge. After a drive along a portion of the banks
of the Tweed the Imperial party returned to Edin-
burgh, where her Majesty was eagerly greeted,
and perhaps somewhat rudely surrounded, by a
large concourse, which the railway officials had in
vain tried to prevent from crowding the station
platform. The time of her Majesty's departure
from Edinburgh is not yet made known, but it is
expected she will to-day visit the Duchess of Buc-
cleuch at Dalkeith Palace, and to-morrow (Thurs-
day) leave Douglas Hotel for Hamilton Palace.
At the meeting of the Magistrates and Council
of Edinburgh, on Tuesday, the Lord-Provost moved
the following resolution which was agreed to
unanimously :

" That an address be voted by the Lord Provost, Magi-
strates, and Council, and presented to her Majesty the
Empress of the French, offering, on the part of the citizens
Of Edinburgh, an expression of their sincere respect, and
their congratulation on her Majesty's arrival in this city;
their cordial desire that her visit to this country may con-
duce to her health and happiness ; and their earnest hope
that this visit, though unofficial and not in state, may tend
to maintain and promote peace and go•dwill between two
great and neighbouring nations of Europe."

A SHOWER OF DEL USIONS.

Since the day when the Empress Eugenie suddenly
startled all London by her unexpected and quiet arrival, the
citizens, indeed, have asked each other, " What next ?" but
the world of attendants upon travellers---guards, points.
men, porters, cabbies, policemen, and penny-a-liners—have
lost their nerve. They feel that they have failed in a great
public duty. They, who can distinguish an M.P., certify
to a nobleman, and swear to a "rile 'highness" have let a
real Imperial Majesty slip by them unrecognised and un-
noticed as if she were a plain Mrs. Grundy. "This must
never happen again," has been the deep resolve of the
entire population engaged in the reception and the car-
riage of travellers.
We all know how, in waiting for cur passports at Calais,
we have to undergo the sharp scrutiny of Mr. Vattel's two
eyes. We have met it often and calmly, but behind him
there is posted a one-eyed gendarme, whom no adventurous
traveller was ever known to chaff. That gendarme never
sleeps, and at one and the same moment his glance seems
to pierce the particular secrets of every individual in the
room. Keeley, it is said, once called him "gimlet-eyed,"
and Robson alluded to him as " cockeye ;" but these pro-
fane observations were made over an infinitesimal chicken
at the far end of the refreshment-room, and none heard them
without a shudder.
But the search of Vattel and the one-eyed gendarme is
as nothing compared to the investigation now bestowed on
the traveller landing in England. The inspector inspects,
the guard is vigilant, the porter scrutinises—the very stoker,
as he lolls over the engine-rail, looks and looks and guesses.
A dark young man might be Bombalino, or a fair-beardei
person Garibaldi. Hat-boxes are watched to see if any
be shaped like a triple tiara or a turban, and coins received
are spelt over to see whose image or superscription they
bear. Photographs of all crowned heads are in great de-
mand, and every particular feature of royalty is deeply
scanned and committed to memory.
This fever of expectancy had yesterday come to a crisis.
Anxiety would be no longer baulked. It was felt that Ma-
jesties by dozens were running about, and a stupendous
effort was made to pitch on one of them. Currents of agi-
tation set in from the south-east and south-west. " The
Emperor Napoleon had landed I" Crowds rushed to Lon-
don-bridge, and crowds to the South-Western. This was
the least probable point of arrival, and therefore the most
favoured ; for was not Napoleon a man most to be expected
from some unlikely quarter? Besides, would it not suit
him to pass Portsmouth in his trip and take a sketch of the
new fortifications ?
Rumour soon magnified itself into positive assertion, and
Scotland• yard was applied to. Straightway a large force
of police was sent down to the station to keep the
surging crowd from too near an approach to Majesty. Still
matters were only at the state of assertion, when suddenly
the telegraph was set to work at Winchester, and the great
news was converted into a certainty. A guard tele-
graphed to the Board that he had got him—Napoleon him-
self—in the first compartment of a first-class carriage in
the 2.30 from Portsmouth. On this--endless excitement.
The train was watched for, prayed for. At last it duly
rumbled into the station. Directors were there, and
big and little officials, and long-nosed police, and quick-
eyed reporters ; and last, not least, it is averred—sure sign
of the imperial approach—a posse of French secret police
sprang from the ground, having arrived, by some tunnel
only known to the French, from Leicester-square. The
hubbub was great ; dozens of hands were laid on the doors
of all first carriages of first-class compartments. Who
should first meet him ? The astonished passengers could
hardly get out. Where was he ? Why, sure enough, in
a first-class compartment there was found a quiet-looking
gentleman with the prominent nose and the moustaoke
and imperial of the victor of Solferino. As such he was
hailed. " Ave Clesar I " cried the Board, and "Hooray
for the Hemperor ! " shouted the crowd. The police
pushed them back. The reporters duly noted the
" ovation," and room was made for the imperial move-
ments. High beat the hopes of the Hansoms. Earnest,
though humble, were the four-wheelers, when suddenly
the group about the carriage parted asunder. The
astonished gentleman explained to the unwilling auditors
who he was, and a magistrate with spectacles, two railway
interpreters, and four travelled Britons, affirmed that he
was not the Emperor. This being confirmed by the
general verdict of the crowd, including the " French detec-
tives," he was permitted to escape from his strange and
novel situation. The British public were undoubtedly
" Sold," to use the phrase current among the masses in the
Waterloo-road. Nevertheless, many held that Napoleon
ought to have come, and they remained near the station till.
a late period of the afternoon. The police stayed three
hours at the station, till, finding there was no possible
reason for their presence, they marched home to Scotland-

yard. Meanwhile, the news had spread through London,
and for a few hours the hoax enjoyed a very lively ex-
istence,—Post.