The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-29 00:00:00

Miscellaneous Foreign News.

(Front Correspondents of the Anylo-American Times.)
PARIS, June 27.

It is extraordinary sometimes how the most ridi-
culous rencontres, and the most ordinary events of
everyday life, evoke the most serious trains of
thought, and furnish hypotheses upon which to base
serious deductions. I was passing the other day in
company with an American friend through the
motley throng which ebbs and flows upon the Bou-
levard des Italiens at midday, when all at once what
should brush closely past me but a veritable nigger,
got up in the ne plus ultra of Parisian fashion, from
his low-crowned white hat modelle Anglaise perched
on one side of a crop of wool cut in the style our
distinguished collaborateur who gives laws to all
the fashionable world would call ii la chignon, to his
gold-headed riding switch and lavender-coloured
gloves. Nothing was wanting, and you had before
you a representation of Beau Brummel with his face
blacketl. My friend recoiled with a violent start.
" Well now," said he, " if that 'tarual -nigger don't
lick all creation. I streak for Rome to-morrow, and
shan't b 2 surprised nohow to see the blacking ad-
vertisements on the walls of that air Eternal City."
Yes, sir. I laughed a reply, for the temperature
was decidedly too high to enter upon the Slave
Question with an enthusiastic Southerner, and as
my affairs called me in a different direction took
leave, leaving my friend still at a high pressure of
indignation. My curious rencontres were not, how-
ever, at an end. Scarcely had I entered an omnibus
when I found myself vis-a-vis with two of the in-
habitants of the Celestial Empire, the one appa-
rently about sixty years of age ; the ocher, whom I
at first took to be a female, from the peculiar plait-
ing of his hair, a young man of perhaps 20. Both
were clad in the rich and picturesque costume
of their nation, loose flowing robes of dark blue
cloth trimmed with fur, surmounted by what the
Scotch would term a cockit-zy hat of the style
worn by Baillic Jarvie in the illustrations of " Rob
Roy ;" but it was very evident, from the cut of
their garments, the senior and junior had not
patronised the same Celestial artiste. All at once
theelderdescendant of Confucius, rising up, snarled
out, in what I suppose he took to be most excel-
lent English, "Igo down hyar." "Et nzoiaussi,"added
the junior, with a look and accent of dandyism im-
possible to describe. What is the world coming
to, thought I. Birnam Wood is advancing to Dun-
sinanc with a vengeance, and the diary of future
Oriental travellers will present some curious fea-
tures for the time to come. The East is march-
ing towards the West, and as the sages of
old travelled before the star which was to
illumine the revelation of human salvation,
so in our day the Orientals derobing themselves of
the prejudices (especially in the case of the Sultan),
which forbid a contact with unbelievers, are ad-
vancing before the star of civilisation and progress ;
but it is to France alone that this credit is due ; it
is owing to the establishment of French colonies in
the East ; it is owing to the fact that the higher
classes of Orientals seek ever and anon an education
in her colleges and institutions ; it is due to French
energy and talent that the stupendous enterprise of
connecting the .Mediterranean and the Red Seas
has been cointnenced so auspiciously, and is so
nearly approaching so auspicious a termination ; it
is to the credit of France that at one station in the
desert the greatmaritime canal will pass the caravans
en route for Syria, whilst at another, a supplemental
canal will connect Cairo with the undertaking; and,
lastly, it is due to the sage policy and the grand
embodied thought of her Emperor that a still more
valuable practical opportunity is afforded for deve-
lopiug the effects of which France and her Great
Ruler will have been the primary cause. " Vive la
France," then, and " Vive Napoleon !" and I trust
that the Choral Hymn, which occupies at this
moment no less a person than the greatest maestro
of the age, the inimitable Rossini, and which I am
informed bears the following dedication—" To
Napoleon the Third and his valiant People," will
be worthy alike the composer and his subject. It
is said that on the occasion of the Ist of July there
will be a distribution of no less than s,ooo.inedals,
as also of 400 decorations of the Legion of
Honour, the latter, in order not to prolong
too far the ceremony, will be sent to the Palace
of the Tuileries on the preceding evening. The
political horizon is at present apparently with-
out a cloud, and a proposition for a general dis-

armament is said to have emanated from no less a

person than Count Bismarck himself. Whilst,
however, no information of what has personally been
mooted by the various Sovereigns in conference
has escaped from the cloud of incense and adulation
which has surrounded them, I am apt to base my
belief of a continued peace, rather upon the advance
of enlightened opinion amongst the people them-
selves, and upon the mutual sympathies and social
requirements which unite them, tha❑ upon the tor-
tuous and doubtful movements of diplomatic corps.
A strange anecdote has recently been going the
round of the Paris papers to the following effect :
The Czar, previous to his visiting Paris, hal in his
possession a favourite dog named My Lord. The
dog, of which the Emperor was very /QM!) had