The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-11 00:00:00

Misce laneous French News.

(From a Correspondent of the Anglo-American Times.)
PARIS, Feb. 7, 1867.
The questions are frequently asked among
Americans visiting France, " What is necessary to
procure the honour of a presentation to their Im-
perial Majesties, and what are the forms to be ob-
served and the style of dress worn ?" It may,
therefore, be interesting to answer the above ques-
tions through the correspondence of the Anglo and
Franco American limes; and on that account a
sketch of the ceremonies of presentation, &c., is
given below. During the winter season there are
generally three receptions at the Tuileries, when
the Ministers representing the different nations of
the world are permitted to present such as have
been selected among those desirous of the honour.
Ladies are expected to appear in the richest dresses.
Gentlemen attend in blue cloth dress-coats, trimmed
with gold and velvet on the cuffs and colar, and em-
broidered in gold around the buttons at the back ;
white casimer pantaloons, with gold lace stripes
down the sides ; or breeches may be worn, white
casimer vest with gilt buttons, a cocked hat looped
up with gold lace, white kid gloves, and a dress
sword with white scabbard.

On arriving at the Tuileries, enter at the court,
and deposit cloaks, &c., in an ante-chamber, ascend
the Escalier d'llonneur, and at the top of the stair-
way the tickets are given up ; then enter the assem-
bly-room, where the persons to be presented are
joined by the ambassador of their country, who
conducts them into the Salle d'Attente.

Soon after their Majesties enter the room, and
the ambassador escorts greet the Emperor around
the circle, presenting to him each of the party there
assembled ; then returning for the Empress, they
are in the same manner presented to her.
There was a meeting held yesterday at the bank-
ing-house of Messrs. John Monroe and Co., 7, Rue
Scribe, for the purpose of reviving the custom of
giving a public ball on the 22d February, in com-
memoration of the birthday of General Geo. Wash-
ington. It was usual before the War for the
Americans in Paris to celebrate the 22d in this
way, but since 1860 there has been no demonstra-
tion of the kind. The meeting was well attended,
a'nd many leading Paris-Americans were present.
The reception at General Dix's, last Saturday
night, was the most delightful that has yet been
held there. Numbers were present, and the beauty
of the ladies, their magnificent dress and graceful
manners, showed all that America can boast with
pride that the loveliest in the laud were nurtured
beneath the Stirs and Stripes."
The Right Rev. Dr. Whitehouse, Bishop of the
State of Illinois, has been spending some time in
Paris, and has received a warm welcome here from
his numerous friends and admirers. • He has now
left for a few days for Canterbury, to be present
at the consecration of three colonial bishops.
Americans just from the United States remain
but a short 'time in Paris, the weather reminding

There was a ball last week at the residence of
Madame de Westruck, largely attended by Ameri-
cans. It is rumoured that the noble little ship, the
Red, White, and Blue, will now arrive in Paris, to
be shown at the Exhibition. There is a great desire
manifested by the French to see so small a boat,
which was capable of crossing the ocean.
We have received the report of the meeeting of
the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company
too late for comment. We will in our next issue
remark on New Zealand investments generally, and
on this company particularly.

PARIS FASHIONS.

PARIS, Feb. 7, 1867.
There is strife and contention in Fashion's camp :
some ladies insist on the adoption of amber, others
stand up for jet, and the two elegant trimmings are
in danger of being torn off from the head gear they
cling to. Why must the everlasting moral at th e
end of the fable about the lily and the rose be ever
recalled to quarrelsome parties, or rather why must
ladies quarrel at all ? The majestic, immaculate
queen of the pasture, the lily, is not a bit lovelier
than the blushing full rose. Let the blonde hide the
former in her light green drapery, the brune a
damask rose in her white airy folds, and both will
be equally admired. Thus it is with amber—it is
most bewitching in fair rippling curls, and jet is
more becoming in auburn wavy hair.
Crinoline and horse-hair are also getting clamo-
rous. The former will not give way ; it stands on
the defensive, and recedes no more than an inch at
a time. Since its last surrender it has been sta-
tionary-, glorying in half steel and half calico,
which its detractors mischievously call " half-and-
half," the very lowest pun that could be applied to
an encroaching old lady.
Other threatening encroachments are bonnets,
formerly called " Bolivars," the very ugliest on re-
cord. They are not the sweet little roofs we now
can smile or frown under to advantage. They are
flat behind, and provided in front with straight
pokes, which are not unlike the raised hoods of a
post-chaise, and will have to be filled out with
busl'es of flowers or false hair.
If I thus anticipate coming events, it is because
there is no pleasure in offering readers anything
but the first-fruits of a season, and it is moreover
even well for husbands to know beforehand what
they lave to make up their minds to before they see
their wives in the " newest French style."
Two other novelties are the elegant jet-fringed
waistband, which is to be worn on high robes, and
the rounded little velvet and satin basque, which is
worn over ball dresses on the flat front width im-
mediately 'below the. waistband. They are also
made of coloured satin fringed with crystal, chenille,
or ruche over white tulle skirts, and end in three
long ear-shaped sa,hes behind.
The most gorgeous trimming is peacock's tail
employed in bands, which form peplums, basques,
berthes, and sleeves.
The richest Lyons silks are being bought withvery
humane intentions, I am told, all for the sake of
poor, distressed silk weavers ; but a pity it is the
intentions are fashionable. For my part, Ido not
see that any end is attained because ladies wear
brocades that half ruin their husbands. The said
splendid textures have already caused great dis-
comfort at home, as they are not solely adopted by
the wives of millionaires.
The
.fact of Lyons robes being the origin of the
ruin shall be illustrat©d with a tale founded on facts,
about a pair of slippers which were put in some
well-meaning lottery instituted for the poor, and
gained by a sober-minded gentleman. The slippers
were so elaborately worked with gold that the first
time the winner thereof put them on he observed
that he was in want of a new morning gown to
make his neglige' costume complete.

When clad iu his new flowing cashmere, he dis-
covered that his footstool and the chair on which he
sat at his writing desk were very much the worse
for wear, and ordered a man to renew them. When
the things were brought into his study all the rest
ooked very faded, especially the carpet and cur-
tains. On consulting his account-books he found
hat he had had them a very long time, and resolved
on purchasing new hangings.
In the course of time everything in the sancium
was refitted, when the gentleman's wife—for he
was married—declared her lord's retreat was the
only respectable room in the house to receive one's
friends in. Monsieur, in great alarm at the threat-
ened invasion, ordered Madame's drawing-room to
be refurnished in the newest style. Next, servants
were
,found fault with for their ignorant handling
of delicate uphoLstery—a new set were called in for
higher requirements; but these objected to live with
masters who gave no parties. Dinners and parties
were in consequence given, and the end was that
both Monsieur and Madame were ruined in a very
short time.

Among the wrecks of their past splendour, a pair
of old tarnished, slip-shod shoes were found just fit
to
.be thrown on a dust-cart. Thus Lyons silks
- A •• •

entail large sums spent on diamonds, and every one
knows how few one does get for one's money.
In my next I will not promise to explain other
humane motives such as hippophagy or the use of
horseflesh for food, though it is all fashionable ; only
I shall have much matter, and I am not quite sure
that horse steaks are necessary to salvation any
more than the snuff people make out of the bits of

cigars which i hey pick up in the streets, but there
must be a saving in both.

A NEW FOOD.—Mr. J. Hullett, Clarence Lodge,
Coshani, Hauts, writes calling attention to the
Chinese sugar grass (Sorghum Tartaricum) as a
valuable addition to our cereal crops. It is not
only perfectly hardy, and bears from six to eight
times the quantity per acre that wheat does, but
the bread made from it is more nourishing, and
goes further than any other. Added to this, the
leaves and shoots are invaluable as food for cattle.
As the true seed is not easily obtained, Mr. Hullett
will be happy to send a few grains to any one send-
ing a stamped directed envelope.
SURGICAL—We English practise vivisection.
We are very fond of cutting up our friends and
acquai n tances.—Punch.

TILE LESSON OF TIIE CRISIS. The Nation
declares that to preserve the Union is the one
point upon which the Northern people are agreed,
and ui on which there is no discussion. They
have resolved that on American soil there shall
be no political inequality, but that every man
shall be equal before the law, and that no legal
barrier shall stand between him and any of the
prizes of life. There are those who say that the
negro should not be equal to the white man before
the law, but there are none who deny that the ma-
jority are determined to have him so. Political
equality, irrespective of birth and colour, being
fixed as the basis of the national. Government, the
part of true statesmen is to inaugurate the new
regime according to law and constitutional forms.

them so little of " sunny France" that to escape
its disagreeableness they go south to spend the re-
mainder of the winter. Noticed among the recent
departures are J. 0. B. Inman, Thomas Hill, and
Mr. Bispham, American artists of some celebrity,
who have gone to Italy ; Dr. Walter Carey and
Mr. Watson, of Buffalo, New YOrk,.accompanied
by their families, have gone on an extended Air to
Africa and across to Greece and Italy.
I hear people speak with regret of Lord Gray of
Gray, who died last Friday in his 69th year. lie
was well known in Paris, among British and Ame-
rican residents. The Queen's Speech has been
given in extenso, and has been well received. If the
Tory party can carry out but a small portion of the
programme they will deserve well of the country.
People are very curious to learn how Mr. Disraeli
will introduce his Reform Bill next Monday, and
what measures it, will embody. By-the-by, is not
that the clay of the Grand Reform Demon-
stration, when London will be in the hands of Col.
Dickson and his friends? Americans here are dis-
appointed at the delay that has occurred in the
United States Senate, in sanctioning the appoint-
ment of our Minister, General Dix.
In March some time there is to be a marriage be-
tween Miss Curtis, of New York, and Duke Talle-
rand Perigord. The Duke Tallerand met Miss
Curtis at Nice, where she was spending the winter
with her parents.

Flirting on Skates.

Flirtation may be an evil, but the world, or that
portion of it which is blessed with common sense,
has pretty well made up its' mind that it is a neces-
sary one. So long as the sun and moon shine and
the stars run in their accustomed orbits--so long as
we are actuated by those inflexible necessities which
a bounteous Providence has planted in the breast of
humanity—so long as women are fascinating and
men susceptible, flirtation will continue one of the
things which is and which, therefore, presumably
ought to be. It is surely not so grave a thing as
love, or, of course, so grand and glorious a thing.
But then without it love would scarcely ever visit us
at all. It is the beautiful and roseate forerunner of
the nobler and loftier passion which, like the sun
itself, mly afterward illumine a long and steadfast
day of life or haply be darkened by the clouds of
misunderstanding, of incompatibility-, or of misfor-
tune. The little god, like an able general, throws
out his skirmishers in advance to feel. the enemy's
position, and often with results as happy in averting
calamity as in paving the way to victorious assault.
Assuming, then, that flirtation is inevitable, it
becomes a matter of legitimate. interest to in-
quire what are its least hurtful conditions, or under
what circumstances it may be indulged in with the
minimum of disadvantage to those who feel
irresistibly impelled to explore its mysteries and to
plunge into its halycon if often fleeting intoxica-
tions. Modern civilisation has brought all manner
of new provocatives and furnished all manner of
new opportunities for the delightful pastime, and
whether a greater proportion of marriages be the
fruit or not than of yore, it is certain that the
chances are sufficiently augmented. People of
good degree now flirt in the fashionable promenade
to a degree which, when the pavements were not,
would have been quite out of the question. They
flirt in theatre and opera and concert-room in a
way which before the era of gas and open audi-
toriums would have been, if not impossible, at
least very difficult. They flirt, moreover, in the
omnibus and the railway carriage, on steamboats
and in parks, whereas a hundred years ago such
facilities were denied save, in the latter case, to a
few and favoured localities. They flirt, too, vigor-
ously at croquet, and even at billiards and other
semi-muscular sports whereat our grandmothers
would have stared with wonder and thought the
end of all things was verily close at hand. The
old-fashioned opportunities of balls and dinner
parties and morning vists, meanwhile, still re-
main ; so that all ancient avenues for flirta-
tion are preserved and countless new ones are opened.
Some of these, whether new or old, may be objection-
able, and love-making for hours on a winter's
evening in the heat of a pestilential stove is fairly
to be reckoned as one of the number. But if any
method or scheme of flirtation can be pronounced
free of most objections—if any presents the valuable
feature of uniting health with fascinating pleasure
—if there is any which cannot be reprobated save .
by those who denounce flirtation altogether per se,
it is the exhilarating modernism of flirting on,
skates ! What can be more charming than a bevy of
pretty girls, their cheeks all aglow with blushes of
that exquisite sort which is richly heightened .by
genial exercise, becomingly clad in warm and radiant,
colours, and flying over the glittering ice like so
many Atalantas, pursued by their eager and ad-,
miring swains ? Each pulse is bounding with
health, each laughing eye is beaming with pleasure
and mischief, each dainty figure is rounded with
.
hearty and vigorous respiration, and every look and
movement is instinct with the consciousness of doing
something innocent yet pleasurable, and look-
ing most lovely while doing it ! Surely if
American girls would but skate enough,
whether they unite flirtation with the sport
or no, the sad complaint of physical delicacy
and degeneration we have heard so much of might
soon fade away, and at last be heard by a succeed-
ing generation with incredulous surprise. We will
warrant too that flirting, to whatever reasonable
lengths it might be carried, would interfere no whit
with wholesome and robust development. The
truth is that whatever is morbid or unwholesome
in the mind, no less than in the body, is almost sure
to be regulated and expelled by active physical
exercise and plenty of it. Flirtations which are
most demoralising arc those which are carried on by
the palid, the weakly, and the morbidly sensitive.
Your stout, brave girl, who walks or skates her ten
or fifteen miles a day, is the one least likely to for-
get her self .respect in her intercourse either with
the opposite sex or her own. The law which leads

us to look for sound minds in sound bodies operates
in amatory matters with a force at least as
great as in any others. Flirtations born of the
heated atmosphere of the ball-room or theatre may
lead to harm at times, as most things human do ;
but those whose soft nothings are breathed on
skates are, we will be bound, as little hurtful as
aught on " the dangerous edge of things" can
possibly be. —The Round Table.