The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-26 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FRO3I OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Tuesday Evening.
To-day, Christmas-day, although not kept in
Paris as in London by the gathering of happy
families, perhaps separated for a year, but it is still
considered as a great and joyous event. It has,
however, more of a religious than a social character.
The churches were filled at a very early hour in the
morning, and they have been more or less crowded
during the day. The weather has been very fine,
and the fog, which bad prevailed in abundance for
a week, cleared off about mid-day. The streets of
every quarter of Paris have been literally crammed
with all sorts and conditions of people in their holi-
day attire, and with joyous and contented coun-
tenances. Although, as I say, Christmas is treated
in Paris more as a religious than a social fete, yet
every year it more and more resembles an English
Christmas so far as attention to creature comforts is
concerned. I went to the Hanes Centrales yester-
day, and some of the markets, and I can assure you
that the show of meat, poultry and game was enor-
mous. Leadenhall and Newgate markets can no
longer claim pre-eminence in this respect. As to
the quality of the meat, the beef exhibited is really
quite equal to the " roast beef of old England," and
some of the shops of the butchers are filled as abun-
dantly as those of London. There is a butcher's
shop in the Faubourg St. Honore, close to the Rue
de l'Oratoire, where enough meat has been exhibited
to feed a tolerably large town. The taste displayed
in the decoration of the exteriorof the shop shows a
love of ornament perhaps never dreamt of by Eng-
lish butchers. There are wreaths of holly and
mistletoe and an inscription in English wishing
" A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
This shop is patronised by the English who inhabit
this part of Paris, to whom roast beef and plum
pudding are indispensable on this day. Nor have
they now any cause for supposing that they have
to regret the deprivation of being without London
beef. A proof that French beef is now properly
estimated by the English is to be found in the fact
that within a short time large quantities of oxen
have been exported from France for the London
market. Much poultry, too, has been sent from
France to London this Christmas time, more than
in any former year. As to the display of poultry
in the shops it has not been so great or abundant
as in London. Some of the poultry dealers here,
however, beat the Londoners in one respect—price.
At a poultry shop in the Faubourg Montmartre
yesterday I saw a turkey stuffed with truffles marked
at no less a figure than 140 francs. All poultry is
dearer in Paris just now than in London. Indeed,
provisions of all kinds are dearer than was perhaps
ever remembered. The price of bread rose a short
time ago, and meat has risen at least a penny a
pound within a fortnight. Good butter is two
francs a pound.

Judging from the noise and singing heard in the
streets of Paris during the small hours of this morn-
ing Christmas Eve was generally well observed.
This Revellion, according to French writers, is of
great antiquity. During the first centuries of the
middle age it was observed by all classes. In the
present day it is marked by hospitality and abun-
dant almsgiving. The Gauls, we are told, got up
dramatic spectacles upon the occasion, and even in
the churches there were representations of the in-
fant Jesus in his manger, of the Virgin Mary and
St. Joseph, the sheep, the ox, and the ass. The
actors in these spectacles imitated the braying of
the ass, the bleating of the sheep, and the lowing of
cattle. -When midnight struck there was an imita-
tion of the crowing of the cock, and some one cried
out, Natus est Christus. The ass brayed and
was supposed to say in Latin, " Übinam 2" Where ?
The sheep bleated, and replied " Bethlehem." Then
came the lowiugof the oxen, and a voice said Eamus
—Let us go and see. In the 17th century, Mont-
maur, a celebrated gastronomist, said, " The best
two days of the year are Christmas and Easter.
Christmas, because you breakfast at midnight, and
Easter, because it is the day most distant for the
approaching Lent._

In reference to the strange news from Cherbourg
which I mentioned yesterday, the„ Vigic de Cher-
bourg says :

" The Government of Washington, after its
struggle with the South, finding that its arsenals
were encumbered with hastily built vessels, more or
less defective, decided upon selling them. The
Minister of France, in the United States, having
learnt that some pretended agents of Juarez were
in treaty for the purchase of some iron-clad moni-
tors, wrote to his Government to send a few iron-
armed ships to disarm them, should they dare to
present themselves in the Mexican waters."

The Siecle, in reference to the Speech of N. Bis•
marck, relative to the annexation of the Duchies,
says :

" In whatever way the sense of the speech may
be tortured, it is difficult not to discover in it the
expression of the desire felt by the whole of Ger-
many to remain upon terms of peace and friendship
with France. The conduct of Prussia during re•
cent events may be judged with severity, it may
even be appreciated in the least flattering manner

as regards the feeling which we all entertain of the
. _

influence which Prussian aggrandisment may have
in deteriorating the power of frame ; but one CCM-