Morning journal and courier., 1886-02-20

| quite well remember what subject for joke | was that same music when was boy, ant l that Frenchman could not hear two O 1 three barrel organs going at the same tlm' without making unfattering allusions to thu 1 new German mestro's orchestration. Blu 1 all this kind of thing was no more than wal l to be expected, seeing that he not only brought forward new and strange sounding l music, but affected to despise that of tht I Italian school as insipid, and dubbed French | music ridiculous and grotesque. It is cer I tain that Paris loved him not and that he cordially disliked Paris, but this scarcely ex- cused his violent insults to her in her houl of agony. Such insults at such moment are hard to forget. At all events what car say is that if Wagner is to be tried on French stage, it should be on one that is pa tronized by the German colony, and not one that is subsidized by the French govern ment out of the French ratepayers' pockets One or two cool-headed journalists have giv en M. Carvalho the celebrated advice that Punch once gave those about to marry Don't" If M Carvalho is not infatuated and too obstinate he will listen to it.
 At the end of last week Frances "grand old man," M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, sailed
 from Southampton to Panama in order te see for himself how the work connected with the canal is going on. Before three years are over," he said to some London friends q will have a sail through the Panama ca nal" And sure as you live he will have it. M. de Lesseps is not abused quite so much about Panama as he was about Suez Of course he was on the laughing side when the English called him "a dangerous luna tic" The Arab proverb says: ''The dogs bark, the caravan passes" The dogs have parked and M. de Lesseps has passed. As in the case ofAthe Suez canal, the French
 are the only people who as a nation have
 placed implicit confidence in M. de Les seps' Panama enterprise, and they have, let it be said to their honor furnished the vast bulk of the capital of twenty-three
 millions sterling already subscribed. Strange to say, the subscribers are not to
 be found among the French capitalists, but
 among the small bourgeois, the workmen,
 servants and peasants, who have confded their little savings to the care of their idol The Suez and Panama shares are called in France ''family investments" So many thousands of French people are pos | sessed of a few of these that the enter prise is almost a national one, and the
 French say: "We have made the Suez ca- nal and we gre now making the Panama canal" And it is true. I should not be surprised one day to see American sharehold- CTS cast big covetous eyes upon the Panama canal, just as John Bull is now casting his eyes upon the great Suez undertaking.
 NIT, Matthew Arnold calls the glorious ar istocracy of England a 'barbarian Iot,'' lney afe flcn, Inefelore they are supposed to be intelligent and cultured. Such is not the case, however, and the only talents they possess are devoted to wine, horses and bal let girls. They are supposed to patronize the fine arts. We'll, they do in so far as they sell for cash the treasures accumulated
 by forefathers, and which they disseminate through the country, to go and patronize dramatic art behind the curtain None of the amusements of the "upper ten' of Eng land are of nature to tend to the elevation of mind or thoughts. The Millais collection or pictures now exhibiting at the Grosvenor gallery is remarkable proof that the aris- tocracy of the day take little or no interest in the cause of art. Out of the many hun dreds of pictures hanging on the walls, only one has been purchased and exhibited by member of the House of Lords. The ances- tors of the peers of the realm accumulated pictures, books and old china; the present generation sell them to acquire betting books, high collars, champagne and diseased flyers.
 If there is an article considered by it's owner as undoubtedly the best," it is a baby. So predict many a disappointment on the day of awards at the forthcoming baby show in Paris. The show is to come off on the first day of May and it will be of an international character Each baby will have to drop half crown on the event and consolation race, and the nurses of the prize winners will receive medals. Of course the mammas of the unsuccessful babies will not be obliged to admit the justice of the awards and our Gown precious darlings,' or many of them, will have to receive good comforting hug in the way ot consolation.
 MAX O'REII