The Czar, after a. rough passage from Portsmouth to Cherbourg,
where he was received by the President and banquetted at the Arsenal, arrived safely in Paris at 10 o'clock on the morning of Tuesday. The city was, of course, en fete, the Russian flag was everywhere, and as the Czar and Czarina with their host drove from Passy to the Russian Embassy the road, four miles long, was filled with, it is said, two millions of exulting Frenchmen. Whether they rent the air with shouts, or were respectfully silent, surprised, some say, because the Czar is not as big as Nicholas I., who is always the ideal Czar to Frenchmen, is matter of sharp dis- pute; but there seems no doubt as to the cordiality of the welcome. The French, in fact, feel at once honoured by the visit and hopeful that their guest will help them to recover Alsace-Lorraine. The officials vie with each other in cere- monial deference; and the Czar, who they say wished to walk about Paris as a private person might, is overwhelmed and exhausted with receptions, interviews, State dinners, a visit to the opera, during which he fell ill and abruptly stopped the performance, and conversations with responsible Ministers on affairs. His speech at the dinner, noticed below, was icy cold, but it is reported that he told M. Ribot that in 1891, when the negotiations for alliance began, there was "laid the germ " of great events.
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