The Paris Exhibition was opened on May 1st, according to
programme. Nothing was ready except the British Department, the rain fell heavily though intermittently all day, and the arrangements for tickets broke down, as they often do in France, nothing being left to the ticket-holders' judg- ment, so that when the numbers went wrong, all went wrong. Still the Minister of Commerce made a speech to the President of the Republic, insisting that the Exhibition was a proof of the stability of the new form of Government ; and the Marshal, in reply, called the world to witness, and the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Aosta, the Crown Prince of Denmark, the ex-Queen of Spain, and other Royalties were present, and the Exhibition was declared opened. The Parisians are delighted, and voluntarily illuminated their city, and rooms in medium hotels have risen to $2 and even /3 a day, and there are said to be 100,000 strangers in the city, and they will spend some millions,—and what better proof would you have that France is content with her Republic? Well, perhaps it is a proof of a kind, and at all events it is a proof that a nation can survive a great defeat without losing its attractiveness for mankind.
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