The Portsmouth gathering appears to have been a brilliant affair, — physically
brilliant we mean, -with plenty of blue lights, rockets, fireworks, and other luminous appearances. First there was the dinner to the French Minister of Marine and the Admirals onboard the Duke of Wellington on Tuesday. Then there was the great dinner given to them in a tent in the quadrangle of the College at Ports- mouth on Wednesday, when the heaths were drunk and the speeches made. Nobody said anything remarkable; but the Duke of Somer- set and the French Minister of' Marine, M. de Chasseloup-Laubat, said pretty things of each other's savereignaand navies, and this dinners on both occasions were said to have been remarkable, though the diners were not. The great effect was on the occasion of pro- posing the Queen's health, when suddenly the fleet became a blaze of light, by means of red, white, and blue lights, placed in every port, rockets sent up in clusters, and so forth, for the space of twenty minutes,—every spar, however slight, being visible duringthat time, after which the fleet suddenly faded away again. Yesterday there was a grand ball. So we hope the French officers will have enjoyed themselves at least as much as the state of "such beings as we are, in such a world as the present," will admit.
Previous page
