The ultra-patriotic party in Paris has been getting up a
demonstration to protest against the performance of Wagner's opera, Loliengrin. It was intended, the Government believe, -to rush the Opera-House and spoil the entertainment, and on Wednesday, the day of the performance, an untoward incident occurred. The German Emperor often speaks unadvisedly at public dinners, and on Tuesday, dining with his Generals at Erfurt, he spoke of it as a place where the "Corsican parvenu" had humiliated Germany. The Reichsanzeiger next day said the Emperor had spoken of the "Corsican con- queror ;" but parvenu is an epithet which occurs to Sovereigns, but not to reporters. The phrase was considered an insult by Bonapartists, and of course swelled the anti-Prussian crowd which swayed and babbled and buzzed -round the doors of the Opera-House, and at one moment marched out with an inten- tion of attacking the German Embassy. M. Constans, however, was, as usual, too strong for rioters. He assembled a small army of police, and arrested eleven hundred persons for "disturbing order in a public place," and the performance went off without interruption, save from a few hisses. It was a childish affair, but Parisians in childish mood love playing with fire.
