The French Exhibition was opened on Saturday, the 11th inst.,
with the usual ceremonial, the only special feature being a certain predominance which was assigned to everything Russian. The President and his Minister of Commerce, M. Millerand, the Socialist, made speeches pitched in a rather high key. The procession was bright with uniforms, and the people, who, the day being fine, were out in masses, seemed to have recovered their good humour. There was, however, as compared with previous exhibitions, rather a notable absence of Princes, and, according to M. de Blowitz, the upper classes ostentatiously stayed away, thousands of. them even quitting Paris by train. The Exhibition itself, moreover, though it will be a singularly interesting one, the manufacturers of the world having exerted themselves to dis- play their powers, is rather unusually unready, and those who wish to see it at its best should wait till the end of May. ISr, con t re te m ps occurred, however; the parties have proclaimed a kind of truce, during which it may be feared they will secrete fresh venom, and Parisians are seriously intent on making money out of their show. The accounts of the treasures which must have been collected are asyet meagre, and the device most admired is the European street in which the houses of all the nations are represented. The English one is the plainest, the Spanish the most picturesque.
