The Parisian Liberals held a great meeting at the Chateau
d'Eau on Sunday, to aid in sending 150 representative work- men to Philadelphia to assist in the opening of the Centennial Exhibition. They were addressed by M. Louis Blanc in a sensible speech, and by Victor Hugo in a wildly poetic one, of which we have spoken elsewhere, and they dispersed with enthusiastic shouts for the Republic. The incident would be unimportant, were not this the first really free public meeting held in Paris since 1852. The Empire would not allow them, nor the Generals under the state of siege, and the experiment seems to have been watched with an appreheVsiveness that to Englishmen is almost perplexing. It appears to have been expected not only that MM. Blanc and Hugo would preach treason, murder, and arson, but that the unarmed artisans would at once go and follow their incendiary advice. Even as it is, old Conservatives shake their heads be- cause the audience went into raptures at hearing two or three of the Beatitudes conveyed to them in Hugoese, and a little fanfar- onading praise of the greatness of Parisian hearts.
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