This week London streets have been patrolled, at all hours
of the day, by parties of the National Guard of Paris, in their dark blue coats or jackets with silver epaulettes or sanguine shoulder- knots ; and yet there has been no panic. The Guards have been free to view every strong-hold, from Tower Hill to the Horse Guards—to criticize all they saw, from the National Gallery to the Grenadiers—they have garrisoned Sabloniere Hotel in Leices- ter Square—you met them at every corner, walking, filling cabs till they creeked again, at the Theatres, in the Parks—they have been the object of staring, smiles, frowns, fraternization, bullying, cheating, and courtesies of all kinds ; and on the whole, we be- lieve, they have been amused and still more pleased by their reception. They are amazed at the cordiality of the English ; also at the fact that all Englishmen at home do not wear blue coats with tilt buttons and top-boots, as all Englishmen do on the French stage. On the other hand, they have made a decidedly favourable impression: they were really no make-believe soldiers after all, but men who had seen hard fighting; they were courte- ous, intelligent, and seemed thoroughly "respectable." Among them were countenances full of thought, of inward passion, and of self-possessed resolution, such as one has not often seen among "the trained bands" of" famous London town." But what did they come for? That point is not quite under- stood. First, we believe, the railway companies between Paris and London, desirous of promoting that good feeling between the two capitals without which railway traffic must suffer, offered some special facilities for these visiting-trips. The Republican, had a desire to ascertain for themselves how the English people regard the Republic. There was a wish to invite the Lord Mayor of London to taste the Republican hospitalities. A ConservativR journal, not sorry perhaps to believe in a little reaction, intimates that some of the Guards have been paying a very significant visit to Louis Philippe ; who was fluent in the reception of his fellow citizens. Such a visit is natural, and- not discreditable ; but a bad use might be made of it. Some old ladies surmise that the sworded epiciers have been treacherously surveying London with an eye to a future descent. Whatever the motive, two facts are certain,—that the visit must promote mutual good feeling and confidence between French and English; and that the worthy Parisians will not expect the inhabitants of comfortable quiet London, for all their Monarchy, to envy Republican Paris, which is yet neither quiet nor comfortable, though very grand and showy.
