A Ruby Star in Sapphire skies, Flashed from the East a dazzling light, Awoke the silent hours of night, Star-guided, earnest wise men sought, The new-born Babe, and Him adored, Whose Power the Universe controls, C. A. M. W. A VISIT TO THE PARIS EXHIBITION. IF the sanguine expectations formed in 1851 with regard to the peaceful effects of a Universal Exhibition are still far from realised, and the day seems very distant when wars will be as obsolete as the tournaments of the Middle Ages; there is yet no doubt that International Exhibitions make nations better acquainted with each other, increase commerce, and dissipate many unfounded prejudices, such as have more than once occasioned a war. The numbers of Frenchmen who came to London in 1851 prepared the way for the alliance with France, which two years earlier seemed as unlikely as a defensive and offensive alliance with China; and few people after enjoying the hospitality of the French in Paris for a week, or realising the many favourable points in the character of the French peasants whom they had VOL. XVIII. H H jostled against during a sojourn at the Exposition in the Champs de Mars, would respond to the cry-if under any circumstances the cry were raised that we ought to go to war with France. The prominence which has been given to British manufactures and British arts displays especial good will to our country on the part of the managers of the Exhibition, whose arrangements in every way deserved the highest commendation. Eleven years ago all the concomitants of a Court, and all the attractions which a large number of Royal visitors driving there in state could give, assisted to draw crowds to the Paris Exhibition; but Royal visitors have not been wanting on the present occasion, though they have generally gone there quietly mixing with the crowd, as befits the guests of a country ruled by a Republican government. A In the centre of the large gardens a figure of Liberty "enlightening the world," as the motto underneath has it, is a prominent spectacle, and it is to be hoped it conveys a useful impression to the numerous Asiatics as well as Moors, Tunisians, and Arabs who are present. lift conveying people to the roof of the building, from which they obtained an extensive view of the neighbourhood, contained at the same moment an Englishman, a Japanese, a Turk, two Russians, a Frenchman, a Pole, and a German, who all seemed on excellent terms with each other. The Prussians have, however, contributed little or nothing except pictures, and the Japanese are the only Asiatics who have exhibited entirely on their own account, and not under the patronage of an European power. The Turkish government also exhibited nothing; but its subjects the Syrian Christians, brought over many articles in olive wood from Jerusalem and flowers from Bethlehem; and several Turks drinking coffee and smoking behind their stalls sold crescentshaped chocolate cakes, Turkish delight, and a mixture of sugar and almonds, which were highly appreciated. A Tunis café, surmounted with a crescent, furnished a musical entertainment; and the Moorish and Algerian shops of filagree ornaments, shawls, pipes, and numerous attractive objects, were generally surrounded with purchasers, while the neighbouring Monaco department, decorated with plants and containing a statue of its prince, was comparatively little noticed. People hardly indeed expected to see anything but billiard balls and roulette tables from that gambling little State. But few things could compete with the Indian pavilion containing the Prince of Wales's jewels and other presents which he had received from the native Rajahs of India; and their estimated value would probably exceed more than all that was exhibited by other foreign States. "No wonder the English think so much of India, and take so much trouble to keep it," was the remark we heard made by a Frenchman who had been gazing at them. France had naturally the largest space allotted to her painters, but battle pieces were remarkably absent from it, although she still showed her old taste for horrors, and in this quality is only rivalled by Spain. Dr. Pinel inspecting insane patients; Rizpah, the widow of Saul, protecting the seven corpses of his sons from vultures and wild beasts; and several martyrdoms, displayed it very forcibly; but she had some pleasing pictures of Scriptural subjects. Don Carlos, the unsuccessful claimant to the throne of Spain, with a cigarette in his hand, and M. Thiers were among the best French portraits. The first seems to meditate offering himself on the first opportunity as a candidate for the throne of France, on the plea that the branch of the Bourbon family from which he springs is senior to the Orleans branch, and that the Comte de Chambord has accepted him as his heir. There were two portraits of M. Gambetta, one by an Italian artist, and the Hungarian collection contained very good likenesses of Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Sydney, and the Princess Christian. Some of the Russian sea pieces were remarkably good, and might vie with those of any nation, and others gave an insight into Russian domestic life, which were especially interesting to any one wishing to know a little of the manners and customs of that people. "The Interview in a Prison," "The Nuptial Blessing," "Before the Confessional," "The Funeral Feast," and "The State Pensioners at the Treasury," were among these. The last represents old men, possibly old soldiers, orphans, a young widow, and old woman all waiting in an ante-room for their pittances till the turn of each should come. "The Waiting-room of a Doctor" shows the learned man in a velvet kaftan, like Dr. Faust, prescribing for an old woman evidently suffering from the toothache, while other patients are sitting by; a pot of flowers, a mirror against the wall, a French clock, and a sofa, with one or two pictures hanging up, making the whole, with the exception of the doctor, look very much like a medical waiting-room in any other country. "Reading the Ukase decreeing the Emancipation of the Serfs," shows several rough-bearded men sitting amidst hay in a barn; one of their number is reading by the light of a tallow candle the Imperial mandate, which seventeen years ago almost cost the Czar his throne. "The Benefactress," represents a lady with a fur-clad cockaded footman, loaded with a basket, visiting a starving family, whose cottage contains two broken chairs, and a bed-alcove separated by a curtain from the room, such as we still frequently find in Scotland. "Sharing Goods in a Peasant's Family," shows a very pleasant trait in the character of the Russian poor, and another picture gives us a train stopping at a lonely roadside station, where a number of boys and children are rushing across the line to sell plates of raspberries to the passengers, one of them having tripped over a rail and broken her plate. The wide landscapes and excessive dreariness of Russian scenery are vividly represented in "Moonlight in the Ukraine," "A Road through a Forest," "A Forest in Winter," and "The Steppe burned by the Sun." Two pictures of village schools, and another of peasants talking together during the interval of a Session of the Provincial Assembly, give us a glance at institutions which must in time modify the autocracy of the Empire; and pictures of the towns and forests clothed in snow, as they remain during seven months in the year, remind us of one great barrier which nature seems to have placed in their climate, to the Russians ever becoming a very wealthy or highly advanced people. Peter the Great interrogating his son in prison, and the Czar Ivan the Terrible exhibiting his jewels just before his death to Sir Jerome Horsey, one of the first English ambassadors from Queen Elizabeth to the Court of Moscow, are historical incidents very ably treated by M. Gué (a native of that town of Poltowa so identified with the history of Peter the Great), and by M. Litovzenko of S. Petersburg. The Swedish collection had a picture of the body of Charles XII., Peter's heroic rival, being transported across the mountains from Frederickshall, where he met his death, besides other scenes reminding us of Sweden's ancient military fame. Though the Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish collections were small, they were of good quality, and their picturesque views and national dress and buildings afford great scope to the artist. Greece and Portugal were also represented in accordance with the size of those states, and Asia has not contributed any share to the art collection, though a French scientific society displayed some views and photographs of those much discussed places Khiva, Kokan, and Bokhara, and in the Russian department there were photographs taken in Central Asia and Siberia. Several excursion trains had arrived in Paris, bringing numbers of the French peasantry to the Exhibition, and we observed that "the Dutch interiors" were particularly interesting to them. These consisted of figures as large as life, pushing sledges, or engaged in household occupations, dressed in the national holiday costume which is a relic of the sixteenth century, and familiarised to our eyes by Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vandyck. The ambulances and other arrangements for the French and Russian wounded in time of war were most complete in appearance, but it is a sad fact that they have never yet been equal to the need, and that the cool airy tents with such neat accommodation for twenty sick men, are certain to be filled with at least three times that number before the campaign is at an end. If a display of warlike implements, and views of battles show a warlike spirit the British nation in that respect might however claim the pre-eminence. "The Battle of Inkerman," by Miss Thompson; "The Duke of Cambridge at Alma," and "The Chelsea Pensioners," were prominent in the English gallery; but even Holland, the most peaceful of States, exhibited military uniforms and models of soldiers. The ethnological collection in the Russian department was interesting, as showing the great variety of races who inhabit that huge Empire, and its stuffed zoological specimens almost as much so, since they comprised white foxes, white wolves, and white hares, some of which are to be found in no other part of Europe. Much is certainly being done for the mental improvement of the rising generation throughout Europe except Turkey, to judge from the Educational department which is filled with the copybooks of promising scholars from even Hungary, Bohemia, Poland and Russia. The science, the physiology, and the different languages with which the poor little brains are to be crammed is quite appalling, and it is rather to be feared that it may be overdone and lead to a reaction in the next generation. Finland appears to be a rising country, from its productions, and it is sometimes forgotten that the present Emperor of Russia restored the Constitution granted to it by one of his predecessors, Alexander I., and suppressed by his own father, in 1862; so that its administration, even financially, is now quite distinct from that of Russia. It established parochial schools in 1866, and supports twelve daily newspapers, besides weekly journals and other periodicals. We fancy that the coloured Scriptural pictures published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge have been in some instances |