_, bewails in the _Presse_ the folly of France in rejecting the
doctrines of free trade, and clamors loudly for an immediate reform of
French tariffs. M. Jules de Premary fills column after column in the
_Patrie_ with descriptions of English manners, customs, and
peculiarities; and yet he admits that he knows nothing of our language,
and has only resided amongst us for a few days. Parisian _litterateurs_
pride themselves on being men of imagination, poets, _penseurs
fantasistes_; and it is clear that it would be as reasonable to chain an
eagle to a dog-cart, as to expect _them_ to deal with a plain,
practical, matter-of-fact thing in the methodical business-like way of
the English journalist. Of these, the lines of Miss Fanny Fudge are
strikingly true:

"Vain, critics, vain
All your efforts to saddle wit's fire with a chain!!
To blot out the splendor of fancy's young stream,
Or crop in its cradle the newly-fledged beam!!!"

But though our worthy _confreres_ of the Parisian press have thus let
their wits go a wool-gathering, and left the poor Exhibition in the
lurch, it is but just to state that one and all display on the whole a
most friendly feeling towards the English; and even in quizzing us, as
most of them do, display great good nature. They feel, perhaps, a little
sore at having been outstripped by us in the establishment of the first
great Universal Exhibition; but this was only natural, and they console
themselves by stating that it was in France that the idea was first
conceived, and by solemnly promising that France will some day _prendre
sa revanche_. The most amusing of the _feuilletonistes_ is
unquestionably M. Jules de Premary, of the _Patrie_; and we have thought
it worth while to translate a portion of his last letter, as a specimen
of what an intelligent man of letters feels on visiting us for the first
time, and before he becomes well acquainted with us:

"One of the principal causes of surprise to me in walking
along the streets of London, has been to see myself all at
once become a curious animal. I did not think that I had any
of the qualities necessary for such a thing, being neither
humpbacked nor club-footed, neither a giant nor a dwarf.
Thus, then, on the day of my arrival I went along Regent
Street, and heard the exclamations and laughter of the crowd
on seeing me, I examined myself from head to foot, to
asce