THE GREAT EXHIBITION IN PARIS.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 12, 25 March 1867, Page 67

THE GREAT EXHIBITION IN PARIS.

(Paris'Correspohdenfc ojthe Times)

lir the year of 1855, the French Govern-; ment very. pjjoperly suspended the passport system‘during 'tlie period of the Great Exhibition in Paris. The Emperor profited by that to i make an experiment which has proved, to be sucoessfill, with the view,of abolishing.at a :later period a. humiliating practice which He had.lpng,before stigmatised in some of the most- eloquent pages of his, writings. The French'Goyernihei t isi, I understand, now asked 'by 'Mr Watktn.M.P., the chairman of : thA--South-Eastern Company, and hy liis colleagues, ; to.Buspend the no leas vexatious ordeal pfbaggage-searching mFptdS tduring the still, greater Exhibition of- 18(17,;. The Company have reduced the time of traveling between Fj^ M> hours,' amL-the w ; Mto6fiameinvdlvedih‘the'exißtingsya. of-baggage ;tfa'nßit«and Bearoht cannot, I thick, be eßtimateds*sleW;^

age is, when there is a • IbrigE frain['a'rid whenv,there are rtmirierous/ passengers, an 1 , houjvand sometimes more in speeialcasesj. It is naif arihour,’ or J sri'libhr.br monos the case may be, qt the end of a long 7 jour. : ney, ! withj too-inany, an uncomfortable Sea passage in the it; where by * the origihal nuisance is aggravated. . It almost to observe that in the case of persons who do not speak .w^hderstond the language of the country tbev aire visiting, of ladies traveling und unbrtdl tectedi- and above all, of inyalids. thd annoyance oceasioned in ransacking, poft}. manteaus qnd carpetbags is yery great 5 . y am told, on good authority, tiiat the number of passerigers con veyed between London and Paris by the -South-Eaktern and the, -London, Chatham, and Dover Companies alone is not less than 300000 in an- ordinary year. But'in the vear ' which will’ be long memorable, designed tor an immense gathering from everv nimv.' ter of the globe, the number of travellers of faedity that can be given.them ; and iiiany tacuities that suggest themselves to the taind;of everyone-wfil,be ; impossible of realisation of it is intended tT continue the practice of personal and individual search at the Custom-house. For instance; * h ®. might deliver th e .baggage' of the hundreds of thousands of English trao! 11 ®”* t » vdk » fp o«n the United States of America and. elsewherei'passing through England at the hotel orlodginf of eaeh person; or they* might sfcore it for mm or her at a general depot in Paris; B %T Dy t U^ e . d -^thousands of bunches of .keys, belonging to as many trahave ,to be delivered up to the rail: way officials; and every aeperate pdrtmanteau, carpet-bag, or package has to be tossed upon a counter add and searched, such alleviations of the trouble of passing to and fro m a country of which the habits and language may be strange to most of them, mid through the throng 9 and confusion of a mighty foreign city would be impesmble. This is biit one instance in many. Whether durihg the mvasion. of Pam the contributions levied on the invaders, instead of on the invaded, will be as enormous as is , supposed, I do not undertake to say. At any rate, it is pretty certain that a noh harvestrwm be reaped 1 from the cosmopolitan multitude wh£ so readily responded to the call of the Emperor of the French. The expectant gatherers of ■ that-harvest cannot but ;he struck by this reflection, that its. amouht depends .a great deal on the absence of tantalising apd, in the'main,: Baetesk restrictions, which at all times are repugnant toa free people. If ifc be a painful undertaking to pay this visit, the great bulk of people—the protective contributors to fnrnZ* fi T n f auce - wi U. ;be deterred from J f ’ °\ the contrary, the transit SdS?* r^ 868 b ® “ ade fre e to all alike, and the American will move about the noble squares, boulevards, and streets of this beautiful capital with nearly the same feeling of lightheartedness and eomfort which they feel when travelling upon their own soil., „We are told, and truly told; that the leading idea of this grand exhibition is union and brotherhood; and surely.it would be a blot upon so fair-a design if every stranger that treads upon French ground is to be treated as a suspected smuggler, and forced to run the gauntlet through the microscopic scrutiny of Custom-house officers? :The present system in England and in France seems to. be to treat every traveller, male or female, old and young, adults and children, qs rogues who would cheat the revenue if they could, attd who can only be kept honest by having their trunks turned upside down and their pockets turned inmde out the moment they coine to port. The supposition is riot flattering to the stranger, the theory itself is- absurd; arid its practice, is partial, offensive; , and, to •V* tfluderly, execrable. I .don’t know whether any persons will venture to affirm that there is more than one in a hundred thousand who is a smuggler, yet top hundred thousand who are innocent of all criminal designs on the revenue are to be treated as law .breakers because one man may once in a twelvemonth ■ cheat the Customs to the value of three or four trancs.

It is obvious' that the Anglo-French treaty has altered the whole face of things. PracticaUy there really is little or nothing left for the dishonest traveller—the one black sheep among a hundred thousand white ones—to smuggle at- all., ;The best spirits and the , best cigars,' or tobacco, in any other form—the only articles which aaunt the waking and sleeping dreams of your old-fashioned Customhouse officialare about as dear in London as in Paris; ® n d. in Paris as . in, London;' No doubt, there may be found now and then an Excursionist traveller who. on .his first visit to France imagines that a bottle of brandV at If. 50 o.;is.worth; passing through at Hover or Folkestone, and may smuggle to that extent; but T believe no Frenchman, .coming Back to his own country, thinks of attempting the converse of thp- operatio'hi The fact f is that this brandy at- IX 50 c. -is distilled.from groms or rogetables of some sort in England.;, is 'then . aent: to France to adulterate ~the .native-produce; and so adulterated goes back .to Englarid as a first-rate - French alcohol t-fori)«ri Bull’a consumption. Thusthe- daring smuggler of thriT f. 3 60t5. is simply in g an English priiidfl6^ t; 'perMp’ffT process whicll

Se permitted < respectfully to ‘ l ask,' the will of the. E mperor, Napoleon,' who canfbyij, word suspend, this-grievance, or even abolish it/fwJgoddJ and alljtTiat friendlv fo^^gnerev shall; visit the capital, of whicii he, is sojustly proud,"in a period qf seven months: pleasure ’arid' rejjoiqihg, irifelleotual and, through * thei offensive' impede ments suspicions; of whichadtiregulations are the expression? .Whether "or riot, both in Fxaricb arid Erighirid; this whole system thould: be abolished at all 'ports- and 1 everywhere .mayi if yqu will, be a question for discussion.; but.tqenfprce it, in its most objectionable form af such a time in France would be to throw coldness into the..welcome which ’France holds out, through- the Emperor of her choice,' to all mankind. :