ROYAL VISIT TO CHERBOURG.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 114, 23 November 1858, Page 4

ROYAL VISIT TO CHERBOURG.

{From the Times.) The Queen has been to Cherbourg and returned, bringing to us on her return the first news of her departure. Her Majesty's visit has been of the shortest, somewhere about forty hours, as far as we can calculate, and we only trust it as made up in interest for what it lacked in duration. When, however, we take an inventory of the items which are to constitute the interest, \ye feel ourselves rather at a loss to discover what they are. There is, in the first place, no doubt, the pleasure of an interview between her Majesty and the Emperor and Empress of the French, and of talking over the interesting occurrences which have taken place since they last met at Osborne. Then there was the banquet on board the Bretagne, in which the Emperor's speech and the Prince Consort's speech, both so full of peace and good will, contrasted strangely with the grinning mouths of some thousand pieces of cannon on impregnable forts which frowned a welcome on the British squadron. Then there is the gratification which any Queen of England must feel in felicitating her great ally on the successful accomplishment of a work which has been in construction for two centuries, although it can hardly be expected that her Majesty should entirely forget for what purposes that work is designed and against whom it is avowedly levelled. Little souvenirs of this kind, however, may possibly serve to relieve the monotony of the royal dialogue, and furnish an opporlunily for that .gentle under-current of repartee which gives life and spirit to genteel conversation. Then there was an ugly old Norman town to see, with the usual complement of narrow streets, high, dingy, overhanging houses, and intolerable smells. Then there were the forts, designed for the- destruction of some English fleet, which some less cautious Napier shall lead within their inevitable range —forts which we presume resemble pretty closely all other specimens of modern fortification, being straight in their lines, sharp in their angles, smooth in their masonry, low in their elevation, and exceedingly formal and ugly in their whole aspect and appearance. Let us not forget in our catalogue of wonders the railway —a single line, b}'1 the by—which connects this agreeable region with those lines of railway from which troops can be poured into Cherbourg from the vast reservoirs of military force in the interior, a line the singleness of which is impressive, as implying that the troops that go that way are to find their way back to France, if at all, by a different route. Such are the enjoyments which Cherbourg may have been presumed to offer to the mind and eye of the Sovereign of England . There was another, which a person ought to be a Sovereign, a Field-Marshal, or Captain of Artillery, fully to estimate—a pleasure neither intellectual nor visual, but but purely auricular. The Queen of England has been saluted at Cherbourg we don't know how many times by 3000 guns, the operation lasting about 20 minutes, during which our grovelling imaginations can suggest to us no higher luxury than that of being entirely deaf, and being possessed of some contrivance by which the ordinary functions of respiration could be completely suspended. Earth, air, and sea shook, the solid fortifications trembled, and the windows in the crasy old frames rattled in accord with this tremendous overwhelming compliment. Our polite and gallant neigbours have brought the art of saluting to a perfection quite unknown to the rude and barbarous natives of these Northern isles. First a single gun is fired, then ensues a pause, in order to give you full time to comprehend and realise the full horror of the infliction you are about to undergo, and then 68-pounders are discharged one after the other in smooth, rapid, and even succession, just as a skilful | player will run her fingers over the chromatic scale on the piano. Then, after the ear has been properly attuned by this agreeable overture, comes a succesion of volleys of eight guns at a time, and so, when human endurance has been taxed to the utmost, and the guns are getting hot*" and the artillerymen out of breath* the peculiarly royal pleasure of a salute terminates. In the meanwhile the faco of nature has disap-

peared, the fleets, the town, the batteries have vanished, and a thick fog, composed of certain proportions of sulphur and charcoal, dirty, foetid, clinging, choking, drying the throat, and making the eyes water, takes their place. This process of fumigation is of course a necessary adjunct to the glory of a battle, but has always struck us as a peculiar accompaniment to the pleasures of a fete, and we shall retain that opinion until we see a picnic party purposely establish itself to the leeward of a large fire of damp weeds. One more sight there was —the filling of the great basin with water, and that the Queen did not wait to see. It is the undoubted prerogative of her Majesty to do no wrong. We can only hope as loyal subjects, that there has been added to it on this,occasion a similar exemption from weariness and ennui... As any rate, it is over. But, if such very qualified pleasure and such exceedingly mixed sensations were only too probably the lot of royalty, fetedi 5 escorted, saluted, shown everything, and taken everywhere, we may partly guess what were the feelings of less favored guests who have gone over to see something, they knew not exactly what, and are in some danger of returning without having seen anything at all. Some arrangements connected with the admission of water into the great basin have been considered to render it necessary to close the military port of Cherbourg. This exclusion, on the propriety of which we offer no opinion, has been enforced with all the rigor of the French police, so that the very point of attraction is concealed, and visitors who made their arrangements on the 6th were much in the position of a person who j goes to see a statue before it is unveiled. Such, we grieve to hear, seemed likely | to be the fate of. the select representatives of the House of Commons who went to bear to the Emperor Napoleon the congratulations of the British Legislature on the conclusion of a work so admirably calculated to forward the best interests of the country they went to represent —a work which, if it ever accomplish the purpose for which it has been constructed, may i very possibly relieve us of the House of Commons altogether.

Our readers are aware that we never regarded with any degree of complacency the idea that England should take any share in the rejoicings at the opening of a great port and arsenal built avowedly as a menace to her shores, and certain to cast upon her for all coming time a vast, but now, alas ! a necessary expense. We see no occasion to rejoice at any increase of the dangers of our situation, or the burdens to be borne by our people. If the Government of France chooses to incur a large expenditure for aggressive armaments and fortresses we cannot help it; but, after all that has been written on the subject, we have never been able to understand how the erection of such a fortress as Cherbourg can-be regarded by any-true hearted Englishman with any other feelings than those of sincere regret.