However brilliant these spectacles were, they drew their principal interest from the greatness of those who were the guests of France. Alexandre remained a little gloomy; he kept the affronts close to his heart, and the most attentive consideration, the most delicate marks of respect succeeded badly in erasing the memory of them.
As for Guillaume, he found, at least in part, the success he had once obtained at Compiègne. Not doubting that each of his words would be repeated, he made a great display of his sympathies for the Emperor, boasting even more of the charms of the Empress. He took courteous care to praise everything he saw.
What great things you've done since I came here! he repeated several times, recalling his stay in 1814.
The allusion was not very happy. With delicate tact, Napoleon, who only wanted peace, put everything right.
The way Your Majesty comes here, he replied one day, is much better for the happiness of two peoples.
Of all the months of this brilliant year 1867, the month of June was the busiest. It was for the Exhibition, for Paris itself, the moment of the apogee.
The city looked like an immense inn of which not a box would remain unoccupied. The big hotels in the wealthy neighborhoods being crowded with people, foreigners flocked to the more modest houses, which immediately proclaimed themselves large and were so at least in terms of their prices. Paris was, at that time, the paradise of prostitutes. Fame belonged to the great vivacious:the principal ones were cited, those who carried the scepter; and debauchery, pushed to a certain degree of endurance or refinement, was colored with a reflection of glory. Although events have taught us modesty, there is reason to be surprised at all that these strangers did not see. At the Palais-Bourbon, eloquence flourished as in the best days, with Thiers, Rouher, Favre, Émile 011ivier. The Sorbonne, the College de France no longer had their famous professors, Cousin, Gui. However brilliant these spectacles were, they drew their main interest from the greatness of those who were the guests of France. Alexandre remained a little gloomy; he kept the affronts close to his heart, and the most attentive consideration, the most delicate marks of respect succeeded badly in erasing the memory of them.
As for Guillaume, he found, at least in part, the success he had once obtained at Compiègne. Not doubting that each of his words would be repeated, he made a great display of his sympathies for the Emperor, boasting even more of the charms of the Empress. He took courteous care to praise everything he saw.
What great things you've done since I came here! he repeated several times, recalling his stay in 1814.
The allusion was not very happy. With delicate tact, Napoleon, who only wanted peace, put everything right.
The way Your Majesty comes here, he replied one day, is much better for the happiness of two peoples.
Of all the months of this brilliant year 1867, the month of June was the busiest. It was for the Exhibition, for Paris itself, the moment of the apogee.
The city looked like an immense inn of which not a box would remain unoccupied. The big hotels in the wealthy neighborhoods being crowded with people, foreigners flocked to the more modest houses, which immediately proclaimed themselves large and were so at least in terms of their prices. Paris was, at that time, the paradise of prostitutes. Fame belonged to the great vivacious:the principal ones were cited, those who carried the scepter; and debauchery, pushed to a certain degree of endurance or refinement, was colored with a reflection of glory. Although events have taught us modesty, there is reason to be surprised at all that these strangers did not see. At the Palais-Bourbon, eloquence flourished as in the best days, with Thiers, Rouher, Favre, Émile 011ivier. The Sorbonne, the College de France no longer had their famous professors, Cousin, Guizot, Villemain; but other masters had succeeded them, grave, witty, of high science, although of less renown:Laboulaye, Caro, Father Gratry, Abbé Perraud, without counting Saint-Marc-Girardin, who no longer reappeared in his chair. only at intervals. The Institute had its sessions where all the illustrious people of the country gathered. The courthouse had its big cases, with lawyers called Dufaure, Marie, Allou, Berryer. The city, all embellished and all in festivity, offered to the eyes the monuments of all ages, from the Sainte-Chapelle, Notre-Dame, the Place Royale, to this Paris a little banal, but all shining and splendid, that M. Haussmann had created. However, it seems that these instructive shows have remained, for the greatest number, ignored or misunderstood. The fault was that of France, which
Variétés:it was The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein. All of Europe flocked to it, and those who disdained our monuments, our works of art, our literature, wanted to satisfy themselves. As such, and however frivolous it may be, it is part of History.
Alas! the most beautiful days of the Exhibition had already passed. For two months the people of Paris had lived in a voluptuous and golden dream. Here, across the luminous horizon, the disturbing visions appeared again, the dismal signs, melancholy and anxious images that nothing henceforth could drive away.
On the night of June 29 to 30, a dispatch transmitted by the Atlantic cable arrived from Washington in Vienna. It came from the Minister of Austria and contained these simple words:The Emperor Maximilian has been shot.
The same morning the event was published
think hard considerable, even less by themselves than by the insolvency of Mexico and by the loans of all kinds made for the material of war and the navy:these expenses, according to M. Thiers, amounted to nearly 600 millions. We also thought of those who had left and had been devoured by the guerrillas, the fevers, the fatigues, the ambushes. By the most muted estimates, 6,000 of our people had died in Mexico.
In this abrupt interruption of public holidays, everything we had overlooked came to light. In France, the harvest would be insufficient. From Algeria came the most saddening news. Already ravaged by cholera. the unhappy land would soon be desolate by famine. At the Palais-Bourbon, a dominant concern reigned, that of military law. For the security of France, a force
above all showed what it should have hidden, that of the foreigners themselves who rarely knew how to penetrate beyond the deceptive surface.
The theaters had counted on the Exhibition. Brilliantly lit, they competed each evening with the attractions of the Champ-de-Mars. At the Opera was L'Africaine. The Comédie-Française continued its classical performances:in addition it had revived Hernani. Ponsard, who was about to die, was present at his last plays:The Lion in Love, which had had great favour; Galileo, a fairly mediocre and dull drama that hardly justified its somewhat flashy title. The poster was varied by all kinds of other productions, some old, others new, almost all charming:Le Gendre by M. Poirier, Le Cas de conscience, Mademoiselle de La Seiglière.
The fundamental maxim of a new dramatic art was that the best play is the one where you laugh the most. The manner had been inaugurated by two authors, MM. Meilhac and Halévy, and a composer, Offenbach. The genre was characterized by a great simplification:no laborious efforts to keep the action unified or to support the characters to the end; but only witticisms strewn on all sides and which burst like firecrackers underfoot.
La Belle Hélène had been the most perfected product of the genre:then had come Bluebeard. As the Exhibition was about to open, a new play which, it was said, would surpass all its predecessors was announced on the posters of the theater of
by the Gazette de Cologne and by l'Indépendance belge . In these hours of joy, the news seemed inopportune, and, half incredulity, half reluctance to countermand the rejoicings, they affected to dismiss it in doubt. They tried to keep a shadow of hope alive:Maximilien would have been shot on June 19 in Queretaro, says the Moniteur of July 3. The next day, these last consideration vanished, and the news was both communicated to the Chambers and announced by the official organ.
On the Palace of the Champ-de-Mars, on the city itself, a great shadow stretched out. Parties, reviews, ceremonial banquets, everything was canceled. In the Legislative Body, the opposition did not renounce to extract from the events the lesson they contained. We calculated the expenses of the expedition, from
of 800,000 men was estimated necessary. not to mention the mobile guard. This numbers. considered fantastic at the time, provoked comments full of astonishment. What were not to be the perils for Napoleon, after fifteen years of reign. after constant victories, demanded from the country the same sacrifices that would have been demanded after constant defeats! Never did Napoleon feel more isolated than at that time when he walked only accompanied by a procession of kings. Everything escaped us, and the New World which had just shot our protege, and Prussia which exceeded the right of its victories, and Russia which was moving away resentful and irritated_
João Goularts government began in September 1961 after a small political crisis that almost led the country to a civil war. The government of João Goulart , also known as Jango , lasted from 1961 to 1964 and was marked by great political tension. The obstacles encountered by João Goulart arose befo