In the evening the concert took place according to the programme; the grand saloon, filled with the audience, was brilliantly lighted. Through the half-open hatchways might be seen the broad, sunburnt faces, and the great black hands of the sailors; the doorways were crowded with stewards; the greater part of the audience—men and women—were seated on side sofas, and in the centre of the saloon, in arm-chairs and lounges, all facing the piano, firmly fastened between the two doors, which opened into the ladies’ saloon. From time to time a rolling motion disturbed the audience; arm-chairs and folding-chairs glided about, a kind of swell caused a similar undulatory movement to all; they caught hold of one another silently, and without making any joke; but upon the whole there was not much fear of falling, thanks to the subsidence. The concert opened with the “Ocean Times.” The “Ocean Times” was a daily newspaper, political, commercial, and literary, which certain passengers had started for the requirements on board. Americans and English took to this sort of pastime; they wrote out their sheet during the day; and let me say, that if the editors were not particular, as to the quality of their articles, their readers were not more so. They were content with little, even with “not enough.” This number for the 1st of April contained a “Great Eastern” leader—tame enough, on general politics—also various facts quite uninteresting to a Frenchman; articles on the money-markets, not particularly comic; curious telegrams, and some rather insipid home news. After all this kind of fun is only amusing to those who make it. The Honourable Mac Alpine, a dogmatical American, read, with earnest gravity, some rather dull lucubrations, which were received by his audience with great applause. He finished his reading with the following news:— “It is announced that President Johnson has resigned in favour of General Grant.” “It is said that Fernando Cortez is going to attack the Emperor Napoleon the Third, piratically, out of revenge for the latter’s conquest of Mexico.” “We are told for a certainty that Pope Pius IX. has designated the Prince Imperial as his successor.” When the “Ocean Times” had been sufficiently applauded, the Honourable Mr. Ewing, a fine-looking young fellow, with a tenor voice, warbled “Beautiful Isle of the Sea,” with all the harshness of an English throat. [Illustration: A FINE-LOOKING YOUNG FELLOW.] The “reading” appeared to me to have a questionable charm; it was simply two or three pages of a book, read by a worthy Texian, who began in a low voice, and gradually got higher and higher; he also was very much applauded. The “Shepherd’s Song,” a piano solo, by Mrs. Alloway, and a Scotch song, sung by Doctor T——, concluded the first part of the programme.