Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen and People I Have MetBrown, William Wells
History
Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met
Brown, William Wells
Great Britain -- Description and travel
After the Convention had finished its sittings yesterday, I accompanied
Mrs. M. C---- and sisters to Versailles, where they are residing during
the summer. It was really pleasing to see among the hundreds of strange
faces in the Convention, those distinguished friends of the slave from
Boston.
Mrs. C----'s residence is directly in front of the great palace where
so many kings have made their homes, the prince of whom was Louis XIV.
The palace is now unoccupied. No ruler has dared to take up his
residence here since Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette were driven from it
by the mob from Paris on the 8th of October, 1789. The town looks like
the wreck of what it once was. At the commencement of the first
revolution, it contained one hundred thousand inhabitants; now it has
only about thirty thousand. It seems to be going back to what it was in
the time of Louis XIII., when in 1624 he built a small brick chateau,
and from it arose the magnificent palace which now stands here, and
which attracts strangers to it from all parts of the world.
I arose this morning before the sun, and took a walk through the grounds
of the Palace, and remained three hours among the fountains and statuary
of this more than splendid place. But as I intend spending some days
here, and shall have better opportunities of seeing and judging, I will
defer my remarks upon Versailles for the present.
Yesterday was a great day in the Congress. The session was opened by a
speech from M. Coquerel, the Protestant clergyman in Paris. His speech
was received with much applause, and seemed to create great sensation in
the Congress, especially at the close of his remarks, when he was seized
by the hand by the Abbe Duguerry, amid the most deafening and
enthusiastic applause of the entire multitude. The meeting was then
addressed in English by a short gentleman, of florid complexion. His
words seemed to come without the least difficulty, and his jestures,
though somewhat violent, were evidently studied; and the applause with
which he was greeted by the English delegation, showed that he was a man
of no little distinction among them. His speech was one continuous flow
of rapid, fervid eloquence, that seemed to fire every heart; and
although I disliked his style, I was prepossessed in his favour. This
was Henry Vincent, and his speech was in favour of disarmament.
Mr. Vincent was followed by M. Emile de Girardin, the editor of _La
Presse_, in one of the most eloquent speeches that I ever heard; and his
exclamation of "Soldiers of Peace," drew thunders of applause from his
own countrymen. M. Girardin is not only the leader of the French press,
but is a writer on politics of great distinction, and a leader of no
inconsiderable party in the National Assembly; although still a young
man, apparently not more than thirty-eight or forty years of age.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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