IV.
HOME, SWEET HOME.”
IT was during my secretaryship of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales that we originated the notion of holding an International Exhibition in Sydney and Melbourne, as a sequel to the Exposition Universelle of 1878 (Paris). In order to work up this scheme I was deputed to go to France, and whilst there acted as secretary to the New South Wales Commission.
This trip to Europe, after an absence of forty years, I look upon as one of the brightest events in my long career. I had never felt home-sick, but still, as I came nearer and nearer to my native home, all the old love came back for the dear spot. I can hardly convey the feeling of delight I experienced when the train approached the great city, and in the hazy distance I once again recognised the outline of the familiar, and, to all French-born, beloved Paris!!
My almost childish love for Paris had helped me from afar to follow all its vicissitudes. I had read with heart-breaking feelings the sad events of the several revolutions, the Franco-German war, the siege; and, worse than all, the Commune. I had read in all their heartrending details the destruction and desecration of that marvellous city, and I must confess was amazed to find it more marvellous, handsomer, more enchanting than ever! With the exception of the Tuileries and the Palace of St. Cloud, not a vestige of the vandalism of the Commune, not a trace of the barbaric invasion of the Germans were left. Like the Phœnix of the fable, Paris had risen from its ashes brighter and more attractive than ever.
Forty years is a long time to be away from one’s native land, yet as soon as I landed I found myself quite at home. I delighted in long rambles in the old familiar haunts. The morning after my arrival I threw open the window of my bedroom, at the Hotel du Nouvel Opera, in the Chaussée d’Antin, recognised the Rue Joubert opposite, and at once remembered that this well-known and familiar street (named after my uncle) led straight to the gates of the College Bourbon, where I had spent so many of my school days. The temptation was irresistible. I ran downstairs straight for the old spot, and without any hesitation through the courtyard into the class-room, to the precise form where so many years ago I had sat.