The women throng'd, embracing and embraced THE BOURSE AT PARIS.-ENGLAND AND FRANCE.-BUYING A BONNET. Plant. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance; Somer. And on my side it is so well apparell'd, So clear, so shining, and so evident, That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. Henry VIth. ENTERING lately the temporary enclosure that runs round the new Exchange at Paris, I stood before the noble front on which the words "Tribunal de Commerce" have lately been inscribed, deeply penetrated with the simple, I had almost said sublime, grandeur of the building, musing on the past time when the Parthenon was not less fresh and perfect, and throwing my thoughts forward into the future, when the majestic and stupendous temple before me (for such, indeed, it seems) should be ruinous and dilapidated as that which is now mouldering away upon the Athenian Acropolis, when a brown-visaged keeneyed Parisian, of that shabby genteel class which abounds in this capital, having a ragged hat, long surtout, and the ribbon of the Legion d'Honneur in his button-hole, walked up to me with an easy courtesy, took off his superannuated hat, presented his snuff-box, and on the strength of this unceremonious introduction exclaimed-"Eh bien ! Monsieur, vous conviendrez qu'il n'y a rien de si magnifique à Londres." Now, as I saw that this unexpected acquaintance meant to compliment his own sagacity by his instant discovery that I was an Englishman, and his nationality by vaunting the superiority of his building, I retorted in the usual way, that is to say, by exhibiting the same feeling in myself which I condemned in him; so I replied, with something like a sneer-"O yes, it must be confessed that Paris has a fine Exchange and no trade: we have nothing at London but the wealth and the commerce." So far from being hurt at this division, my colloquist received it as a compliment, made me a smiling bow, and exclaimed complacently, "Oui, c'est ça!" and, as I really felt somewhat ashamed of my speech, I determined to listen to him patiently in the future remarks with which he threatened to favour me. "It is not altogether Corinthian, nor yet Ionic," continued he, looking up at the capitals of the pillars, and then, with a conclusive nod of his head, he pronounced-in fact it is in the very best French style." This reminded me of the worthy Friar who, being asked, after having vaunted the architecture of his monastery, in what order it was built, replied-"In the order of St. Dominic :" but I seemed to assent to the position of my informant, who proceeded to declare that the ancient statuary and painting assembled in the Louvre in the time of the Emperor was the finest collection that the world had ever witnessed, and did more honour than all his victories to the name of that—(here he looked round, and observing that no one was near, concluded)– -to the name of that truly great man. "And yet," I observed, "though you retained all these masterpieces of art for so many years, not the smallest traces of their influence are perceptible in the modern French school either of sculpture or painting." "That may very well be, for, though they were invaluable as specimens of what antiquity could do, you will certainly admit" (this is the invariable phrase of a Frenchman when he is making a monstrous assertion) "that we already possessed, among our own artists, modern works of an infinitely superior standard ;" and then he twanged through his nose a long list of the illustrious obscure among his compatriots; recapitulated a catalogue of sprawling, theatrical, operatical figures, which, in his estimation, eclipsed the Venus, Apollo, and Laocoon; and triumphantly referred to David's pictures in the Luxembourg as the ne plus ultra of the art. O! said I to myself, if this man is to be taken as a sample of his nation, I see clearly enough why their spirit has never been imbued with one single emanation from the fountains of ancient light; enveloped in a cloud of national vanity through which nothing can penetrate, they talk perpetually of the fine age of Louis the Fourteenth; and though their whole literature and art be but a succession of imitations from the models of that period, each balder and more vapid than the last, they imagine that they are advancing upon all the world, when in fact they are even receding from themselves. Instead of crossing and invigorating the race by an admission from any classical or foreign stock, they have been breeding in and in, as the farmers say, and the consequences are the same in the world of Art as in that of Nature,-exhaustion, deterioration, and decay. Mistaking my silence for acquiescence, my loquacious friend continued, with a nod of still greater satisfaction-" In fact, you must admit that all the recent discoveries, whether useful or ornamental, all that contributes to the instruction, health, comfort, or civilization of mankind, has originated in France." This was somewhat too swinging a mouthful to be gulped down. "We too," said I, "may claim some little merit of this sort in the last few years; and though I cannot, thus suddenly, recollect a tithe of the benefits we have conferred upon the world, I do remember that, during a war of unexampled extent and severity, we translated the Scriptures, at an immense expense, into almost all the languages of the earth, distributing annually many millions of copies (some thousands of which were bestowed upon France herself), as the most effectual means of promoting human happiness and civilization." Hereupon my auditor arched up his eye-brows until his forehead became thickly engraved with consecutive wrinkles, raised the corners of his nose in bitter scorn, gave a loud tap upon his snuff-box, and delivered himself of a most contemptuous "Bah!" "Perhaps I should have previously mentioned," continued I," that by the system of our countrymen Bell and Lancaster, for the explanation and adoption of which we dispersed emissaries throughout Europe, the blessings of education have been almost universally diffused; and we may flatter ourselves to have done more, by this single discovery, towards the amelioration of human destiny, than has been hitherto achieved by all the philanthropists that ever existed." "Ah, oui, sans doute !-C'est l'enseignment mutuel; mais nous autres, nous avons çela aussi; vous en verrez des écoles partout." "Very likely, but you borrowed them all from us. Then, without minutely adverting to our innumerable discoveries and improvements in mechanics, particularly in the steam-engine, by which the painful employment of human and animal muscles, as a means of power, promises to be almost superseded, and by whose superior economy the comforts and even luxuries of life are placed within the reach and enjoyment of the humblest classes, I would submit that the highest combinations of science were never blended with more practical and beneficial results than by Sir Humphrey Davy in the invention of the safety-lamp." "A la bonne heure! Parbleu!" exclaimed my companion; "if we had had as many mines and as much bad air as you, we should have invented this long ago." "Having noticed," said I, "one or two of the benefits we have conferred upon European society, let me not omit to mention that whatever may have been the motives for extending our empire in Asia, its result has brought sixty millions of natives under a mild and equitable system of government, that forms a striking contrast to the barbarous and feroious dynasties of its predecessors, and is rapidly advancing the civilization of its subjects:—while in Africa we have, as far as our power extended, blessed, pacified, and humanized the whole country by the suppression of the slave-trade-a voluntary sacrifice which can only be duly appreciated by recollecting that we were the greatest Colonial power in the world. Nay, we even purchased or negotiated its abolition by other governments, though I have understood, Sir, that your countrymen have not yet entirely relinquished the traffic." "The Emperor, on his return from Elba, pledged himself to its suppression, but as to these"here my companion again looked suspiciously round, and observing a marchand de coco at a little distance, he shrugged up his shoulders, gave me a significant look, and took a pinch of snuff. "It may be doubted," I resumed, "whether we have done more for the minds or bodies, for the intellectual or physical health of our contemporaries, for while we have been widely diffusing moral improvement, we have, by the introduction of vaccination, laid a basis for speedily extirpating the greatest foe to beauty and life with which hu manity was ever afflicted. This discovery, too, with an indefatigable philanthropy, we gratuitously disseminated through the world, without distinction of friend or foe; and the striking diminution of mortality among children, wherever it has been practised, is the best proof of its importance." "Pour moi, Monsieur, je vous avouerai franchement que je prefère l'inoculation. Que diable! qu'avons nous à faire avec les vaches ?” "These," continued I, without noticing his philosophical question, " are such of the benefits bestowed upon mankind of late years as more immediately occur to me. I might mention our literature, which, by its unexampled fertility and excellence, supplies sources of gratification to all Europe, and to France in even a greater proportion than her native founts; but your country has doubtless many claims of the kind I have been enumerating, and as they have really escaped my notice, I shall feel sincerely obliged by your enabling me to recall them." "Parbleu! Monsieur," replied my confabulist, buttoning up his coat with an air of ruffled majesty, "Ce n'est pas la peine, car vous conviendrez," (here I expected a bouncer)-" you will admit that in the greatest of all arts, that of war, we have conquered all Europe.""Even if this were quite accurate," said I, "so far from its affording any proof of the benefits you have conferred, I should rather adduce it as a striking evidence of the contrary; but unless we have been grievously deceived, you were somewhat discomfited in Russia." "Ah! oui-c'est clair: mais c'etoit le froid, le climat; ou ne fait pas la guerre aux élémens.”— "And if my faith is to be given to public documents," I pursued, "you do not reckon among your victories many triumphs over the British arms. By sea you do not, probably, claim any, and I believe the result was not very dissimilar upon terra firma, from St. Jean d'Acre to Maida, and Egypt, and all through the peninsular war down to Waterloo." 66 Eh, Dieu! que voulez-vous? perhaps we are not invincible; but whenever we have been beaten, it has been by superior numbers or treachery." "It would be but fair to grant the same excuse to the adversaries of France," said I; "in which case her triumphs would reduce themselves to numerical superiority, or more extensive seduction." Allez, Monsieur, je vous convaincrai en deux mots que la France -mais voyez-vous, il va tomber de l'eau-excusez-j'ai l'honneur de vous saluer." So saying, he raised his venerable hat perpendicularly from his head, replaced it, made me a bow, and shuffled away at a dog-trot. The rain in fact beginning to fall, I removed to the corner of the Passage Feydeau, beside the marchand de coco aforementioned, at whose back was suspended a tin cylinder, decorated so as to resemble a little tower, from the three divisions of which, respective tubes, brought round to his front, and furnished with syphons, enabled him to draw off into a polished cup, beer, lemonade, or liquorice-water, according to the taste, or rather the want of it, in his customers. This figure, who was in conversation with a shoeblack in a cocked hat and monstrous plaited pigtail, on the subject of the new bronze figure lately set up in the Place des Victoires, occasionally broke off to bawl out, Qu'est-ce qui désire à boire à boire-à boire ?" and then earnestly resumed his discussion upon the work of art, which was shortly interrupted by the approach of a small party apparently not long imported from the banks of the Thames. It consisted of three persons; a lady who, besides the evidence of a fair and flushed face, presented a legitimate specimen of what the French term "la tournure Hollandaise des Anglaises;" her husband, dressed in a frock coat, and those two rare articles in Paris-a pair of clean yellow gloves and a smooth, well-brushed hat, seemingly very unhappy lest he should lose a spaniel that was following them; and a little girl of twelve or thirteen, who was devouring, with laudable diligence, a huge brioche which she had just bought. The second of these personages, addressing himself to the shoeblack and coco-merchant, exclaimed, "I say-quel est le cheming à Vivienne Street ?" In answer to which they severally interjected "Comment ?" and "Plait-il, Monsieur?" looking up to him with a vacant astonishment, when I came forward and informed him that he was then at the beginning of the Rue Vivienne. A loud whistle, and the cry of "Carlo! Carlo!" were my thanks: the party, after proceeding a little way down the street, turned into a milliner's shop, and, as the rain began to increase to a smart shower, I followed them in, well knowing the courtesy of the Parisian shopkeepers upon these occasions. Taking a chair by the door, I overheard my countryfolks at the other end proceeding to purchase a bonnet, in which treaty the young lady, on the strength of having learnt French for several years at a Chelsea boarding-school, was put forward as principal negotiator. Of the poor girl's accent I can only say that it was worthy the French, which she began as follows:-" Nous besoinons, s'il vous plait, un bonnet."-This word unfortunately signifies a cap, several of which the marchande des modes proceeded to place before them, ejaculating at the same time— "Comme elle parle bien François! c'est étonnant! Mais, voyez donc Zoe, Celestine, Hippolyte, voyez comme elle a bonne mine!" and "Comme elle est gentille " was echoed by the smiling demoiselles aforesaid. By pointing to some bonnets in the window, the young lady, whose name I found was Harriet, explained the object of their visit, observing at the same time that it was excessively stupid of the woman, for of course" bonnet" must mean bonnet; and, declaring that, in her opinion, the Parisians in general spoke very bad French, not at all like Mrs. Harrison at Chelsea. Carlo, meanwhile, was whisking about among the young ladies, who in various tones and attitudes of mincing terror exclaimed," Est-il sage?" "They want to know if he is wise, Papa," said the daughter." Wise! no; what the deuce, do they take him for Munito ?" Miss Harriet gave them a negative reply, when their consternation expressed itself by simultaneous exclamations of "Eh Dieu! il n'est pas sage!—va-t-en !—ôtestoi de-lá !-O Ciel!" and "Mêchante béte!" until a whistle from his master brought him crouching to his feet, and relieved them from their apprehensions. The young interpreter now returned a bonnet which had been pressed upon their acceptance, with the observation-" Maman dit que çeçi n'est pas un bon un," and would have added that she wanted one lined with pink, but declared her ignorance of the French for "lined" and "pink;" whereat her father expressed some indignation, observing that it was a dead take-in of Mrs. Harrison to make him pay so much for French, and he always paid her bills regularly, when the child knew no more of it than the Pope of Rome. Signs-that cheap and convenient language which one may learn without Mrs. Harrison— supplied the defect, and the marchande produced a bonnet "doublé en couleur de rose," exclaiming, "Ah! celui-ci vous siéra bien," and pretending to be in raptures as she tried it on, she ejaculated, " Voyez, donc, Anastasie, Cassandre, Flavie, Hortense, comme ça va bien à Madame;" |