been held, till the year 1817, in one of the inner courts. At the back of these courts, and at a distance from the main building, is the garden of the palace, a spacious oblong, nearly 250 yards in length, having in its central part a basin with jets d'eau, and at either end a shrubbery. Rows of trees extend on both sides; but rural beauty forms a small part of the attractions of the Palais Royal, which contains within itself a little world, and has long been deemed one of the principal curiosities of the French capital. It is not only a bazar on a large scale, but a centre of amusement, and the general rendezvous of the foreigners who visit Paris. On each side of the oblong space there runs a long uniform range of stone buildings, equal in beauty to the finest houses in Edinburgh. The ground floor of the buildings is occupied with elegant shops; also with coffee-houses and restaurateurs on a large scale, and in certain parts, with gaming houses. On the second floor are family residences; also coffee-rooms, reading rooms, some apartments for public exhibitions, others for the meetings of literary societies. In front of these rows of build ing, and along their whole length, is a chain of arcades, separated by pilasters, and forming a long covered walk, the resort during the day of travellers or men of business, in the evening of the gay and idle, in numbers which exceed belief. The nocturnal loungers and the votaries of dissipation, scattered in London over so wide a space, are in Paris collected in this central spot.

River, Quays, Bridges.-The Seine, flowing from east to west, intersects Paris nearly in the middle. It has not half the width of the Thames, and though its banks are termed quays, it wants almost entirely the enlivening aspect of the shipping. Still the effect of the river is very pleasant, particularly in the quarter of the Tuileries, where along the southern bank, from the Pont Neuf to the Palais Bourbon, there extends, for more than a mile, a line of edi7fices, public and private, which are lofty, finely diversified, and seen to great advantage, being separated from the water by a broad and spacious pavement. The early bridges across the Seine were confined to spots where the islands divide the current, and are consequently of only a few arches each. The Pont Neuf, built in the 17th century, has in its centre the support of part of an island; but the number of its arches is 12, and its length 1020 feet, which render it by far the largest of the Paris bridges. The Pont Royal, of five arches, near the Tuileries, was built by Louis XIV. The Pont de Louis XVI., also of five arches, was finished in 1790. Lower down the river, and opposite the Champ de Mars,

is the Pont de Jena, or des Invalides, a stone bridge; and higher up, opposite the Jardin des Plantes, is the Pont d'Austerlitz, an iron bridge, both elegant structures, and both erected under Bonaparte. Lastly comes the Pont des Arts, opposite to the Louvre, a neat but slight iron bridge, appropriated to foot passengers.

Public Edifices.-In palaces and public. structures of the first rank, Paris is greatly superior to London. The Tuileries, the present royal residence, was begun in the 16th century, and finished, after various interruptions, in the 17th. It is a long pile of building, and extends from north to south above 1000 feet, if we include the pavilion at either end. It exhibits several orders of architecture, and is higher at the pavilions than in the central part; but this inequality, though at variance with rule, produces no bad effect. The Tuileries is a noble and venerable structure, and has, particularly when viewed through the shady avenues from the farther extremity of the garden, an air of romantic grandeur. The Louvre is only a quarter of a mile to the east of the Tuileries, and on the same side of the Seine. Its form is square, with a large interior court, 400 feet by 400. The portion of this extensive structure called the Old Louvre, dates from the 16th century; but the chief part of it was of the more refined age of Louis XIV. The whole is of stone, which, on being polished, acquires all the freshness of a new building. The front towards the water is elegant; but the eastern front, called from the pillars the colonade of the Louvre, is a model of symmetry, and being of a fine length (525 feet), would excite general admiration, were the space in front more extensive, and freed from the degrading association of stalls and salesmen. The Louvre is used not as a royal habitation, but as a depot, in its magnificent halls, for objects of taste and art. The gallery of the Louvre is a very long range, detached from the main building, and extending parallel to the bank of the river, all the way to the Tuileries. The notion of such a junction was conceived in a rude age, and is evidently at variance with good taste, the height of the gallery being quite inadequate to its extent, and its long monotonous front being feebly enlivened by a few petty openings. The palace of the Luxembourg, situated in the south of Paris, is distinguished by the symmetry of its proportions. It is more regular than the Tuileries, but less animated; more chaste and elegant, but less striking. One of its halls or apartments forins the chamber of peers; but the most strik ing object in its interior is the grand staircase, adorned with a number of statues of

year after year, without much visible alte ration. Some of the finest buildings, such as the church of La Madelaine, and even the Louvre, are left in an unfinished state. Public Monuments.-The most striking of these is the Column of the Place Vendome, erected by Bonaparte, to commemorate his successes in Germany in 1805. It is a great brazen pillar, the materials for which are said to have been obtained by melting the cannon of the vanquished. The diameter of the pillar is 12 feet; its height 133; its form an imitation of Trajan's pillar at Rome; the expence of its erection L. 60,000. It is surrounded with bas reliefs: the figures, three feet in height, are disposed in small groups, following each other in a spiral direction round the pillar, from the base to the entablature. A spiral band runs all along the pillar to the top, separating each range of bas reliefs. On the summit is a gallery and dome. The whole forms a magnificent monument, judiciously placed in the midst of an elegant square. After this, but in a far inferior rank, comes the triumphal arch in the Place du Carousel, near the Tuileries, erected in 1806. Its height is 45 feet, but it has lost much of its attraction since the Prussians removed the bas reliefs representing the victories obtained over them, and still more since the Austrians carried off from its top the well known Venetian horses and the car of victory. The Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, outside of the barrier of Neuilly, was begun in 1806, but is still unfinished. The Porte, or gate of St Denis, a large triumphal arch, erected by Louis XIV. is admired for the harmony of its proportion, and the finish of its execution. The Porte St Martin, constructed also in that reign, is less rich in decoration, but nowise inferior in workmanship. A fine bronze statue of Henry IV. was erected in 1818, on the Pont Neuf. Of the public fountains of Paris (in all no less than 80), several are much admired: among others the fountain des Innocens, the fountain Desaix in the Place Dauphine, the fountain de Bondi on the boulevard of that name, &c. A colcssal figure of an elephant, long since intended for the Place de la Bastille, is still unfinished.

Hospitals.-The hospitals of Paris are numerous, and, since the beginning of the present century, well managed. The largest by far is the Hotel Dieu; after it come the hospitals de la Charite, St Antoine, Beaujon, des Enfans Malades, and others, to the number in all of 11. The hospitals of Paris are, in several cases, badly situated, and, from their antiquity, ill planned; but the interior management is good, the attendance assiduous and kind. That for sick

children is in an airy situation, out of the town. Distinct from these are the Hospices, or establishments where the aged, the infirm, the lunatics, are received and supported, on paying a small sum. The Salpetriere corresponds to our Bedlam; the Bicetre to Bridewell. The name of hospice is given also to hospitals for the incurables of both sexes, and to the asylum for orphans. The hospitals in Paris have not, as in England, each its separate independent board of management: they are all under a general board appointed by, and dependent on, government. The funds for their support arise less from private donation than from the town dues and the public treasury. There are in Paris several establishments forming a medium between an hospital and a private house, separate rooms and medical attendance being there given, on moderate terms, to a limited number of patients. The prisons of Paris also are much amended in their management, since the beginning of the present century.

Before the revolution, the church-yards in Paris were not numerous; but since the law which so properly prohibited the burying of the dead in the churches, and even within the precincts of the city, there are two great church-yards, one for the southern, the other for the northern division of Paris. The latter is beautifully situated on the ascent to Montmartre. The catacombs are subterraneous quarries, excavated in the course of ages for the building of Paris, and converted in the latter part of the 18th century, into a great burying repository. They stretch along the south part of Paris, are of great extent, and being easily traversed with the aid of a guide, form a prominent, though certainly not an attractive object of attention to travellers.

Literature and Literary Institutions.Paris is the capital of France in literature, as much as in government; and the inhabitants being less absorbed in commerce than those of London, cultivate a taste for the fine arts. At the head of their literary associations is the Institute, a body composed of nearly 200 members, and divided, since 1816, into four academies. It comprises, as members or correspondents, a large proportion of the literary or scientific characters of the country. The Bureau des Longitudes is composed of eminent astronomers and geometricians. Paris contains also various societies, viz. of medicine, of agriculture, of sciences and arts, &c. The university is a very old establishment, and though suspended in the fervour of the revolution, has long been re-established on a very extensive plan, comprising a number of classes for each of the five faculties, or great de partments of study, viz. theology, law,

medicine, classics, sciences, meaning by the last chemistry, botany, mathematics, and astronomy. The admission to the lectures is gratuitous. Paris contains also four lycees or great public schools, viz. the College Louis le Grand, the College of Henry IV., the College of Bourbon, the College of Charlemagne. There is, moreover, the College Royal de France, with professors and lecturers on mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, history, law, oriental languages, &c.; the whole forming what would be termed elsewhere a university. The Athence also has classes, but on a smaller scale. The School of Medicine, an elegant and capacious building, has halls for public lectures, large, and generally crowded, though not so much so as during the wars of Bonaparte. At the Jardin des Plantes are no less than 13 classes for botany, zoology, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, &c. To these are to be added the Ecole Royale des Beaux Arts, or school for paint ing, sculpture, and architecture. The Ecole Normale is an establishment for training teachers for the secondary schools, and assistant teachers for the lycees. There is also in Paris a number of celebrated schools for particular professions. The Military School is for the education of 500 youths, generally the sons of officers who have fallen in the service of their country. The Ecole Polytechnique is for the education of engineers. The veterinary school at Alfort, near Paris, has classes on zoology, rural economy, the care of animals, &c.

Libraries and Scientific Collections.-Paris is very rich in libraries, which are accessible to all persons without introduction. The library of the king, the largest library in Europe, contains upwards of 360,000 print ed volumes, 72,000 manuscripts, 5000 volumes of engravings, and a rare and curious collection of antiquities and medals. The library of the Institute, though far less extensive, is select and valuable. The Bibliotheque Mazarine contains 60,000 volumes; that of the Pantheon 80,000. The Bibliotheque del'Arsenal is an old but good collection. There are other good libraries on specific departments of literature, such as that of the museum of natural history, of the Ecole des Mines, of the Cour de Cassation, &c. The number of periodical publications in Paris has increased greatly since the peace of 1814; and the public reading-rooms are more numerous than in London.

Amidst the collections of interest to artists, those of the Louvre hold unquestionably the first rank. Of the ground floor of that spacious building, a great part is appropriated to statues and other specimens of Sculpture, ancient and modern, distributed

in spacious halls, and arranged with much taste. From these a magnificent staircase leads to the gallery of paintings, a collertion still so large and so valuable, that the spectator has difficulty in believing that it can ever have been more rich or more splendid. A gallery of such length, that the extremity is almost lost in the distance, is lined on both sides with the finest productions of modern painters. They are divided into the French, the Italian, and the Flemish schools. The number of pieces is upwards of 1100, and annually on the increase. Next to these, the object of greatest interest in Paris is the museum of natural history, in the buildings belonging to the Jardin des Plantes. The extent of the collection, the rarity and richness of many of the specimens, their high state of preservation, and the skilful classification of the whole, deserve the highest praise. Next comes the Jardin des Plantes itself, a garden of an oblong form, nearly half a mile in length, laid out with great taste, and exhibiting in miniature, groupes of plants of almost every region in the globe: also a collection of animals of the most different latitudes, lions, elephants, bears, &c. In a large building in the central part of Paris, is the Museum of French. Monuments, a collection of statues and other sculptured ornaments, saved from revolutionary fury, and classed so as to exhibit in their sequence the performances of each successive age. The Conservatory of the Arts and Trades is appropriated to mechanical im provements, and contains models of almost all ingenious machines. It is likewise provided with a good library on these subjects, and with able professors, who give lectures on the different branches.

Public Amusements.-Paris is still more the centre of elegant amusements for France, than London for England, being the residence during the autumn and winter of all who can afford the gratifications of a town life. Amusements are there supplied, not with more taste or elegance than in the British metropolis, but in a more varied form. Of the theatres, only the Opera and the Odeon approach to the size and beauty of Drury-lane or Covent-garden; but the others are also much frequented, and conducted with taste and ingenuity. The pleasures of the French, though often trivial, are almost always accompanied with temperance and cheerfulness. Public rooms, with music and singing, and gardens, such as Tivoli and Beaujon, miniatures of Vauxhall, are more numerous in Paris than in London. Of the public gardens and walks, the finest and most frequented are those of the Tuileries, which extend, in a beautiful oblong, to the westward of the palace. They

the

are laid out most elegantly with gravelled walks, terraces, plots of flowers and shrubs, groves of lofty trees, basins of water, and jets d'eau, interspersed with beautiful statues of bronze and marble. This delightful spot forms the favourite walk of the Parisians, and is crowded on Sundays during the day, and in the rest of the week in the evenings, with well dressed persons. On the south side of Paris are the gardens of Luxembourg, less regular, but not less attractive. The Jardin des Plantes is not merely a school for the man of science: its shady avenues, and its menagerie, are a source of great gratification to the public. The Champs Elysees, stretching to the westward of the gardens of the Tuileries, afford very pleasant walks; and the Boulevards in the summer evenings present an animated scene. The more remote walks, the scenes of the fetes champetres of summer, are in the Wood of Boulogne, Wood of Vincennes, or the Park of St Cloud.

Manufactures and Trade.-The manufactures of Paris, as of London, consist chiefly of articles of taste or nice work manship, such as jewellery, watches, clocks, porcelain, cabinet ware, mathematical instruments, silks, artificial flowers, and plate glass. To these are to be added ornamental articles in bronze; also cottons, carpets, and various goods (including even shoes by wholesale) not made, at least not to an equal extent, in London; the provincial towns of France being much more behind the capital than those of England. Paris, however, is considerably dearer than most other parts of France. The well known manufactory of the Gobelins exhibits imitations of beautiful pictures, in webs of the finest silk and worsted. That of Sevre is equally noted for the richness of its porcelain. Both are conducted for account of government; but as they have been long unproductive in a pecuniary sense, the quantities made are now very limited. There is also a government manufacture of glass and of carpets, both of the most elegant workmanship, but both too high priced for general sale. In silks, Paris, though not inconsiderable, is, as to the quantity made, greatly inferior to Lyons: in cottons it is interior to Rouen; but it is almost exclusively the seat of the wholesale bookselling and printing business of France. The exports from Paris consist in manufactured products; the imports, far more considerable, in the articles required for its consumption. Both take place, in a great degree, by land carriage, the navigable approaches to the capital, the Seine, the Oise, the Marne, and the Canal de Briare, being used only for the transport of wood and other bulky articles. The colonial and.

other foreign produce consumed in Paris, i imported chiefly at Havre de Grace.

Local Government.-Paris, with its environs, forms a small department, called the department of the Seine, of which the form is nearly circular, the diameter about 15 miles. At the head of the whole is a prefeet, who has under him twelve mayors, one for each of the twelve divisions of the town, and two sub-prefects for the country quarter. As to the administration of justice, the courts in Paris are less comprehensive than in London, their jurisdiction comprising only the capital and seven adjoiuing departments; but in all other respects Paris is as much, or more the common centre of public business for France, as London is for England. It is the per inanent residence of the sovereign and royal family; the place of meeting for the legislature; the seat of all the ministerial< bureaux, and of the public offices generally. It is the seat of an archbishop, and the headquarters, both of the royal guards and of the first of the twenty-two great military divisions of France. Paris has also a numerous corps of national guards, or volunteers, com→ posed of twelve legions. For mercantile purposes it has a chamber and several courts of commerce. Finally, it is the centre of almost all associations for public purposes, such as those for the promotion of national industry, for the management of prisons, for the diffusion of vaccine inoculation, &c.

History-Paris evidently owed its foun-dation to the means of defence afforded, in an age of plunder, by the insular position of the spots now called the Cite and Isle of St Louis. It was small but strong, when, under the name of Lutetia, it offered a temporary resistance to a Roman detachment sent against it by Cæsar. The Romans improved the fortifications, and erected an aqueduct, and a public building called Thermæ, from its warm baths; but the town was still insignificant, when, in the year 360, it was the winter quarters of Julian. In the 5th century it was taken by the Franks; and in 508, it was constituted the capital of their kingdom. It was improved by Charle magne, and surrounded with walls in the end of the 12th century, by which time it had become a considerable city, with paved streets. The latter were much improved by Francis I. in the beginning of the 16th century, and farther by Henry IV. towards its close. Under Louis XIV. took place the grand improvement of levelling the Boulevards, or great circular mound, filling up the moat, and planting the whole with beautiful rows of trees. Versailles, however, was the chief care of the Bourbons and Paris received only slow and partiak