Paris as It Was and as It Is A Sketch Of The French Capital, Illustrative Of The Effects Of The Revolution

LETTER II. Journey from Calais to Paris--Improved state of agriculture--None of the French gun-boats off Boulogne moored with chains at the time of the attack--St. Denis--General sweep made, in 1793, among the sepultures in that abbey--Arrival at Paris--Turnpikes now established throughout Prance--Custom-house scrutiny.

LETTER III. Objects which first strike the observer on arriving at Paris after an absence of ten or twelve years--Tumult in the streets considerably diminished since the revolution--No liveries seen--Streets less dangerous than formerly to pedestrians--Visits paid to different persons by the author--Price of lodgings nearly doubled since 1789 --The author takes apartments in a private house.

LETTER IV. Climate of Paris--_Thermolampes_ or stoves which afford light and heat on an economical plan--Sword whose hilt was adorned with the Pitt diamond, and others of considerable value, presented to the Chief Consul.

LETTER V. Plan on which these letters are written.

LETTER VI. The Louvre or National Palace of Arts and Sciences described --_Old Louvre_--Horrors of St. Bartholomew's day--From this palace Charles IX fired on his own subjects--Additions successively made to it by different kings--_Bernini_, sent for by Lewis XIV, forwarded the foundation of the New Louvre, and returned to Italy--_Perrault_ produced the beautiful colonnade of the Louvre, the master-piece of French architecture--Anecdote of the Queen of England, relict of Charles I--Public exhibition of the productions of French Industry.

LETTER VII. _Central Museum of the Arts_--_Gallery of Antiques_--Description of the different halls and of the most remarkable statues contained in them, with original observations by the learned connoisseur, Visconti.

LETTER VIII. Description of the Gallery of Antiques, and of its chefs-d'oeuvre of sculpture continued and terminated--Noble example set by the French in throwing open their museums and national establishments to public inspection--Liberal indulgence shewn to foreigners.

LETTER IX. General A----y's breakfast--Montmartre--Prospect thence enjoyed --Theatres.

LETTER X. Regulations of the Police to be observed by a stranger on his arrival in the French capital--Pieces represented at the Théâtre Louvois --_Palais du gouvernement_ or Palace of the Tuileries described--It was constructed, by Catherine de Medicis, enlarged by Henry IV and Lewis XIII, and finished By Lewis XIV--The tenth of August, 1792, as pourtrayed by an actor in that memorable scene--Number of lives lost on the occasion--Sale of the furniture, the king's wardrobe, and other effects found in the palace--_Place du Carrousel_--Famous horses of gilt bronze brought from Venice and placed here--The fate of France suspended by a thread--Fall of Robespiere and his adherents.

LETTER XI. Massacre of the prisoners at Paris in September, 1792--Private ball --The French much improved in dancing--The waltz described--Dress of the women.

LETTER XII. _Bonaparte_--Grand monthly parade--Agility of the First Consul in mounting his charger--Consular guards, a remarkably fine body of men --Horses of the French cavalry, sorry in appearance, but capable of enduring fatigue and privations.

LETTER XIII. _Jardin des Tuileries_--This garden now kept in better order than under the monarchy--The newly-built house of Véry, the _restaurateur_--This quarter calls to mind the most remarkable events in the history of the revolution--_Place de la Concorde_--Its name is a strong contrast to the great number of victims here sacrificed --Execution of the King and Queen, Philippe Égalité, Charlotte Corday, Madame Roland, Robespiere, cum multus aliis --Unexampled dispatch introduced in putting persons to death by means of the guillotine--_Guillotin_, the inventor or improver of this instrument, dies of grief--Little impression left on the mind of the spectators of these sanguinary scenes--Lord Cornwallis arrives in Paris.

LETTER XIV. National fête, in honour of peace, celebrated in Paris on the 18th of Brumaire, year X (9th of November, 1801)--_Garnerin_ and his wife ascend in a balloon--Brilliancy of the illuminations--Laughable accident.

LETTER XV. Description of the fête continued--Apparent apathy of the people --Songs composed in commemoration of this joyful event--Imitation of one of them.

LETTER XVI. _Gallery of the Louvre_--_Saloon of the Louvre_--Italian School--The most remarkable pictures in the collection mentioned, with original remarks on the masters by _Visconti_--Lord Cornwallis's reception in Paris.

LETTER XVII. Gallery of the Louvre in continuation--French School--Flemish School--The pictures in the Saloon are seen to much greater advantage than those in the _Gallery_--_Gallery of Apollo_--These superb repositories of the finest works of art are indiscriminately open to the public.

LETTER XVIII. Palais Royal, now called _Palais du Tribunat_--Its construction begun, in 1629, by Cardinal Richelieu, who makes a present of it to Lewis XIII--It becomes the property of the Orleans family--Anecdote of the Regent--Considerable alterations made in this palace--_Jardin du Palais du Tribunat_--This garden is surrounded by a range of handsome buildings, erected in 1782 by the duke of Orleans, then duke of Chartres--The Cirque burnt down in 1797--Contrast between the company seen here in 1789 and in 1801--The Palais Royal, the theatre of political commotions--Mutual enmity of the queen and the duke of Orleans, which, in the sequel, brought these great personages to the scaffold--Their improper example imitated by the nobility of both sexes--The projects of each defeated--The duke's pusillanimity was a bar to his ambition--He exhausted his immense fortune to gain partisans, and secure the attachment of the people--His imprisonment, trial, and death.

LETTER XIX. The Palais du Tribunat, an epitome of all the trades in Paris --Prohibited publications--Mock auctions--_Magazins de confiance à prix fixe_--Two speculations, of a somewhat curious nature, established there with success--_The Palais Royal_, a vortex of dissipation --Scheme of Merlin of Douay for cleansing this Augæan stable.

LETTER XX. Thé, a sort of route--Contrast in the mode of life of the Parisians before and since the revolution--_Petits soupers_ described--An Englishman improves on all the French bons vivans under the old régime.

LETTER XXI. Public places of various descriptions--Their title and number --Contrast between the interior police now established in the theatres in Paris, and that which existed before the revolution--Admirable regulations at present adopted for the preservation of order at the door of the theatres--Comparatively small number of carriages now seen in waiting at the grand French opera.

LETTER XXII. _Palais du Corps Législatif_--Description of the hall of the sittings of that body--Opening of the session--Speech of the President--Lord Cornwallis and suite present at this sitting--_Petits appartemens_ of the ci-devant Palais Bourbon described.

LETTER XXIII. _Halle au Blé_--Lightness of the roof of the dome--Annual consumption of bread-corn in _Paris_--Astrologers--In former times, their number in Paris exceeded _30,000_--Fortune-tellers of the present day --Church of _St. Eustache_--_Tourville_, the brave opponent of Admiral Russel, had no epitaph--Festivals of reason described.

LETTER XXIV. _Museum of French Monuments_--Steps taken by the Constituent Assembly to arrest the progress of Vandalism--Many master-pieces of painting, sculpture, and architecture, destroyed in various parts of France --_Grégoire_, ex-bishop of Blois, publishes three reports, to expose the madness of irreligious barbarism, which claim particular distinction.--They saved from destruction many articles of value in the provinces--Antique monuments found in 1711, in digging among the foundation of the ancient church of Paris--Indefatigable exertions of Lenoir, the conservator of this museum--The halls of this museum fitted up according to the precise character peculiar to each century, and the monuments arranged in them in historical and chronological order--Tombs of Clovis, Childebert, and _Chilperic_--Statues of Charlemagne, Lewis IX, and of Charles, his brother, together with those of the kings that successively appeared in this age down to king _John_--Tombs of Charles V, Du Gueselin, and _Sancerre_--Mausolea of Louis d'Orléans and of _Valentine de Milan_--Statues of Charles VI, Rénée d'Orléans, Philippe de Commines, Lewis XI, Charles VII, Joan of Arc, _Isabeau de Bavière_--Tomb of _Lewis XII_--Tragical death of Charles the Bad.

LETTER XXV. Museum of French Monuments continued--Tombs of Francis I, of the Valois, and of _Diane de Poitiers_--Character of that celebrated woman--Statues of Turenne, Condé, Colbert, La Fontaine, Racine, and _Lewis XIV_--Mausolea of Cardinals Richelieu and _Mazarin_--Statues of Montesquieu, Fontenelle, Voltaire, Rousseau, Helvetius, Crébillon, and _Piron_--Tombs of Maupertuis, Caylus, and Marshal _d'Harcourt_--This museum contains a chronology of monuments, both antique and modern, from 2500 years before our era down to the present time, beginning with those of ancient Greece, and following all the gradations of the art from its cradle to its decrepitude--Sepulchre of Héloïse and Abélard.

LETTER XXVI. Dinner at General _A----y's_--Difference in the duration of such a repast now and before the revolution--The General's ancestor, François A----y, planned and completed the famous canal of Languedoc--_Dépôt de la guerre_--Such an establishment much wanted in England--Its acknowledged utility has induced Austria, Spain, and Portugal, to form others of a similar nature--Geographical and topographical riches of this dépôt.

LETTER XXVII. _Boulevards_--Their extent--Amusements they present--_Porte St. Denis_--Anecdote of Charles VI--_Porte St. Martin_--_La Magdeleine_ --Ambulating conjurers--Means they employ to captivate curiosity.

LETTER XXVIII. French funds and national debt--Supposed liquidation of an annuity held by a foreigner before the war, and yet unliquidated--Value of a franc.

LETTER XXIX. Grand monthly parade--Etiquette observed on this occasion, in the apartments of the palace of the _Tuileries_--_Bonaparte_--His person --His public character in Paris--Obstruction which the First Consul met with in returning from the parade--_Champs Elysées_--Sports and diversions there practised--Horses, brought from Marly to this spot, the master-pieces of the two celebrated sculptors, Costou --Comparison they afford to politicians.

LETTER XXX. _Madonna de Foligno_--Description of the method employed by the French artists to transfer from pannel to canvass this celebrated master-piece of Raphael.

LETTER XXXI. _Pont Neuf_--Henry IV--His popularity--Historical fact concerning the cause of his assassination brought to light--The Seine swollen by the rains--It presents a dull scene in comparison to the Thames--Great number of washerwomen--_La Samaritaine_--Shoe-blacks on the _Pont Neuf_--Their trade decreased--Recruiting Officers--The allurements they formerly employed are now become unnecessary in consequence of the conscription--Anecdote of a British officer on whom a French recruiter had cast his eye--Disappointment that ensued.