He then paffed on to another, to whom he faid, You were lord mayor in a year of fcarcity; I know full well what it is de reprimer le peuple quand le pain eft cher.' Then, turning to a Hamburgh merchant, he faid, You are very forry the peace is made.' At dinner the converfation turned on the machine infernale, of which the Firft Conful was firongly inclined to believe the late Miniftry were the abettors; but the gentleman first mentioned took it up very warmly, and, with great eloquence and force of argument, fhewed that fuch a contrivance was totally incompatible with the principles of any English Adminiftration whatfoever" (p. 28.)

"Paris abounds in libraries, and is, of all others, the most convenient refidence, on this account, of any other city or university, and is, in this refpect, the capital of Europe. The accefs to thefe treasures of genius and industry is eafy and inviting to all who come hither, whether for idle curiofity or painful and laborious refearch. The National Library is uncommonly rich in gems. The great curiofity in the glafs cafes of the medal-room is a gold dish, found at Rennes, 1774, of which we extracted Mr. W's account in our review of Mr. Millin's account of it,

pp. 452, 453. Among the 300,000 volumes of the National Library there are fome uniques not to be found elfewhere, and fome uniques in price, for which more has been paid than for the fame books by any individual or public proprietor. Cicero de Oratore, 1465, and Petrarch, 1470, were bought with affignats. It must give every true patriot pleasure to learn that Sully's apartinent, with the furniture and decorations, ftill remain in the ftate in which he left them. The fhops of the modern upholsterers at Paris, and the houfes which they furnish, would fuffer by the comparison.

"The Mameluks walk about Paris in their dreffes, and appear at all the theatres and frafcati; they are about 6 feet English; wear a fort of robe of fcarlet cloth, a white turban, with a good deal of gold about it, a rich girdle, and a poniard, or couteau, with an ivory handle, ftuck in it. Others are dreffed differently. Two of them ride behind the First Conful at the parade; and fometimes the whole corps is reviewed with the reft of the troops. At all the parades, and at the audience,

The Tuilleries are kept in nice order, and exceedingly clean. But the whole length of the National Library, under the walls, you have the depofits of all ranks, from a general to a private." (p. 72.) "You are tempted to walk in the fireets of Paris, though they are not too clean, and have no footpaths to protect you against the dafhing cabriolets, which cry gare! fo faintly, at leaft the noife they make drowns their cry fo completely, that they feem to come upon you without any notice, like fudden death, with whom, as Moliere fays, finely, there is no gare!

La mort, fans dare, gare, abat tous

les humains.

Still you are induced to go on foot in dry weather, though not too foon after a fhower, to fee, at your leifure, the extraordinary things which are to be found in the various parts of this valt metropolis. The portal of St. Gervais church is the fineft in Paris, compofed of three orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, from a drawing of Defbrolles, and remarkable for its regular proportions, fimplicity, and fine execution." (p. 77.) It is ftill the fashion to run to Verfailles of a Sunday, which is now a mufcum, and the Petit-Trianon, now an eating-house, and particularly when the waters play, which are third in magnificence after thofe of Helle Caffel and Herenhaufen: then comes the jet d'eau of Chatfworth, which might have been made the best of all by finking the bafon as deep as the bed of the river." (p. 80.)

The French funds, or 5 per cents. at the price they now are, produce near 10 per cent.; and they are guaranteed

by domains and lands in the provinces which have been mortgaged to Government. Eliates in France produce about 4 per cent. and a quarter to the purchafer, after all outgoings are paid, in which are included the prix d'adjudication, and the fale-tax, which is a heavy one of 12 per cent. on the capital. Certain perfons, who came to France with large finis in their pockets to buy lands, on finding the terms were fo high, have returned with their money unemployed. The beft property in Paris, perhaps, is in houses. You buy an hotel for 6000l.; retain an apartment for yourself; and let out the reft to lodgers, and make from 12 to 15 per cent. of your money, with the rifk, indeed, of being burnt out without infurance. Fires, however, are very rare at Paris. The taxes on doors, windows, and chimneys, are paid by the occupiers." (p. 82 )

"Ai the Theatre de la Cité I faw a piece in which there is a dialogue between a Chaudronier and a Ramoneur, a tinker and a chimney-fweeper; they alternately praife and abufe Paris. One fays it is fo fine that it is fit only for kings and princes, or generals and confuls, to inhabit, and thould be kept in a cafe; that the Seine, enamoured of its grandeurs, murmurs as it flows through it, and quits it with regret. The other defcribes it either all duft or all mud, and its fireets fo narrow, and its houfes fo high, that the eye cannot reach to the top of them, and you look in vain for Paris in Paris felf. The new Salle legitlative court is by far the prettiest novelty in Paris; the form of it refembles the court of juftice at Chefter. It is femicircular, of which the diameter is about 90 feet. The tribune is in the centre. Below the prefident's feat, on each fide, are three clerks. The hall has four feries or divifions of feats, and, in all, 300 places, numbered, which the members occupy for a time, and then change, in order to prevent the poffibility of forming parties du coté droit, ou gauche." (pp. 84, 85.)

"The gardens of Tivoli confift of 37 acres, and are let for 20,000 livres, and coft from 8 to 10 more in keeping up. They are uncommonly well laid out, and the fee of admiffion is two livres, except on grand fetes with fireworks, then three or four. Dinners have been given here, at a table 18 feet wide, 12 for the plateau, and 3 on

each fide for the dishes, by 500 feet long, in the middle of the table the victories of Marengo, Lodi, &c. &c. were reprefented, with a multitude of military devices and portraits: in short, all the French army triumphant. Here is a ftage for dancing, and fpringboards, which now and then let you through to the ground. Every body brings his own partuer; and, if you with ever fo much to dance the walze, or valze, you will find it difficult to be accommodated on the fpot; but at the Hameau de Chantilly, or Paphos, there are partners enough. Formerly, here, as well as at other places, there was a crowd of fine carriages, but particularly on the Boulevards du Temple; but now all you fee is a row of hackney-coaches, which are very reasonable," and will carry you from one end of Paris to the other for 15d. English " (p. 87.)

The women drefs as they like; and, drefs as they will, whether like the females of Vandyke and Sir Peter Lely, or Watteau, they are fure to pleafe; for France is the heaven of women, though it be the hell of horses, and the purgatory of men. Polygamy and Infidelity thrive here furprisingly, and the victims of these diseases are no longer confidered, as formerly, des malades imaginaires, fince numbers labour under them, fome few die of them, and many live by them." (p. 90.)

"Madame Recamier came, the other night, to Frefcati, and was followed like the Gunnings in St. James's park. The print made of her in England, for 10s. 6d. and fold here (having been copied exactly) for 2s. 6d. is the portrait of a beauty of Wind for or Hampton Court, and no resemblance of Madame Recamier, who has fomething of the Chinefe in her countenance, which is not much like European features." (p. 92.)

"Rouffeau, who faw all objects through the prifin of his imagination, which nothing could equal in richness of colours, uled to fay, that the Engifh were free but once in feven years, and then they were mad *. If he could but fee Paris at this moment, from the Pantheon, affociated nightly, like Milton's Infernals, in a fall house and garden at Frefcati, he would perhaps exclaim, with as much juftice and propriety, Voila mon contral focial! Whilft

*As they were at figning the late preliminaries. EDIT.

you

you remain in Paris, you cannot form any exact judgement of what you hear and fee; to do this, you mult retire. When you fee the lion and the lamb, the plaintiff and the defendant, the divorcer and the divorced, the judge and the culprit, together, bowing, one to another, in the fame houfe, across the fame table, you naturally fay, this cannot be! it is a mistake! But, in a very fhort time, you find out that it really is fo, and that, at a proper diftance, what appeared to you an extravagant pentimento in the piece, by fome peculiarity of time and circumfiance, falls into its place, and unites with the ground of the picture. Thefe may feem to be monftrous congruities; but they are all explicable, and a reafon may be given for every one of them." (p. 93.)

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The efpionnage of Paris is, they fay, much increated, and yet there is no perfecution for opinions; you may fay what you will, if you do not act upon it. No man will be reported to the police for obferving that the laws of the Twelve Tables of Draco and the Guillotine were all of the fame colour; or that Fortune always paid her debis, and, if the let Theodore die in the King's Bench, the fet Napoleon upon the throse at St. Cloud; if the ruined one king of Corfica, the gave another Corfcau a better kingdom, indeed the very beft fhe has to give." (p. 100.)

Fouche, the famous Republican minitier of police, is removed to a more lucrative office; he was as great, in his department, as any of his predeceffors, not excepting M. de Sartine, whole name is given to a fireet. Juft before he went out, an additional impoft was announced from his bureau to the farmers of the tax on gaming houfes : : upon which the wits repeated the line of Greffet's farewell to the Jefuits, that had been before applied to Louis XV. on the tax publifhed by the Abbé Terrai, the very day the King died: Ceft ainfi qu'en partant je vous fais mes adieux. The tax, how

cut off his head, as they would cut off the woman's, in order to make her good or filent; whereas they infift on it, that the good woman, or woman without a head, is nothing more than the emblem of a female under the direction of her husband, and in no want of a head piece. This device, they fay, was invented by King Pharamond, to illuftrate the Salic law, which forbad women, in fome cafes, to inherit, and alfo to preferve the fceptre of France from being en quenouillé par la regence d'une reine.” (p. 104.) ·

"At the Tuilleries are two eatingrooms, in which Bonaparte dines in public. In the fall one the table holds juít 50; in the large one, which is a gallery with two rows of French heroes in inarble, 300. Here you dine with Catinat, De Tourville, Vauban, Bayard, Turenne, and all the great generals of France." (p. 107.)

In

"The ground behind Marshal Biron's houfe is fill a garden of 14 acres. Mr. Walpole's time it confifted of alleys and walks, buttoned on each fide with lines of flower-pots, fucceeding one another in their feafon, to the number of 9000 of Afters, or Reines Marguerites, only. The alleys ftill exift, but the afters are no more. The house and garden are to let for 18,000 livres a year, or 7001. nearly. The hotel is furnished, at leaft, with very fine glaffes, and now belongs to the houfe of Lauzun, that intermarried with the Royal Family. The Marshal took as much delight in fhewing his town-gardens as Louis XIV. did his country one at Versailles to the Jew, Bernard, of whom he borrowed a few millions.” (p. 108.)

"In the Salle d'Armes, or Armoury of France, at the antient convent of the Jacobins, is the famous machine infernale de la rue Nicaife, that confified of a fufil terminating in a powder-barrel within a hogfhead of combuftibles. A duplicate of this machine was found at the houfe of the inventor, that, in its explofion, was very far from hitting its aim, Bonaparte, for he was gone by, but very near deftroying his aide de camp, Laurifton, who efcaped to bring the happy tidings of peace to this country." (p. 111.)

"In order to be an eye-witness of the diftrefs and complicated mifery the Revolution has brought on the French nation, it is neceflary that you fhould mix with the people in their private

focieties,

focieties, and be introduced into their families, and live with them for months together; and, when you are a little acquainted, and let into their confidence, you may hear of as many curious cafes, as many crimes, and as many infidelities, as it would be neceflary to read the caufes celebres all through to equal the number of. Divorces have been, and are ftill, the fruitful fource of much diforder in French families. It is not uncommon to find women abandoned by their hufbands, and left with children on their hands, to which they confent in order to prevent the hufbands being imprifoned for feduction. A cafe of this fort occurred whilft I was in France. A French officer marries a young lady, makes a fettlement on her, which is good for nothing; spends her fortune; has children by her; is fued by another woman for a prior marriage, from whofe mother-in-law he had been divorced: the latt wife relinquithes her claim to him, in order to fave him from a jail, and is obliged to look out for another husband to maintain her and her family, becaufe her first is utterly incapable of paying back either her dower or her rente alimentaire out of his appointments, which are but barely fufficient for bis own fubfifience." (pp. 126

128.)

66

their decanters *. In all these things, however multifarious, he feldom betrays himfelf, or, like Alexander, afks queftions that make the colour-grinders fmile at his ignorance. It is very extraordinary that a man, whose ambition prompts him to fubdue the world, and to govern it, and who has made no inconfiderable progrefs towards the attainment of his withes, fhould have ftill leifure and inclination left to enquire and inform himself, not only of what is doing in general, but of the occupation and employment of individuals. Every artift tries his hand at Bonaparte's features, but they do not all fucceed in giving an idea of him to the best advantage, which is, when he files. But, to paint the Firth Conful fimiling, they, perhaps, think contrary to etiquette. When the Duke of Orleans fat to Greuze for his picture, the painter afked his highness how he liked it. Very well: but, Greuze, you have not given me a finile.' "Monfeigneur, ce n'eft pas noble" The beft likeness of Bonaparte on horfeback, with his hat on, is that of the picture exhibited at No 22, Piccadilly; the beft without a hat is a print with the name of Le Fevre to it. There is a buft of Julius Cæfar, when young, not unlike the Firti Conful. The French themfelves defcribe him thus: Il a une figure chatoyante; a face emitting rays like a cat's eye-ftone: fon fourire eft agreable, mais fa figure allongée ou baiffée, eft pleine de melancholie: like the cheerlets oval vifage of the Stuarts." (p. 134.)

"Some people attached to the Republic feen to carry their approbation of the levelling fyftem much beyond the French themfelves, who were the first infiitutors, and, for a time, the zealous patrons of it. The French come back, little by little, to their old love of diftinction. Diftinctions are reviving faft at the Tuilleries; and there is no doubt that, in a short time, they will grow thick in proportion as they have been close fhorn." (p. 143.)

In fome particulars Paris is certainly much altered in point of expence, but by no means in all. (p. 155.)

*One cannot but be furprised to find a travel'er of intelligence and reading struck with fuch minotiæ in any prince or potentate who poffefles common understanding, and will apply it. We are not told what the Chi f Conful has to fay on the intricate questions of Politicks, Law, Religion, or Covernment. EDIT.

From