A Tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium | Page 9

the
streets for making tea, and some of the fountains are supplied by
springs. I believe the late government had a scheme in contemplation
for the construction of an aqueduct, to supply purer water for the
Parisians than what they now use.
Many fountains have been established within the last few years, and the
site of that once formidable building the Bastile is now occupied by one.
None of these modern fountains (although many of them display much
taste) are, however, by any means to be compared, in point of elegance,
to that which stands in the market of Innocents, and which was erected
in the year 1550. Its situation is too confined for so handsome a
structure, and I had some difficulty in finding my way to it. It has the
following inscription from the pen of M. Santeuil, (who has furnished
many others, particularly that on the fountain near the Luxemburg
Palace:)
FONTIUM NYMPHIS.
Quos duro cernis simulatos marmore fructus Hujus Nympha loci
credidit esse suos.
Which may be thus translated,
The fruits you see on this cold marble hewn, This Fountain's Nymph
believes to be her own.
The Guide to Paris informs us, that the city is divided into several
quarters; that the vicinity of the Palais Royal, of the Thuilleries, and of
the _Chaussée d'Antin_, are the most fashionable, and of course the
most expensive; but that lodgings are to be met with on reasonable
terms in parts of the city, which are fully as desirable, particularly in

the suburb of St. Germain. There are furnished hotels to be met with on
a large scale in that quarter, it having been mostly inhabited by foreign
princes and ambassadors; and it was also much frequented by English
families, as they considered it the most healthy and quiet part of Paris.
The Quarter du Marais was principally occupied by lawyers, financiers,
annuitants; and, in short, all the Jews of the nation lodged there.
The Quarter of the Palais Royal is chiefly inhabited by sharpers, cheats,
loungers, and idle people of all descriptions. Who could think that a
space of ground not exceeding 150 acres, contains more heterogeneous
materials blended together than are to be found in the 9910 acres (the
French acre is one and a quarter, English measure) on which the city of
Paris stands? It is the great mart of pleasure, of curiosity, and of
corruption; and if the police wish to apprehend an offender, it is in the
Palais Royal that they are sure to find him. Before the period of the
revolution there were here but two public gaming houses; but at present
the number is really astonishing. The police under Buonaparte did not
discourage their increase; they argued that these houses were the
rendezvous of all sharpers, villains, and conspirators; and that they
often saved an ineffectual search for them in other quarters. A
government like that of Buonaparte did not reflect, that these houses,
which thus abounded with desperate characters, did not fail to
perpetuate their number by the corruption which they caused in the
principles of the rising generation; and many of the best informed
Frenchmen are well aware that it will be the work of time, to recover
their country from the demoralized state in which it was left after the
government of Buonaparte.
On the subject of gaming a French writer has justly observed: "Quand il
serait vrai que la passion du jeu ne finit pas toujours par le crime,
toujours est il constant qu'elle finit par l'infortune et le deshonneur."
"Granting it to be true, that the love of gaming does not always
terminate in crime, yet still it invariably ends in misfortune and
dishonour." But is it not rather improbable that those who have so far
transgressed as to apprehend the vigilance of the police, should venture
into the very places where they must be aware of immediate detection?
Perhaps the same argument holds in Paris as in London, against totally
suppressing the haunts of these depredators on society, _That if there
were no thieves there would be no thief-takers_; and the police are

content to keep within moderate bounds, a set of men who often
contribute to their emolument, and whom they fear to exterminate. It
must, however, be allowed, that in all large towns, however great may
be the vigilance of the police, there still must be abundance of the
followers of Macheath. Perhaps Paris most abounds in sharpers who
cheat with finesse, and London in the number of pick-pockets and
robbers. The nightly police of Paris is admirably conducted; and during
my stay there I never experienced the smallest molestation in the
streets.
The Palais Royal consists of six squares, the chief of which is large and
handsomely built on piazzas. There are rows of trees