A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792 | Page 6

au dessus. 1791. Round this the merchant's name, as in the first; and on the edge, Bon pour Bord. Marseil. Lyon. Rouen. Nant. et Strasb.
[Note 7: This article is, "The law has the right of prohibiting only those actions which are hurtful to society."]
I have seen a silver token almost as big as a shilling. On one side is represented a woman sitting, leaning with her left arm on a large open book, at her right is a cock perched on half a fluted column; and the inscription round these figures is, Le Fevre, Le Sage et Compie. ngt. à Paris. On the reverse is B.P. (bon pour) 20 Sols à echanger en assignats de 50L and round this, et au dessus l'an 4 me de la Liberté, 1792.[8]
[Note 8: This and the former echanger, &c. and remboursable, &c. appear to be superfluous.]
In this H?tel is the cabinet of the royal school of mineralogy, which Mr. Le Sage has been four and twenty years in forming and analyzing; it is contained in a magnificent building, with a dome and gallery almost entirely of marble.

THEATRES.
AT this time there were ten regular theatres open every evening. The first and most ancient of which is the Opera, or Royal Academy of Music. The old house which was in the Palais Royal, was burnt in 1781, and the present house, near St. Martin's Gate, was built in seventy-five days. The number of performers, vocal and instrumental, dancers, &c. employed in this theatre is about four hundred and thirty. The price of admission to the first boxes is seven livres ten sous, about six shillings and eight pence, (or three shillings and four pence as the exchange then was.)
2. The French playhouse is at present called Theatre de la Nation. In the vestibule or porch is a marble statue of Voltaire, sitting in an arm chair; it is near the Luxembourg.
3. The Italian theatre behind the Boulevart Richelieu. Notwithstanding the name, nothing but French pieces, and French music, are performed here.
4. Theatre de Monsieur. Rue Feydeau. Comedies and operas are performed here, three times a week in the Italian, and the other days in the French language; for which purpose two sets of players are engaged at this house.
5. Theatre Fran?ais. Rue de Richelieu. At these four theatres the price of admission into the boxes was a crown.
6. Theatre de la Rue de Louvois.
7. Theatre Fran?ais. Rue de Bondy.
8. Theatre de la Demoiselle Montansier, au Palais Royal. The box price of these three last was half a crown.
9. Theatre du Marais, quartier St. Antoine.
10. Theatre de Moliere. Rue St. Martin.
To these must be added about five and twenty more; the best of which is the Theatre de l'ambigu comique, on the North Boulevarts;[9] the box price was half a crown. The others were rope dancers, and such kind of spectacles as Sadler's Wells, &c. and the prices were from two shillings down to sixpence. The French themselves, laughing at the great increase of their theatres, said, "We shall shortly have a public spectacle per street, an actor per house, a musician per cellar, and an author per garret."
[Note 9: These Boulevarts were made in 1536, and planted with four rows of trees in 1668; these beautiful walks are too well known to be described here; they are 2400 Toises (4800 yards, or almost three miles) long. The South Boulevarts are planted in the same manner, were finished in 1761, and are 3683 Toises, or fathom (above four miles) in length.]

PANTHEON. JACOBINS. QUAI VOLTAIRE. RUE ROUSSEAU. COCKADES.
THE new church of Sainte Genevieve was begun in 1757; but the building was discontinued during the last war; in 1784 it was resumed, and is at present almost finished. The whole length of the front is thus inscribed in very large gilt capitals: Aux grands hommes: la Patrie reconnoissante. To great men: their grateful country. And over the entrance: Pantheon Fran?ais. L'An III de la Liberté.
As to the size of Paris, I saw two very large plans of that city and of London, on the same scale, on which it was said, that Paris covered 5,280,000 square Toises, and London only 3,900,000. A Toise is two yards; and from the plan it appeared to be near the truth.
The new buildings which surround the garden of the Palais Royal form a parallelogram, that for beauty is not to be matched in Europe. They consist of shops, coffee-houses, music rooms, four of which are in cellars, taverns, gaming-houses, &c. and the whole square is almost always full of people. The square is 234 yards in length, and 100 in breadth; the portico which surround it consists of 180 arches.
The celebrated Jacobins are a club, consisting at present of about 1300 members, and so called, because the place of meeting is in