Paris As It Was and As It Is | Page 6

since the revolution.
LETTER LXX. _Th��atre Montansier_--Principal performers--_Ambigu Comique_--The curiosity of a stranger may be satisfied in a single visit to each of the minor theatres in Paris.
LETTER LXXI. Police of Paris--Historical sketch of it--Its perfections and imperfections--Anecdote of a minister of police--Mouchards --Anecdote which shews the detestation in which they are held--The Parisian police extends to foreign countries--This truth exemplified by two remarkable facts--No habeas corpus in France.
LETTER LXXII. The savans saved France, when their country was invaded --Astonishing exertions made by the French on that occasion--Anecdote relating to _Robespierre_--Extraordinary resources created by the men of science--Means employed for increasing the manufacture of powder, cannon, and muskets--The produce of these new manufactories contrasted with that of the old ones--Territorial acquisitions of the French--The Carnival revived in Paris.
LETTER LXXIII. Public gaming-houses--_Acad��mies de jeu_, which existed in Paris before the revolution--Gaming-houses licensed by the police--The privilege of granting those licences is farmed by a private individual--Description of the _Maisons de jeu_--Anecdote of an old professed gambler--Gaming prevails in all the principal towns of France--The excuse of the old government for promoting gaming, is reproduced at the present day.
LETTER LXXIV. Museum of Natural History, or _Jardin des Plantes_--Is much enlarged since the revolution--One of the first establishments of instruction in Europe--Contrast between its former state and that in which it now is--Fourcroy, the present director--His eloquence--Collections in this establishment--Curious articles which claim particular notice.
LETTER LXXV. The Carnival--That of 1802 described--The Carnival of modern times, an imitation of the Saturnalia of the ancients--Was for some years prohibited, since the revolution--Contrast between the Carnival under the monarchy and under the republican government.
LETTER LXXVI. _Palais du S��nat Conservateur_, or Luxembourg Palace--Mary of Medicis, by whom it was erected, died in a garret--It belonged to Monsieur, before the revolution--Improvements in the garden of the Senate--National nursery formed in an adjoining piece of ground --_Bastille_--_Le Temple_--Its origin--Lewis XVI and his family confined in this modern state-prison.
LETTER LXXVII. Present slate of the French Press--The liberty of the press, the measure of civil liberty--Comparison, between the state of the press in France and in England.
LETTER LXXVIII. Hospitals and other charitable institutions--_H?tel-Dieu_--Extract from the report of the Academy of Sciences on this abode of pestilence--Reforms introduced into it since the revolution--The present method of purifying French hospitals deserves to be adopted in England--Other hospitals in Paris--_Hospice de la Maternit��_--_La Salp��tri��re_--_Bic��tre_--Faculties and Colleges of Physicians, as will as Colleges and Commonalties of Surgeons, replaced in France by Schools of Health--School of Medicine of Paris--France overrun by quacks--New law for checking the serious mischief they occasion --Society of Medicine--Gratuitous School of Pharmacy--Free Society of Apothecaries--Changes in the teaching and practice of medicine in France.
LETTER LXXIX. Private seminaries for youth of both sexes--Female education --Contrast between that formerly received in convents, and that now practised in the modern French boarding-schools.
LETTER LXXX. Progressive aggrandisement of Paris--Its origin--Under the name of Lutetia, it was the capital of Gaul--Julian's account of it--The sieges it has sustained--Successively embellished by different kings --Progressive amelioration of the manners of its inhabitants--Rapid view of the causes which improved them, from the reign of Philip Augustus to that of Lewis XIV--Contrast between the number of public buildings before and since the revolution--Population of Paris, from official documents--Ancient division of Paris--Is now divided into twelve mayoralties--_Barri��res_ and high wall by which it is surrounded--Anecdote of the _commis des barri��res_ seizing an Egyptian mummy.
LETTER LXXXI. French Furniture--The events of the revolution have contributed to improve the taste of persons connected with the furnishing line --Contrast between the style of the furniture in the Parisian houses in 1789-90 and 1801-2--Les Gobelins, the celebrated national manufactory for tapestry--La Savonnerie, a national manufactory for carpeting--National manufactory of plate-glass.
LETTER LXXXII. Academy of Fine Arts at the _ci-devant Coll��ge de Navarre_ --Description of the establishment of the _Piranesi_--Three hundred artists of different nations distributed in the seven classes of this academy--Different works executed here in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Mosaic, and Engraving.
LETTER LXXXIII. Conservatory of Arts and Trades--It contains a numerous collection of machines of every description employed in the mechanical arts --Belier hydraulique, newly invented by _Montgolfier_--Models of curious buildings--The mechanical arts in France have experienced more or less the impulse given to the sciences--The introduction of the Spanish merinos has greatly improved the French wools--New inventions and discoveries adopted in the French manufactories --Characteristic difference of the present state of French industry, and that in which it was before the revolution.
LETTER LXXXIV. Society for the encouragement of national industry--Its origin--Its objects detailed--Free Society of Agriculture--Amidst the storms of the revolution, agriculture has teen improved in France--Causes of that improvement--The present state of agriculture briefly contrasted with that which existed before the revolution--_Didot's_ stereotypic editions of the classics--Advantages attending the use of stereotype --This invention claimed by France, but proved to belong to Britain --Printing-office of the Republic, the