Paris As It Was and As It Is | Page 2

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