Paris As It Was and As It Is | Page 7

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 most
complete typographical establishment in being.
LETTER LXXXV. Present State of Society in Paris--In that city are
three very distinct kinds of society--Description of each of these--Other
societies are no more than a diminutive of the preceding--Philosophy of
the French in forgeting their misfortunes and losses--The signature of
the definitive treaty announced by the sound of cannon --In the evening
a grand illumination is displayed.
LETTER LXXXVI. Urbanity of the Parisians towards strangers--The
shopkeepers in Paris overcharge their articles--Furnished
Lodgings--Their price--The Milords Anglais now eclipsed by the
Russian Counts--Expense of board in Paris--Job and Hackney
Carriages--Are much improved since the revolution--Fare of the
latter--Expense of the former --Cabriolets--Regulations of the police
concerning these carriages --The negligence of drivers now meets with
due chastisement--French women astonish bespattered foreigners by
walking the streets with spotless stockings--Valets-de-place--Their
wages augmented--General Observations--An English traveller, on
visiting Paris, should provide himself with letters of
recommendation--Unless an Englishman acquires a competent
knowledge of the manners of the country, he fails in what ought to be
the grand object of foreign travel--Situation of one who brings no
letters to Paris--The French now make a distinction between
individuals only, not between nations--Are still indulgent to the
English--Animadversion on the improper conduct of irrational British
youths.
LETTER LXXXVII. Divorce--The indissolubility of marriage in
France, before the revolution, was supposed to promote adultery--No
such excuse can now be pleaded--Origin of the present laws on
divorce--Comparison on that subject between the French and the
Romans--The effect of these laws illustrated by examples--The stage
ought to be made to conduce to the amelioration of morals--In France,
the men blame the women, with a view of extenuating their own
irregularities--To reform women, men ought to begin by reforming
themselves.
LETTER LXXXVIII. The author is recalled to
England--Mendicants--The streets of Paris less infested by them now

than before the revolution--Pawnbrokers --Their numbers much
increased in Paris, and why--_Mont de Piété_ --Lotteries now
established in the principal towns in France--The fatal consequences of
this incentive to gaming--Newspapers--Their numbers considerably
augmented--Journals the most in request--Baths --Bains Vigier
described--School of Natation--Telegraphs--Those in Paris differ from
those in use in England--Telegraphic language may be
abridged--Private collections most deserving of notice in Paris
--_Dépôt d'armes_ of _M. Boutet_--_M. Régnier_, an ingenious
mechanic --The author's reason for confining his observations to the
capital --Metamorphoses in Paris--The site of the famous Jacobin
convent is intended for a market-place--Arts and Sciences are become
popular in France, since the revolution--The author makes amende
honorable, or confesses his inability to accomplish the task imposed on
him by his friend--He leaves Paris.

NEW ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE.[1]
On the 3d of Pluviôse, year XI (23d of January, 1803), the French
government passed the following decree on this subject.
Art. I. The National Institute, at present divided into three classes, shall
henceforth consist of four; namely:
_First Class_--Class of physical and mathematical sciences.
_Second Class_--Class of the French language and literature.
_Third Class_--Class of history and ancient literature.
_Fourth Class_--Class of fine arts.
The present members of the Institute and associated foreigners shall be
divided into these four classes. A commission of five members of the
Institute, appointed by the First Consul, shall present to him the plan of
this division, which shall be submitted to the approbation of the
government.
II. The first class, shall be formed of the ten sections, which at present

compose the first class of the Institute, of a new section of geography
and navigation, and of eight foreign associates.
These sections shall be composed and distinguished as follows:
MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES.
Geometry six members. Mechanics six ditto. Astronomy six ditto.
Geography and Navigation three ditto. General Physics six ditto.
PHYSICAL SCIENCES.
Chemistry six ditto. Mineralogy six ditto. Botany six ditto. Rural
Economy and the Veterinary Art six ditto. Anatomy and Zoology six
ditto. Medicine and Surgery six ditto.
The first class shall name, with the approbation of the Chief Consul,
two perpetual secretaries; the one for the mathematical sciences; the
other, for the physical. The perpetual secretaries shall be members of
the class, but shall make no part of any section.
The first class may elect six of its