The Stranger in France | Page 9

the livre is
no coin, but computation.
MONARCHICAL COINS.
GOLD. s. d. A louis d'or is twenty four livres french, or 20 0 English.
SILVER.
A grand ecu, or six livre piece, 5 0 An ecu, or three livre piece, 2 6 The
vingt quatre sols piece, 1 0 A douze sols piece is twelve pence french,
or 0 6 A six sols piece is 6d french, or 0 3
COPPER MIXED WITH SILVER.
A deux sols, or two pence french, and one penny english, is nearly the
size of our sixpence, but is copper, with a white or silverish mixture,
twelve of these make a vingt quatre sols piece, or one shilling english.
They have also another small piece of nearly the same size and colour,
but not so white, and rather thinner, which is one sol and a half, three
halfpence french, or three farthings english.
COPPER.
A sol is like our halfpenny, value one penny french, or a halfpenny
english, twenty-four of these make an english shilling.
A deux liard piece is half a sol french, or a farthing english.
A liard is a farthing french, and of the value of half a farthing english.

NEW COIN.
A thirty sols piece, is a very beautiful and convenient coin, worth one
shilling and three pence english, having a good impression of the late
king's head on one side, and the goddess of liberty on the other; it was
struck in the early part of the revolution.
REPUBLICAN COIN.
SILVER.
A fifteen sols piece is half of the above and very convenient.
COPPER.
A six liard is a bit of copper composition, such as the fine cannon are
made of, and is worth three sols french, or a halfpenny, and a farthing
english.
A cinq centimes is worth a halfpenny and half a farthing english.
The centimes are of the value of half farthings, five of which are equal
to the last coin, they are very small and neat.
An early knowledge of these coins, is very necessary to a stranger, on
account of the dishonest advantages which french tradesmen take of
their english customers.
To return to my narrative: finding ourselves at liberty to pursue our
route, we went from the municipality to the bureau des diligences, and
secured our places in the voiture to Rouen, for the next day.
After this necessary arrangement, we proceeded to view the town,
which is composed of long and narrow streets. The fronts of the houses,
which are lofty, are deformed by the spaces between the naked
intersections of the frame work being filled up with mortar, which
gives them an appearance of being very heavy, and very mean.
The commerce formerly carried on at Havre, was very extensive. There

is here also large manufactories for lace. The theatre is very spacious,
well arranged, and as far as we could judge by day-light, handsomely
decorated. The players did not perform during our stay. In the vegetable
market place, which was much crowded, and large, we saw at this
season of the year abundance of fine apples, as fresh in appearance as
when they were first plucked from the tree.
In our way there we were accosted by a little ragged beggar boy, who
addressed himself to our compassionate dispositions, by the appellation
of "très charitable citoyen," but finding we gave nothing, he
immediately changed it to "mon chère très charitable monsieur."
The strange uncouth expression of citoyen is generally laid aside,
except amongst the immediate officers under government, in their
official communications, who, however, renounce it in private, for the
more civilized title of "monsieur."
The principal church is a fine handsome building, and had been opened
for worship, the Sunday before we arrived: On that day the bell of the
Sabbath first sounded, during ten years of revolution, infidelity, and
bloodshed!!!
The royal arms are every where removed. They formerly constituted a
very beautiful ornament over the door of the hotel of the present prefect,
at the head of the market place, but they have been rudely beaten out by
battle axes, and replaced by rude republican emblems, which every
where (I speak of them as a decoration) seem to disfigure the buildings
which bear them. When I made this remark, I must, however, candidly
confess, that my mind very cordially accompanied my eye, and that
natural sentiment mingled with the observation. The quays, piers, and
arsenal are very fine, they, together with the docks, for small ships of
war and merchandize, were constructed under the auspices of Lewis
XIV, with whom this port was a great favourite.
We saw several groups of men at work in heavy chains. They were
soldiers who had offended. They are dressed in red jackets and
trowsers, which are supposed to increase their disgrace, on account