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Paris As It Was and As It Is

F >> Francis W. Blagdon >> Paris As It Was and As It Is




LETTER LVIII.
_Théâtre de l'Opéra Comique_--Authors who have furnished it with
stock-pieces, and composers who have set them to music--Principal
performers at this theatre--_Elleviou_, _Gavaudan_, _Philippe_, and
_Gaveaux_--_Chenard_, _Martin_, _Rézicourt_, _Juliet_, and _Moreau_
--_Solié_, and _St. Aubin_--_Dozainville_, and _Lesage_--Mesdames _St.
Aubin_, _Scio_, _Lesage_, _Crétu_, _Philis_ the elder, _Gavaudan_,
and _Pingenet_--Mesdames _Dugazon_, _Philippe_, and _Gonthier_.

LETTER LIX.
France owes her salvation to the _savans_ or men of science
--Polytechnic School--Its object--Its formation and subsequent
progress--Changes recently introduced into this interesting
establishment.

LETTER LX.
Pickpockets and sharpers--Anecdote of a female swindler--Anecdote of
a sharper--Housebreakers--_Chauffeurs_--A new species of assassins
--_Place de Grève_--Punishment for thieves re-established--On the
continent, ladies flock to the execution of criminals.

LETTER LXI.
Schools for Public Services--The Polytechnic School, the grand
nursery whence the pupils are transplanted into the Schools of
Artillery, Military Engineers, Bridges and Highways, Mines, Naval
Engineers, and Navigation--Account of these schools--_Prytanée
Français_--Special Schools--Special School of Painting and Sculpture
--Competitions--National School of Architecture--Conservatory of
Music--Present state of Music in France--Music has done wonders in
reviving the courage of the French soldiers--The French are no less
indebted to _Rouget de Lille_, author of the _Marseillois_, than the
Spartans were to _Tyrtæus_--Gratuitous School for Drawing--Veterinary
School--New Special Schools to Le established in France.

LETTER LXII.
Funerals--No medium in them under the old _régime_--Ceremonies
formerly observed--Those practised at the present day--Marriages
--Contrast they present.

LETTER LXIII.
Public Libraries--_Bibliothèque Nationale_--Its acquisitions since
the revolution--School for Oriental Living Languages.

LETTER LXIV.
_Bibliothèque Mazarine_--_Bibliothèque du Panthéon_--_Bibliothèque de
l'Arsenal_--The Arsenal--Other libraries and literary _dépôts_ in
Paris.

LETTER LXV.
Dancing--Nomenclature of caperers in Paris, from the wealthiest
classes down to the poorest--Beggars form the last link of the chain.

LETTER LXVI.
_Bureau des Longitudes_--Is on a more extensive scale than the Board
of Longitude in England--National Observatory--Subterraneous quarries
that have furnished the stone with which most of the houses in Paris
are constructed--Measures taken to prevent the buildings in Paris
from being swallowed up in these extensive labyrinths--Present state
of the Observatory--_Lalande_, _Méchain_, and _Bouvard_--_Carroché_,
and _Lenoir_--_Lavoisier_, and _Borda_--_Delambre_, _Laplace_,
_Burckhardt_, _Vidal_, _Biot_, and _Puisson_--New French weights and
measures--Concise account of the operations employed in measuring an
arc of the terrestrial meridian--Table of the new French measures and
weights--Their correspondence with the old, and also with those of
England.

LETTER LXVII.
_Dépôt de la Marine_--An establishment much wanted in England.

LETTER LXVIII.
_Théâtre Louvois_--_Picard_, the manager of this theatre, is the
_Molière_ of his company--_La Grande Ville, ou les Provinciaux à
Paris_--Principal performers at this theatre--_Picard_, _Devigny_,
_Dorsan_, and _Clozel_--Mesdemoiselles _Adeline_, _Molière_,
_Lescot_, and Madame _Molé_--_Théâtre du Vaudeville_--Authors who
write for this theatre--Principal performers--Public malignity, the
main support of this theatre.

LETTER LXIX.
_Hôtel de la Monnaie_--Description of this building--_Musée des
Mines_--Formed by M. _Sage_--The arrangement of this cabinet is
excellent--_Cabinet du Conseil des Mines_--Principal mineral
substances discovered in France since the revolution.

LETTER LXX.
_Théâtre 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--_Académies 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 Sénat 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--_Hôtel-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 Maternité_--_La
Salpêtrière_--_Bicêtre_--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--_Barrières_ and high wall by which it is
surrounded--Anecdote of the _commis des barrières_ 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 Collège 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 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 members from among the other
classes of the Institute. It may name a hundred correspondents, taken
from among the learned men of the nation, and those of foreign
countries.

III. The second class shall be composed of forty members.

It is particularly charged with the compilation and improvement of
the dictionary of the French tongue. With respect to language, it
shall examine important works of literature, history, and sciences.
The collection of its critical observations shall be published at
least four times a year.

It shall appoint from its own members, and with the approbation of
the First Consul, a perpetual secretary, who shall continue to make
one of the sixty members of whom the class is composed.

It may elect twelve of its members from among those of the other
classes of the Institute.

IV. The third class shall be composed of forty members and eight
foreign associates.

The learned languages, antiquities and ornaments, history, and all
the moral and political sciences in as far as they relate to history,
shall be the objects of its researches and labours. It shall
particularly endeavour to enrich French literature with the works of
Greek, Latin, and Oriental authors, which have not yet been
translated.

It shall employ itself in the continuation of diplomatic collections.

With the approbation of the First Consul, it shall name from its own
members a perpetual secretary, who shall make one of the forty
members of whom the class is composed.

It may elect nine of its members from among those of the classes of
the Institute.

It may name sixty national or foreign correspondents.

V. The fourth class shall be composed of twenty-eight members and
eight foreign associates. They shall be divided into sections, named
and composed as follows:

Painting ten members.
Sculpture six ditto.
Architecture six ditto.
Engraving three ditto.
Music (composition) three ditto.

With the approbation of the First Consul, it shall appoint a
perpetual secretary, who shall be a member of the class, but shall
not make part of the sections.

It may elect six of its members from among the other classes of the
Institute.

It may name thirty-six national or foreign correspondents.

VI. The associated foreign members shall have a deliberative vote
only for objects relating to sciences, literature, and arts. They
shall not make part of any section, and shall receive no salary.

VII. The present associates of the Institute, scattered throughout
the Republic, shall make part of the one hundred and ninety-six
correspondents, attached to the classes of the sciences,
belles-lettres, and fine arts.

The correspondents cannot assume the title of members of the
Institute. They shall drop that of correspondents, when they take up
their constant residence in Paris.

VIII. The nominations to the vacancies shall be made by each of the
classes in which those vacancies shall happen to occur. The persons
elected shall be approved by the First Consul.

IX. The members of the four classes shall have a right to attend
reciprocally the private sittings of each of them, and to read papers
there when they have made the request.

They shall assemble four times a year as the body of the Institute,
in order to give to each other an account of their transactions.

They shall elect in common the librarian and under-librarian, as well
as all the agents who belong in common to the Institute.

Each class shall present for the approbation of the government the
particular statutes and regulations of its interior police.

X. Each class shall hold every year a public sitting, at which the
other three shall assist.

XI. The Institute shall receive annually, from the public treasury,
1500 francs for each of its members, not associates; 6000 francs for
each of its perpetual secretaries; and, for its expenses, a sum which
shall be determined on, every year, at the request of the Institute,
and comprised in the budget of the Minister of the Interior.

XII. The Institute shall have an administrative commission, composed
of five members, two of the first class, and one of each of the other
three, appointed by their respective classes.

This commission shall cause to be regulated in the general sittings,
prescribed in Art. IX, every thing relative to the administration, to
the general purposes of the Institute, and to the division of the
funds between the four classes.

Each class shall afterwards regulate the employment of the funds
which shall have been assigned for its expenses, as well as every
thing that concerns the printing and publication of its memoirs.

XIII. Every year, each class shall distribute prizes, the number and
value of which shall be regulated as follows:

The first class, a prize of 3000 francs.

The second and third classes, each a prize of 1500 francs.

And the fourth class, great prizes of painting, sculpture,
architecture, and musical composition. Those who shall have gained
one of these four great prizes, shall be sent to Rome, and maintained
at the expense of the government.

XIV. The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution of
the present decree, which shall be inserted in the Bulletin of the
Laws.

[Footnote 1: Referred to in Letter XLV, Vol. II of this work.]



INTRODUCTION.

On ushering into the world a literary production, custom has
established that its parent should give some account of his
offspring. Indeed, this becomes the more necessary at the present
moment, as the short-lived peace, which gave birth to the following
sheets, had already ceased before they were entirely printed; and the
war in which England and France are now engaged, is of a nature
calculated not only to rouse all the energy and ancient spirit of my
countrymen, but also to revive their prejudices, and inflame their
passions, in a degree proportionate to the enemy's boastful and
provoking menace.

I therefore premise that those who may be tempted to take up this
publication, merely with a view of seeking aliment for their enmity,
will, in more respects than one, probably find themselves
disappointed. The two nations were not rivals in arms, but in the
arts and sciences, at the time these letters were written, and
committed to the press; consequently, they have no relation whatever
to the present contest. Nevertheless, as they refer to subjects which
manifest the indefatigable activity of the French in the
accomplishment of any grand object, such parts may, perhaps, furnish
hints that may not be altogether unimportant at this momentous
crisis.

The plan most generally adhered to throughout this work, being
detailed in LETTER V, a repetition of it here would be superfluous;
and the principal matters to which the work itself relates, are
specified in the title. I now come to the point.

A long residence in France, and particularly in the capital, having
afforded me an opportunity of becoming tolerably well acquainted with
its state before the revolution, my curiosity was strongly excited to
ascertain the changes which that political phenomenon might have
effected. I accordingly availed myself of the earliest dawn of peace
to cross the water, and visit Paris. Since I had left that city in
1789-90, a powerful monarchy, established on a possession of fourteen
centuries, and on that sort of national prosperity which seemed to
challenge the approbation of future ages, had been destroyed by the
force of opinion which, like, a subterraneous fire, consumed its very
foundations, and plunged the nation into a sea of troubles, in which
it was, for several years, tossed about, amid the wreck of its
greatness.

This is a phenomenon of which antiquity affords no parallel; and it
has produced a rapid succession of events so extraordinary as almost
to exceed belief.

It is not the crimes to which it has given birth that will be thought
improbable: the history of revolutions, as well ancient as modern,
furnishes but too many examples of them; and few have been committed,
the traces of which are not to be found in the countries where the
imagination of the multitude has been exalted by strong and new
ideas, respecting Liberty and Equality. But what posterity will find
difficult to believe, is the agitation of men's minds, and the
effervescence of the passions, carried to such a pitch, as to stamp
the French revolution with a character bordering on the marvellous
--Yes; posterity will have reason to be astonished at the facility
with which the human mind can be modified and made to pass from one
extreme to another; at the suddenness, in short, with which the ideas
and manners of the French were changed; so powerful, on the one hand,
is the ascendency of certain imaginations; and, on the other, so
great is the weakness of the vulgar!

It is in the recollection of most persons, that the agitation of the
public mind in France was such, for a while, that, after having
overthrown the monarchy and its supports; rendered private property
insecure; and destroyed individual freedom; it threatened to invade
foreign countries, at the same time pushing before it Liberty, that
first blessing of man, when it is founded on laws, and the most
dangerous of chimeras, when it is without rule or restraint.

The greater part of the causes which excited this general commotion,
existed before the assembly of the States-General in 1789. It is
therefore important to take a mental view of the moral and political
situation of France at that period, and to follow, in imagination at
least, the chain of ideas, passions, and errors, which, having
dissolved the ties of society, and worn out the springs of
government, led the nation by gigantic strides into the most complete
anarchy.

Without enumerating the different authorities which successively
ruled in France after the fall of the throne, it appears no less
essential to remind the reader that, in this general disorganization,
the inhabitants themselves, though breathing the same air, scarcely
knew that they belonged to the same nation. The altars overthrown;
all the ancient institutions annihilated; new festivals and
ceremonies introduced; factious demagogues honoured with an
apotheosis; their busts exposed to public veneration; men and cities
changing names; a portion of the people infected with atheism, and
disguised in the livery of guilt and folly; all this, and more,
exercised the reflection of the well-disposed in a manner the most
painful. In a word, though France was peopled with the same
individuals, it seemed inhabited by a new nation, entirely different
from the old one in its government, its creed, its principles, its
manners, and even its customs.

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