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Paris As It Was and As It Is

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




LAVOISIER, that immortal character, whose generosity in promoting the
progress of science could be equalled only by his own enlightened
example in cultivating it, was also apprehended. As one of the
Commissioners for fixing the standard of weights and measures, great
hopes were entertained that he might be restored to liberty. Measures
were taken with that intention; but these were not suited to the
spirit of the moment. The commission was dissolved, and LAVOISIER
left in prison. Shortly after, this ever to be lamented _savant_ was
taken to the scaffold. He would still be living, had his friends
acted on the cupidity of the tyrants who then governed, instead of
appealing to their justice.

About this period, some members of the Convention having introduced a
discussion in favour of public instruction, it was strongly opposed
by the revolutionary party, who saw in the Sciences nothing but a
poison which enervated republics. According to them, the finest
schools were the popular societies. To do good was then impossible,
and to shew an inclination to do it, exposed to the greatest danger
the small number of enlightened men France still possessed.

In this point of view, every thing was done that circumstances
permitted. A military school was created, where young men from all
the departments were habituated to the exercise of arms and the life
of a camp. It was called _L'École de Mars_. Its object was not to
form officers, but intelligent soldiers, who, spread in the French
armies, should soon render them the most enlightened of Europe, as
they were already the most inured to the hardships of war.

Thus, a small number of men, whose conduct has been too ill
appreciated, alone retarded, by constant efforts, the progress of
barbarism and struggled in a thousand ways against the oppression
which others contented themselves with supporting.

At length, the bloody throne, raised by ROBESPIERRE, was overthrown:
hope succeeded to terror; and victory, to defeat. Then, the Sciences,
issuing from the focus in which they had been concentered and
concealed, reappeared in all their lustre. The services they had
rendered, the dangers which had threatened them, were felt and
acknowledged. The plan of campaign, formed by the scientific men,
called to the Committee of Public Welfare, had completely succeeded.
The French armies had advanced on the rear of those of the allies,
and, threatening to cut off their retreat, not only forced them to
abandon the places they had taken, but also marched from conquest to
conquest on their territory.

The means of having iron, steel, saltpetre, powder, and arms, had
been created during the reign of terror. The following were the
results of this grand movement at the beginning of the third year of
the Republic.

Twelve millions of pounds of saltpetre extracted from the soil of
France in the space of nine months. Formerly, scarcely one million
was drawn from it.

Fifteen founderies at work for the casting of brass cannon. Their
annual produce increased to 7000 pieces. There existed in France but
two establishments of this description before the revolution.

Thirty founderies for iron ordnance, yielding 13,000 pieces per year.
At the breaking out of the war, there were but four, which yielded
annually 900 pieces of cannon.

The buildings for the manufacture of shells, shot, and all the
implements of artillery, multiplied in the same proportion.

Twenty new manufactories for side-arms, directed by a new process.
Before the war, there existed but one.

An immense manufactory of fire-arms established all at once in Paris,
and yielding 140,000 muskets per year, that is, more than all the old
manufactories together. Several establishments of this nature formed
on the same plan in the different departments of the Republic.

One hundred and eighty-eight workshops for repairing arms of every
description. Before the war, there existed but six.

The establishment of a manufactory of carbines, the making of which
was till then unknown in France.

The art of renewing the touch-hole of cannon discovered, and carried
immediately to a perfection which admits of its being exercised in
the midst of camps.

A description of the means by which tar, necessary for the navy, may
be speedily extracted from the pine-tree.

Balloons and telegraphs converted into machines of war.

All the process of the arts relative to war simplified and improved
by the application of the most learned theories.

A secret establishment formed at Meudon for that purpose. Experiments
there made on the oxy-muriate of potash, on fire-balls, on
hollow-balls, on ring-balls, &c.

Great works begun for extracting from the soil of France every thing
that serves for the construction, equipment, and supplies of ships of
war.

Several researches for replacing or reproducing the principal
materials which the exigencies of the war had consumed, and for
increasing impure potash, which the making of powder had snatched
from the other manufactories.

Simple and luminous directions for fixing the art of making soap, and
bringing it within reach of the meanest capacity.

The invention of the composition of which pencils are now made in
France, the black lead for which was previously drawn from England;
and what was inappreciable in those critical circumstances, the
discovery of a method for tanning, in a few days, leather which
generally required several years' preparation.

In a word, if we speak of the territorial acquisitions, which were
the result of the victories obtained by means of the extraordinary
resources created by the men of science, France has acquired an
extent of 1,498 square leagues, and a population of 4,381,266
individuals; namely, Savoy, containing 411,700 inhabitants; the
County of Nice, 93,166; Avignon, the _Comtat Venaissin_, and Dutch
Flanders, 200,500; Maëstricht and Venloo, 90,000; Belgium, 1,880,000;
the left bank of the Rhine, 1,658,500; Geneva and its territory,
40,000; and Mulhausen, 7,200.

P.S. Paris is now all mirth and gaiety; in consequence of the revived
pleasures of the Carnival. I shall not give you my opinion of it till
its conclusion.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. Letter XXXIV.]

[Footnote 2: The bells produced 27,442,852 pounds of metal. This
article, valued at 10 _sous_ per pound, represents 15 millions of
francs (_circa_ £625,000 sterling). A part served for the fabrication
of copper coin, the remainder furnished pieces of ordnance.]



LETTER LXXIII

_Paris, February 28, 1802._

In all great cities, one may naturally expect to find great vices;
but in regard to gaming, this capital presents a scene which, I will
venture to affirm, is not to be matched in any part of the world. No
where is the passion, the rage for play so prevalent, so universal:
no where does it cause so much havock and ruin. In every class of
society here, gamesters abound. From men revelling in wealth to those
scarcely above beggary, every one flies to the gaming-table; so that
it follows, as a matter of course, that Paris must contain a great
number of _Maisons de jeu_, or

PUBLIC GAMING-HOUSES.

They are to be met with in all parts of the town, though the
head-quarters are in the _Palais du Tribunat_, or, as it is most
commonly called, the _Palais Royal_. Whenever you come to Paris,
and see, on the first story, a suite of rooms ostentatiously
illuminated, and a blazing reverberator at the door, you may be
certain that it is a house of this description.

Before the revolution, gaming was not only tolerated in Paris, but
public gaming-houses were then licensed by the government, under the
agreeable name of _Académies de jeu_. There, any one might ruin
himself under the immediate superintendance of the police, an officer
belonging to which was always present. Besides these academies, women
of fashion and impures of the first class were allowed to keep a
gaming-table or _tripot de jeu_, as it was termed, in their own
house. This was a privilege granted to them in order that they might
thereby recover their shattered fortune. When all the necessary
expenses were paid, these ladies commonly shared the profits with
their protectors, that is, with their friends in power, through whose
protection the _tripot_ was sanctioned. Every one has heard of the
fatal propensity to gaming indulged in by the unfortunate Marie
Antoinette. The French women of quality followed her pernicious
example, as the young male nobility did that of the Count d'Artois
and the Duke of Orleans; so that, however decided might be the
personal aversion of Lewis XVI to gaming, it never was more in
fashion at the court of France than during his reign. This is a fact,
which can be confirmed by General S---th and other Englishmen who
have played deep at the queen's parties.

At the present day, play is, as I have before stated, much recurred
to as a financial resource, by many of the _ci-devant_ female
_noblesse_ in Paris. In their parties, _bouillotte_ is the prevailing
game; and the speculation is productive, if the company will sit and
play. Consequently, the longer the sitting, the greater the profits.
The same lady who moralizes in the morning, and will read you a
lecture on the mischievous consequences of gaming, makes not the
smallest hesitation to press you to sit down at her _bouillotte_ in
the evening, where she knows you will almost infallibly be a loser.
No protection, I believe, is now necessary for a lady who chooses to
have a little private gaming at her residence, under the specious
names of _société_, _bal_, _thé_, or _concert_. But this is not the
case with the _Maisons de jeu_, where the gaming-tables are public;
or even with private houses, where the object of the speculation is
publicly known. These purchase a license in the following manner. A
person, who is said to have several _sleeping_ partners, engages to
pay to the government the sum of 3,600,000 francs (_circa_ £150,000
sterling) a year for the power of licensing all gaming-houses in this
capital, and also to account for a tenth part of the profits, which
enter the coffer of the minister at the head of the department of the
police. This contribution serves to defray part of the expense of
greasing the wheels of that intricate machine. Without such a
license, no gaming-house can be opened in Paris. Sometimes it is paid
for by a share in the profits, sometimes by a certain sum per
sitting.

These _Maisons de jeu_, where dupes are pitted against cheats, are
filled from morning to night with those restless beings, who, in
their eager pursuit after fortune, almost all meet with
disappointment, wretchedness, ruin, and every mischief produced by
gaming. This vice, however, carries with it its own punishment; but
it is unconquerable in the heart which it ravages. It lays a man
prostrate before those fantastic idols, distinguished by the
synonymous names of fate, chance, and destiny. It banishes from his
mind the idea of enriching himself, or acquiring a competence by slow
and industrious means. It feeds, it inflames his cupidity, and
deceives him in order to abandon him afterwards to remorse and
despair.

From the mere impulse of curiosity, I have been led to visit some of
the principal _Maisons de jeu_. I shall therefore represent what I
have seen.

In a spacious suite of apartments, where different games of chance
are played, is a table of almost immeasurable length, covered with a
green cloth, with a red piece at one end, and a black, one at the
other. It is surrounded by a crowd of persons of both sexes, squeezed
together, who, all suspended between fear and hope, are waiting, with
eager eyes and open mouth, for the favourable or luckless chance. I
will suppose that the banker or person who deals the cards, announces
"_rouge perd, couleur gagne_." The oracle has spoken. At these words
of fate, on one side of the table, you see countenances smiling, but
with a smile of inquietude, and on the other, long faces, on which is
imprinted the palid hue of death. However, the losers recover from
their stupor: they hope that the next chance will be more fortunate.
If that happens, and the banker calls out "_rouge gagne, couleur
perd_;" then the scene changes, and the same persons whom you have
just seen so gay, make a sudden transition from joy to sadness, and
_vice versa_. This contrast no language can paint, and you must see
it, in order to conceive how the most headstrong gamblers can spend
hour after hour in such a continual state of agitation, in which they
are alternately overwhelmed by rage, anguish, and despair. Some are
seen plucking out their hair by the roots, scratching their face, and
tearing their clothes to pieces, when, after having lost considerable
sums, frequently they have not enough left to pay for a breakfast or
dinner. What an instructive lesaon for the novice! What a subject of
reflection for the philosophic spectator! At these scenes of folly
and rapacity it is that the demon of suicide exults in the triumphs
he is on the point of gaining over the weakness, avarice, and false
pride of mortals. If the wretched victim has not recourse to a
pistol, he probably seeks a grave at the bottom of the river.

Among these professed gamblers, it often happens that some of them,
in order to create what they term _resources_, imagine tricks and
impostures scarcely credible. I shall relate an anecdote which I
picked up in the course of my inquiries respecting the garning-houses
in Paris. It may be necessary to premise that the counterfeit louis,
which are in circulation in this country, and have nearly the
appearance of the real coin, are employed by these knaves; they
commonly produce them at night, because they then run less risk of
being detected in passing them; but these means are very common and
almost out of date.

In the great gaming-houses in Paris, it is customary to have on the
table several _rouleaux_ of louis d'or. An old, experienced gambler
came one day to a house of this class, with his pockets full of
leaden _rouleaux_ of the exact form and size of those containing
fifty louis d'or. He placed at one of the ends of the table (either
black or red) one of his leaden _rouleaux_: he lost. The master of
the bank took up his _rouleau_, and, without opening it, put it with
the good _rouleaux_ in the middle of the table, where the bank is
kept. The old gambler, without being disconcerted, staked another. He
won, and withdrew the good _rouleau_ given him, leaving the
counterfeit one on the table, at the same time calling out, "I stake
ten louis out of the _rouleau_." The cards were drawn; he won: the
banker, to pay him the ten louis, took a _rouleau_ from the bank.
Chance willed that he lighted on the leaden _rouleau_. He endeavoured
to break it open by striking it on the table: the _rouleau_ withstood
his efforts. The gambler, without deranging his features, then said
to the banker; "Mind you don't break it." The banker, disconcerted,
tore the paper, and, on opening it, found it to contain nothing but
lead. There being no positive proof against the gambler, he was
permitted to retire, and his only punishment was to be in future
excluded from this gaming-house. But he had the consolation of
knowing that ninety-nine others would be open to him. However, this
and other impostures have led to a regulation, that, in all these
houses, the value of every stake should be apparent to the eye, and
openly exposed on the table.

From what I have said you might infer that _trente-et-un_ (or _rouge
et noir_) is the most fashionable game played here; but, though this
is the case, it is not the only one in high vogue. Many others,
equally pernicious, are pursued at the same time, such as _la
roulette_, _passe-dix_, and _biribi_, at which cheats and sharpers
can, more at their ease, execute their feats of dexterity and schemes
of plunder. Women frequent the gaming-tables as well as the men, and
often pledge their last shift to make up a stake. It is shocking to
contemplate a young female gamester, the natural beauty of whose
countenance is distorted into deformity by a succession of agonizing
passions. Yet so distressing an object is no uncommon thing in Paris.

You may, perhaps, be curious to know what are these games, of
_trente-et-un_, _biribi_, _passe-dix,_ and _la roulette_. Never
having played at any of them, such a description as I might pretend
to give, could at best be but imperfect. For which, reason I shall
not engage in the attempt.

It is confidently affirmed that in the principal towns of France,
namely, Bordeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, Rouen, &c. the rage for play is
no less prevalent than in the capital, where gaming-houses daily
increase in number.[1] They are now established in every quarter in
Paris, even the poorest, and there are some where the lowest of the
populace can indulge in a _penchant_ for gaming, as the stake is
proportioned to their means. This is the ruin of every class of
inhabitants and of foreigners; so much so, that suicides here
increase in exact proportion to the increase of gaming-houses.

Is it not astonishing that the government should suffer, still more
promote the existence of an evil so pernicious in every point of
view? From the present state of the French finances, it would,
notwithstanding, appear that every consideration, however powerful,
must yield to the want of money required for defraying the expenses
of the department of the Police.

_Minima de malis_ was the excuse of the old government of France for
promoting gaming. "From the crowd of dissipated characters of every
description, accumulated in great cities," said its partisans,
"governments find themselves compelled to tolerate certain abuses, in
order to avoid evils of greater magnitude. They are forced to
compound with the passions which they are unable to destroy; and it
is better that men should be professed gamblers than usurers,
swindlers, and thieves." Such was the reasoning employed in behalf of
the establishment of the _Académies de jeu_, which existed prior to
the revolution. Such is the reasoning reproduced, at the present day,
in favour of the _Maisons de jeu_; but, when I reflect on all the
horrors occasioned by gaming, I most ardently wish that every
argument in favour of so destructive a vice, may be combated by a pen
like that of Rousseau, which, Sir William Jones says, "had the
property of spreading light before it on the darkest objects, as if
he had written with phosphorus on the walls of a cavern."

[Footnote 1: During the Carnival of the present year (1803) the
masked balls at the grand French Opera were quite deserted, in
consequence of a new gaming-house, established solely for foreigners,
having, by the payment of considerable sums to the government,
obtained permission to give masked balls. These balls were all the
rage. There was one every Tuesday, and the employment of the whole
week was to procure cards of invitation; for persons were admitted by
_invitation_ only, no money being taken. The rooms, though spacious,
were warm and comfortable; the company, tolerably good, and extremely
numerous, but chiefly composed of foreigners. _Treute-et-un_,
_biribi_, _pharaon_, _creps_, and other fashionable games were
played, so that the _speculators_ could very well afford to give all
sorts of refreshments, and an elegant supper _gratis_.]



LETTER LXXIV.

_Paris, March 1, 1802_.

Of all the institutions subsisting here before the revolution, that
which has experienced the greatest enlargement is the

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.

This establishment, formerly called _Le Jardin du Roi_, and now more
commonly known by the name of _Le Jardin des Plantes_, received its
present denomination by a decree of the National Convention, dated
the 10th of June 1793. It is situated on the south bank of the Seine,
nearly facing the Arsenal, and consists of a botanical garden, a
collection of natural history, a library of works relating to that
science, an amphitheatre for the lectures, and a _ménagerie_ of
living animals.

Originally, it was nothing more than a garden for medicinal plants,
formed under that title, in 1626, by GUY DE LA BROSSE, principal
physician to Lewis XIII, who sanctioned the establishment by letters
patent. The king's physicians were almost always intendants of this
garden till the year 1739, when it was placed under the direction of
BUFFON. Before his time, the cabinet was trifling. It consisted only
of some curiosities collected by GEOFFROY, and a few shells which had
belonged to TOURNEFORT; but, through the zeal of BUFFON, and the care
of his co-operator DAUBENTON, it became a general _dépôt_ of natural
history, and its riches had increased still more than its utility. On
the breaking out of the revolution, it had been protected through
that sort of respect which the rudest men have for the productions of
nature, whence they either receive or expect relief for their
sufferings. It had even been constantly defended by the revolutionary
administration, under whose control and dependence it was placed.
Regarding it, in some measure, as their private property, their pride
was interested in its preservation; and had any attempt been made to
injure it, they would infallibly have caused an insurrection among
the inhabitants of the surrounding _faubourg_. These singular
circumstances, joined to the good understanding prevailing among the
professors, had maintained this fine establishment in a state, if not
increasing, at least stationary. On the revival of order, ideas were
entertained of giving to it an extension which had already been
projected and decreed, even during the reign of terror.

The botanical garden was enlarged; the extent of the ground intended
for the establishment was doubled; a _ménagerie_ was formed; new
hot-houses and new galleries were constructed; the addition of new
professors was confirmed, and all the necessary disbursements were
made with magnificence. Thus, in the same place where every
production of nature was assembled, natural history was for the first
time taught in its aggregate; and these courses of lectures, become
celebrated by the brilliancy of the facts illustrated in them, the
number of pupils who frequent them, and the great works of which they
have been the cause or the motive, have rendered the MUSEUM OF
NATURAL HISTORY one of the first establishments of instruction
existing in Europe.

Formerly, there were but three professors attached to this
establishment. At present, there are no less than thirteen, who each
give a course of forty lectures. The courses of zoology and
mineralogy take place in the halls of the cabinet containing the
collections corresponding to each of those sciences. The courses of
botany, anatomy, and chemistry are delivered in the great
amphitheatre, and that of natural iconography in the library. The
days and hours of the lectures are announced every year by particular
advertisements.

The establishment is administered, under the authority of the
Minister of the Interior, by the professors, who choose, annually,
from among themselves, a director. At present, that situation is held
by FOURCROY. Although this celebrated professor, in his lectures on
chemistry, must principally attach himself to minerals, the
particular object of chemical inquiry, he is far from neglecting
vegetable and animal substances, the analysis of which will, in time,
spread great light on organic bodies. The most recent discoveries on
the exact constitution of bodies are made known in the course of
these lectures, and a series of experiments, calculated for
elucidating the demonstrations, takes place under the eyes of the
auditors.

No one possesses more than FOURCROY the rare talent of classing well
his subjects, of presenting facts in a striking point of view, and of
connecting them by a succession of ideas extremely rapid, and
expressed in a voice whose melody gives an additional charm to
eloquence. The pleasure of hearing him is peculiarly gratifying; and,
indeed, when he delivers a lecture, the amphitheatre, spacious as it
is, is much too small to contain the crowd of auditors. Then, the
young pupils are seen with their eyes stedfastly fixed on their
master, catching his word with avidity, and fearing to lose one of
them; thus paying by their attention the most flattering tribute to
the astonishing facility of this orator of science, from whose lips
naturally flow, as from a spring, the most just and most select
expressions. Frequently too, carried away by the torrent of his
eloquence, they forget what they have just heard, to think only of
what he is saying. FOURCROY speaks in this manner for upwards of two
hours, without any interruption, and, what is more, without tiring
either his auditors or himself. He writes with no less facility than
he speaks. This is proved by the great number of works which he has
published. But in his writings, his style is more calm, more smooth
than that of his lectures.

Each professor superintends and arranges the part of the collections
corresponding to the science which he is charged to teach. For this
purpose, there are also assistant naturalists, whose employment is to
prepare the various articles of natural history. The keeper of the
cabinet, under the authority of the director, takes all the measures
necessary for the preservation of the collections. The principal ones
are:

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