Part 2

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.

War itself assumed a new face. Every thing relating to it became extraordinary: the number of the combatants, the manner of recruiting the armies, and the means of providing supplies for them; the manufacture of powder, cannon, and muskets; the ardour, impetuosity, and forced marches of the troops; their extortions, their successes, and their reverses; the choice of the generals, and the superior talents of some of them, together with the springs, by which these enormous bodies of armed men were moved and directed, were equally new and astonishing.

History tells us that in poor countries, where nothing inflames cupidity and ambition, the love alone of the public good causes changes to be tried in the government; and that those changes derange not the ordinary course of society; whereas, among rich nations, corrupted by luxury, revolutions are always effected through secret motives of jealousy and interest; because there are great places to be usurped, and great fortunes to be invaded. In France, the revolution covered the country with ruins, tears, and blood, because means were not to be found to moderate in the people that _revolutionary spirit_ which parches, in the bud, the promised fruits of liberty, when its violence is not repressed.

Few persons were capable of keeping pace with the rapid progress of the revolution. Those who remained behind were considered as guilty of desertion. The authors of the first constitution were accused of being _royalists_; the old partisans of republicanism were punished as _moderates_; the land-owners, as _aristocrates_; the monied men, as _corrupters_; the bankers and financiers, as _blood-suckers_; the shop-keepers, as _promoters of famine_; and the newsmongers, as _alarmists_. The factious themselves, in short, were alternately proscribed, as soon as they ceased to belong to the ruling faction.

In this state of things, society became a prey to the most baneful passions. Mistrust entered every heart; friendship had no attraction; relationship, no tie; and men's minds, hardened by the habit of misfortune, or overwhelmed by fear, no longer opened to pity.

Terror compressed every imagination; and the revolutionary government, exercising it to its fullest extent, struck off a prodigious number of heads, filled the prisons with victims, and continued to corrupt the morals of the nation by staining it with crimes.

But all things have an end. The tyrants fell; the dungeons were thrown open; numberless victims emerged from them; and France seemed to recover new life; but still bewildered by the _revolutionary spirit_, wasted by the concealed poison of anarchy, exhausted by her innumerable sacrifices, and almost paralyzed by her own convulsions, she made but impotent efforts for the enjoyment of liberty and justice. Taxes became more burdensome; commerce was annihilated; industry, without aliment; paper-money, without value; and specie, without circulation. However, while the French nation was degraded at home by this series of evils, it was respected abroad through the rare merit of some of its generals, the splendour of its victories, and the bravery of its soldiers.

During these transactions, there was formed in the public mind that moral resistance which destroys not governments by violence, but undermines them. The intestine commotions were increasing; the conquests of the French were invaded; their enemies were already on their frontiers; and the division which had broken out between the Directory and the Legislative Body, again threatened France with a total dissolution, when a man of extraordinary character and talents had the boldness to seize the reins of authority, and stop the further progress of the revolution.[1] Taking at the full the tide which leads on to fortune, he at once changed the face of affairs, not only within the limits of the Republic, but throughout Europe. Yet, after all their triumphs, the French have the mortification to have failed in gaining that for which they first took up arms, and for which they have maintained so long and so obstinate a struggle.

When a strong mound has been broken down, the waters whose amassed volume it opposed, rush forward, and, in their impetuous course, spread afar terror and devastation. On visiting the scene where this has occurred, we naturally cast our eyes in every direction, to discover the mischief which they have occasioned by their irruption; so, then, on reaching the grand theatre of the French revolution, did I look about for the traces of the havock it had left behind; but, like a river which had regained its level, and flowed again in its natural bed, this political torrent had subsided, and its ravages were repaired in a manner the most surprising.