Little did the hero of a hundred battles imagine the use to which the trophies of his genius and ambition would be dedicated, when gathering them into Paris from all the fields that he had won, and the people whom he plundered. On visiting the Louvre and the palace of the Tuileries, I found that many of the spoils which he had deposited there, making it for a time the wonder of the world, had been by his successors restored to the courts and capitals from which he had taken them. Still it is, compared to any other palace, probably the richest and most magnificent in the world, in all that the fine arts and "the peculiar treasure of Kings" can bestow. ports, has more rights than the citizens of Paris, so far as finding access on every day to certain places which only on certain days are open to them. Having through our minister obtained these, I found no difficulty whatever, by paying the ordinary fees, in seeing all that I desired. The Louvre alone will compensate any one for a visit from London to Paris, who desires to see the whole world of fine arts in full representation assembled in one building. Here in one immense suite of rooms, one of which is 1,350 feet long, are no less than 1,200 paintings, many of them large groups, works of all the great masters.-I presume not to go into the details. On my arrival in the city, and Here are the gods, the arts, the obtaining a comfortable room in one heroes, and the wonders of Egypt, of the principal hotels, I called for a specimens of all its marble treasures valet of the necessary accomplish- -urns of porphyry for the ashes of ments, to accompany me to all the the dead, baths-sacred utensils, and places in Paris I wish to see, and to heroes in marble transparent as glass be entirely at my disposal. A per--some white as snow, others black son well acquainted with the whole city was soon obtained, with whom I commenced my tour through Paris, beginning with the Palace, the Louvre, and the gardens of the Tuileries. An American citizen, with proper passpriesthood. These became the causes of general in fidelity: for the infidelity of France, as is now the infidelity of Italy, Spain, Portugal, &c. was the legitimate result of Popery on all who thought with out the Bible. He must also take into his premises the startling fact, that some 20,000 men of letters enlisted in the cause of infidelity, and expended in one year the enormous sum of £9,000,000 in publishing and circulating infidel books. They resolved to obey the mandate of Voltaire, "Crush the wretch, annihilate the Bible and the priesthood." Strange to tell, France is still infidel. Infidel, I repeat in the main. The great majority of France has no faith in the Pope, the priesthood, nor the annum !" In the reign of Atheism, they dressed up a common strumpet with the most fantastic decorations. The They were escorted by the national guards and the constituted authorities. They erected for her an altar, sang songs to her by way of worshipping her. They concluded their devotions by burning the prayer book and the confessional, and everything sacred they could find. They danced round the flames and were frantic with mirth. Such is the religion of reason and nature, as worshipped in Jacobins carried her to church on their shoulders. France. as ebony and smooth as ivory. Gods It During the revolution of three days, which placed Louis Philippe on the throne, both the army and the mob alternately took possession of the Tuileries and the Louvre. The devastation of the cannon and musketry are every where apparent in those splendid rooms. It was converted by both parties into a fortress. The mob drove the army out, took possession of it and of the palace. Yet strange to tell, in all this paroxysm of lawless depredation, not an article was touched, or seized, or pilfered, though treasures of golden curiosities of immense value were every where accessible. In the highest phrenzy of the hour of triumph, the orders were, "touch nothing here," "we shall eat and drink in the palace whatever we can find, but we shall carry nothing hence. It is not treasure that we want. It is not to plunder that we have seized this palace. It is liberty, and law, and the rights of Frenchmen we demand." The colonnade in the front of the Louvre-this grand masterpiece of French architecture, which so excites the admiration of Europe-and the entrance to St. Denis, or grand arch,two miles distant from the palace, with the splendid fountains and promenades in the gardens and royal pleasure grounds, are too magnificent to be noticed at all in such a sketch as this. Thirty millions of francs are said to have been expended on the grand entrance alone; and, indeed, all that taste, and science, and art, and treasure could bestow, have been lavished on the grounds in front of the Tuileries. I made a second visit in the evening when the gardens were illuminated, and spent an hour walking in this paradise in the midst of thousands of Parisians. The garden of the Tuileries is open to all respectable classes every evening. It is filled with statues, groves, and broad walks, bordered with orange trees; and though filled with the choicest fruits and flowers, nothing is touched by the thousands that are admitted to enjoy this richest of repasts. The walks-I should, were it not a garden, call them highways, (for they are some sixty feet wide)-are generally rectangular, and are separated from the fruits and flowers only by a longitudinal iron railing, more, indeed, an ornament than a defence against intrusion. It is, therefore, the liberality of the king responded to by the grateful homage of the people, that protects every thing that is seen here, from the withering touch of a human finger, or the rapacious grasp of a covetous hand. Louis Philippe, whatever may be said of his talents as a king, is a clever man. He is the richest sovereign in the world, so far as his own private estate is valued. I was shown whole streets in Paris inherited by him from Louis XIV. the annual rent of which alone would be a princely fortune. In the midst of these stands "the Palace Royal," the property of the king, inherited from his royal ancestors, under the title of the "Duke of Orleans." His whole income from lands and tenements is about a million and a half pounds sterling, or more than seven millions of dollars per annum. It was from one of the windows in his own "Palace Royal," which was pointed out to me, that the Marquis La Fayette, after the three days' insurrection, publicly announced to a waiting multitude that Louis Philippe was chosen king of France-that he himself had sworn allegiance to him, and that he hoped Paris and the whole nation would accept him with his liberal principles, and with him peace and prosperity. Strange to tell, about 700 boys, most of them not over seventeen years old-but well educated in the national polytechnic and military school-planned and executed this grand insurrection. The mob agreed to advance or retreat at their bidding. They did so, and the regular army was defeated. They had moderation and self-government enough to control an infuriated mob, and when they had driven the national guards out of the Tuileries, and were possessed of the royal cellars, no one presumed to drink one glass of wine unless mingled with water. Such des peration and cool deliberation, such exacerbation of feeling and self-possession, have seldom or ever been exhibited, if I may believe the descriptions which I have heard from those who were themselves witnesses of the scenes, if not actors in the drama. Louis Philippe so manages his large estate as to make it useful. Indeed, he is but a bank for public advantage. He employs 600 servants in his different palaces, city and country, and gives constant employment to 4000 laborers in improving his lands. Besides these, he employs many artists. I visited the tapestry rooms in which the most accomplished weavers fabricate the most beautiful woven pictures, landscapes, groups, and scenes, unsurpassed, I had almost said, by the | pencil of the most elegant painters. Several splendid pictures, just finished, were exhibited in one of the rooms, which had been in the loom of an arras weaver some two or three years. The whole superficies was not more than eight yards by three or four. Nothing could excel these pieces for beauty and magnificence of design and execution. The cartoons of a Raphael, and such gifted masters, are but the designs of which these are the development and consummation. They form a part of the "peculiar treasure of kings"-the rich presents which they send from one to another, by which they sometimes propitiate kind feelings and corroborate the bonds of amity. One may estimate the value of one of these fine pieces of tapestry, embossed with the richest figures in high relief, dyed in fonts of gold, mingled with the ruby, the emerald, the hyacinth, and the sapphire, on which a Flanders weaver has sat for two or three years, at from five to seven francs a day. With such tapestry are the halls of kings and queens adorned, and for all of which the people must in some way pay the cost. Louis Philippe, however, out of his immense estate, keeps some two hundred and fifty of these artists at work, and, of course, has some royal gifts to bestow upon his royal friends abroad.* Amidst all this voluptuousness and exuberant wealth, which, despite all the disbursements made, continues still to multiply and increase, there are myriads and myriads living in France upon six sous a day; and as in London so in Paris, there are myriads who know not to-night where their breakfast is to be found to-morrow. From the Louvre and the Tuileries and the Royal gardens we visited some of the churches. Of these, while that of St. Germain des Pres, usually called St. Germain's, is celebrated for its antiquity, and that of Notre Dame for its richly gothic and magnificent proportions, that of La Madeleine is by far the most admired for the beauty of its architecture and the gorgeous riches of its internal decorations. It is unequalled in England, and unsurpassed in the world, except we admit that St. Peter's at Rome, in amplitude and antique grandeur, may excel it. Buonaparte laid the foundation for this church some forty years ago. But with him it was the foundation of a temple of glory, in which were Hampton Court, there was one exhibiting "seven Among Henry VIII.'s pieces of tapestry at deadly sins," on which is an ass, a pig, a goat, a camel, a wolf, and a lion. It would have been well if he had understood it as it is explained in the procession to the "sinful house of pride," in the Fairie Queen." For the benefit of some casual reader, I will transcribe from my memorandum book: Sluggish Idleness, the nurse of sin, Upon a slothful ass he chose to ride. Loathsome Gluttony, Deformed creature, on a filthy swine. Lustful Lechery, Upon a bearded goat. Greedy Avarice did ride Revenging Wrath Upon a lion loath for to be led. to stand, in marble or on canvass, his great men of the then living and future world. Louis Philippe has finished it, and converted it into a church. commentary upon the words "take up your cross and follow me!" I turned away from this disgusting mummery and left the cathedral, questioning whether or not Louis Philippe had improved on Napoleon's design. It certainly would have been more congruous with nature, and reason, and fact, to have called this a temple of human glory and worldly pomp, rather than a Christian chapel. Not having time to survey the "Palais Buorbon," where the Chamber of Deputies were in session, or the "Luxembourgh," where the House of Peers sat, I could only cast an eye from their outward neatness and grandeur, as upon the Exchange, surrounded with its sixty-six pillars of the Corinthian order. I preferred to take a ride along the Seine, and to inspect some of the beautiful bridges which span its silvery tide. This river passing from east to west through the city, has made it necessary to erect no less than twenty-one bridges across it for the convenience of the inhabitants. These have been made ornaments to the city. The bridge of Louis XIV. is adorned with twelve beautiful white marble statues, rep Its twenty most majestic and Corinthian columns to a side, and its proportional number at each end, with all their corresponding splendors of architectural pride, in surmounting and adorning, give to its exterior a most imposing majesty, and extort from the most careless spectator, as he passes along, a tribute of admiration. But on entering its grand room, one is overwhelmed in contemplating its gorgeous magnificence. Its splendid nave, wide and lofty, carved and gilded, and canopied with gold, after the manner of King's church at Cambridge University, only still more rich and imposing, constrains every visitant to feel or to exclaim, "How exuberantly grand and splendid!" But how blind the devotion that can be pleased with such a satire upon him that was born in a stable, and who said, "The foxes have their dens, and the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." Had the taste of the Roman or English hier-resenting some of the great men who archy been consulted, Christ would have been born in a palace, and rocked in a golden cradle, enamelled with diamonds of the most costly brilliancy. While gazing on all the grandeur above and around me, I saw a priest standing before the altar, with his back to half a dozen devotees kneeling in different parts of the church, performing various genuflections and grimaces. A large cross was inwrought on his coat, after the manner of Indian beads of various colors, so that while his back was to the people, a gorgeous cross from neck to heel was visible. What a splendid device! How easy to carry such a rich and beautiful cross, kneeling on a velvet cushion under a golden canopy, with a few august worshippers in his rear! What an ingenious contributed to the glory of France. The bridge of arts, and the wire bridge attract and captivate visitants from all lands. But to speak of its eighty-six fountains, its hospitals, its catacombs, its libraries, and all other matters of public interest, on account of which the French metropolis is visited and admired, would be to write a volume, for which I have as little taste as time, and for which my readers have just as little as myself. While Paris is not more than half as large as London, it contains more means of health and pleasure than the English metropolis. Hyde Park and St. James' Park, are indeed grand luxuries at one end of London. They are places of great resort and infinite value to its inhabitants. But the public grounds, and walks, and gardens of Paris, it must be confessed, are altogether more beautiful and more magnificent, as well as more ample and convenient. The French excel in fine arts and in luxury, in gaiety and dissipation; but the English in riches and commerce, in manufactures and in the useful arts, as well as in literary institutions, morality, and religion. England is a great, France is a gay nation. Both are, however, greatly, I had almost said supremely, devoted to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life! The Roman hierarchy is here allowed, but not devoutly worshipped. Popery, in France, is policy rather than religion. The nation, in the main, is really infidel. Marriage is not "honorable in all," I had almost said honorable at all. It is, however, honored by a majority of the nation. But its obligations are less solemn in France than in England, or in any Protestant country known to me. The Lord's day is the devil's day in Paris. To church they go for one or two hours, while to the theatre or public resorts of profane pleasure the multitude devote the day. The few Protestant congregations in France are an exception. But the influence is not seen nor felt. the views of certain congregations there, now enlightened by the Bible and desiring help from abroad. May the Lord open for them a door of access to the hearts of this priest-ridden, and infidel-ridden community. I could have wished, while in Paris, that our American ladies, amateurs of Parisian fashions in dress and in manners, had a more particular acquaintance with that class of ladies whose costume and address are their beau ideals of modesty, good sense, and good manners. There is, indeed, a class of ladies in Paris, whose position in society and whose domestic virtues are such as to give them some claims upon public taste and admiration, but unfortunately their more rational, respectful, and decorous demeanor and appearance appear not to be known abroad, or if known, not to be so highly appreciated, and yet they are the political nobility and real gentility of France and Europe. If high place, good education, good sense, and polite manners ought to have any precedency or influence upon the sex, these certainly have transcendant claims upon their respect. But in the absence of such examples of good taste and good manners, I commend our ladies to a very elegant, rational, and tasteful dissertation on this subject, in a very polite epistle, written by a very accomplished gentleman, Doctor Simon Peter, letter 1st, chapter ii. 3-6. I learned from Dr. Cox in London, that the colporteurs are at work in France. In one district many Bibles have been circulated. Several priests and congregations have been in con- From Paris, tired and satiated with sequence convinced of the follies and all its greatness, its pomp and paabsurdities of Popery, and are inquir- geantry, I returned with railroad ing for Christian baptism. One of speed to Boulogne, neither knowing the priests reading the Acts of the an individual, nor making myself Apostles had almost resolved to im-known to any one of the hundreds of merse himself, that he might immerse thousands on whom I looked, and others who were inquiring for bap-through whom I pushed my way. tism. But on further reflection he concluded to wait till the Lord gave him an opportunity of being immersed by another who had been immersed. Dr. Cox, and some other person, have been appointed to visit that part of France, for the purpose of meeting I met my engagements in London within three hours. This delay was occasioned by a mist rising on the English channel which made it dangerous sailing, and therefore I arrived in England after the cars had departed for London. |