434 MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TREADWELL. 



press. But he did not forget to examine a piece of ordnance whenever it chanced 

 to fall in liis way, sometimes not very successfully. In Naples he one day attempted 

 to examine a cannon guarding one of the great squares, and began measuring it, 

 when he was instantly seized by some of the officials, and peremptorily ordered to 

 foil back under penalty of being taken for a suspect if he persevered. We .«pent 

 many days (without our party) at Pompeii, Mr. Treadwell measuring and examining 

 the construction of the houses and baths, and taking great delight in looking at the 

 things found in Pompeii, now collected in the Museum." 



AYhile in Europe he wrote the following lettei's to his old friend, Dr. John 

 Ware. 



To Dr. John Ware. 



Paris, November 12, 1847. 

 Dear Sir, — Your letter by the steamer of October reached me soon after my arrival here, 

 which was on the 8th of October. ... So we are in Paris, centre of fashion and the high science 

 of the world. Twenty-seven years ago I was in tlie same city, and within a thousand feet of 

 the spot where I now write. The great buildings and streets all appear to me as old ac(iuaint- 

 ances. Some of the signs of the shops even I remember. I notice, however, an evident 

 inii)rovcment in the moral asjicct of certain orders, and a great accession to the power and comfort 

 of the people by the adoption of Englisli inventions in the arts. For example, I crossed the 

 channel in a steamer, — English with a spice of American. I came from Abbeville to Paris by 

 railway, — English. The wires of the telegraph pass over the whole line, — English or American, 

 or both. I entered Paris in the evening, and found it flaming with gas, — English again. And 

 what have the French to oppose to these great Anglo-Sa.xon improvements which so strongly 

 mark the present age? I can think of nothing more important at this moment than the Daguerro- 

 tvpe, and in this art the English form of Talbotype seems now to be getting the lead. For 

 pul)lic works executed in Paris since 1820, there appears to have been none of greater impor- 

 tance tlian the erection of the obelisk and building the fountains in the Place de la Concorde. 

 The Arc de I'fitoile is the greatest work of the kind I ever beheld, and I can well believe it is 

 what the French claim it to be, the noblest arch in the world. Indeed, I hardly supposed such 

 a structure capable of so much grandeur of appearance. But is it not a striking fact, that of all 

 the hundreds of names of victories and battles with which it is covered, there is not one men- 

 tioned in which the opposing force was English or mostly English, while Nelson and Wellington 

 have filled Ensland with names and monuments to record the triumphs of the English over the 

 French. But I am talking the French down wben I am getting to like them more and more 

 every day. . . . You of course went many times to the meetings of the Institute. I cannot 

 therefore <^ive vou anything about this most distinguished body which will be new to you. I 

 have attended at three of its meetings, and as it is without dispute the highest, or perhaps more 

 properly the most select, scientific body in the world, 1 could not but be closely attentive to all 

 that I saw. It did not seem to me that the members presented that superiority of appearance 

 over ordinary men that one would be likely to expect to find from their superior intollect. The 

 heads, thousrli good, are not strikingly so. and I saw no head equal to Webster's or Bowditch's. 

 I was particularly struck with the appearance of Arago, who is one of the best-looking men in 



