1823.] 
ality which appears to bring us per- 
fectly acquainted with the subject of 
them; such, for instance, is her ac- 
count of La Fayette. Her “France” 
is a standard work, and perhaps the 
only recent book of travels on the Con- 
tineut likely to be enquired after by 
our grand-children, if we except the 
highly interesting and unpretending 
“Diary of an Invalid.” Sensible as I 
am of the tedious common places and 
repetitions, so nauseating to the reader 
in the generality of publications of the 
foregoing description, I am of opinion 
that every traveller of observation 
may meet with something worthy to 
be communicated, though a quarto 
may not be the most inviting medium 
for conveying the information. ‘ The 
Irishman’s Notes: on Paris,” in the 
recent numbers of your liberal and in- 
dependent wiscellany, support me in 
this opinion; and are infinitely more 
calculated to attract attention and to 
afford amusement, by appearing in 
the Monthly Magazine, than if they 
had been ushered to the public in the 
form of a book, with the usnal log- 
book additions of the state of the at- 
mosphere, &c. 
Under thisimpression I am induced 
to offer you the observations of an 
Englishman, made during six months’ 
residence in Paris; and should they 
appear worthy the attention of your 
readers, f propose to continue them in 
some of your future Numbers. 
Barnstaple ; 'T. Mortimer. 
Sept. 3, 1823. 
Paris Streets—Publie Buildings, &c. 
The houses of Paris surpass those 
of London in external appearance; 
but, from the narrowness of the streets 
in which they are erected, and the 
striking inferiority of the shops, they 
failin producing the same lively ef- 
fects on the eye of the stranger. In 
the good old times, when the priest 
and the noble engrossed all the com- 
forts of life, but little attention was 
paid to the convenience of the foot- 
passenger, and nothing short of a 
general conflagration can enable the 
present or future generations to 
lessen the perils to which the poor 
pedestrian is perpetually exposed from 
the want of a foot-path. The drivers 
of the cabriolets, who are perhaps not 
much more enlightened than the aris- 
AJocrats of old, appear to inherit their 
contempt for the tramping multitude, 
ag to splash an individaal of this de- 
Mr. Mortimer’s. Notes on Paris. 
387 
scription is a never-failing source of 
amusement. to them: this species. of 
practical joking, renders walking in 
Paris extremely’ disagreeable, and 
even dangerous. Among the prin- 
cipal advantages of Paris, may be 
reckoned the vicinity’ of the public 
buildings and walks, most worthy of 
attention, to one another, thus:—La 
Place Vendome, Les Champs Elysées, 
the palace of the Tuileries, its, bean- 
tiful gardens, and the Louvre,. are all 
within a quarter of an hour's, walk; 
and such a walk, for variety of inter- 
esting objects, as cannot any where 
be equalled. Another advantage, and 
that not a secondary one, is the faci- 
lity with which all the public institu- 
tions may be seen, and the total ab- 
sence of expense in secing them. In 
experiencing the unfeed attention of 
the attendants, an Englishman cannot 
help being mortified, by reflecting on 
the different conduct pursued by the 
ruling powers at home; where the 
stranger mects with nothing but ex- 
tortion and incivility;—where naval 
heroes, buried at the public expense, 
have their tombs converted into a 
two-penny puppet-show, to gratify the 
grasping avarice of some pitiful-spi- 
rited dean. I once went to St. Paul’s 
with a naval officer who had fought 
under Lord Collingwood, and. who 
expressed a wish to the guide to see 
where the remains of his gallant com- 
mander were deposited. Never did 
I see disgust more visibly portrayed 
than on the countenance of the officer, 
when he was asked for some half- 
pence, the customary fee for that pur- 
pose. Such despicable proceedings 
subject the nation to the contempt of 
all foreigners who visit our country, 
and who, unfortunately, seldom se- 
parate the conduct of the ruled from 
that of the rulers. 4, é 
The King. 
After the just and excellent deserip- 
tion of Louis, given by Lord Byron in 
his “Age of Bronze,” it would be 
superfluous to yet on the character 
of this monarch, He is certainly by 
far the most intelligent and amiable 
of the family. This cannot be a very 
consolatory reflection for his subjects ; 
for, if such priestly barbarities as the 
demolition of the tombs of Ney and 
Labedoyere—the refusal to inter an 
actress in consecrated ground—the 
‘silly removal of the remains of Voltaire 
and Rousseau from tlie Pantheon,—if 
such monkish acts have been com- 
mitted 
