of : 
«© THE Praise of Paris”! Surely this 
is not the language of impartiality ; but 
all things must be estimated by compari- 
son, and in order to justify his eulogy, 
Mr. Weston could not do better than 
compare Paris with itself. « In the year 
1792,” says he, “I ran from Paris with 
fear and trembling, because she was pos- 
sessed, like a demoniac, with a spirit of 
carnage, and reeked in the blood of Au- 
gust and September. During the in- 
terim between 1792 and 1802, when I 
revisited her again, she had continued 
ina state of siege for ten years, beset 
with troubles from without and violent 
agitations from within, and perpetual 
spoil. Butall things have an end; and 
now on my return to the same place, 
before so full of confusion and disorder, 
I find it swept and garnished, restored 
to its senses, and in its right mind: this 
extraordinary change calls aloud for 
commendation, and is a sufficient apo- 
logy for my title The Praise of Paris.” 
We could have wished Mr. Weston to 
have “ extracted’? more fully from his 
letters ; not that there is any dearth of 
information on the ordinary topics of 
enquiry, what is the colour of the con- 
sular livery? how many. theatres are 
there? who dances best, Vestris or Di- 
delot ? Our tourists have not neglected to 
give an ample list of libraries and mu- 
seums, but Mr. Weston has probably 
examined them with an antiquarian eye, 
and could easily have enlarged his too 
scanty list of curiosities ; without much 
expence of labour to himself he could 
have set before us a.much more ample 
and diversified repast ; he has given us 
a bonne bouche, but it is rather calculated 
to excite than satisfy the appetite. 
In the medal room of the national 
library is a gold dish found at Rennes 
in.1774, of the year 960 of Rome, and 
208 of Christ ; it was found in repairing 
a house belonging to the chapter, six 
feet two inches ead the surface, with 
a clasp, a chain four feet one inch in 
jength, four coins of Posthumus encir- 
cled with a fillagree, and furnished with 
a ring to hang them about the neck, and 
ninety-three imperials, of which thirty- 
four the flower of the die, are. plac- 
ed in the series of the emperors.— 
The whole weighed together seventy 
ounces. Round the dish are sixteen im- 
perial heads, let into the border with 
wreaths of parsley leaves or laurel encir- 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. | 
Art. XXIII. The Praise of Paris: or a Sketch of the French Capital; in Extrads of 
Letters from France in the Summer of 1802 5 with an Index of many of the Convents, 
Churches, and Palaces, not in the French Catalogues, which have furnis ed Pictures for» 
the Louvre Gallery. By 8S. W. F.R.S. F. A. S. 8vo. pp. 186. 
cling each. The coins begin at Ha i, 
drian, and end at Julia Domna. This” 
border surrounds two bass reliefs, one 
of which, the largest, forms the centre 
piece: the rapid description which Mr, ~ 
Weston gives of this “ inestimable trea~_ 
sure of antiquity,’ makes us anxious to 
see the promised plate and dissertation © 
of Citizen Millin. Has it yet made 
its appearance? ee 
We transcribe the following letter, as i 
it affords a specimen of Mr. Weston’s 
critical acumen :— f ; 
«¢ A sepulchral urn, with a Greek’ ins ~ 
scription on it, has heen found at Marseilles, ~ 
ina part of the ancient Abbey of Saint Vic= | 
tor, which was demolished in the ‘revolu= 
tion, in order to erect on its scite a soap — 
manufactory. About eight feet below the 
cellars many urns were found, one in pars 
ticular, with a Greek inscription upon it, — 
which has been published by Monsieur — 
Fauris Saint Vincent, in Citizen Millin’e © 
Magazin Encyclopedique, for the year V. of — 
the French Republick ; having been first re~ — 
vised by the very learned D’Ansse de Villoi-— 
son, who has corrected it all through, ex>— 
cept inthe last line: he is of opinion that it~ 
is of an age later than Augustus, from the — 
form of the letters, or, perhaps he might say, 
than Severus. The monument was in an ~ 
horizontal. position when found, though — 
originally intendcd to be set upright. It is — 
made ofa common, though very hard stone ; 2 
its length is five feet; and its breadth nine~ 
teen inches below, and seventeen above the 
inscription, which is engraved long ways on — 
the stone. - Fauris St. Vincent is of opinion, 
that this monument served first for the person — 
in the inscription; and in process.of time was — 
used for some other person; and had had its 
osition ehanged from upright to horizontal. 
The urn is withont a cover, thoagh it appears * 
that it once had one, and, perhaps, asmall 
statue on itin its erect state; some few bones — 
were found in it. The inscription is thus: eit-+- 
graved-on the monumenb: 
PAAYTKIA EZTI TA®O . 
TAIS AANEOHKE NEOX” © 
AFIZAE EK MEIKPOY TIPOSHA © 
TEP EYZEBIHN OYK E@OHE  ~ 
Q TAHMON IAEIN TONON O10" 
AN HN SOI PHPAIO TEYXEIN- 
OY TA®ON AAAA BION H &0 
NEPA AYMAX IIANT AAIKOY —- © 
A TYXH MHTPI MEN EN'EN, © 
THPA: AAKPY ©HXATO THAE, 
T'YNAIKI XHPIAN AYETHNOT. 
TIAIAOZ AM OP@ANIH 
eae 
