PARIS 



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of the Cite, stands the H6tel de Ville. It was 

 burned by the Commune, but has been rebuilt and 

 restored in the style of its predecessor, and is now 

 one of the finest buildings in Paris. On the Island 

 of the Cite stands the Palais de Justice, a vast pile, 

 also set fire to by the Commune ; some parts of it 

 date from the 14th century, and others are modern. 

 It is the seat of some of the courts of law, as 

 the Courts of Cassation, of Appeal, and of Police. 

 Within the precincts of this palace are the Sainte 

 Chapelle, and the noted old prison of the Con- 

 ciergerie, in which Marie Antoinette, Dantou, and 

 Robespierre were successively confined. 



The Conciergerie, just mentioned, in which pris- 

 oners are lodged pending their trial, constitutes 

 one of the eight prisons of Paris, of which the prin- 

 cipal is La Force. The Nouveau Bicetre is designed 

 for convicts sentenced to penal servitude for life ; 

 St Pelagie receives political offenders, St Lazare 

 is exclusively for women, the Madelonnettes for 

 juvenile criminals, and Clichy for debtors. 



The number of benevolent institutions is enor- 

 mous. The largest of the numerous hospices or 

 almshonses is La Salpetriere, probably the largest 

 asylum in the world, extending over 78 acres of 

 land, and appropriated solely to old women ; 

 Bicetre receives only men. The Hospice des 

 Enfans Trouves, or Foundling Hospital (q.v. ), pro- 

 vides for the infants brought to it till they reach 

 the age of maturity, and only demands payment in 

 the event of a child being reclaimed. The Creches 

 (q.v.) receive the infants of poor women for the 

 day at the cost of 20 centimes. Besides institu- 

 tions for the blind, deaf and dumb, convalescents, 

 sick children, &c., Paris has many general and 

 special hospitals. Of these the oldest and most 

 noted are the H6tel Dieu, La Charite, and La 

 Pitie. 



The chief institutions connected with the Univer- 

 sity of France, and with education generally, are 

 still situated in the Quartier Latin. The BorboMM 

 (q.v.), the seat of the Paris faculties of letters, 

 science, and Protestant theology, has been rebuilt 

 and increased in size. The new building was opened 

 in 1889, when it was announced that a complete re- 

 organisation of the university system of France was 

 contemplated (see UNIVERSITY). The Sorbonne 

 contains lecture-halls and class-rooms, and an exten- 

 sive library open to the public. There gratuitous 

 lectures are given, and degrees are granted by the 

 University of France. Near the Sorbonne is the 

 College de France, where gratuitous lectures are 

 also delivered by eminent scholars and men of 

 letters, as well as a large number of colleges and 

 lycees, the great public schools of France for 

 secondary instruction. Most of them have been 

 recently rebuilt, filling the Quartier Latin with 

 huge barrack-like buildings. The Scotch College 

 stands as it did in the 17th century, five stories 

 high, with eleven windows in a row, a good speci- 

 men of the old Paris colleges. At present, owing 

 to the war between the republic and the Roman 

 Catholic Church, the schools of the latter are in- 

 dependent of the university, and there is no faculty 

 of Roman Catholic theology at the Sorbonne. The 

 Ecole Polytechnique, the School of Medicine and the 

 School of Law, the Observatory, and the Jardin des 

 Plantes, with its great museums of natural history, 

 partly rebuilt on a grand scale and opened in 1889, 

 lecture-rooms, and botanical and zoological gardens 

 are situated in the same quarter of Paris. The 

 principal of the public libraries are those of the Rue 

 Richelieu, now called the Bihliotheque Nationale 

 (see LIBRARY), which originated in a small collec- 

 tion of Ixioks placed by Louis XI. in the Louvre. 

 It is rivalled only by the British Museum in the 

 number of its books and manuscripts, but its use- 

 fulness is impaired by the want of a proper cata- 



logue, which makes its treasures less accessible than 

 they should be. 



No city on this side of the Alps is richer than 

 Paris in fine-art collections, and among these the 

 museums at the Louvre stand pre-eminent. Among 

 its chief treasures may be mentioned, in the museum 

 of antique sculptures, the famous Venus of Milo, 

 and in the Salon Carre the great works of the 

 Italian, Flemish, and Spanish masters. It is im- 

 possible to do more than refer to the long succes- 

 sion of galleries in which are exhibited Egyptian, 

 Assyrian, Elamitic, Greek, Roman, mediaeval, and 

 Renaissance relics and works of art. The Musee 

 Carnivalet or historical museum of the city of 

 Paris has been specially devoted to the collection 

 of everything interesting connected with the muni- 

 cipality. On the demolition of the old houses 

 many objects were found which formed the nucleus 

 of the collection, which is constantly receiving large 

 additions which make it one of the most interest- 

 ing of the Paris museums. The Palais des Beaux- 

 Arts is used as an exhibition of art, manufac- 

 tures, and architectural models. The Hotel de 

 Cluny, connected underground with the Palais 

 des Thermes, contains curious relics of the arts 

 and usages of the French people, from the 

 earliest ages of their history to the Renaissance 

 period. The potteries, sculptures, paintings, arms, 

 furniture, ana tapestries of the middle ages and of 

 the 16th and 17th centuries are of the highest his- 

 torical interest and value. The Museum of Artil- 

 lery at the Hotel des Invalides is devoted to arms 

 and armour, flags and war dresses. The Musde 

 Guimet, or ' National Museum of Religions,' includes 

 objects used in religious ceremonies, savage, Indian, 

 Chinese, &c. The Mint deserves notice for the per- 

 fection of its machinery ; and the Gobelins (q.v.), or 

 tapestry manufactory, may be included under the 

 fine arts, as the productions of its looms are all 

 manual, and demand great artistic skill. The 

 Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, in the Rue St 

 Martin, contains a great collection of models of 

 machinery, and class-rooms for the instruction of 

 workmen in all departments of applied science. 

 The great Paris exhibitions have all left behind 

 them important buildings. The Palace of In- 

 dustry, built in 1854, now forms a permanent 

 exhibition. The spacious building in which the 

 exhibition of 1878 took place was named Palace of 

 the Trocadero, and is now used for musical enter- 

 tainments and as an architectural and ethnological 

 museum. For the exhibition of 1889 was erected 

 one of the most striking monuments of modern 

 Paris, the Eiffel (q.v.) Tower. 



Paris was surrounded, under Louis-Philippe, 

 with fortifications costing 5,500,000 sterling, and, 

 in addition to these, a large number of detached 

 forts have since been erected. The walls, 37,000 

 yards in length, are penetrated by sixty-nine open- 

 ings, fifty-six for gates, nine for railways, two for 

 the canals of St Denis and the Ourq. Through 

 the two remaining breaks passes the Seine. At 

 the gates are paid the octroi or town dues, a large 

 source of revenue to the city of Paris. On the left 

 bank of the Seine is the Ecole Militaire, founded in 

 1752, and used as barracks for infantry and cavalry ; 

 it can accommodate 10,000 men and 800 horses. 

 Near it is the Hotel des Invalides, founded in 1670 

 for disabled soldiers. The crypt of the church con- 

 tains the sarcophagus, hewn from a huge block of 

 Russian granite, in which lie the remains of 

 Napoleon, deposited there in 1840. 



Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements. 

 The prefect of the Seine is the chief of the muni- 

 cipal government, and is appointed by the govern- 

 ment. There is a large municipal council, chosen 

 by popular election. Each arrondissement has a 

 inaire and two assistant-councillors. The prefect 



