PARIS 



767 



lying along the outskirts of the old city, the latter 

 passing through and connecting a long line of 

 distant suburbs. In the year 1867, when the inter- 

 national exhibition was opened, Paris had become 

 in all respects the most splendid city in Europe. 

 Many further improvements were then contem- 

 plated. Financial and political difficulties were, 

 however, at hand (see FRANCE), and these schemes 

 had to be postponed. The siege of Paris by the 

 Germans, which lasted from 19th September 1870 

 to 28th January 1871, caused much less injury to 

 the city than might have been expected it was 

 reserved for a section of the Parisian population to 

 commit an act of vandalism without a parallel in 

 modern times. On the 18th of March the Red 

 Republicans, who had risen against the govern- 

 ment, took possession of Paris. On the 27th March 

 the Commune was declared the only lawful govern- 

 ment. Acts of pillage and wanton destruction 

 followed. On the 15th of May the column erected 

 to the memory of Napoleon and the Great Army, 

 in the Place Venddme, was solemnly pulled down 

 as 'a monument of tyranny." The government 

 troops under Marshal MacMahon attacked the in- 

 surgents, and kept them from doing further mischief. 

 The former succeeded in entering Paris on the 20th 

 of May, and next day the Communists began 

 systematically to set fire with petroleum to a great 

 number of the chief buildings of Paris, public and 

 private. The fire for a time threatened to destroy 

 the whole city. It raged with the greatest fury on 

 the 24th, and was, not checked until property had 

 been lost to the value of many millions sterling, 

 and historical monuments were destroyed which 

 never can be replaced. The horror inspired by the 

 Commune for a time drove the wealthy classes 

 from Paris, and it was feared that it would lose its 

 prestige as a European capital. This, however, 

 has not proved to be the case. By the autumn of 

 1873 all the private houses burned had been rebuilt, 

 the monuments only partially injured had been 

 restored, and the streets and public places were as 

 splendid and gay as in the best days of the 

 empire. 



Since the establishment of the republic improve- 

 ments have been executed little if at all inferior in 

 importance to those of the second empire. New 

 streets have been opened near the Paris Bourse de 

 Commerce and the Post-office ; the Champs de Mars, 

 a waste of sand, has l>een converted into a beauti- 

 ful garden, in which rises the Eiffel Tower ; the 

 museums of the Jardindes Plantes have been rebuilt ; 

 the Quartier Latin has been covered with educa- 

 tional buildings. In 1890-91 two great undertak- 

 ings were mooted asvstem of metropolitan railways 

 to connect the great Paris stations with the heart 

 of the city, and the conversion of Paris into a sea- 

 port by the deepening of the Seine, or the con- 

 struction of a ship-canal to the Channel. The 

 magnificent International Exhibition of 1900 did 

 not attract the vast crowds for whom preparations 

 had been made, and was not financially as success- 

 ful as was hoped. 



Somewhat conflicting opinions are expressed on 

 the part Paris has played in the history of the 

 world. After Athens and Rome, says one writer, 

 it is the city that has made the deepest impression 

 on men's minds. Paris, says another, has carried 

 the torch of life and civilisation from century to 

 century, and done most to spread culture and 

 enlightenment throughout the globe. At this 

 moment, says a third, the inhabitants are the best 

 fed and bent clad, the best educated of city popu- 

 lations. These views are generally accepted in 

 France. There is, however, a reverse to the pic- 

 ture. The Parisians are declared to be a feeble 

 people, dying out, and constantly recruited by 

 ! Hi migration from Belgium, Alsace, Switzerland, 



and Italy. Paris is a modern Babylon ; its 

 domestic life, described in French novels, is a 

 centre of corruption for Europe. There has been, 

 no doubt, truth in all these views at different 

 periods of the history of Paris. Certain it is, 

 however, that in England it is too often forgotten 

 that in Paris drunkenness is almost unknown, 

 that among a large section of the population 

 there has always been a pure domestic life, and 

 that the profligacy of the second empire has now 

 ceased to exist. 



See the guidebooks of Murray, Baedeker, Joanne, and 

 topographical works by Du Camp (7th ed. 6 vols. 1884), 

 Colin (1885), Pontich (1884), and the official Annuaire 

 Ktatistique ( since 1883); G. A. Sala, Paris Herself Attain 

 (1879) ; P. G. Hamerton, Paris in Old and Present Times 

 (1884; new ed. 1892); Piton, Comment Paris a' eat Trans- 

 form?; Hiitoire,Topoijraphie, <v. ( 1891 ) ; ParisGuidepar 

 let principatix Ecrivains et Artistes de la France (in trod. 

 by Victor Hugo, and parts by Hichelet, Louis Blanc, 

 Kenan, Sainte-Beuve, laine, Quinet, Viollet-le-Duc, \c. 

 (2 vols. 1867-08); Hoffbauer, Parii d tracers les AIJCS 

 ( 1890 et icq.) ; Lebeuf, Hutoire de la Ville et de la Dim-tie 

 de Parii (15 vols. 1754; new ed. by Cocheris, 4 vols. 

 1863); Dulaure, Histoire Civile, Physique, et Morale de 

 Parii (7 vols. 1821; new ed. by Leynadier, 1874); 

 histories by De Gaulle (1840), Gabourd (1863-65), Arago 

 ( Paris Moderne, 2d eJ. 1867 ) ; and the copious Histoire 

 Generate de la Ville de Parii, issued, since 1866, by the 

 municipal authorities ; also histories of the university, in 

 the middle ages by Budinssky ( Berlin, 1876 ), and in the 

 17th and 18th centuries by Jourdam I Paris, 18&i-6li). 

 Some account of the siege of Paris in 1870-71 is given at 

 FRANCE, VoL IV. p. 783. See also Du Camp, Les Con- 

 vulsiont de Paris (1875-79); Morin, Histnire Critique 

 lie la Commune (1871 ); Vinoy, Siiije de Paris (1872); 

 Viollet-le-Duc, LaDcfensedeParis(VSi%) ; books by Grant 

 Allen ( 1897 ), Belloc ( 1900 ), Macdonald ( 1900 ), Whiteing 

 (1900) ; see Lacombe, KMioyraphie de Parii (1886). 



. DECLARATION OF PARIS. In 1856 the repre- 

 sentatives of the Powers agreed to four points in 

 International Law (q.v.) viz. (1) Privateering is 

 abolished; (2) the neutral flag covers enemies' 

 goods, excepting Contraband of War (q.v.) ; (3) 

 neutral goods, with the same exception, are not 

 liable to be seized even under an enemy's flag ; (4) 

 blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective. 

 The United States refused to accept the first point, 

 because the European powers declined to affirm 

 that thereafter all private property should be 

 exempted from capture by ships of war. See 

 NEUTRALITY. 



TREATIES OF PARIS. The Peace of Paris of 

 1763 terminated the Seven Years' War (q.v.) ; fixed 

 the territorial relations of Germany, France, and 

 Spain ; gave to England the French colonies in 

 America ; and rearranged the possessions of France 

 and England in the West Indies, India, and Africa. 

 The Treaty of 1814, concluded by the Allies soon 

 after the abdication of Napoleon, reduced France 

 substantially to its old limits. That of 1815, after 

 Waterloo, did so more completely, levied a heavy 

 contribution towards the war expenses, and re- 

 constituted the map of Europe on the old lines. 

 The Treaty of 1856 concluded the Crimean War 

 (q.v.). A Treaty of 1857 arranged relations 

 between Britain and Persia. 



Paris, (1) capital of Bourbon county, Ken- 

 tucky, on Stoner Creek, 19 miles by rail NE. of 

 Lexington. It contains a military institute, and 

 manufactures whisky, flour, cordage, &c. Pop. 

 (1900) 4003. (2) Capital of Lamar county, Texas, 

 98 miles by rail NE. of Dallas. It has manufac- 

 tories of brooms, furniture, sashes, wagons, ploughs, 

 &c. Pop. (1900)9358. 



I'aris. a genus of plants of the small endogen- 

 ous natural order Trilhacese, of which one species, 

 P. quadrifolia, called Herb Paris, is not uncommon 

 in moist, shady woods in some parts of Britain. It 



