PARIS. 



PARIS. 



73 



wall, which still exists, comprehending a much larger area tbau any 

 previous iuclosure, and desL-ned to prevent the introduction of com- 

 modities without the payment of the octrois, or local taxes. For thia 

 purpose 58 barriers, flanked by handsome guard-houses, were erect, -d. 

 The faubourgs du-Roule, St-Honord, St.-Lazare, Poissoniere, and ] 

 Chausse'e-d'Antin were covered with good houses. The Palais-de- 

 Justice was repaired ; the Palais-Royal was completed ; tbe Ecole-de- 

 Mddecin". the Colleg?-de-Franc , the theatres Fran9ais, Itulien, 

 Feydeau, de-1'Odeon, and de-la-Porte-St-Martin, the Rotonde of the 

 Temple, and several hallea and fountains were built ; and the Marchd- 

 des Innocents and other markets were opened. 



The local history of Paris during the Revolution is the history of j 

 the Revolution itself. In 1789 (July 14) the Bastille (which had been 

 greatly enlarged, fortified, and used as a state prison) was taken and 

 demolished by the Parisians. In October of the same year tbe king 

 was brought from Versailles to Paris by the Parisian mob. On the 

 attempt of the king to quit France (21st June, 1791) some rioting took 

 place, and in the early part of 1792 fresh commotions occurred. On 

 the 20th June the Tuileries was attacked by the populace, and the 

 lives of the royal f.imily endangered ; on the 1 Oth August that palace 

 was again attacked, and the king's Swiss guards who defended it were 

 slaughtered ; and on tbe 2nd of September tbe mob broke into the 

 various prisons and massacred those confined in them. The king was 

 deposed, and the Legislative Assembly gave place to the Convention, 

 in which the more violent of the revolutionist* gradually obtained the 

 ascendancy. 



The guillotine was erected in the Place Louis XV. (now Place-de- 

 IvConcordr), between the gardens of the Tuileries and the Champs- 

 ElyieVs, and the king himself was one of the earliest victims (21st 

 January, 1793). In June the Girondist party in the Convention was 

 overthrown ; the faction of the Mountain became supreme, the reign 

 of terror commenced, and blood flowed in torrents. Executions took 

 place daily in the Place Louis XV. : Charlotte Corday, the assassin of 

 Marat, queen Marie Antoinette, Brissot, Vergniaud, and others, the 

 most illustrious member* of the Girondist party in the Convention, 

 Hyalite, duke of Orleans, Danton and Camille Desmonlins, Moun- 

 taineers themselves, Madame Elizabeth, sister of Louis XVI., and 

 numerous others perished. The victims at one time amounted to fifty 

 or sixty a-day, and occasionally exceeded that number. The guillotine 

 was shifted from the Place Louis XV. to the Place-de-U-Bastille, and 

 from thence to the Placexlu-Trone, at the eastern extremity of the 

 city, in the Faubourg St.-Antoine, whence it was brought back to the 

 Place Louis XV. for the execution of Robespierre and his associates 

 (28th July, 1794), which put an end to 'the reign of terror.' The 

 Convention, freed from the tyranny which Robespierre had established, 

 restricted the power of the terrible committees, abolished the commune 

 of Paris, and reduced the clubs to subordination. The Polytechnic 

 school, tbe Institute, and the Hurrau-des-Longitudes owe their estab- 

 lishment to the Convention. In 1795 the Parisian rabble rose 

 repeatedly against the government, but were put down by the armed 

 force of the forty -eight 'sections,' into which Paris had been divided. 

 In October, 1795, this armed force itself row against the Convention, 

 but was completely defeated by tbe troops of the line at Paris, com- 

 manded nominally by Barras, but really by Bonaparte. The govern- 

 ment of France now passed into tbe hands of the two legislative 

 council* and the executive directory. Under Bonaparte, successively 

 first consul and emperor (December 2, 1804), Paris enjoyed an increasing 

 prosperity and almost uninterrupted quiet till the year 1814. 



Notwithstanding the extreme warlike activity of his reign, which 

 hung the churches of Paris with the flags of all the continental powers 

 of Europe, Napoleon L did not neglect the decoration of bis capital 

 AU the houses which as yet stood on the edge of the quays were 

 swept away, and tbe prospect of tbe river opened entirely to view ; 

 tbe quays were extended ; the bridge of Aunterlitz spanned the Seine 

 opposite the J.ardin-des-Plantes; the Pont-de-la-Cit<5 joined tbe Ile-St- 

 I/. m* to the Ile-de-la-Citd; the Pont-des-Arts connected the Louvre 

 with the Institute ; and the Pont-de-Jena, the most western bridge of 

 which crosses the river opposite the Ecole-Militaire and 

 Champ -de -Mars, was erected. The Ourcq Canal was commenced 

 to bring tbe water of that river to the plateau of la-Villete on the 

 north side of the city, nearly 100 feet above the level of the Seine. 

 Numerous elegant fountain* sprung up ; halles and markets were 

 established ; and five large abattoirs were built at the extremities of 

 the town. The Louvre was filled with masterpieces of painting and 

 sculpture, collected by no very scrupulous means from the galleries of 

 conquered countries. The great column of tbe grand army was erected 

 in the Place- Vemlome. The Luxembourg palace was restored, and its 

 gardens embellished and united to the Observatory by a magnificent 

 avenue. The Chamber of the Legislative Body was built between the 

 Palais-Bourbon and the Pont Louis XVI. Tbe Bourse, the Tribunal of 

 Commerce, and the Madeleine wore commenced ; churches were 

 repaired, and the Pantheon, again become the church of Sainte-Gene- 

 Tieve, was restored to religious uses. 



Paris after a gallant defence capitulated on the 30th of March, 1814, 

 to the aMied forces under the command of Prince Schwarzenberg. On 

 the 31st the allied sovereigns who accompanied tbe prince and their 

 troops entered ; Napoleon was dethroned and the Bourbons restored. 

 Next year Napoleon returned (March 20th), to Paris from Elba, but 



the defeat of Waterloo brought the allied English and Prussian armies, 

 under Wellington and Blucher, before the city. On tbe 8th of July, 

 Louis XVIII. re-entered Paris, and the Bourbons were again restored. 

 A long interval of tranquillity followed, during which the Ourcq, 

 St.-Denis, and St-Martin canals were finished for the supply of the 

 north side of the city ; and the colleges of Henri IV. and St.-Louis 

 were enlarged ; and the lighting, cleansing, and paving of the town 

 improved. Then followed the reign of Charles X. (1824-30), during 

 which the church of St-Vincent-de-Paul was commenced, some other 

 churches were repaired or rebuilt, a statue of Louis XIII. was erected 

 on the Place-Royale, that of Louis XIV. on the Place-des-Victoires, 

 the Pont-de-la-Coucorde adorned with statues of the illustrious warriors 

 and statesmen of France, and the bridges of Arcole, de-l'ArcheVeche, and 

 d'Autin were built. In 1830 came the Revolution of the three days 

 (27th, 28th, and 29th) of July, which overthrew the Bourbon dynasty, 

 and established tbat of Orleans. In this memorable struggle above four 

 thousand barricades were formed. Of the Parisians, 7S8 were killed 

 and about 4500 wounded. The revolution of 1830 placed the crown 

 of France on the head of Louts Philippe, duke of Orleans, whose father 

 was guillotined during the reign of terror in 1793. During this reign, 

 which lasted till 1S48, several important works were completed. 

 Among tbe most important of these are the church of La-Madeleine, 

 the Palais-des-Beaux-Arts, the church of St.-Viucent-de-Paul, the 

 H6tel-de-Ville, and the triumphal arch de-1'Etoile, at the head of the 

 long avenue of the Champs-Elysees outside the barrier of Neuilly. 

 Several new bridges and quays were constructed ; the asylum for deaf- 

 mutes was rebuilt, and the approaches opened to the church of 

 Sainte Genevieve, which was converted to a temple in honour of the 

 great men of France ; the monument of July was finished, and the 

 statue of Napoleon I. replaced upon the column of the Grand Army in 

 the Place- Vend6me. The remains of the emperor Napoleon I. were 

 brought from St. Helena to Paris by the Duke de Joinville, and 

 deposited in the Invalides. The Place-de-la-Concorde (Louis Quinze) 

 was decorated with fountains and an obelisk, brought from Luxor in 

 Egypt The Places Louvoia and St-Sulpiee were embellished with 

 beautiful fountains. The Barriere-du-Trone was completed and adorntd 

 with colossal statues of St. Louis and Philippe Auguste. Several 

 railway termini were erected; the artesian well of Crenelle was bored; 

 the normal school built ; and last not least, the city of Paris and its 

 suburbs were surrounded by vast fortifications, protected by fourteen 

 detached forts, at a coat of not less than twenty millions sterling. 



In 1848 the stiff-neckeil opposition of King Louis Philippe and his 

 ministers to electoral reform led to tbe erection of barricades and a 

 new revolution, in which the troops soon fraternised with the people. 

 The king abdicated (February 24) in favour of bis grandson, the 

 Count de Paris, son of the Duke of Orleans, who was killed by a fall 

 from his gig in 1842, outside the Barriere de-Neuilly. The count was 

 not accepted : the republican chiefs then taking the lead appointed a 

 provisional government, and proclaimed a democratic republic. A Con- 

 stituent Assembly was convoked, which framed a constitution in form 

 of a republic with a president for chief magistrate. Tbe Red Republican 

 party, dissatisfied with the comparative moderation of the assembly, 

 formed numerous clubs, in which the wildest principles of socialism 

 were advocated, subversive alike of property and society. In further- 

 ance of these objects, a vast assemblage of clubbists, led on by Barbda 

 and others, forced their way into tbe National Assembly, and proposed 

 " a tax upon the rich to carry on war for Poland." They then seized 

 the Hotel-de-Ville, and proclaimed a provisional government (May 15, 

 1848) ; but ultimately the national guard forced their way in, and 

 arrested the leaders of tbe movement, who were lodged in the Castle 

 of Vinccnnes. The logs of their leaders however did not discourage 

 tbe socialists. On the 23rd of June barricades were again thrown up 

 in the streets, and firing continued in most parts of Paris during the 

 night On the 24th the troops, under generals Cavaiguac and Lamori- 

 ciere, succeeded with great loss in driving the insurgents from the left 

 bank of the Seine. On the 25th all the positions of the insurgents in 

 the centre of the city were taken, and on the 26th the Faubourg du- 

 Temple was swept with cannons and howitzers, and the whole city was 

 in the evening in the hands of the government by which General 

 Cavaignac bad been appointed dictator. It was in this bloody insur- 

 rection that the noble archbishop of Paris (Denis Afire) lost his life, 

 having been shot down by an unknown hand when, during a tem- 

 porary cessation of the battle, he mounted a barricade in order to 

 prevent the further effusion of blood, and to make peace between the 

 combatants. 



The constitution framed by the assembly was solemnly proclaimed 

 in front of the Tuileries (November 11, 1848), and Prince Charles 

 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte elected President of the Republic, who 

 took the oath of office on the 21st of December following in the 

 National Assembly, which still continued its sittings till the meeting 

 of tbe Legislative Assembly, May 27th, 1849. Under the vigorous 

 administration of the Prince both the mad attempts of the Red 

 Republicans were suppressed and the intrigues of the Legitimists and 

 Orldanista baffled At last tbe President, in order to put an end to 

 the disquieting hopes of parties, issued a decree, December 2, 1851, 

 dissolving tbe Legislative Assembly, re-establishing universal suffrage 

 (which had been very considerably narrowed by the assembly), pro- 

 posing the election of a president for ten years, and a second chamber, 



