PARIS. 



417 



before the Flotel de Ville, Place du Chatelet, Place 

 des Vosges, &c., deserve mention. The Seine, which 

 floys from east to west, divides Paris into two unequal 

 parts, and is crossed by nineteen bridges. It is not 

 more than half as broad as the Thames, and, as it is 

 not enlivened by shipping, it presents little attraction, 

 except in the quarter of the Tuileries. Here, on one 

 side are the Louvre and the Tuileries, with its gar- 

 dens, and on tiie other, from the Palais Bourbon to 

 the Pont Neuf, a succession of fine buildings. The 

 older bridges were all constructed at points where 

 the river is divided by islands. The Pont Neuf has 

 twelve arches, and is 1020 feet long; the Pont 

 Royal, with five arches, was built by Louis XIV. ; the 

 Pont de Louis XVI., or de la Concorde, completed in 

 1790, has five arches ; lower down the river, and op- 

 posite the Champ de Mars, is the Pont d' Jena ; and 

 higher up, opposite the Jardin des Plantes, is the Pont 

 d'Austerlitz, a fine iron bridge. The Pont des Arts, 

 opposite the Louvre, is also of iron, but is intended 

 merely for foot passengers. The last three were 

 built during the reign of Napoleon. The Pont de 

 1'Archeveche, of three arches, was built in 1828 ; 

 the Pont des Invalides, an iron bridge, in 1829; and 

 the Pont d'Arcole,also of iron, in 1828. The quays 

 are forty-nine in number ; they are stone embank- 

 ments, on both sides of the river, and around the 

 islands ; the whole extent is about fifteen miles. The 

 sewers fall into the river through arches under the 

 quays. Many passages, or covered streets, with 

 shops fitted up in an elegant style, have been con- 

 structed within a few years. Paris is supplied with 

 water, partly be aqueducts, and partly from the 

 Seine ; there are eighty-six fountains in the public 

 places and boulevards, some of which are distinguish- 

 ed for their architecture. The houses are generally 

 very high (seven or eight stories), and mostly of 

 stone. For the magnificence of its palaces, the French 

 capital surpasses every other city in Europe. The 

 Louvre, the Tuileries, the Luxembourg, the Palais 

 Royal, are described in separate articles. The Palais 

 Bourbon, on the left side of the Seine, now the place 

 of session of the chamber of deputies ; the Garde 

 Meuble, on the Place Louis XV., designed for the 

 safe-keeping of the crown jewels, and costly articles 

 of all sorts ; the Hotel des Invalides ; the military 

 school ; the Palace of the Legion of Honour ; the 

 mint ; the Hotel de Ville ; the Palais de Justice ; 

 the corn market ("Halle au Ble') ; and the new Bourse 

 (exchange), are among the other most remarkable 

 public buildings. Of the churches, Notre Dame, Ste. 

 Genevieve, now the pantheon,St Sulpice, St Eustache, 

 and St Roch are the principal. The hospitals and 

 hospices are under good arrangements. See Hospi- 

 tals ; Blind, Institutions for the; Dumb and Deaf, 

 Sicard, Haily, Lachaise ; and for the theatres, see 

 the latter part of this article. 



The finest public monument in Paris is the column 

 in the Place Vendome, erected under the superin- 

 tendence of Denon, in commemoration of the victo- 

 ries of the campaign of 1805. It is an imitation of 

 Trajan's pillar, in Rome, 134 feet high, and 12 feet 

 in diameter. It is of brass, and the material was 

 furnished by the 425 cannon taken from the Austri- 

 ans and Prussians in that campaign. It is covered 

 with 378 plates of brass by Lepcre, skilfully united, 

 and containing bass-reliefs, winding round the pillar, 

 and representing scenes of the campaign. The sta- 

 tue of Napoleon was removed in 1814. The trium- 

 phal arch in the Place du Carrousel is forty-five feet 

 high, and was erected after the war of 1806. In 

 1815, the horses of St Mark's, which had been placed 

 on its summit, were claimed by the Austrians, and 

 carried back to Venice. The Arc de 1'Etoile, at the 

 Neuilly barrier, begun in 1806, is still unfinished. 

 v. 



The gate of St Denis, a triumphal arch erected by 

 Louis XIV., is admired for its fine proportions and its 

 execution. In 1818, a new equestrian statue of 

 Henry IV. in bronze, was erected on the Pont Neuf. 

 In the Place des Victoires, there is an equestrian 

 statue of Louis XIV. In the new quarter, called 

 Villa Trocadero, on the heights of Chaillot, is an 

 obelisk 120 feet high, in commemoration of the cam- 

 paign of 1823, in Spain. 



Paris has numerous public libraries, and the access 

 to all is free. The royal library, in the Rue Riche- 

 lieu, one of the first in Europe, is rich in literary 

 treasures and rare manuscripts : it also contains a 

 large collection of coins and medals. The library of 

 the national institute is small but select. The Bibli- 

 otheque Mazarine, those of the arsenal of the mining 

 school, and of the court of cassation, deserve to be 

 mentioned. The chamber of deputies and that of 

 peers, also, have good libraries. (See Libraries.) 

 (Concerning the museum of arts in the Louvre, see 

 Louvre, and Museum.) The museum of natural his- 

 tory, the richest of the kind in Europe, is in the 

 buildings of the Jardin des Plantes. The extent of 

 this collection, the rarity and richness of many of the 

 specimens, and the excellent arrangement of the whole, 

 deserve all praise. The garden itself, and the mena- 

 gerie attached to it, are not less worthy of attention. 

 The museum of French monuments was intended for 

 the preservation of the memorials of French history, 

 taken from the different monasteries, churches, and 

 public buildings, at the time of the French revolu- 

 tion (see Lenoir) ; but after the restoration, this col- 

 lection was broken up. The conservatory of arts and 

 manufactures is a large collection of models, of high 

 interest to every artist. Paris is also the literary 

 capital of France. At the head of the public literary 

 institutions is the national institute. (See Institute.) 

 At the Bureau des Longitudes are the most distin- 

 guished astronomers and geometricians. Numerous 

 learned societies are devoted to the cultivation of 

 particular departments medicine, surgery, agricul- 

 ture, the fine arts, manufactures, &c. The univer- 

 sity of Paris, abolished during the revolution, but 

 restored by Napoleon, is divided into five faculties 

 theology, jurisprudence, medicine, philology, and 

 natural science. The lectures are gratuitous; the 

 number of students is about 4000. There are also 

 in Paris four lyceums, called colleges those of Louis 

 XIV. and Henry IV., the College Bourbon, and that 

 of Charlemagne. The College Royal de France has 

 professors of mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, his- 

 tory, law, Oriental languages, &c. The school for 

 medicine and surgery is a well endowed institution. 

 In the Jardin des Plantes, and the museum of natural 

 history, thirteen different courses of lectures on zool- 

 ogy, mineralogy, geology, botany, &c., are delivered. 

 In addition to these institutions, there is also a school 

 for the fine arts. The normal school is designed for 

 the education of instructers in the secondary schools 

 throughout the kingdom ; the military school for the 

 education of 500 youths, whose fathers nave fallen 

 in the service of their country ; the polytechnic 

 school, a favourite project of Napoleon, for the edu- 

 cation of engineers, architects, &c. The veterinary 

 school at Alfort also deserves to be mentioned. 

 There are also numerous private societies, such as the 

 four Protestant religious and philanthropic societies ; 

 the Bible society, with 120 branches; the missionary 

 society; that of Christian morality, &c. The sociftg 

 des bonnes Icttres has been known for its absolute 

 monarchical principles ; that of the Athenie de Pa- 

 ris for its constitutional principles. Some of the most 

 noted prisons are the Conciergerie ; La Force ; St 

 Pelagie, in which are confined persons guilty of po- 

 litical offences ; the Madelonnettes, for females ; the 



