HIS ADMINISTRATION AS MAYOR. 203 
palace during the twenty-eight months of his adminis- 
tration! No, undoubtedly! for, first it was necessary to 
- give bread to the inhabitants of Paris ; now the revenues 
of the town, added to the daily sums furnished by Necker, 
scarcely sufficed for those principal wants. Some years 
before, the Parisians had been very much displeased at 
the establishment of import dues on all alimentary sub- 
stances. The writers of that epoch preserved the bur- 
lesque Alexandrine, which was placarded all over the 
town, on the erection of the Octroi circumvallation : 
“Le mur murant Paris, rend Paris murmurant.” * 
The multitude was not content with murmuring; the 
moment that a favourable opportunity occurred, it went 
to the barriers and broke them down. ‘These were re- 
established by the administration with great trouble, and 
the smugglers often took them down by main force. 
The Octrot revenue from the imports, which used to 
amount to 70,000 franes, now fell to less than 30,000. 
Those persons who have considered the figures of the 
present revenue, will assuredly not compare such very 
dissimilar epochs. 
But it is said that ameliorations in the moral world 
may often be effected without expense. What were 
those for which the public was indebted to the direct 
exertions of Bailly? ‘The question is simple, but re- 
pentance will follow the having asked it. My answer 
is this: One of the most honourable victories gained by 
mathematics over the avaricious prejudices of the ad- 
ministrations of certain towns has been, in our own times, 
the radical suppression of gambling-houses. I will hasten 
to prove that such a suppression had already engaged 
*“ The wall walling Paris, renders Paris wailing.” 
