TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 169 
loans by the city of Paris. .The sum that the city was authorized to borrow in 
this way was as much as 180,000,000 francs ; nor would this in all probability be 
all, for M. F. de Laysterie said (in 1861) that Paris had incurred a total liability of 
312,000,000 francs for the indemnities of the proprietors whose houses had been 
taken, up to that time; and there were other sources of expense and further 
outlays for the liabilities since undertaken. The Imperial Government had also, 
according to the Prefect’s report, paid the city the sum of 40,500,000 francs as its 
roportion of the accounts of the works that had been then settled; and it had, 
in fact, encouraged the city in every way to undertake the duty of remodelling 
the thoroughfares of the metropolis. The consequence was that Paris had been 
changed in its external characteristics, as though by magic; the narrow, tortuous 
streets had made way for long, straight, wide boulevards, parks, &c., for the re- 
creation and the health of the people; but it remained to be seen at what expense 
to the inhabitants of the city all this was accomplished, and at what expense to 
the nation. 
The accounts of several of the works were not yet made up, but from the Pre- 
fect’s statement to the Town Council of Paris, it was easy to separate the. cost of 
the Halles’ Centrales, the Rue de Rivoli, and the Boulevard Sebastopol of the 
right bank of the Seine. Now, of these, the operation of the Halles Centrales was 
more exclusively a municipal improvement than such a one as concerned the 
State, and it ought therefore to be compared rather with the removal of Fleet 
Market than any analogous work in our country; the State also did not enter 
into the expense of this operation in any way. The cost of the transfer of the 
Halles to their present position had been, however, as follows:—the outlay in- 
curred for the purchase of land and the erection of buildings had amounted to the 
gross sum of 31,796,238°61 francs, of which the city had received, for the sale 
of waste lands, old materials, and properties unsold, capitalized at thirty-three 
years’ purchase on the rents, the sum of 6,725,071-24 francs; so that it will 
finally be a loser by this operation of 25,073,167-37 francs, or about 80 per cent. 
The Rue de Rivoli was more decidedly of the character of a city improvement 
than the Halles Centrales, for it served to put in communication with one another, 
the Tuileries, the Palais Royal, the Louvre, and the Hotel de Ville; whilst it 
formed the great artery for the traffic of Paris from the east to the west of the 
town. The cost of this operation had been about the gross sum of 108,658,000 francs, 
from which the city derived, for the sale of the surplus land and the old mate- 
rials, &c., the sum of 34,153,520 francs, thus making the net cost equivalent to 
71,504,800 francs, The State intervened for various sums in the result; that is to 
say, it contributed in some cases one-half, in some two-thirds, and in some one- 
third of the outlay; so that the total amount of its contribution for the expense of 
this street was equal to the sum of 20,740,967-27 francs. This reduced the 
cost of making the Rue de Rivoli to the city of Paris to about 50 per cent. on 
the total outlay ; but it did not affect the real results of the operation, which were, 
that it cost the nation the proportion of 68°57 per cent. of the outlay. 
As to the expense incurred upon the Boulevard Sebastopol, on the portion com- 
prised between the Strasbourg Railway Station and the Place du Chitelet, the 
city of Paris had incurred the outlay of 58,648,665-80 francs. Upon this sum 
it had received the amount of 25,880,412°63 francs for the sale of old materials, 
surplus land, &c.; so that the operation showed a total loss of 34,768,153-17 
francs, or about 60 per cent. of the total outlay. The State, however, intervened 
to the extent of one-third of the loss, which will reduce the portion that will be 
incumbent on the city of Paris to the net sum of 23,178,856-10 francs, or about 
40 per cent. of the total cost. But it is to be observed that in all the above 
calculations the interest upon the money is not taken into account, though it 
runs from the day of the jury having given their verdict. 
The accounts for the remaining works that have been undertaken for the im- 
provements of Paris have not yet been made up, as was said before, but enough of 
them is known to enable any one to reason as to their probable cost, which will 
clearly be in the same ratio as those of the Rue de Rivoli and the Boulevard Se- 
bastopol. Indeed, the works that have been rendered necessary by:the Boulevards 
Malesherbes and Prince Eugéne, the streets round the new Opera, the Rue de 
