Paris. 5 



woods in the neighbourhood of Paris. In winter, indeed, 

 the difference between the environs of Paris and London is 

 still more remarkable than in summer, from the almost total 

 absence of evergreen shrubs in the gardens and plantations 

 of the former, and their great abundance in those of the 

 latter. The excellent gravel and turf of London, and the 

 very bad gravel and turf of Paris and the Continent generally, 

 have been too often mentioned to have escaped the reader's 

 recollection. 



The evidences of wealth and taste are incomparably greater 

 in the neighbourhood of London than in the neighbourhood 

 of Paris. The character of the Parisian taste consists in dis- 

 play and superficialness ; that of the English in comfort and 

 neatness : the Englishman seems to wish to be thought happy 

 in his family ; the Frenchman in the society of his friends and 

 in the eyes of the public : eating, drinking, and sleeping, call 

 forth the social sympathies of the Englishman ; talking, hear- 

 ing, and rejoicing, those of the Frenchman. 



The City of Paris as compared with London is, we think, a 

 better planned congregation of buildings. The outer and the 

 inner boulevards, like our breathing zones (Vol. V. p. 687.), 

 are at once sources of health and of utility ; for they admit a 

 free current of air, and persons going from one distant part of 

 the town to another may always, by means of the numerous 

 public vehicles, which ply in both directions in these zones, 

 save both time and fatigue. The streets of Paris are, for the 

 most part, narrower than those of London, and they are 

 generally without footpaths. It would certainly be advisable 

 in this city, as in most of the old ones of Europe, for the pro- 

 per authorities to form a plan for widening and finally arrang- 

 ing the streets, the average supply of water, gas, heat, &c, and 

 to provide for its gradual execution, say in the course of half 

 a century. By promulgating this plan, which ought to in- 

 clude also provision for indefinite increase outwards, property 

 and situations now peculiarly favourable for business would 

 gradually vary from their present to their ultimate value, 

 whether greater or less than at present ; so that the execution 

 of the plan gradually and at distant periods would be nothing 

 like so expensive as its immediate or early execution. Paris, 

 in its present state, where the houses are so close together, and 

 where so many families are lodged under one roof, appears to us 

 to be very favourably circumstanced for being heated by public 

 companies. Whether steam or hot water would be better 

 adapted for this purpose, we are not prepared to state ; but 

 nothing could be easier than to heat whole streets from one 



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