118 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OP PARIS. [Chap. VIII. 



Paris, we could not help saying to ourselves that, strengthened 

 and developed by continual exercise, these youngsters would one 

 day form a true race of men, which would give the State excellent 

 soldiers, good labourers for our farms, and strong artisans for our 

 factories. 



" It has already been stated that the English originate privileges, 

 and that we popularize and perfect their ideas. We shall prove 

 what we advance by comparison. The Parisian ^Ediles have 

 made squares wherever a too-crowded population threatened to 

 contaminate the atmosphere, and in all the parts of the city 

 farthest from the Tuileries, the Luxembourg, or the Bois de 

 Boulogne, so that those living in the neighbourhood might be 

 able to get to them easily. In London, on the contrary, with but 

 few exceptions, there are no squares worthy of the name, except 

 in rich and open neighbourhoods. The largest and most beautiful 

 gardens are found at the West-end in Belgravia, or at Brompton, 

 that is to say, at the very gates of Hyde Part. With us trees are 

 planted for sanitary reasons, and the squares have been established 

 more especially, in those neighbourhoods where the atmosphere 

 most required to be constantly purified, and to this end trees of a 

 particular sort were chosen for their power of absorption. 



" la London they appear to have been above everything anxious 

 about the health of the trees ; a healthy and warm climate was 

 chosen for them in open neighbourhoods close to the parts, so 

 that they should not suffer too much from home sictness. We do 

 not mean to say that the city, for instance, or the other parts of 

 the town are completely provided with squares, but simply that 

 they are so small and mean that they give one the idea of 

 having been blown into their position by the wind. But the 

 headquarters of misery that we spote of a short time ago — those 

 masses of crumbling houses— those networts of dart alleys — in a 

 word, all that most need pure air and daylight — have been forgotten, 

 or rather neglected, while the richer parts have been improved. 

 In Paris the squares are open to everyone : in England they are 

 looted up, surrounded by a railing surmounted with spites, and 

 planted with bushes so as to impede the view of all that is going 

 on inside. By the payment of a small sum, generally a pound a 

 year, each inhabitant of the houses forming the four sides of the 

 square has the right to a tey of the gate. So that for a poor 



