4-68. CALAIS ROYAL. 



tent, of an elegant form, and ornamented with tafte % 

 within and without which are a great number of tables 

 and chairs, that, like thofe in the great room, are 

 never vacant. One may venture to fay, that from about 

 nine o'clock in the morning, till about eleven at nighty 

 excepting the hour that people take for dining, there 

 are conflantly to the number of two hundred perfons in 

 the hall and under the tent. Eight waiters are incef- 

 fantly on the wing. 



On my flrfl entering the Palais Royal, I obferved, 

 from the frequenters of thefe coffee-houfes, that the 

 French were no longer the fame people as formerly. I 

 already found in them companies that were talking over 

 the Hate of the government, and the obligations, duties, 

 and adminiftration of it, with a freedom and warmth 

 that frequently broke out into clamour, acrimony, and 

 indecent impetuolity. However, fome were under ap- 

 prehenlions for the fpeaker, while others laughed at 

 him ; though the bulk of the audience were foon ani- 

 mated by the fame ardour, and even among them new 

 orators arofe. This was about the beginning of June ; 

 there were confrantly feveral hundreds of perfons within 

 doors and without ; and the numbers increafed every 

 day. The greater they were fo much the more prepol- 

 lent was . the third eftate. Here it was that the repub- 

 lican principles flrfl broke out. 



The coffee-houfe de Chartres, which, like the for- 

 mer, is in the crofs wing of the additional buildings, 

 and occupies three arcades towards the garden, but on 

 the other fide in the magnificent veftibule, looks to- 

 wards the entrance of the theatre des petits comediens, 

 was always more quiet than the fore-mentioned, and 



continues 



