LETTERS FROM PARIS, 441 



JLaure afTerts, that this calculation is very credible, and 

 made by a man who was long employed in the bureaux 

 of the poll-tax, and had acquired a thorough know- 

 ledge in thefe matters. The geographers, and parti- 

 cularly Bufching, are therefore too fparing in the po- 

 pulation they apportion tp Paris; fince none of them 

 give it more than feven hundred thoufand inhabitants. 

 You know how indeterminate and deceitful the taxes 

 are by which the populoufnefs of great cities is ufually 

 eftimated ; accordingly I willingly acquiefce in the ac- 

 counts of each receiver of the head-money ; for as to 

 a trifle more or lefs in this article, it is of no confe- 

 quence. 



The heart of the city is the proper feat of this popu- 

 lation. Admitting the palais de juftice to be the cen- 

 tral-point, then a circle runs round it of two thoufand 

 toifes or of more than three miles in diameter, which 

 feems to be full-crammed with houfes, of which none 

 are under three, and the greater! part above five ftories 

 high. This circle peculiarly contains whatever can 

 render Paris the mo ft lively, the moft unclean, the 

 moft noify, but at the fame time the moft fplendid 

 and moft luxurious city in the world. It includes the 

 antient boulevards, and almoft touches the new ones ; 

 comprehends the palais royal, the Tuilleries, nine or 

 ten play-houfes, ten or twelve large halls, five or ftx 

 markets, the Louvre, the quays, the fauxbourg St. 

 Germain, the Seine with five of its bridges, four fu- 

 perb fquares, ten or twelve of the largeft churches, 

 from thirty to forty of the flneft hotels, the moft fre- 

 quented and wealthy ftreets, magazines of all kinds, 

 ftored with every article of luxury : and, in fhort, the 



choicer! 



