88 THE SQUARES, PLACES, CHURCH GARDENS, ETC. 



remarked^ and we will answer for it that a woman in whose 

 breast maternal instinct lias not been entirely smothered 

 will never take her child into a pnblic place without first 

 paying attention to the cleanliness which is the ornament of 

 the poor. Some time ago^ while walking through the 

 Square du Temple, where hundreds of children were running 

 and jumping and filling their lungs with the country air 

 that has thus been brought into 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 excep- 

 tions, 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 

 Park. 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. Fountains 

 too were built, and small pieces of water, which spread 

 that pleasant freshness through the air that is so grateful 

 to the workman who has passed the whole day in the 

 heavy atmosphere of the workshop. 



" In 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 parks, so that they should not suffer too much from 



