i 
L Y 
vents of the Cordeliers and Auguftines have been every 
•where dilapidated. That of the Cordeliers at prefent con- 
fifts of the" majeftic ruins of a Gothic ItruC'ture, of a iingle 
nave extremely long, with all its chapels and aides entirely 
levelled, its doors and windows built up; and, inftead of 
redounding to the deep-toned organ, and the falutations' 
to St. Bonaventure, now re-echoes to the harmony of 
aides and mules, with which it is frequently well fupplied. 
The chapel of Gonfalons, which adjoined this church, (till 
remains habitable : its bare and rugged walls, once co¬ 
vered with elegantly-fculptured wood, are now hung with 
pieces of old tapeftry, to qualify it a little for faying mafs. 
Among the ruins are feen fome (battered remains of bas- 
reliefs, admirably executed on wood, the fate of which 
one mult needs regret, though they, like all other French 
productions, arc l'poiled by excels of ornaments, which 
every where, and in all ages, mark the meretricious take 
of the French. The paintings that were in this chapel 
are laid to have been the belt in France, among which 
were feveral by Rubens and other Italian matters, but 
which made no better bonfire than thofe of the' vileft 
dauber. The church of St. Peter (till remains tolerably 
perfect, and is elteemed one of the moll ancient in Lyons. 
It is an extremely-rude Gothic building, which forms 
part'of the fquare des Terreaux, in which is the celebrated 
Guildhall, or Hotel de Ville. The principal fagade fronts 
the fquare, is modern, and compofed of a conftifed mix¬ 
ture of Doric and Corinthian pilafters, deftitute of all pro¬ 
portion, and producing a rilible effeft upon an edifice, 
the body of which is Gothic. The Hotel de Ville has 
been diverted of almoft all its ftatues and inferiptions5 
yet ftill enough remains to prove it only a large, vulgar, 
and tartelefs, pile of building, vainly called the lirft in Eu¬ 
rope, after Amfterdam. The extortions of the archbifhops 
in the thirteenth century taught them the neceflity of 
having a town-houfe; but it was not until 1647 that this 
firuCture was commenced. It is a long fquare fabric, 
with two wings from each end, extending about 400 feet, 
and which are terminated in a kind of garden. The prin¬ 
cipal fagade is without any order of architecture, and is 
bounded by two fquare pavilions furmounted with a kind 
of dome of no great beauty. The portal is fupported by 
two Ionic columns of red marble, with bafes and capitals 
in white, which have a molt formal and ridiculous effect. 
Over this portal is a vulgar fquare tower terminating in a 
cupola and ball. On entering, a grand veftibule prefents 
itfelf, ornamented with a great many inferiptions on both 
ildes, molt of which are now not legible. From this vef¬ 
tibule is feen the garden, or rather a few fcattered and 
negleCted flirubs, which form part of the court between 
the two wings that extend almolt to the borders of the 
Rhone, but not far enough to enjoy a profpect of it. 
Thel'e great difproportionate wings, which are io dark and 
fombre, poflefs neither tarte nor utility to render them by 
any means tolerable. The windows are loft in rudely- 
maffive pediments; and the effeCt of the whole building 
is neither the ftrength of a prifon, nor the beauty and 
elegance of a public edifice. The cathedral church of St. 
John is a regular Gothic building, mutilated and repaired 
from time $0 time, but ftill retaining an air of awful ma- 
jefty unknown in tnoft of the other churches. At prefent, 
however, its fpacious and lugubrious walls only ferve the 
purpofes of gallantry ; and it is not unfrequently at once 
the facred temple of religion, and its dark recedes the 
theatre of connubial debauchery. The famous clock, 
which prefehted a perpetual calendar, civil and ecclefiaftic, 
that marked the century, year, day, hour, and minute, 
has long been going to decay. The aftrolabe ftill remains. 
The little chapel of Notre-Dame has been totally dif- 
snantled, and the tombs dug up to ferve the manufacture 
of faltpetre; fo that the bones of the dead were literally 
converted into the molt powerful inftruments of deftruc- 
tion. Such has been the fate of the greater part of the 
chapels and convents 5 one is made into a corn-market, 
Vvj,, XIII. No. 949. 
O N S. 837 
another into a liable, and a third in ruins! Of the library 
and cabinet only part remains ; and fo negleCted is the 
library, though a public one, that the librarian will lock 
it up, and take the key with him to the country for four 
or five weeks together! 
Much has been faid of the extendve commerce and 
riches of Lyons before the revolution ; but from its local 
fituation, nearly furrounded by almoft inacceflible moun¬ 
tains, and on the banks of a large river, the rapid current of 
which renders its navigation both very difficult and dan¬ 
gerous, one muft doubt the authenticity of many reports 
of unbounded commerce. True its paflage to the Medi¬ 
terranean is rapid and dangerous enough ; but the return 
is alfo as flow and difficult, which mult impede and con- 
fiderably diminifh its trade. Nor is the paftage by land 
more eafy, as the traveller is obliged to pafs the lower 
Alps going to Marfeilles. It mult therefore be allowed 
that nature has fixed a limit to the extent of its com¬ 
merce, which art will not eafily fuperfede. Its manufac¬ 
tures indeed might be confiderable ; but their intimate 
relation with, and dependence on, commerce, fubjeCt them 
to the fame laws, and whatever embarraftes the one will 
obftruCt the other. Formerly 30,000 perlons were faid to 
have been employed in the filk-manufafture. But, if 
fuch a number of people were occupied in one branch, 
unqueftionably neceffity, if not genius, would have in¬ 
vented fome kind of machinery, fome means of abridging 
or affifting their labour by art. No fuch thing has yet 
appeared; their rude implements of induftry (for they 
cannot be called machinery) are ftill fuch as were adopt¬ 
ed in the molt uncultivated age. To the want of machi¬ 
nery may be objected the low price of labour; but in 
Spain, where manual labour has always been as low as in 
France, many grand and excellent machines are to be 
feen in the filk-manufaCtories. Indeed machinery has ne¬ 
ver been required, nor its value known, in Lyons ; and, 
whatever may have been the numbers formerly employed 
in this branch, at prefent it is certain, that, though ftill 
the principal employment of the people, they do not ac¬ 
tually exceed 6000. The liofiery-manufaCtory of Lyons 
may be reputed to hold the fecond rank in the lift of its 
fabrications, whether we confider the number of hands it 
employs, or the fums of money which it brings into 
France. This manufacture boalts the exclufive employ¬ 
ment of materials entirely of national growth. The filks 
it ufes, the frames and utenfrls it works with, and which 
are perfectly adapted to their purpofes, the individuals to 
whom it gives occupation, all belong to France, and to 
French induftry. There were at Lyons, in 1789, 2500 
looms actually at work; they employed 800 makers, and 
4200 journeymen of all denominations, fuch as fmitlis, 
needle-makers, dyers, binders, embroiderers, and others. 
Every loom yielded, upon an average, yearly 300 pairs of 
ltockings, at feven livres mean price the pair, amounting 
all together to about 6,000,000 of livres. The half of this 
fabrication was exported. The conflagrations during the 
fiege deftroyed four hundred of thefe looms. They have 
fince been replaced : and it is computed, that there are 
now as many as in 1789 ; blit there are only 1800 in ac¬ 
tual employment: workmen are wanting; and befides, 
the foreign confumption is diminifhed by one-half; and 
the ufe of boots, now generally worn, lias Ieflened the 
home-trade. Induftry, however, has opened a new chan¬ 
nel : open-work tifi'ues are now wrought in imitation of 
lace, and which, either plain or embroidered, are made 
into veils, ftiawls, and drefies, of which a confiderable 
quantity is exported. This manufacture, as well as every 
other of the filken branch, claims from government the 
protection, care, and encouragement, of mulberry-trees, 
and that it would attend to the peceflity of re-placing the 
great number of thole precious' trees'that were torn up 
during the ftormsof the revolution. The French hofiery- 
mamifaCture did not begin to floui'ilh till the miniftry of 
Colbert, to whom our national induftry is fo highly in- 
y Y debteda 
