445 
PARIS. 
.of this dynafty, who reigned 266 years, the Latin tongue 
ceafed to be commonly fpoken, and was fucceeded by, or 
mingled with, the Celtic. The Roman laws yielded to the 
Salic cuftoms, and the people were enflaved by tile nobles, 
and became their abl'olute property. Paris, however, pre- 
ferved its liberty, its commerce on the Seine, and its mu¬ 
nicipal laws j but literature and the arts had fled, and 
the night of ignorance overfpread the whole of the con¬ 
tinent. 
Few of the princes of the fecond dynafty refulecl at 
Paris. Charlemagne, occupied by his conquefts, never 
inhabited it, although he occaftonally held his court at 
St. Denis. Neverthelefs, the Parifians were much indebt¬ 
ed to him ; for his love of fcience and the arts fuggefted 
the eftablifhment of numerous fchools, by the influence 
of which the character and manners of the people were 
materially and happily changed, 
Under his feeble fuccefiors, Paris became the patrimony 
of fome of the hereditary counts. 
Allured by its riches, the Normans pillaged it in 84,5. 
They reduced it to allies, and defolated even its fuburbs, 
in 856 ; and, in 872, they once more attacked and ravaged 
it. Thefe difafters have left few veftiges of the monu¬ 
ments built by the Romans, or by the kings of the firft 
dynafty. In 885, the Normans again attempted the fiege 
of Paris. In vain the inhabitants entreated fuccour from 
Charles the Bald. Their own valour, direfted by the 
genius of their noble count Eudes, compelled the Nor¬ 
mans to raife the fiege at the end of two years. Charles, 
juftly covered with ignominy, was depofed, and the crown 
placed on the head of Eudes. It became hereditary in 
bis family, when his grandlon, Hugh Capet, was elected 
in 987. 
The firft princes of this dynafty, anxious for the prof- 
perity of a city that had been their peculiar patrimony, 
and the defence of which had elevated them to the throne, 
continued to refide here, in the edifice now called the Pa¬ 
lace of Juftice. They confirmed the ancient privileges 
of the citizens, and granted them many new immunities. 
The fchools of inftruition were increafed, and the univer- 
fity eftablithed. A new city was added to the ancient 
capital towards the north, and fortified with walls. 
Paris owes fome of its chief ornaments to Philip Au- 
gultus, who erected many of the public buildings, paved 
the ftreets, and completely furrounded the city with walls, 
comprifing in the enclofure a great number of fmall 
towns and hamlets in the vicinity : the undertaking oc¬ 
cupied about twenty years, having been begun in 1190, 
and finifhed in 1211. This monarch was the firft who 
caufed the ftreets to be paved : orders for this purpofe 
were iffued in 11S4, nearly about the fame time that the 
walling was begun ; and fome fay that from this time 
only the name of Lutetia, or “ muddy,” was changed 
for that of Paris, or “ fair.” We know of no other city 
in Europe that was paved at this time, except Cordova 
in Spain, which was paved as early as the year 850, or 
thereabouts. Neither are we to fuppofe that Paris was 
completely paved at this time; for there is evidence that, 
in the year 1620, the ftreets in many quarters ftill emu¬ 
lated their ancient name of Lutetia. Peter Heylin, wri¬ 
ting about that time, fays, “This I am confident of, 
that the naftieft lane in London is frankincence and ju¬ 
niper to the fweeteft ftreet in this city.” And Howel 
(fame date), “This town is always dirty ; and ’tis fuch 
a dirt that by perpetual motion is beaten into fuch a thick 
black un&uous oil, that where it fticks no art can wadi 
it oft’ of fome colours; infomuch, that it may be no im¬ 
proper comparifon to fay, that an ill name is like the dirt 
of Paris; which is indelible. Befides the ftain this dirt 
leaves, it gives alfo fo itrong a fcent, that it may be finelt 
many miles off, if the wind be in one’s face as he comes 
from the frelh air of the country.” 
The wars with the Engliih required new fortifications 5 
and in the reigns of John and Charles V. in the four¬ 
teenth century, ditches were dug, and the Baftile ere&ed. 
Vox.. .XVIII. No. 1*56. 
Francis I. the reftorer of literature and of the arts, ns- 
glefted nothing that might conduce to the embellifhment 
of this capital. He caufed new ftreets to be made, many 
Gothic edifices to be pulled down, and was, in France, 
the firft perfon who revived Greek, architecture, rhe re¬ 
mains of which, buried by the hand of time, or mutilated 
by that of barbarians, being collected, began to improve 
the genius of celebrated artifts, and in the fequel led 
to the production of many fine mafter-pieces of art. The 
fuccefiors of Francis executed part of his projects, and 
this extenfive city imperceptibly loft its irregular and 
Gothic afpeCt. 
Henry IV. was the firft of the kings of France who 
embellifbed Paris with regular fquares, or open fpaces, de¬ 
corated with the different orders of architecture. Hav¬ 
ing nearly finiftied the Pont Neuf, he built the Place 
Royale, and alfo the Place Dauphine. 
During the brilliant reign of Louis XIV. the gates of 
Paris were converted into arcs of triumph ; and its ditches, 
being filled up and planted with trees, became public pro¬ 
menades ; hence the origin of the Boulevards, the pride 
of Paris, and the admiration of every ftranger. Yet Paris 
was not the favoured city of this prince ; for, had he ex¬ 
pended on it a fourth part of the money which he lavilhed 
on Verfailles, it would have become the moft aftonifhing 
city in Europe. It muff however be admitted, that he 
contributed a vaft deal to the embelliftiment of it: he 
built the hofpital and church of the Invalids, opened 
eighty new ftreets, ereCted more than thirty churches, 
built two fquares, four bridges, five gates, fifteen foun¬ 
tains, raifed the Obfervatory, and finifhed the Louvre. 
Under the influence of Louis XV. this grand fcheme of 
improvement was continued ; and to this monarch the 
French are indebted for the Palais Bourbon, the Place 
Louis Quinze, with its colonnades, the Champs Elyfees, 
the Ecole de Chirurgerie, the Ecole Militaire, and the 
Pantheon, or church of St. Genevieve. The unfortunate 
reign of Louis XVI, afforded little opportunity for the 
ereCtion of public buildings; yet this prince opened fe- 
veral new ftreets, ereCted fome churches and hofpitals, 
rebuilt the Palais de juftice, moft of the theatres, and be¬ 
gan the Pont Lbuis XVI. and the New Madelaine (Temple 
of Glory). 
The embelliftiments of Paris during the reign of Napo¬ 
leon are thus fummed up. He built three bridges acrofs 
the Seine, the Pont Jena, des Arts, and d’Aufterlitz; the 
pillar in the Place Vendome, the portico of the Palais 
Bourbon, the triumphal arch in the Place de Caroufel, 
part of the new wing of the Louvre, the fountains on the 
Boulevard St. Martin and of the Ecole de Medicine. He 
alfo completed the Palace of the Old Louvre, raifed the 
new ftaircafe of the gallery, improved and embellifhed the 
Luxembourg!!, ordered the outfide of feveral palaces to 
be cleaned and repaired, and the dome of the Invalids to 
be gilt. He had commenced a triumphal arch at the Bar- 
riere de Neuilly, which, from its magnitude, was to have 
furpaffed every fimilar edifice. The elevation of this 
building is already confiderable, and forms a confpicuous 
objeCt from the Tuileries, the banks of the Seine, and ail 
their vicinity. He made feveral ftreets, erected fixty pub¬ 
lic fountains, and abreuvoirs, or drinking-places for 
horfes,in feveral places at Paris, four abbattoirs for fiaugli- 
tering cattle at the four extremities of Paris, granaries of 
abundance, See. 
But one of the grandeft projects of Napoleon was to 
have opened a new ftreet, ninety feet wide and about 
two miles in length, extending from the triumphal arch 
in the Caroufel, which was to have flood in the centre 
of it, through the whole length of Paris, over the ground 
of the ftree.t called Rue St. Antoine, till it joined the ar- 
fenal and the fite of ground of the late Baftile at the Bar- 
riere d’Enfer, there to terminate in a fountain formed of 
an immenfe elephant in brafs. Tire ftreet was to have 
been named Rue Imperiale. If it had been completed, 
it would have made the moft magnificent ftreet in Europe, 
5X It 
