457 
PARIS. 
circled by lattice-work. In the centre of this garden is 
a large circular bafin with a beautiful fountain in the 
middle, ereCted by his prefent majefly Louis XVIII. and 
opened in March 1817. 
Upon the whole, this is a building worthy of the name 
which it bears. It is indeed a royal palace, and worthy 
to become the refidence of the fovereign of a great coun¬ 
try. But the crimes of its former owner have rendered 
it a ftrange, unique, and difgraceful, fcene which defies 
all defcription. 
Having exhaufled his noble revenues by a courfe of 
luxury and profligacy of which hiflory fcarcely affords a 
parallel, the duke of Orleans was driven to fome defpe- 
rate expedient to fave himfelf from utter ruin. He de¬ 
termined'to convert the refidence of a prince into an im- 
xnenfe bazar. The beautiful arcades of the lower galle¬ 
ries were divided by diminutive and ill-executed pilafters, 
and the garden was furrounded by a row of little fhops, 
which were fpeedily let to the higheft bidder. Had he 
flopped here he might have been forgiven ; but, urged 
by avarice, or by the defire of obtaining exhauftlefs re- 
fources to fupport his unhallowed purfuits, he configned 
other apartments of the palace to the molt infamous pur- 
pofes. A few of the upper galleries -were appropriated 
to the le&ures of the various profefTors; others were let 
to reflaurateurs ; but more were devoted to the accommo¬ 
dation of the gambler and the fenfualifl, and became the 
favourite haunt of every fpecies of vice and debauchery. 
The arcades of the ground-flory are occupied by in¬ 
numerable fhops of fmall dimenfions, but tallefully and 
elegantly fitted up. Every article of luxury, every thing 
which can contribute to the ornament of the perfon, 
to the gratification of the appetite, to the improvement 
of the intellect, or the contamination of the heart, is found 
here. 
Let a man walk under thefe arcades at any hour of the 
day, and he will never want food either for meditation 
or amufement : but the Palais Royal exhibits a fcene of 
peculiar interell in the evening. There is no want, either 
natural or artificial, no wiflr for the cultivation of the 
mind or decoration of the body, which w'ould not here 
find food and gratification, and perpetual variety. All 
the neceflaries of life without exception, and all the in¬ 
ventions of refined luxury ; every fenfual and almofl 
every mental gratification ; the means of becoming in a 
few hours a Crcefus or a beggar; an exchange and a the¬ 
atre; gaming-houfesand banks forlendingmoney; reading- 
rooms and brothels ; blind virtuofi and fharp-fighted loun¬ 
gers ; fumptuous tables for the gold of the wealthy ; cynical 
repalls for the copper fous of the indigent : the produc¬ 
tions of all the quarters of the globe, are here concen¬ 
trated for the crowds that pafs into and out of this place 
like the tides of the ocean. The concourle of people in 
the Palais Royal is never at an end; its public is the mod 
numerous, as well as the moil brilliant, of any of the 
places of refort in this city. The gardens of the Tuile- 
ries, the Luxembourg, the Boulevards, in (hort, none of 
the promenades, are to be brought into companion with 
the Palais Royal. 
Books are the only articles fold here at the fame price 
as in other parts of Paris ; but other dealers are fuppofed 
to charge double for what they fell, fo that their rapacity 
has given this place the name.of the Camp of the Tartars. 
The glazed gallery which is on the fide towards the Rue 
de Richelieu, is called the Camp of the Barbarians. In 
this narrow paflage, which is often nearly choked with 
a crowd, people fliould look narrowly to their pockets. 
Wretched cofx’ee-houfes line both fides of this place : here 
alfo are billiard-tables that never fee day-light; while the 
darknefs that pervades the fhops of the dealers in furni¬ 
ture and wearing apparel, prevents the difcovery of any 
of their defeats. 
The garden is enclofed on three fides with uniform 
buildings four ftories in height. A narrow gallery runs 
round the bottom of the building to the extent of a 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1257. 
quarter of a league, which is fhellered from the weather, 
and preferves a view of the garden. In the day this gal¬ 
lery is lighted by the arches, but at night it is illuminated 
by 180 lamps. Each of the galleries here is let at an an¬ 
nual rent of 8000 francs, and the fpace on the ground at 
3000 francs. The promenades under the arcades and in 
the paffages are always filled with ladies and loungers 
of every defcription. It is impofiible not to be delighted 
with the peculiar elegance with which the rival fhop- 
keepers light up their little cabinets of bijouterie, and 
with the Splendour produced by the general illumination. 
Not being accullomed to view palaces laid out into 
compartments for trade, the imagination is forcibly ilruck 
to behold fuch a pile of building, to contemplate the 
lengthened arcades, and to perceive that they all abound 
with the efforts of human induftry, in almofl countlefs 
divifions. Retail traders never before were feen in fo 
fplendid a manfion. The fenfations produced by the 
lights, the moving crowd, and the merchandize expofed 
as already deferibed, are not a little heightened by miific, 
vocal and inflrumental, that flrikes the ear with peculiar 
force; it being both loud, and often, as it were, on the 
very fpot, though the ftranger cannot divine whence it 
proceeds. Prefently that which was loud before comes 
ten times louder, and his hearing leads his eye to the de- 
feentinto a cellar, and, fliould he enter, he finds a ftrange 
mixture of the working people and the wealthier citizens; 
fome clean, fome dirty, fitting over their fmall beer, le¬ 
monade, bavaroife, or fome other liquor, regaling them- 
felves with feafling and mufic, 
An imitation of thefe bazars ums attempted in London 
a few years ago, (1835-16.) Mr. Trotter, happening.to 
poffefs, in Soho-iquare, fome very-extenfive warehoufes 
entirely unoccupied, fitted up a confiderable portion of 
this building for the purpofes of a bazar. The great file- 
room is hung with red baize, adorned with mirrors, chan¬ 
deliers, See. Sec. and laid out in alleys of handfome coun¬ 
ters. Thefe, as is expreffed in the ad vertifement, are let 
by the foot and by the day, to perfons of uiujueftionable 
chara&er and moral refpedlability; and this, we are told, 
is the prominent feature of the Englifli bazaar, fo that it 
was intended to imitate only the very bell and mofl repu¬ 
table part of the French one. A mofc flaming and flat¬ 
tering article appeared, in aid of this inflitution in the 
New Monthly Magazine for February 1816. wherein 
Mr. Trotter is deferibed as “ the pofieffor of premifes 
almofl equal to the benevolence of his heart;” and the 
writer of which was “happy in taking this early oppor¬ 
tunity of paying his tribute of cordial applaufe to a gen¬ 
tleman whom it will fend down to poflerity with the Ho¬ 
wards, Jenners, Wilberforces, and other benefactors of 
mankind!” The experiment fucceeded ; and the imi¬ 
tation was imitated in almofl every llreet in London, 
fome fhops being more like the French bazars, others lefs 
fo. A bazar in the Strand had inflrumental mufic by day, 
to which was added vocal, and a lottery, at night. The 
regular fhop-keepers were alarmed ; they found theinfelves 
deferted, while the fhowy flails were crowded. They ap¬ 
plied to the magiftrates; they applied to the legiflature : 
the magistrate? could do nothing; the legiflature would 
do nothing ; but, in about a twelvemonth, thefe bazars 
all melted away of their own accord, leaving only Mr. 
Trotter’s original fhow-fhop in Soho-fquare, unlefs the 
Burlington arcade, fince ereCted, may be thought to bear 
fome refembiance to the arcades of the Palais Royal. 
The gaming-tables are difperfed over the Palais Royal. 
After having afeended a flair-cafe, you are introduced 
into an anti-chamber, where feveral hundred hats, flicks, 
and great coats, carefully ticketed, are arranged under 
the charge of two or three old men, who receive either 
one or two fous from every owner. From the anti-cham¬ 
ber you enter into various large and well-lighted rooms, 
all equally well attended, and containing a vail crowd of 
perfons, Seated and engaged in gaming. The tables are 
licenfed by government, pay to it a confiderable fum of 
6 A monejq 
