THE 
No. 85. APRIL 1, 
1802. [No.3, of Von. 13. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS written during an EXCURSION 
through FRANCE fo GENEVA. 
Dec. 7, 1801. 
(Continued from page 104 of No. 84.) 
HAT an abominable thing it is to 
be thus plagued about paffports and 
cards of refidence! An Englifhman comes 
to Paris for a week or ten days in his way 
to the fouth ; and, inftead of employing 
his time in ‘*feeing the lions,’ he is 
obliged to loiter away the beft part of his 
mornings in having his paflport examined, 
re-examined, figned, counter-figned, &c. 
é&c. Mr. Jackfon was yefterday prefented 
to the Fir Conful; and probably’ the 
difficulty which an’ Englifhman’ expe- 
riences in obtaining a paffport, either for 
proceeding to the interior of this country, 
or returning to his own, will foon be ina 
great meafure obviated: but what a dif- 
graceful and fufpicious policy it is, that 
even a Frenchman cannot travel about his 
. Native country—fuch I underftand to be 
the fast, without having a licence from 
Government! The maitres-d’ hotel are 
obliged, under pain of a fevere penalty, 
to deliver in to the Minifter of the Police 
every other day,an account of their lodgers: 
fomething of this kind, I believe, was 
obligatory under tH@monarchy. ‘Surely a 
Frenchman has ‘but little reafon to boat 
of his individual liberty, if it be true 
that he cannot pafs the gates of Paris 
' without afking leave 
After feveral ineffeftual applications at 
the Prefecture. de Police, we have this 
morning obtained pafiports for the fouth 
of France, not in coniequence.of our ap- 
plications at the office, but in confequence 
of the-influence which M. Perrégaux very 
politely exerted in our favour: we fhall 
proceed on our journey therefore in two 
or three days. But before our departure 
you will expeét from me fome accounts of 
‘what we have feen, heard, and remarked 
here: it would be far more ingenuous to 
refer you at once to M. M. Mercier and- 
Meyer, who have made this metropolis 
the object of their minute attention. 
The public edifices, galleries, mufeums, 
theatres, promenades, baths, &c. of Paris 
have been fo amply and accurately de- 
fcribed by a hundred writers who. have 
MonTury Mac. No. 85. 
had unhurried opportunity to examine 
them, and are infinitely better qualified 
than myfelf to defcribe them, that I fhail 
fatisfy mylelf, though perhaps not you, 
almoft with the bare enumeration of what 
I have feen. ; 
Our conftant lounge, if we have net 
time to vifit the Louvre, is the Palais- 
royal, or, as it is fometimes called, /e Pa- 
lais du Tribunat, from the circumttance of 
the fittings being held here of that body: 
what a {cene of extravagance, diffipation, 
and debauchery, is exiibited under thete 
piazzas at every hour of the day and night! 
Shops of millinery, jewellery, clothiery, 
hook-fellers, clock-fellers, print-fellers, 
china-houfes,coftee-houfes, bawdy-houfes, 
money-changers, gamefters—all unite in 
amicable rivalry to eafe the unwary idler 
of his louzs. ; 
You know the hiftory of this far- famed 
palace: its original ftructure and deftina- 
tion by Cardinal Richelieu, its defcent 
through two fucceflive monarchs to the 
lait proprietor, the Duke of Orleans, 
whofe converfion of it into its prefent de- 
ftination afforded at once the means ‘of in« 
dulging his incredible extravagance, and 
gratifying his inordinate avarice. I think 
I have heard you fay that you have read. - 
that moft animated and moft excellent de- 
fcription of the Palais-royal whichis in- 
ferted in one of the volumes of the Vari- 
eties of Literature; it often recurred to 
my memory when I witneffed the bufy 
buftling {cene which ts there depicted with 
fuch fidelity and colouring. Let a man 
walk under thefe arcades at’ any hour of 
the day, and he wil! never want food 
either for meditation. or amufement’: but 
the Palais-royal exhibits a {cene of pecu- 
liar intereft in the evening. B. whom, to 
my great furprize and pleafure, I met, the 
other morning onthe Pont-zeuf, and who 
gave us his company. to dinner at our hoe. 
tel, perfuaded us to leave our fire-fide, and 
take a lounge in the Palais-royal: the 
fhape of the building you know is that of 
a parallelogram, which inclofes a large 
garden, whofe well-cravelled walks afford 
a fine view of the edifice. It was about 
half after. feven when we entered by the 
Rue du Lycée; at this end of the Palais 
is a double piazza, with two rows of fhops 
reaching from one extremity to the other ; 
Da ; fo 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
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