the definitions are clear, and the whole is calculated to assist the reasoning faculty, and to shew the importance of regular and systematic study,

ART. X. Paris delineated, from the French of Mercier, including a Description of the principal Edifices and Curiosities of that Metropolis. 2 Vols. 8vo. 13s. Boards. Symonds. 1802.

THE

Moy.

HE principal mass of this publication consists of a selection. from Mercier's celebrated and very amusing work, the Tableau de Paris, written under the old regime; preceded by a chapter which is calculated to serve as a guide to the stranger in exploring Modern Paris. It commences with stating that metropolis to be two miks in breadth, and, including its suburbs, six in circumference *: but we believe that this agrees as little with the fact, as we see it accords with the scale of the map of Paris which faces the title. The Gallery of the Louvre, it is also said, is nearly half a mile in length; that is, occupying an extent nearly equal to one quarter of the breadth of the whole city. Respecting the National Library, we are informed that nothing approaching it has ever been seen in Europe.'

The Champ de Mars is pointed out to particular notice as 'a spot sacred to enthusiasm, immortalized by the grand day of federation, when Louis XVI. swore fidelity to the constitu tion amidst the acclamations of a hundred and fifty thousand people.' Had his priests advised him to keep instead of to break this oath, how much better would it have been for himself, his family, and his country !-The Palace of Versailles is mentioned as having internally fallen into a state of comparative obscurity and insignificance, though its exterior is preserved uninjured. The city must of late have materially diminished in population, since, in the chapter at the end of Vol. I. intitled the Gallery of Versailles, Mercier speaks of its numbers as amounting to one hundred thousand; while, in the almanacks for the present year of the Republic, its population is given at only 35,093.

This description of Modern Paris concludes with the following useful hint: It remains to inform the traveller, that the usual mode of living at Paris is at the Restaurateur's. Beau villiers, in the Palais Royal, is a complete model of elegance and luxury. By those, however, who have not a fortune to dissipate in delicacies, the Table d'Hote will be found ade

* Mercier, in chapter 13, says that the Boulevards alone are 6 miles and 83 toises in circumference. N 2

quate

quate to every rational object of accommodation, and the Maison de Hambourg, Rue des Filles de St. Thomas, has received from a judicious traveller, an highly flattering recommendation.'

Adaptation to the present times is the avowed principle on which this selection from the volumes of Mercier has been made; and it has been thought proper to omit the notice of buildings which have been destroyed and customs which have been abolished since the Revolution: but we do not admit the propriety of such omissions. What is history but a record of past events?-Happily, the compiler has sometimes forgotten the maxim by which he professes to be guided; as the chapter on the Gallery of Versailles, already mentioned, in part evinces.

It is curious to observe, in almost every section, that enlargement of thought and that emancipation of mind from the tramels of Popish superstition, which combined with other cir cumstances to effect the Revolution. Let the reader judge by the following short extracts from the chapter on Religious Liberty:

Churches are not frequented but on festivals; the ceremonies then attract the multitude in Lent they are commonly filled, as they have celebrated preachers at this season. Three parts of the congregation are women.

No person that I know was ever refused parochial burial but Voltaire; the curate of St. Sulpice little understood the interests of his religion by this refusal: ten other curates in his place would have buried him; first, because he was dead, and secondly, because they might have said he had died a Christian.'

The protestants had a church at Charenton large enough to contain fourteen thousand people; it was there they held their na tional synods. The wise edict of Nantz, granted by Henry IV. being revoked by the cruel intolerance of Louis XIV. this temple was destroyed in five days.

The protestants have now no church; they attend the ambassa dor's chapel. They are still a considerable body, and compose the sixth part of the capital. They insult no persons of another commu nion in their worship, and have a right to enjoy their own. They are peaceable, industrious, and wait in silence for a change, which the light of reason must infallibly one day effect in morals and in politics.'

That the system of popery was on the decline previously to the Revolution, an anecdote from the chapter on Convents will amply prove:

A father being desirous of having his daughter married, whom he had placed in a convent for education, experienced the most decided opposition to his wish from the society, and having

taken

taken her home, would not permit her again to return to the convent, being determined to cure her of her aversion to the world. Two days after she had left the convent, he received the following letter: God Almighty, to whom every thing belongs, sovereign of the universe and all its creatures, judge both of the living and the dead. Hear, impious man, the words of thy God: if you despise them, I will cominand the exterminating angel to strike you dead before the end of the year. Dost thou dare to prefer the charms of wealth to thy immortal soul? and give way to your ambitious views in opposition to my will? Dost not thou know that I am the author of every good, and that I distribute my blessings as I see proper? Thy daughter belongs to me, both her existence and her will are at my disposal? Art not thou too happy in the knowledge that I place her among the number of my wives, and that she has by her prayers disarmed my justice towards thee of its terrors? Thy crimes have merited exemplary punishment, and already is my arm uplifted to annihilate thee; it is only the holy place of her residence which has softened my displeasure. If you presume to hesitate in returning her to the convent, tremble; my uplifted arm shall descend in vengeance on thy head,"

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The father, however, saw very clearly that God Almighty never could dictate such a letter; he despised the fanatic who had forged it too much even to make any inquiry after him, and married his daughter to a man of honour in the army, who soon taught her to lose all relish for a convent, The father is still alive, and embraces with rapture the children of his daughter, who, instead of being the unprofitable and barren inmate of a convent, makes a most excellent mother of a family.'

Speaking of the severity of the game laws under the old government, Mercier informs us that the killing of a partridge was a crime which nothing but the gallies could expiate;' and that, if a poacher is killed by the game-keepers, the murderer is not only unpunished but sometimes rewarded.' Could such tyranny be long endured by a people advancing in knowlege, and sensible of the duties owing from man to man? It is more rational to account for the French Revolution by abuses existing in France, than by hunting for its cause in a dark closet in Germany.

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In casting our eyes over this compilation, our attention was attracted by another passage, in which Mercier pays a flattering compliment to England and its constitution, and which recommends wise policy to his own countrymen as well as to us:

Politicians perhaps, skimming only on the surface, do not perceive that every where around them a great change is taking place, and that the progress of the human mind, becoming as it does every day more enlightened, calls aloud for this useful union. When a philosopher peruses the page of history, he perceives that mankind have constantly been employed in doing what they ought not to have

done.

And indeed it may be justly observed, that if the English and French, by a mutual intercourse both of trade and sentiment, could do away this ancient jealousy, which has continually blinded them to their true interests, they would very soon perceive how very illfounded has been that national antipathy, and that they are designed by nature to unite the powers of their minds, and by that means peacefully obtain the superiority over the rest of Europe.

And such an union, so plausible in the eye of the philosopher, and indeed the secret wish of many profound politicians, would disseminate science by the example of such an happy innovation.

If the English appear to have the advantage in the simplicity of their manners, and the exercise of domestic virtues, cannot the French enjoy the same by only giving the preference to ease and convenience instead of a vain display of luxury, which sacrifices real happiness at the shrine of prodigality?

And notwithstanding all our exertions, it must be confessed that neither experimental philosophy, nor arts and manufactures, have attained among us that pitch of perfection that they have with the English. Happy country, which enjoys a constitution the best adapted to preserve a just equilibrium between the laws and the dig nity of man. May this nation, after having extinguished their civil discords, and shewn the greatness of their resources in an alarming crisis, offer to their neighbours a participation of their wealth, their improved knowledge, and the arts, and thus reap a solid advantage by an exchange with those of France!'

It would be happy for both countries, if Englishmen and Frenchmen could profit by this advice: they might then command the peace and riches of the world. National prejudice, however, will probably obstruct the attainment of such stupendous blessings.

The merit of the translation of this work may be appreciated by the preceding extracts.

May

ART. XI. The Praise of Paris: or, A Sketch of the French Capital; in Extracts of Letters from France, in the Summer of 1802; with an Index of many of the Convents, Churches, and Palaces, not in the French Catalogues, which have furnished Pictures for the Louvre Gallery. By S. W., F.R.S. F.A.S, 8vo. pp. 200. 5s. 6d: Boards. C. and R. Baldwin. 1803.

VA

ARIOUS sketches of Paris have already been, and probably will yet be, exhibited to the British Public, of which we may say nearly in the words of Pope,

"How many pictures of one place we view!

All how unlike each other, all how true!"

The author of the volume before us is understood to be the Rev. Stephen Weston, a gentleman of considerable literary

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reputation. It is evident that the letters from which extracts are here made were not composed with a view to publication, since they contain only those short notices and rapid delineations of objects with which ingenious men generally content themselves, when writing merely for the entertainment of their friends but, though they were not intended for the public eye, they are not unworthy of general acceptance. As a great painter will be evinced by a few strokes of his pencil, so a writer of taste and genius will manifest himself in the shortest compositions. Mr. Weston describes with brevity, indeed *, but with force. Sometimes he is learned; at others, his remarks are sprightly and playful; and the information which he conveys, though not entirely satisfactory, may yet be of use to the future visitors of the French capital.

Having been acquainted with Paris before the Revolution, the author is able to contrast its present with its former state; and in doing this he contemplates it with other sensations than those which he felt when he fled from it in the year 1792, when, as he says, it was possessed with a demoniacal spirit of carnage. Borrowing a simile from the Scriptures, Mr. W. observes that, on his return to this city in the year 1802, he found it so swept and garnished, so restored to its senses, and so much in its right mind, that he felt himself inclined to sing the Praise of Paris. Let not the reader imagine, however, that this praise is so extravagant and unqualihed as to mislead any of the family of John Bull. There is no danger of this sort; the pasquinade at times grins at the panegyric, and preserves us from the ennui which might result from monotonous eulogy.

As a classical scholar, Mr. W. attends first to the derivation of the word Paris; which is compounded of Par Isis, because the city was built near to the famous temple of that goddess. To illustrate this remark, a plate is given, fronting the title, representing the image of Isis nursing Orus, now deposited at the Petits Augustins, under which is written De par Isis vient Paris. The Latin name, it is added, is derived from AEvróτns, whiteness, alluding to the white plaister quarry on which Paris is built.

'The attractions of the French metropolis, on account of its containing the richest assemblage of the productions of the fine arts, obtain this notice:

Paris was ever a place of general rendezvous, but now more so than at any known period; and since it has drawn within its circle

all the curiosities of Holland, and the Low Countries, all the trea

The letters are in general very short, and more than one are composed only of two sentences.

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sures