throwing something showy or fantastic upon the canvass, as if to challenge admiration.

But I make no pretensions to the taste or nice discriminations of a connoisseur, and will therefore abstain from criticisms. Among the most celebrated pictures in the collection are reckoned the Holy Family, by Raphael-the entombment of the Saviour, by Titian-Jupiter and Antiope, by Corregio-the Witch of Endor raising the ghost of Samuel, by Salvator Rosa-the Marriage at Cana, by Paul Veronese-Hercules contending with Achilles, and killing Nessus, by Guido-Æneas bearing on his shoulders his father Anchises, and accompanied by the boy Ascanius, by Domenichino-a portrait of Charles I., by Vandycke-Diogenese looking for an honest man, by Rubens--St. Ambrose, by Philip de Champagne-the Ports of France at sunrise, sunset, and in a tempest, by Vernet--the Judgment of Solomon, the Institution of the Eucharist, and the Deluge, by Poussinand several Landscapes, by Claude Lorraine.

Another flight of steps, in the same stairway which forms the entrance to the principal hall, leads to the Gallery of Apollo, constructed under the auspices of Mary de Medicis, and intended to represent the various attributes of the god of the lyre, upon a splendid ceiling. But the painter, Le Brun, did not live to complete the work, and the saloon contains little worth seeing. In the vestibule to the hall, are several pictures representing the Fall of Icarus-Hercules and Antæus -Venus receiving from Vulcan the arms of Æneas--Æolus exciting the Winds--and Achilles in danger of being swallowed by the Zanthus. None of them are very celebrated.

After gazing for an hour or two at the contents of the galleries, we were conducted by our friends through the labyrinth of apartments appropriated to sculpture. The halls are upwards of twenty in number, designated by classical names-gods, goddesses, and heroes, from Hercules down to the Duke d'Angouleme. Although they have been robbed of their most interesting and valuable antiques, they still contain more than I shall attempt to describe, or my readers would have the patience to read. The catalogues of the Royal Museum comprise three volumes, containing merely an exposition of the curiosities to be seen. In this part of it, there are about fifteen hundred articles, embracing specimens of every sculptor, from Phidias and Praxiteles to the scarcely less celebrated Canova. Several exquisite relics of the two former are among the antiques; and two beautiful groups of white marble, from the chisel of the latter, adorn the modern hall bearing the name of the Duke d'Angouleme. Both of them represent Cupid and Psyche. The proportions, finish, and expression

of one of them are inimitably fine. In the other, the god of love is in the attitude of rescuing Psyche, while sleeping, and ready to fall from the brink of a precipice. The design is not more beautiful than the execution. Of the antiques which have acquired the most celebrity, are the groups of a Gladiator combating with an enemy on horseback, ascribed to Agasias of Ephesus--a statue of Pallas-Silenus and the infant Bacchus, said to be found in the garden of Sallust --and a colossal figure of Melpomene. The mosaics and various specimens of ancient marbles are extremely rich and interesting. Additions are daily making to this extensive collection, to supply the places of those which have been removed.

LETTER XXXVI.

PARIS CONTINUED-THE

NEW EXCHANGE--PALAIS ROYAL-COFFEE

HOUSES--RESTAURATEURS--FRENCH WOMEN--GAMBLING-HOUSESPASSAGES-PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG-MANUFACTORY OF TAPES

TRY.

December, 1825.

THE Palais de la Bourse, or the Exchange, is one of the most magnificent structures I have ever seen, and is perhaps unequalled by any thing of the kind in Europe. Its location, however, is very bad, being in the centre of the old part of the city, surrounded by a swamp of buildings; and although particular pains have been taken to elevate it from the low, circumscribed area which it occupies, no distant glimpse of it can be obtained. Were it situated upon some of the open squares on the banks of the Seine, the grandeur and classical simplicity of the edifice could not fail to strike the mind with admiration. It is surrounded with sixty-four columns of the Corinthian order, rising to the second story, and forming a most splendid colonnade. In front is a porch, with fourteen additional pillars, the ascent to which is by a lofty flight of sixteen steps. The principal hall is 116 feet long, and 75 wide, being sufficiently spacious to accommodate two thousand persons. In the upper story, the Tribunal of Commerce holds its sessions. By a whimsical inconsistency of taste, it has been deemed necessary to label the Bourse, with large letters, such as would be placed upon a grocer's sign, reminding one of the painter's specific designation" this is the man, and this the horse." This building was commenced by Napoleon, and is not yet entirely finished.*

*To save repetition and the necessity of recurring again to the same subject, it may be as well here to add, that the Exchange is now completed, and was opened by a speech from the King, a few days after our return to Paris, in the autumn of 1826. An immense crowd assembled to witness the ceremony, and for a month or two, throngs of both sexes were daily seen upon 'Change, to examine the magnificent edifice, of which the Parisians are very justly proud. I paid it several visits. The inside is as rich and beautiful as the exterior. Notwithstanding the boasted architecture of Italy, it is, taken as a whole, the most chaste and perfect building I have ever examined. The material is substantial, the designs classical, and the workmanship finished. A flight of marble steps, worthy of the taste of Bramante, leads to the second story. Splendid corridors open from the galleries into the principal room. Over each of the arches is inscribed the name of some prominent commercial city; and in the corners of the hall are medallions, emblematic of the four quarters of the world, as also of commerce, science, and the arts.

The Palais Royal is in all respects a perfect unique, and baffles description. It is emphatically a little world in itself, sui generis, comprising every possible variety of character, occupation, and amusement, from the highest to the lowest, from the gravest to the most trifling, from the most refined to the most brutal. Its history is not less curious than its present condition. In the year 1629, the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu commenced building him a palace in a style proportioned to his means. While the work was in progress, he was gradually and unexpectedly making accessions to his wealth and power, which enabled him to increase the splendour of the edifice. He kept on building in this way for seven years, at the end of which the palace, then bearing his own title, exhibited a perfect history of his fortune, displaying all sorts of architecture, from the most modest to the most gorgeous. It subsequently fell into the hands of Louis XIII. after whose death it was inhabited by his queen, Ann of Austria, with her two sons, Louis XIV. and the Duke of Anjou. Hence the name of the Royal Palace.

By descent it came into possession of the celebrated Duke of Orleans, conspicuous for the part he took in the French Revolution, as well as for his luxuries and the profligacy of his character. To him the immense pile owes its present magnificence, as also the vile uses to which it is in part appropriated. His career was the reverse of Cardinal Richelieu's. Possessing a princely fortune, he rebuilt and adorned the palace in the most splendid style of architecture; but by the time he had completed it, his funds were exhausted, to replenish which he resorted to the novel plan of cutting up the whole range of buildings into small shops and of letting them to the highest bidder. The expedient succeeded to a charm, and the Duke derived an enormous revenue from the rents of his establishment. As he had no great veneration for ancestry, rank, or title, it occasioned in him no compunctious visitings of conscience, to see boot-blacks, pastry-cooks, ropedancers, gamblers, fiddlers, and courtesans occupying saloons intended for noble personages.

The Palais Royal is in the form of a parallelogram, half a mile in

The painting is so admirably executed, that on my first visit, the figures were mistaken for bas-relief. An oblong dome, co-extensive with the apartment, admits a perfect light, and exhibits the superb mosaic pavements to the best advantage. Several elegant chambers open into the corridors. The removal of rubbish and many improvements in the public square have added greatly to the appearance of the exterior. A friend was so kind as to give me a folio description of this edifice, with a set of plates illustrative of its architecture.

circumference, and standing round an open court, which contains six or eight acres. The area is handsomely laid out, planted with trees, and adorned with a garden which has a large fountain in the centre, together with jets d'eau constantly throwing the water in fanciful forms to the height of twenty or thirty feet. Originally the whole court from end to end was unobstructed; but necessity or cupidity induced the proprietor to extend across the middle of it, several ranges of small buildings, filled with boutiques or hucksters' shops and forming a kind of market. The proportions of the palace itself are grand and rich in architectural ornament. Lofty arcades, forming a covered walk, extend the whole way round the interior. They are about two hundred in number, enclosed by an iron railing, and lighted in the evening by a lamp to each pillar. Many of the shops in the basement story are occupied by jewellers and other trades equally showy, whose wares are tastefully displayed at the windows, and present a spectacle seldom equalled in brilliancy. Every article which ingenuity has been able to devise, or the wants and luxuries of man require, is here exposed for sale, though generally at a higher price than is asked in other parts of the metropolis.

The description of tenants is as various as the commodities of the market, or as the motley multitude that throng the arcades from morning until midnight. In one end of the palace the noble family of the proprietor resides, and splendid equipages of Dukes and Dutchesses are seen at the door; while at the other end, theatrical buffoons, blind fiddlers, and dancing automata amuse the crowd, or debauchees and harlots hold their subterranean orgies. The intermediate regions are inhabited by all classes of society, good, bad, and indifferent, high and low, learned and illiterate. A lecture on the abstract sciences is liable to be disturbed by the rattling of dice, or the concussion of billiard-balls in the next room; and the voice of the female calling from the boutique for purchasers of books is drowned in that of her neighbour, who cries bonnets or bonbons. Such is the variety and confusion which this busy, bustling scene forever presents.

In the first and second stories of the Palais Royal, are almost innumerable Cafés and Restaurants, or coffee and eating houses. These form one of the peculiar features of Paris. There are nine hundred or a thousand of each kind in the city, a large proportion of which are concentrated about the palace. A breakfast may here be obtained for ten or fifteen sous, and a dinner for any sum, from two francs to a Napoleon. Crowds of both sexes daily resort hither for their meals, a majority of whom dine at those houses, where they pay forty cents for three or four dishes, with a dessert and a bottle of wine. The fare