mentation, it is not so great as it appears. The quarries are within easy communication by rail and water; the stone is soft, and cuts easily; and although the simplest kind of cranes and windlasses are used, a smaller number of workmen seem to be employed, compared with what a building in brick would require. It must be remembered that the works have been going on for years, and that they are in the hands of a comparatively small number of entrepreneurs, who have been able by this time to organise a complete staff of skilled workmen, who have attained a high degree of perfection. The demolition and reconstruction of houses, the building or repairing of churches, towers, palaces, markets, and barracks, and the opening of new streets and thoroughfares, represent only one side of the labour and cost bestowed on this work of regeneration. There is another which is equally important, and which comes under the general denomination of "travail des ponts et chaussées." It comprises the construction and reconstruction of bridges and quays, new pavement, trottoirs, plantations, squares, and the extension of sewers and water conduits. Three new bridges have been thrown across the Seine-the Pont Napoleon III., high up towards Charenton; the Pont de Solferino, opposite the Garden of the Tuileries; and the Pont de l'Alma, connecting the boulevard of the same name on the two sides of the river. Nineteen millions of francs were required to redeem the tolls on nine bridges where they still existed. Most of these bridges have been repaired; some of them, like the Pont au Change, the Pont St Michel, and the Pont d'Arcole, have been almost rebuilt; while those leading from the Cité into the Isle St Louis are still in course of reconstruction. Great part of the embankment on both sides of the Seine has been renewed from the Pont de Constantine down to the Pont de l'Alma-that is, well-nigh seven kilomètres of walls, varying from fifty to eighty feet in height-and provided with wharves and broad towing-paths. The new thoroughfares have been provided with a complete system of sewerage and water-conduits; besides which, new main sewers have been laid down in several of the old thoroughfares, nominally in the Quartier du Louvre. To this must be added the metamorphosis of the Bois de Boulogne, of the Champs Elysées, the Avenue de l'Impératrice, the planting of trees on the new boulevards, and a number of smaller squares opened out and converted into gardens. /2 miles A length of about 20,000 mètres of thoroughfares had been opened from the heart of the town in every direction. As on both sides of the Seine the ground rises gradually towards the outskirts, the opening means not only the clearing away of the old houses which are in the way, but considerable cuttings, and in some cases almost levellings of intervening hills, as, for instance, in the higher parts of the Boulevard de Sebastopol, especially the southern side of it towards the Barrière de l'Enfer, and in the Boulevard Malesherbes, where the houses on the left side lean on a hill as high as they are themselves. Other 10,000 mètres are already marked out for further openings. Indeed, as for plans, there is no want of them; the town has not in vain £50,000 to £60,000 for plans and alignements on its budget; the portefeuilles are full of them, and others are daily spoken of. Augustus found Rome built of wood, and he left it ́ built of marble. The Emperor Napoleon, who is often accused of a predilection for Roman Cæsarism, is in a fair way of effecting in his capital a change scarcely less complete than that accomplished by his prototype in Rome. 1 melve = 39.371 - mokes / Kilométio = (39371 in. =) 3281 (t =0.2 CHAPTER II. WHAT IS THE COST, AND WHO PAYS? THESE are two questions which must disturb the equanimity even of the flâneur, and excite his curiosity. The second question, the more difficult at first sight, is as yet easier to answer than the first. There seems to be a temptation in building and making improvements, quite as seductive as in the search after gold, curiosities, and old books. Every lady and gentleman who has had the good fortune to inherit an estate will subscribe to this-above all, if she or he did not much expect the good fortune. Some have strength enough to resist the temptation, and these often fall into the opposite extreme; but if they once yield, it is difficult to say where they will stop. At first there is to be only a little alteration which is absolutely required; but soon it is perceived that the old part nearest to it looks very bad beside it, and cannot remain; and so it goes on in an ever-increasing proportion. Something similar has taken place in the good town of Paris, since the Imperial Government has directed its destinies. Every new improvement suggested others on a larger scale; and, as the schemes expanded, the administrative organisation was found insufficient to carry them into effect. At first it was attempted to supply this defect by introducing new wheels into the mechanism. The result was such complication and confusion of accounts, that at last a special service had to be created for these undertakings, and an Imperial decree, of the 4th November 1858, established the Caisse des Travaux de Paris, under the guarantee of the town of Paris, and under the authority of the Prefect de la Seine, which is intrusted with the financial service of all the works begun since that period, leaving only the works then in process of execution in the hands of the town. As some of these works are not yet finished, and their definitive amounts not made up, no correct idea can be formed of the total cost. Nothing gives a better idea of the confusion which prevailed before the establishment of the Caisse des Travaux than the different accounts in the budget of the town. There were general funds, special funds, supplementary credits, extraordinary expenses, implying a number of diverse operations, chiefly caused by the purchases and sales of ground, and by the uncertainty of the contribution paid by the state each year for the different works. All this together makes it rather difficult to know the cost, although these accounts themselves throw considerable light on the modus operandi. If one looks over them, one is involuntarily reminded of the fable of the monkey trying to divide the bit of cheese equally between the two cats, one-half becoming somehow or other always too large and the other too small. First comes the project of the budget, which balances tolerably. But it is found that reality surpasses expectation, and larger works are undertaken than were projected. The expense of these likewise surpasses expectation, and supplementary credits are decreed, which |