45, Rue Neuve St. Augustin, who has an excellent renommée among the highest classes of society in Paris. Stays. For this indispensable article the Parisian makers are known to be eminently supeior. We are advisedly directed to recommend Madame Clemencon, 8, Rue Port Mahon, inventor of the "corps pompadours," and the "demi-corps ehateleine." which impart so much grace and elegance to the figure. Eau de Cologne. -The name of the firm of Jean Marie Farisa, 333, Rue St. Honore, is too well known to require commendation. Eau de Cologne.-Agent for Auton Farina's Eau de Cologne B. J. Tillman & Co, 8, Rue Neuve Bour L'abbé. Artists, Designers, and Jewellers in Hair.-M. Lemonnier, who was awarded the Prize Medal at the London Exhibition, and the Gold Medal at that of Paris, is highly recommenced. Hatter-Servas, 36, Rue Caumartin. The hats at this establishment are equal to the best in Paris. Tailor.-Hulek. 226, Rue de Rivoli, recommended for his gentlemanly style of garments. An honest and ebliging tradesman. Speaks English. Tailor.- -Blay Lafitte, 11, Boulevard des Italien. Gentlemen wishing to renew their apparel will find this establishment one of the best in Paris. First-rate style and capital materials. Daguerreotypes. Photographs, Stereoscopes, in all styles and sizes. 1st Class Medal at the Universal Paris Exhibition. The beautiful specmens produced by Mr. Warren Thompson, 22, Rue de Choiseul, are greatly admired. Kramer, Jeweller to the Empress, 31, Rue Neuve St. Augustin, recommended as having an unrivalled stock of Jewellery, Diamonds, &c. Dentist.-Persons requiring a good surgical and mechanical dentist, are recommended to Mr. George, 224, Rue de Rivoli, opposite the Tuileries, author of a work on his new system of artificial teeth, inventor of the Baume Dentaire for the instantaneous cure of the tooth ache. Surgeon-Dentists-We confidently recommend as operating and mechanical Dentists, Messrs. Chippendale and Barwis. No 10, Rue d'Alger, near the gardens of the Tuileries, particularly for a superior description of artificial teeth. Dentist-Mr. W. Rogers, 270, Rue St. Honoré, author of several important medical and surgical works on Dentistry. Mr. Rogers also enjoys a first rate reputation as a practical dentist. Dentist.-Mr. Paterson will be found conscientious a ike in his work and in his charges. He keeps no assistants but does every thing himself. His pieces are beautifully finished, and merit inspection, 396, Rue St. Honoré. English Chemist.-Swan, Member of the College of Pharmacy, 12, Rue Cas ig ione, an important and highly re-pectable house honoured with a Prize Medal from the Universal Society for encouragement of arts and industry, for improvements in Pharmaceutical preparations. Clocks and Watches, Musical Boxes, Time-pieces. &c. Würtel, 38 and 40, Passage Vivienne, Paris. Zimberg fabrt.de necessaries 15, Rue de L'ARcienne Comedie.-See advertisement. Optician.-For all descriptions of optical glisses and instruments, there is comparatively no choice, as those of M. Chevallier, 15, Place du Pont Neuf, are reputed all over the world. English Ale and Porter Stores B. Harris & Co., 265, Kue st. Honoré. We only need refer to the advertisement, to the respectability and importance of this establishment. General Provision Warehouse, Cuvillier, 16, Rue de la Paix, Groceries, Wines, &c., as per advertisement. English Bookseller.-Fowler, 6. Rue Mon pensier, and 231, Peristyle Montpensier, Palais Royal. English books at London prices. Money Changers and Foreign Bankers.-Messrs. Meyer, Spielmann, & Co., of 26, Rue Neuve Vivienne, are well known, and deserving our best recommendation. English and all foreign monies can be exchanged at this establishment to the best advantage. They grant drafts on London and the principal cities of Europe and America. SKETCH OF FRANCE. FRANCE is between latitude 42° 20′ and 51° 6′ north, and longitude 8° 15′ east, and 4° 40' west. The greatest length north and South (Dunkirk to Perpignan), is 787 kil.; the greatest width, east and west (Strasbourg to Brest), 802 kil.; the least width being (Rochelle to Pont-de Beauvoisin) 735 kil. Area, about 54,452,600 hectares, or 136,131,500 acres, or 212,700 square miles (British Islands are 120,560 square miles). The back-bone of the country, or line of 'watershed,' is along the Jura and Vosges mountains, then to the west by Monts Faucilles, then south by the plateau de Langres, the Côte d'Or, and the Cevennes, whence it strikes west, to the Pyrenees. Its greatest off-shoot, the Dauphiné Alps, rise 14,108 feet at Mont Pelvoux, the highest peak in France; Mont Perdu, in the Pyrenees, is 10,994 feet; Mont Dore, in Auvergne, about 6,198 feet; Reculet, in the Juras, 5,683 feet. Six principal rivers water the surface; the Rhine, Meuse, Seine, Loire, Garonne, Rhône; and the smaller ones are the Escaut, Aa, Canche, Authie, Somme, Touques. Orne, Vire, Selune, Kance, Aulne, Blavet, Vilaine, Lay, Sèvre-Niortaise, Charente, Leyre, Adour, Tet, Agly, Aude, Orb, Hérault, and Var. Besides these and ninety-four streams of the second class, there are 3,664 kil. of canals, making a total of 2,900 leagues of inland navigation. The roads are in three classes; 1st,-routes impériales (or 'king's highway'), kept up by the state; 2nd-routes départementales, kept up by the departments; and 3rd-routes vicinales or cross roads, which are left to the communes. Some of the best are thirteen to twenty mètres broad, paved, and lined with trees; but the cross roads are dreadful. In the 37,187 communes of France, there are about 2,240,000 kil. of public ways, INTRODUCTION. lxxiii Its eighty-six departments, made 1789, by the division of the thirty-three provinces, take names from their position with respect to some river, mountain, &c., and with their chief towns, are as follows: Each department is under a préfect (appointed by the state), and is divided into three to six arrondisements or sous-préfectures; these are parted (seven on the average) into cantons (2,834 in all) under juges de paix, and these again (six to fifteen each) into communes, each having a maire, a parish priest or curé, and his subordinate or vicaire. There are 40,430 priests in the 37,013 communes, besides 565 monasteries (for monks) and 3,400 nunneries. Before the revolution of 1848, each arrondisement had an electoral college comprising all persons paying 200 francs direct taxes, which returned deputies to the Chambre; under the present system, the Legislative corps are elected by direct universal suffrage. Each arrondisement has a tribunal de premiére instance (or quarter sessions court); and the departments are joined so as to make twenty-seven cours impériales (or assize courts), twenty-one military governments and eighty-one dioceses (fourteen being under archbishops). About 47,000 primary schools are established in the communes, superior schools or colleges in the towns, normal schools and university faculties in the chief cities. Chambers of commerce exist at the ports and manufacturing towns; public libraries in most large places. There are 183 fortified places of war, in four classes. Some of the best cathedrals are, Chartres, Bourges, Strasbourg, Rheims, Troyes, Amiens, Abbeville, Beauvais, Metz, Rouen, Bayeaux, Coutances. The romanesque style corresponds to the round-arched norman in England; flamboyant to the florid gothic (with wavy, flame-like tracery); and renaissance to the tudor and later styles. "With respect to climate, the chief advantage which Paris has over London, consists in the greater purity and dryness of the atmosphere, its freedom from smoke and fog, and in the weather being less variable from day to day. The summers are hotter and the winters equally cold, if not colder The average quantity of rain which falls throughout the year is about as great in the one as in the other capital. It would not, therefore, be advisable to select Paris as a winter residence for delicate invalids, or those whose cases require attention to climate. It agrees, however, with many dyspeptics, to whom the light cookery of the French cuisine is better suited than the more substantial fare usually met with in Britain, which requires greater powers of digestion,-provided always that this class of invalids abstain from ragouts, rich sauces, indigestible vegetables, as truffles, and from partaking of a variety of wines.' (Lee, Companion to the Continent.) The soil is very fruitful, and best cultivated on the borders of Belgium, thence to the south it gets worse. Fields are unenclosed; farmers live near the villages away from their farms. Most of these are mortgaged, and grow smaller and smaller by the law of equal shares. Corn is not drilled in, so that a fine crop of weeds spring up. Women reap, and the produce is threshed in the open air. Manures used, but no more cattle kept than actually wanted. The best pasture is in Normandy and the west, where good breeds of cattle and sheep are seen. About three acres in seven are arable, and half as much waste; there may be twenty-million acres of forest, and five of vineyards. Wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, are the chief crops, the return being one-third less than in England; beet root is grown for sugar, the annual production of which is 46,000 tons; french beans and other vegetables in profusion; maize for food; flax, hemp, tobacco, and a few hops; rape and cole seed. Cider, perry, and a little poor wine are made in the north down to a line running east-north-east and west-south-west through Paris. Vineyards are common, south of this; and at another line through Rochelle and Dijon the maize or Indian corn begins. From a third line, east and west through Lyons, the olive and mulberry flourish; and the orange, lemon, &c., are pretty common on parts of the south coast. The Vine (grown in seventy-six departments,) yields nine-hundred and twentyfour million gallons of wine, of which one-sixth is for brandy (eau-de-vie) from the Charente, &c., and one-tenth is exported. Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux (claret), Roussillon, Dauphiné, Lyonnais, &c, are the best sorts; stoney soils are the most suitable. Bercy is the central market for wine, and Béziers for brandy. The forests are not too great for the vast consumption of charcoal for fuel. Elm is the most common timber; others are the oak lime maple and various ornamental INTRODUCTION. lxxv woods, pine (in the Landes, Vosges, &c.), cork tree (Pyrenees); the chesnut for food, walnut for oil, mulberry for the silk worm (in the Drôme, Ardèche, &c.). Coal is found more or less in thirty-three departments, but worked only round Valenciennes, St. Etienne, Angers, &c., so that of the small annual consumption (4,150,000 tons?), part is imported. Iron is plentiful, and forged at 4,400 furnaces. Copper worked near Lyons; brick and porcelain clay, chalk, gypsum, limestone (in most of the mountains), marble, granite (in Brittany, &c.), manganese, antimony, lead and silver, rock salt, and slate, are abundant. Of eight hundred mineral springs counted, there are eighty principal (under medical inspectors), such as Bagnères, Bagnères de Luchon, Cauterets, Bourbonne, Bourbon-Lancy, Mont Dore, Vichy, Rennes, &c., annually used by 50,000 persons, one-half being strangers. Linen, lace, cotton (at Rouen, Mulhouse, &c.), broad cloths, woollens, carpets, &c., are made in the north; silk in the south. Beavers and flamingoes still breed in the Rhone; the bear, wolf, wild boar, chamois, &c., otter, with the ortolan, becafico, gecko, salamander, are also seen in the south of France, where the musquito bites. Sardines or pilchards caught in Brittany; tunny and anchovy, in the Mediterranean. Perhaps the most striking parts of France, are Normandy, the Seine, the Lower Loire, Brittany, the Upper Garonne and Pyrenees, Auvergne and its volcanoes in the Upper Loire, the Cevennes Mountains, the Rhône below Lyons, Dauphiny, the Vosges mountains. We may add a few notices of its past history. In Cæsar's time it was Gallia or Gaul, including the Belgae to the north and north-east; Celts in the west, middle, and south; the Aquitani in the south-west; with some Greek colonies round Marseilles. (Fine roman remains still exist at Nismes, Orange, &c., in the south, and even as far aorth as Lillebonne). It was afterwards divided into four, and then seventeen, provinces by the emperors. Later still, it was occupied by the roving nations from central Europe, as the Visigoths and Ostrogoths, in the south; the Burgundians, on the Rhine; and the Franks (fourth century), on the Lower Rhine, who were descended from Meroveus, and under Clovis (481-511) the Merovingian obtained so much ascendancy as to give it their name. Upon his death his four sons shared his power and dominions, which were again united under the survivor, Clotaire. After several kings, and many divisions, during which parts of it took the names of Austrasia (east and north-east); Neustria (north-west, where many Armorican Britons, &c., driven out of England, had settled); Aquitan (south and west); Bourgogne (east and south-east); it was re-united and extended under the vigorous sway of Charlemagne (768-814), son of Pepin, and head of the Carlovingian race, which expired with Louis V. (prior to which the Northmen under Rollo, settled in Normandy). His successor was Hugues Capet, 987, from whom the descent is tolerably regular, though the kingly power was but weak for several reigns. A succession of fourteen kings of this house (including Philippe Auguste and Louis IX., or St. Louis), ended in the direct line with Charles IV., who was succeeded, 1328, by Philippe VI. of Valois. Six kings of this branch (among whom are Charles V., called le Sage, who however, lost Crecy and Poitiers; Charles VII. in whose time the English lost nearly all they had gained in France; and the crafty Louis XI.) ended with Charles VIII. Louis XII. of Valois-Orléans comes next, 1498. After him, Francis I. (1515) of ValoisAngouléme and four princes of the same stock, including Charles IX., the author of the Bartholomew massacre. Henry IV., or Henri Quatre of Valois-Bourbon, ascended the throne, 1589, and was succeeded by Louis XIII. and other Bourbons, down to the Revolution, and execution of Louis XVI. (1793) Napoleon became emperor 1806. Louis XVIII. was restored 1814 (the child of his murdered brother had the nominal title of Louis XVII.) and, except the 'Hundred Days,' reigned till 1825. His brother, Charles X., was driven from the throne, 1880, when Louis Philippe of Orléans succeeded, and reigned till 1848, when the Third Revolution and Second Republic was effected, which terminated, 1851, when the restoration of the Empire, under Napoleon III. (son of Napoleon's second brother Louis). The direct survivor of Louis Philippe is his grandson the Count de Paris; and of the Bourbons, Charles X.th's grandson, the Count de Chambord, or Henry V., as his partisans style him. Population of France (1851), 35,781,628; regular army, 454,000; fleet, 330 vessels (90 being steamers), with 8,000 guns; revenue, about 1,375,000,000 francs (£55,000,000); public debt, £230,000,000. The same items for the British Islands are,-population (1851), 27,452,000; army, 120,000; fleet, 678 vessels, with 18,000 guns; revenue, £52,250,000; debt, £765,000,000. ROUTES FROM LONDON TO PARIS:- London to Paris, via Dover & Calais, The tourist, on leaving London Bridge, finds himself whirled over a beautiful country; and at about six and a quarter miles he finds himself at Sydenham. To the right of the line the Crys. tal Palace of 1851 has found a permanent home, and stands forth as a grand and splendid monument representing the combined elements of universal industry, and ornamenting the picturesque locality in which it is situated. Very little of interest surrounds the remaining part of the journey to Dover, where the traveller takes the steam-boat, and leaving the old cliffs of England, finds himself after a delightful sea trip of two hours at Calais, in France. On arrival here tourists should proceed direct to the passport office, on the railway station, and get their passport properly vised. after which they should proceed to an adjoining room for the purpose of having their baggage examined. This, however, can be avoided by declaring them for transit. CALAIS. See page 30.-Quit ing this station, the railroad a'most makes the circuit of the town, and passes through a country as low and flat as it is undiversified by any beauties of sylvan scenery, and passing St. Pierre station, arrives at ARDRES.—A small fortified place, situated on a canal, from which it takes its name, and memorable as being the vicinity of the spot, close to which, in 1520, the famous meeting took place between Henry VIII of England and Francis I. of France. The place of meeting was called the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and is situated to the west, midway between this station and Guisnes. The next stations arrived at are places of no importance, nor is there anything remarkable in the scenery up to our arrival at ST OMER.-See page 29. Departing hence, we pass Eblinghem station, and reach HAZEBROUCK, from whence there is a branch line to Dunkirk. Leaving here, our journey is unmarked by any particularity of character. We pass the stations of Strazecle, Bailleul, Steenwerck, Armentieres, and Perenchies, immediately after which the train stops at |