and twenty-six chapels of ease, thirty-five monasteries for BOOK women, four for men, and as many monkish seminaries. Six CXLVI. chapels belong to different sects; viz, three to calvinists, one to those of the Augsburg confession, one to the eastern Christians, and one to the Jews. tions, &c. There are nine public libraries, many scientific col- Scientific lections, others connected with the arts, schools of law, institumedicine and theology. It is foreign to our purpose to schools, mention all the schools, seminaries or colleges in which the various departments of knowledge are taught; of these the polytechnic school is not the least important, and it may be remarked that the method of instruction which was first introduced there, has been since adopted in different countries. The number of private institutions amounts to thirty-six, of public schools to a hundred and thirty-five; there are twenty-three learned societies, independently of the Royal Institute, the most celebrated of them all. Much good has been effected by philanthropic societies, by benevolent institutions; knowledge has thus been communicated to those, who otherwise must have remained ignorant, the evils of poverty have thus been mitigated. As ostentation is not a pretext for the noble duty of relieving the poor, or mitigating human suffering, the neglect of it cannot be imputed to carelessness or indifference. The charitable institutions in Paris, the numbers that subscribe to them, the zeal and judgment with which they are managed, are the best proofs of progressive improvement, the best answers that can be given to the narrow-minded men, who have vainly attempted to calumniate the present generation. of Paris. Paris is subdivided into twelve mayoralties, and the en- Neighvirons form the two subprefectures of Saint Denis and bourhood Sceaux. The small town of Saint Denis may be mention- Sainted on account of an ancient Benedictine abbey, and also on Denis. account of a church, a Gothic building, perhaps more remarkable for lightness than any other in France, it was begun in the seventh century, and finished in 1181. The orphan daughters of the Legion of Honour are at present educated and maintained in the ancient abbey. of the Ourcq canal passes at the extremity of the town, and BOOK contributes to the trade of the inhabitants. Saint Denis CXLVI. is also a place of some importance on account of four fairs that are held in the course of the year; it is calculated that on an avarage L.62,500 worth of cloth, L.25,000 of linen, and L.16,000 of woollen stuffs are sold. More than ninety thousand sheep are bought at the fair of Landit, a neighbouring burgh. Vincennes. Vincennes is situated in the district of Sceaux; the old towers and the dungeon which were long used as a state prison, are built on the royal manor of Philip Augustus, they were begun by Philip of Valois, and finished by Charles the Fifth. The first of these kings changed the wood into a park by enclosing it with a wall, and it was under a venerable oak, which according to tradition existed at so late a period as the sixteenth century, that Saint Lewis administered justice. Lewis the Tenth, Charles the Fourth, Charles the Fifth, Charles the Ninth and cardinal Mazarin died in the castle of Vincennes. The village of Bercy on the banks of the Seine is the principal depot of the wines, brandy and oil that are consumed in the capital. Arcueil. The aqueduct of Arcueil is built on the site of the one that was raised by the emperor Julian, an ancient work of which Fontenay some imposing ruins still remain. The neat village of Fontenay-aux-Roses possessed the privilege of supplying the court and the parliament with roses, a privilege that accounts for its name. It was customary for the peers and magistrates to hold an assembly in the month of May, and each person received a bunch of flowers in which the number of roses was arranged according to the rank of the individual; but the ceremony gave rise to so many disputes about precedence that it was at last abolished. It is certain, however, that more roses are at present cultivated in Fontenay than in any other place round Paris. The burgh of Sceaux on the small river Bievre shares with Poissy the advantage of a cattle market for the supply of Paris. The luxury of the Parisians exerts a great influence in the surrounding districts, and village girls appear on Sundays in the same dress as the belles of the capital. aux-Roses. Sceaux. Depart ment of Eure. The department of Eure, formerly included in the ancient province of Normandy, is contiguous on the east to Seine and Oise. A great many horses and the finest oxen that appear in the markets of Sceaux and Poissy, are reared on the pastures or artificial meadows in the department; the inhabitants manufacture a considerable quantity of corn, cloth and cotton stuffs. Several places are connected with historical events that are not uninteresting even in the present day: the troops of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, were defeated between Evreux and Vernon by Duguesclin in 1364; sixty years afterwards the English gained a victory over Charles the Seventh in the neighbourhood of Verneuil; lastly, the army under the command of the duke of Mayenne was destroyed on the plains of Ivry by Henry the Fourth. BOOK CXLVI. Evreux. Vernon rises on the left bank of the Seine, and a bridge Vernon, of twenty-two arches serves as a communication between the town and the suburbs. The public records are preserved in an old tower, all that remains of the fortifications. Evreux, a town built of wood, is situated in a fruitful valley, watered by the Iton. It is a place of great antiquity; excavations were made at different times, and many ruins have been discovered; indeed it cannot be doubted that it occupies the site of the Celtic city, originally called Mediolanum, and at a later period Eburovices by the Roman conquerors. The iron arches that support the bridge of Arts and the bridge of Austerlitz, were founded at the iron works near Conches, at no great distance from Evreux; the industrious inhabitants are casting at present the different parts of an iron steeple, which is to weigh 900,000 kilogrammes or 884 tons, it is intended to be placed on the cathedral of Rouen. Other towns are situated in the country on the north of the Seine: Gisors contains three thousand inhabitants; the principal building is a church, of which the ornaments were sculptured by John Goujon. The old tower that rises on an eminence, was part of a castle once inhabited by queen Blanche. The road from Gisors traverses along a ridge on the left of the Great and Little Au- The Audedely, two small towns which at present form only one. lys. Nicolas Poussin was born in an adjoining hamlet; a monument has been erccted to his memory at Little Audely, BOOK CXLVI. Valley of Louvier and near it are the ruins of a fortress which according to tradition was built by Richard Coeur-de-Lion. The village of Fleury is situated in the middle of the valley through which the Andelle flows. The sinuous course of the small river, the manufactories at irregular distances, Charleval on one side, the hill of Deux-Amans on the other, the declivities covered with pastures, and the woods which crown their summits, render the valley as agreeable as any in Normandy. Charleval bore the name of Nogeon-sur-Andelle until the time that Charles the Ninth laid the foundation stone of a country seat, that was never finished, but different chambers in it were converted into dwellings for the peasantry. Romilly rises on the Andelle near its confluence with the Seine; the river puts in motion the works on which the importance of the town depends; more than three hundred persons are employed in making wire, kettles and different articles of brass or copper; it is believed that the weight of the products which issue every year from these works cannot be less than 900,000 kilogrammes. Louviers on the left of the Eure may be seen from the heights that command Romilly; it is well known on account of numerous cloth manufactories in which two thousand workmen were employed forty years ago, and which furnish occupation at present to more than six thousand. The wealth and industry of the inhabitants have enabled them to adorn their town with several edifices, an elegant theatre and public walks. Pont-de-l'Arche, a place of fif teen hundred inhabitants, is situated below Louviers on the right bank of the Seine; it was built by Charles the Bald; the effects of the tide are perceptible below the walls. The small town of Quillebeuf at the embouchure of the river, was originally called Ericarville; it was a strong place of some consequence before the fortifications were razed by Lewis the Thirteenth; it does not contain at present more than fifteen hundred persons. As the moving sands that are accumulated by the Seine, render it impracticable for merchant vessels to ascend to Rouen, their cargoes are transported in lighters from the harbour of Quillebeuf. Pont Neat villages are scattered in the country between the BOOK river and Pont-Audemer, they are surrounded by orchards CXLVI. and meadows. The time in which the last town was founded, cannot be exactly determined, it is known, however, udemer. A that it was called after Audemer, a Frenchman, who built a bridge on the Rille in the thirteenth century. It is encompassed with walls and ditches, the houses are built of brick, the streets are straight and regular. Bernay on the south Bernay. of Pont-Audemer may be mentioned as the capital of a subprefecture; the Charentonne, a small river, flows below its walls. It contains, at a certain season of the year not fewer than forty thousand persons, the most of whom repair to it on account of a fair, in which more horses are sold than in any other in France. It would be tedious to enumerate all the manufactories and different works in the department; suffice it to say that they amount to fifteen hundred, that they furnish employment to thirty thousand persons, and that the value of their products exceeds 26,000,000 franks or L.1,083,000. Orne. Ar- Argentan. The Orne gives its name to a department, in which cal- Departcareous rocks, granite and others of an ancient date form ment of high hills and narrow valleys covered with pastures or arable land. The people do not cultivate much corn, but they rear a great many horses and oxen. Linen, cotton and different manufactories furnish employment to great numbers; wealth is thus diffused among the four thousand inhabitants of Vimoutiers on the Vie, and among twenty thousand persons of both sexes in the neighbourhood. gentan rises on the Orne, it is commanded by the ruins of a strong castle, old fortifications and ramparts long since changed into public walks; it carries on a trade in a particular kind of lace, which the French call Point d'Alençon. The village of Sante-Honarine-la-Guillaume has become more flourishing since granite quarries were worked in the vicinity; it contains at present two thousand inhabitants. The Rille flows near a lofty forest that bounds the department of Eure, and passes through the neat town of Aigle, a place that carries on a great trade in pins and needles; one of the manufactories is provided with machinery by which two thousand needles can be made in a |