other offices and servants' apartments are placed on the right and left of the court; all of which are kept in the most perfect order. The stables are well lighted, the floor laid with glazed tiles; an ample supply of water, pure air, and thorough cleanliness, remove all objections as to the proximity of the stables to the house.

Opposite the entrance gate is the approach to the house. The hall, vestibule, and stairs in such mansions are generally of great richness, announcing by their dimensions the dignity and grandeur of those who inhabit them. Statuary and bas-reliefs, often from the best classic models, prepare the mind for the grandeur of the reception rooms, which are always disposed with a view to artistic effect.

The gardens are generally laid out in the geometrical style, so arranged as to form vistas from the windows of the saloons. The trees and shrubs, leafy and fresh-looking, form the back ground, giving an idea of much greater space to these enclosures than they really contain.

I cannot close this hurried and imperfect notice of the Domestic Architecture of Paris, without adverting to the magnificent improvements which are in progress under the authority of the present Emperor, who, irrespective of all other claims, merits the lasting gratitude of Paris for the grandeur of his conceptions on this point, and the taste and energy with which they are being realized. The district in the vicinity of the Tuileries, extending for upwards of a mile along the north bank of the Seine, containing palaces, churches, public institutions, and dense masses of crowded streets; in fact, a whole quarter of the city has been cleared away to give place to these improvements. The grandeur of the new buildings, and the almost miraculous speed with which this vast amount of work has been performed, bespeak an energy and power, and a feeling for art in the present

ruler of France, unequalled by the Grande Monarque himself, or by the First Napoleon France.

these mighty names of

Those only who have seen Paris now, and as it was but a very few years ago, can form any conception of the vastness of the works referred to-the attempt to characterize which is apt to be considered mere exaggeration. Every district exhibits the same spirit of improvement. The additions to the buildings of the Champ de Mars, the New Hotel of the President of the Council, the New Church in Rue l'Université, and the permanent buildings of the Exhibition, all attest the high professional acquirements of the modern architects of Paris, who in no period of its history have ever been surpassed.

These splendid edifices however are, each and all of them, thrown into the shade by the magnificence of the additions to the Louvre, which has now been united to the Tuileries, forming one vast palatial edifice, half a mile in length, unequalled perhaps in the world for extent and magnificence. These splendid works, which baffled the energies of Louis XIV., and all his successors on the throne of France, were attempted by the First Napoleon, who was forced to abandon them as too vast for even his power. It was left to the comprehensive mind and firm will of his nephew to grapple with the herculean task, and to master it.

The manner in which this great work has been carried out by the architect Visconti, stamps him as the greatest master of the age. The new portions, which now unite the palaces of the Louvre and the Tuileries, consist of two separate blocks of buildings, the one 700 feet long by 290 feet in depth, containing three courts, two of which average 200 feet by 140 feet; the third being of smaller dimensions.

The corresponding block on the opposite side of the square is 600 feet by 230 feet, also containing three interior courts. It may assist one to form an idea of the extent of these erections, to state, that the interior court of Holyrood Palace is 90 feet square, and the interior court of the Royal Exchange 88 feet by 85 feet; and that the length of the Louvre and Tuileries, now united, is equal to that of Princes Street from Charlotte Square to Hanover Street, the breadth being equal to the space from Princes Street to the centre of the garden between Queen Street and Heriot Row.

Whether we consider the consummate ability with which these masses of buildings have been arranged, so as to unite and form a harmonious composition with the architecture of the three previous centuries, or the vast resources of art, and the originality of design displayed in the several façades, or the carefulness of finish and matured taste which runs throughout the whole of the parts, we are equally impressed with a feeling approaching almost to veneration for the gifted architect to whom the world is indebted for this great work. The premature death of Visconti, two years ago, may almost be considered a world's loss to art. All honour to his name.

Before concluding, I may be permitted, in a sentence or two, to allude to the astonishment with which one beholds for the first time the multiplicity of royal palaces in and around Paris. That just referred to, as of such magnitude, is only one of a series. There is the Palais Royal -on the opposite side of the street-at present occupied by Prince Jerome Bonaparte. In the Champs Elysee there is the palace of the Elysee-the residence of the present emperor during the days of the republic. In the Faubourg St. Germain there is the stately old palace of the Luxembourg; a few miles to the west is the beautiful

palace of St. Cloud on the Seine, so recently distinguished as the residence of our beloved queen during her visit to Paris. A few miles beyond this, which may be reached by a drive entirely through the royal domain, is the magnificent palace of Versailles; not to speak of Neuilly, half a league from the Barrier de l'Etoile, or of Malmaison, three and a half leagues west of Paris, the favourite residence of the Empress Josephine, or Fontainebleau, with its terraces, gardens, and statuary, and its forest of 35,000 acres.

These stupendous architectural works all serve as the repositories of the kindred arts of sculpture and painting, and all are freely thrown open to the people. The gilded halls and corridors of these imperial mansions are crowded with the artizan and the peasant on their oft-recurring holidays, enjoying the highest works of the chisel or the pencil.

There is no crowding, no jostling or elbowing past each other. The greatest politeness prevails. The arteducation thus afforded to the masses has done its work effectually in refining the manners, and inducing that outward decorum, which in this country is looked upon as the characteristic of the upper classes only.

The amount of rational and elevating enjoyment thus afforded to the great bulk of the people by these places of public recreation, is cheaply purchased, if they have in any degree aided in leading to those habits of politeness and sobriety which form such a marked characteristic of the French people.

In comparison with the treasures of art every where displayed in and around Paris, nothing whatever has been done by the government of this country for the encouragement of rational amusement, or the refinement of taste in the great body of the people.

But to come nearer home, may I be allowed to make a passing remark before closing, as to the accommodation afforded on the occasion of the yearly visit to our city of the beloved Sovereign who graces and dignifies the throne of this mighty empire. Inspired by feelings of loyalty, our citizens often express a wish that her sojourn could be prolonged amongst us. But if we look at the miserable accommodation afforded by the fragment of an old palace, in part dilapidated and in part gifted away to others-its dank court, covered with green moss, on which the sun rarely shines its miserable patch of a garden, surrounded by cow byres and mean dwellings can we wonder that the stay of the august visitor should be of the shortest ?

Is it creditable to our taste as citizens, or to our loyalty, as subjects of so benignant a Sovereign, that such a miserable residence should be allotted to her Majesty in passing through the capital of her ancient kingdom of Scotland? The French manage these matters better.