Chapter I: Preface

* * * * * You have no sooner a guinea in London than you have none. In addition to the ways and means I pointed out in my last, gather together the letters I wrote you from Paris, and offer them to the booksellers. There are enough, if you have preserved them, for two volumes. I had partly the intention, in writing these letters, to dress them up one day into some kind of shape for the Public. I am not certain they are fit to be seen in their present dishabille--but leave that to the purchaser. A pretty woman slip-shod is a pretty woman still, and she is not so much improved as you think by her court dress. Tell the Public I do not mean them for _great things_: I am no critic, no politician, no political economist; but only, as Shakspeare would say, “a snapper up of inconsiderate trifles.” Under this title I have the honour to be, with the most perfect consideration, the Public’s very obedient, humble servant.

CONTENTS.

LETTER I.

Havre--Description of the Town--The Mapseller--Manners of the People--Law of Inheritance--State of Agriculture--Town and Country Poverty--Foreign Trade--The Custom House, a School for Perjury--System of Passports--The French Diligence--Rouen--The Cathedral--Joan of Arc p. 1-24

LETTER II.

Paris--Street Cries--St. Roch--The Boulevards--Parisian Lodgings--Manner of Living--The Grand Opera--Taglioni--The Public Gardens--The Guinguettes--Dancing, the characteristic amusement of the French--Sunday Dances--Dancing defended, from classical authority p. 25-53

LETTER III.

The Boulevards--Boulevard Madelaine--Boulevard des Capucines--Boulevard Italien--Monsieur Carème--Splendid Cafés--The Baths--Boulevard Montmartre--The Shoe-black--The Chiffonnier--The Gratteur--The Commissionnaire--Boulevard du Temple--Scene at the Ambigù Comique--Sir Sydney Smith--Monsieur de Paris--The Café Turc--The Fountains--Recollections of the Bastille--The Halle aux Blés--The Bicêtre--Boulevard du Mont Parnasse p. 54-92

LETTER IV.

The Palais Royal--French courtesy--Rue Vivienne--Pleasures of walking in the streets--Cafés in the Palais Royal--Mille Colonnes--Véry’s--French dinners--Past History of the Palais Royal--Galerie d’Orleans--Gambling--The unhappy Colton--Hells of the Palais Royal--Prince Puckler Muskau--Lord Brougham--The King and Queen p. 93-125

LETTER V.

The Tuileries--The Gardens--The Statues--The Cabinets de Lecture--The King’s Band--Regulations of the Gardens--Yankee modesty--The English Parks--Proper estimate of riches--Policy of cultivating a taste for innocent pleasures--Advantages of gardens--Should be made ornamental--Cause of the French Revolution--Mr. Burke’s notion of the English Parks--Climate of France p. 126-143

LETTER VI.

The Three Glorious Days--The plump little Widow--Marriage of fifteen young Girls--Shrines of the Martyrs--Louis Philippe--Dukes of Orleans and Némours--The National Guards--Fieschi--The Infernal Machine--Marshal Mortier and twelve persons killed--Dismissal of the Troops--The Queen and her Daughters--Disturbed state of France--The Chamber of Deputies--Elements of support to the present Dynasty--Private character of the King--The Daily Journals--The Chamber of Peers--Bonaparte p. 144-165

LETTER VII.

The Garden of Plants--The Omnibus--The Museum of Natural History--American Birds--The Naturalist--Study of Entomology--The Botanic Garden--Cabinet of Comparative Anatomy--The Menagerie--The Giraffe--Notions of America--The Cedar of Lebanon--Effects of French Cookery--French Gastronomy--Goose Liver Pie--Mode of Procuring the Repletion of the Liver p. 166-186

LETTER VIII.

Burial of the victims--St. Cloud--The Chateau--The Cicerone--The Chevalier d’Industrie--Grave of Mrs. Jordan--The Bois de Boulogne--Amusements on Fête Days--Place Louis XV.--The King at the Tuileries--The American Address--His Majesty’s Reply--The Princess Amelia--The Queen and her Daughters--The Dukes of Orleans and Némours--Madame Adelaide--Splendour of Ancient Courts--Manner of governing the French--William the Fourth--Exhibition of the Students at the University p. 187-209

LETTER IX.

Tour of Paris--The Seine--The Garden of Plants--The Animals--Island of St. Louis--The Halle aux Vins--The Police--Palais de Justice--The Morgue--Number of suicides--M. Perrin--The Hotel de Ville--Place de Grêve--The Pont Neuf--Quai des Augustins--The Institute--Isabelle de Bavière--The Bains Vigiers--The Pont des Arts--The Washerwomen’s Fête--Swimming-schools for both sexes--The Chamber of Deputies--Place de la Revolution--Obelisk of Luxor--Hospital of the Invalids--Ecole Militaire--The Champ de Mars--Talleyrand p. 210-250

LETTER X.

Faubourg St. Germain--Quartier Latin--The Book-stalls--Phrenologists--Dupuytren’s Room--Medical Students--Lodgings--Bill at the Sorbonne--French Cookery--A Gentleman’s Boarding-house--The Locomotive Cook--Fruit--The Pension--The Landlady--Pleasures of being duped--Smile of a French Landlady--The Boarding-house--Amiable Ladies--The Luxembourg Gardens--The Grisettes--Their naïveté and simplicity--Americans sent to Paris--Parisian Morals--Advantages in visiting Old Countries--American Society in Paris p. 251-284

LETTER XI.

The Observatory--The Astronomers--Val de Grace--Anne of Austria--Hospice des Enfans Trouvés--Rows of Cradles--Sisters of Charity--Vincent de Paul--Maisons d’Accouchement--Place St. Jaques--The Catacombs--Skull of Ninon de l’Enclos--The Poet Gilbert--Julian’s Bath--Hotel de Cluny--Ancient Furniture--Francis the First’s Bed--Charlotte Corday--Danton--Marat--Robespierre--Rue des Postes--Convents of former Times--Faubourg St. Marceau p. 285-302

THE AMERICAN IN PARIS.