LETTER III.

Gibbeville, July 22.

IT

T would be idle to attempt a description of Paris in this letter; it may be found in many publications; I shall confine myself to a few observations. The general appearance of the city is greatly improved; the bridges, the quays, the fountains, &c. attest the attention which was paid by Bonaparte to whatever could be gratifying to the inhabitants of the capital. On the other hand, the population of Paris has been greatly diminished, 70,000 men are stated to have been furnished to the French armies by this city; and the number of its inhabitants is said to be reduced to less than 600,000. The diminution was not sensible to my superficial view of the streets, but it is universally allowed that Paris has lost a tenth of its population. I mentioned in a former letter, that in distant parts of France 2001. sterling was paid for a substitute during the conscription. I saw persons in Paris who had paid 4001. and I heard of

persons who were said to have paid double that sum.

I was twice at the Comedie Françoise; the house was full, but the appearance of the company, particularly the women, was the reverse of elegant or genteel. A cautious silence seemed to be observed by the audience on all subjects that had a political allusion. I observed but two exceptions. A slight applause was given to the Duke of Berri, when he entered the theatre; and some clapping and laughing took place, when an actor in the farce said, I love soldiers, we never had so great need of them. None of the Royal Family were visible, while I was at Paris, but the Duke of Berri; the King being ill at the Thuilleries, and Monsieur at St. Cloud; the Duke d' Angouleme, was in the western provinces, and the Duchess in bad health at Vichy. The meetings of the Senate are not open to any persons. I was present at one assembly of the Corps Legislatif; the room is handsome, and the dress of the members (blue embroidered with gold) has a good effect. The debate was not very interesting; the speakers were numerous, but the speeches not long, nor very striking.

I went to view the ruins of the Temple before I left Paris. I say the ruins, for Bonaparte, some years since, ordered all that part of the

building to be pulled down in which the Royal Family had been confined. A model of the towers remains, and that is sufficient to give some idea of the misery of their situation.

Malmaison, where Josephine lived and died, is a good house, elegantly furnished, in a low, dull situation, about five miles from Paris. Her servants, and indeed every body in the neighbourhood, spoke of her with great affection and regret. Her conduct in private life, and her charities to the poor, have, I believe, been for some years past very commendable.

Versailles has gone much to decay. I should have gone to see it, but I understand that it is now full of workmen, and undergoing a thorough repair.

It would, perhaps, be unpardonable, if I were to quit Paris without saying any thing of. the Museum. It is, undoubtedly, the finest collection in the world; yet I confess that I have felt more pleasure in viewing those noblest monuments of sculpture and painting at Rome, than I now experienced at Paris. The Apollo and the Laocöon were seen to more advantage in the Vatican than in the Louvre. The Transfiguration has been so damaged, so restored, and so varnished, that I scarcely could have known it to be the same picture which I have so often viewed with admiration at Rome,

and the same may be said of many other chef dauvres of the greatest masters. I must, however, acknowledge, that on this subject I

not an unprejudiced person, for in viewing the Museum at Paris, rich with the spoils of defenceless Rome, I never can banish from my mind the idea of the shop of a Jew broker, filled with the watches and jewels which have been plundered from unoffending travellers on Hounslow or on Bagshot heaths.

I cannot quit this subject without adding that as I have long been a most enthusiastic admirer of Raphael, I deeply lament the injury which has been done to the Transfiguration, and the Madona della Sedia, on account of the injury which will result from it to the fame of the first of painters. Let a few years pass, and no one will remain who has seen those inimitable works in their original beauty. The next generation will form their judgment from what they see in the Louvre, and contemplating the Transfiguration in its present disfigured state, will suppose the merit of the artist to have been far inferior to what they would certainly have esteemed it, if they could have seen this master-piece of painting in the state in which it was long seen in St. Pietro di Montorio. I would recommend the stranger who wishes to become acquainted with Raphael, from the

pictures in the Louvre, to fix his attention on the Cecilia from Bologna.

I remain, your's, &c.

in

P. S. July 23. If any of my countrymen, disgusted with the reception which they experience at Paris, and in other places in France, suppose that friendly unaffected hospitality is no where to be found, I would advise them to endeavour to procure an introduction I am now. maitie wol to the Villa in which