The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . ofthose inhabitants who enjoy within its walls all that opulence andamusements can procure ? We need public markets, fountainsgiving pure water, roomy crossways, and theatres. The narrow andsqualid streets should be widened, so as to open up the view of thepublic buildings which are concealed from sight, and to permit theerection of new ones. Voltaire enumerated all that Avas mostlacking in Paris, which, as he said, contained wherewith to ransom akingdom. Upon the one hand was the Louvre, the fagade of which,a mon
The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . ofthose inhabitants who enjoy within its walls all that opulence andamusements can procure ? We need public markets, fountainsgiving pure water, roomy crossways, and theatres. The narrow andsqualid streets should be widened, so as to open up the view of thepublic buildings which are concealed from sight, and to permit theerection of new ones. Voltaire enumerated all that Avas mostlacking in Paris, which, as he said, contained wherewith to ransom akingdom. Upon the one hand was the Louvre, the fagade of which,a monument to the greatness of Louis XIV., the zeal of Colbert,and the genius of Perrault, was concealed from view by buildingsonly worthy of Goths and \andals ; while upon the other were THE ASPECT OF PARIS. 341 rudely constructed theatres, difficult alike of ingress and public markets were situated in narrow and dirty streets ; manylarge districts had neither public squares nor statues, and the centreof the city, with the gloomy houses all huddled together, was repre-. Fi£. 225.—The psalm-singcr; after Cochin. sentative of a barbarous epoch. Voltaire was right, but his advicewas not immediately followed, though it was backed up by theMarquis de Mirabeau, who, writing six years later, declared :— Excepting the quays and some of the bridges, what is there ?There are three theatres, two of which are tennis-courts, whilst thethird is a monument of Cardinal de Richelieus paternal affection fora play which he had adopted; they have neither size, nor accom- 342 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. modation, nor proper ingress and egress. The town-hall is fit for athird-rate provincial city ; there is no place for public festivities, nofountain that would be thought sufficient for a small village. In aword, the beauties of this great city are so disseminated that they donot reflect lustre upon each other. These remonstrances produced some effect in the end, and,
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