The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . 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.
The XVIIIth century; its institutions, customs, and costumes France, 1700-1789 . 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,. Fi^-. 226.— i Kl- puMiL letter-.\ I iter ; after Boissieu. —The ordinary letter cost s sous : a petition to the king or his mnisicrs was charged 12 sous, because it was necessary to make it more stylish. dating from 1770, new housci^, new streets, and fresh districts, weregradually built. Building became the fashionable mania. Yet withall this the population did not increase. The author of Petittableau de Paris in 1783 says : There arc 32,000 apartments, andhouses are being built in all directions. This is the mode in whichluxury now develops itself Much money was also expended uponcarriages and horses at this period, and the writer of Diogenes inParis (1787) says : The gentleman of quality who would formerlybe content with six or eight horses, now has thrice the number;many bourgeois have ten or a dozen carriage horses and several THE ASPECT OF PARIS. 343 hacks, with which they career through the streets. The circulationin the streets was not so often impeded, for thougli the
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