Paris past & present . ity Hall. Under theConsulat and the Empire the municipal powerin Paris suffered the same fate as the legisla-tive and judicial power; they fell beneath theabsolute power of a man who would suffer noauthority but his own to prevail. The Hotelde Ville was given up to festivals, the magni-ficence of which increased with each step thatthe country made towards becoming the Empireof the World, and which was also a step to-ward its own ruin. It was then that themunicipality was made subordinate, so tospeak, to the Prefet of the Seine, which secondposition it still holds in most
Paris past & present . ity Hall. Under theConsulat and the Empire the municipal powerin Paris suffered the same fate as the legisla-tive and judicial power; they fell beneath theabsolute power of a man who would suffer noauthority but his own to prevail. The Hotelde Ville was given up to festivals, the magni-ficence of which increased with each step thatthe country made towards becoming the Empireof the World, and which was also a step to-ward its own ruin. It was then that themunicipality was made subordinate, so tospeak, to the Prefet of the Seine, which secondposition it still holds in most things. When Louis XVIII was dead, and whenCharles X had been driven out of France,General de Lafayette, tlie man of two revolu-tions, arrived at the Hotel de Ville, and withhim was the Duke of Orleans. The Duke waspresented to the people, and on his head theyplaced the crown which his cousin lost. LouisPliili|)j)e had very little to do with the Hotel ? •)».>7r/-^t*wjf THE* W j>e viixc JiililfY n«i. ANOTHER EEPUBLIC PROCLAIMED. 77 de Ville after that, and in due course of timelie too fell and fled. Then the re-establishmentof a Republic was announced at the city had passed from the Tuileries tothe Chamber of Deputies, and from the Cham-ber to the Hotel de Ville in a few , the poet statesman, was the Orpheuswho in turn appeased and charmed the on the steps of the Hotel de Yille, heopposed to the white flag, which, dragged inblood, had never made more than the circuit ofthe Champ de Mars, the drapeau tricolorewhich had made the circuit of the world, andhe won. But the Republic of 1848 died soon,and again the powers of the municipality-were restricted while the Second Empire the Hotel de Ville became the scene ofsplendid festivals. Balls and banquets were theimportant incidents in that establishment whileLouis Napoleon was on the imperial throne,and then, almost simultaneously with his down-fall, the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1902
