to another inconvenience, as my vade mecum informed me, that of capsizing, excepting in very smooth water. The invention of the steam-boat he claimed for his nation; and in the same spirit of monopoly was for taking the credit of the safety-lamp, till I stopped him. The latter point he at last gave up; but with a reservation in favour of the grande nation,-namely, that Sir Humphrey is annually in the habit of visiting the Conservatoire, whence, of course, he must have borrowed the hint. Among the curiosities was the model of a man of war, which Napoleon had expressly made for instructing the young King of Rome. It cost an enormous sum, and is executed with the most Chinese fidelity in all its details.

My conversation with the guide led to a comparison of Napoleon with the present King, for whose intellectual peculiarities I attempted some apology, offering the trite but no less sound argument, that in truth the good old man could not help being what nature made hìm: to which the only reply I got was the usual haussement des épaules, accompanied with

a manner that appeared to me a good gesticulative comment on lævius fit patientiâ, &c.

Before quitting the precincts of the Conservatoire, I stumbled upon a gratuitous lecture in an adjoining building, where two lectures are given on different days, one on mechanics, the other on chemistry. That which I came in for was on mechanics, delivered by a Professor Dupont. It was occupied with the most obvious illustrations of the principle of gravity, as applied to masonry; and with a nimble display of diagrams, very adroitly executed on a black slab with a bit of chalk. Monsieur Dupont uses a good deal of the extravagant action of his countrymen; but his language is clear, and his enunciation distinct. Although this theatre was open to the crowd, there was throughout the whole lecture the utmost decorum and regard to silence. These and many other such places of instruction are not only accessible gratis to all classes, but after the lecture, any one is at liberty to apply to the professor for an explanation of what he may not have understood. In some classes there

is a circle of auditors, where the professor presides to promote conversation, so that he speaks with as well as to them,—an advantage surely of the very first moment, and that should never be lost sight of in any system of teaching.

On my return from the lecture, I occupied myself in copying, during a deluge of rain, the following piece of orthodoxy in the church of St. Eustache :

"Exercices de dévotion en l'honneur de la

passion:" among

larly specified,

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which exercises was particu

une exposition des reliques insignes de la passion à la vénération des fidèles, savoir la vraie croix, la sainte couronne d'épines, et le St. Clou !" At the bottom of this affiche, plenary indulgence was offered to all such as had performed forty hours of prayer and fasting. Just as I had finished copying, I narrowly escaped a very liberal affusion of holy water. In the act of turning round, I was faced by a man, who doubtless construed my proceeding into a very unequivocal proof of devotion; and at the same instant charging a whisk in a font of the holy fluid, he had his arm raised

"

ready to let fly, when I suppose something in my manner hinted that I was heretically unworthy; and he returned it to its place.

The following is another notice of the same description, copied from a pious placard in the church of St. Jarvais :

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Il y aura une instruction sur le mystère de la passion de notre Seigneur. L'exercice sera présidé par Monseigneur Archevêque de Paris." Among other commendations of Monseigneur, bestowed on the piety of his flock, there is the following:

"Vous avez résolu de ne répondre aux vains raisonnmens d'une sagesse superbe, que par la simple mais constante docilité d'un enfant de l'Eglise." In a catechism published by the said Archbishop, there is the following sentence relating to relics: "On peut honorer les reliques des saints, parce que ces sont les précieux restes d'un corps qui a été le temple du Saint Esprit, et qui doit ressusciter glorieux."

9th March.-Visited Versailles. This superb palace is a most impressive picture of gilded desolation, a monument at once of gaiety and

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of horror without a parallel. Among the paintings there were two Maintenons; one done for her after the death of Louis XIV. during her sojourn at St. Cyr; in the other she is represented with the child of Madame la Vallière at her knee. She was an old woman when these portraits were taken. Though seventy when the former was executed, there is much expression in her features, set off by dark eyes and black hair. The interminable vistas of painted and gilded salons are kept by the present royal family only for show. It is not to be wondered they never should live where every object must recall the most dismal associations. Napoleon used them as a barrack; and the only inhabitants we saw were about half a dozen fogies, not unlike Chelsea pensioners, in blue and silver-laced coats, playing cards at an immense fire, one of whom officiated as our guide to all the melancholy detail of this triste habitation of royal sin and royal sorrows. I remarked there was not one portrait of Maria Antoinette, here or in either of the Trianons.