been forced back into line with the rest;
convenient thoroughfares have been opened
through blind blocks of buildings which
separated one quarter from another. Yet,
utility was not the sole motive power which
has executed these improvements. The
love of ornament and a passion for display,
always attributed to the French, have been
brilliantly and beautifully exhibited; especially
in the Rue de Rivoli and the Boulevard
de Sebastopol. But above these, common-
sense (the most uncommon sense known),
proclaims itself from every improved street
and altered house. An English architect,
or a member of the City Improvements
Committee with any conscience or any
observation, cannot walk through Paris without
feeling ashamed and humiliated.

" But, sir, we live in a free country: in a
country where private property is respected
and private light a palladium. France, sir,
is a despotic country. There, your house is
not your castle: you can have it pulled down
about your ears at a moment's notice, merely
to promote public convenience. Our government
cannot, with one stroke of a pen or
after a one-sided discussion with civic
authorities, depopulate a neighbourhood to
have it built up again. We must wait until
capital has accumulated from the proper
sources; until leases have fallen in, and
ground-landlords fallen out; until paving-
boards have been conciliated, and
commissioners of sewers are agreed; until acts of
parliament are, at an incredible cost and
waste, fought through both houses, surveyors
consulted, fees guaranteed to high-minded
architects, building contracts—wickedly
paraphrased by the vulgar as "jobs"—solemnly
sealed and legalised. Sir, the boasted Parisian
improvements have been made, I will venture
to say, at the single will of the Emperor, and
against the several wills of thousands of
ousted tenants and ruined landlords; for
despotism can do in ten minutes, what sober,
constitutional legality is obliged to be busy
ten years about."

So says the honourable Deputy for the ward
of St. Vitus's Backlane; but that eminent and
respected public nuisance is in error. He will
perhaps be surprised to hear, that not a jot
of private right was invaded; that every stone
in Paris which formerly stood on the area of
improvement was paid full value for, before a
slate was removed or a pickaxe lifted; that
every owner and occupier was fairly compensated,
not only for loss and removal of property,
but for damage done to his business—
compensated too, not with the off-hand tyranny of
"take that or none;" but, in case of dispute, by
juries selected from his own class. If the
worthy St. Vitus's Deputy could divest
himself of his London Corporation prejudices,
and could inquire into the subject, he
would perceive that nearly every expedient,
every administrative arrangement, every
mode of negotiation and adjustment between
the authorities of the city of Paris and the
imperial government, is applicable to the
speedy improvement of his own or any other
pent-up, ill-planned, ill-governed city in these
liberally governed dominions.

The nucleus of the Paris improvements is
the Hôtel de Ville. Around it, the first great
shattering and shocking of vile streets took
place; and, in it, are performed the
administrative and financial operations by which
the wholesale changes are set in motion. The
chief municipal authorities do all their work
in this gorgeous Guildhall, partly of their
own free inspirations and will, and partly
under the direction of government. There,
the plans for changing some of the worst
parts of the capital into palatial
habitations, are devised, deliberated on, and
adopted; thence, come out the loans for
carrying on the work, which capitalists
eagerly " take up;" and there the work is
paid for when it is finished. As, however, it is
thought possible that a body of gentlemen of
equal status to the aldermen and common-
councilmen of London, are not solely sufficient
for deciding upon works of such
magnitude, their proceedings have to be ratified
by the conseil des bâtiments civils, an
imperial committee, composed of five of the most
eminent French architects and eight non-
professional colleagues, whose business it is
to report upon all plans respecting public
structures. The sanction and co-operation
of the minister of finance is also necessary
to the monetary operations; because, as the
construction of several public offices and
other public works is included, a certain
quota of expense is paid out of the imperial
treasury. It must not be supposed that
these and other excellent regulations were
framed to direct this single outburst of
architectural renovation; they are the law of the
land, made and provided for all such cases,
by the astonishingly far-seeing and
comprehensive Code Napoléon-- a code which
Britain, though she did rise out of the azure
main to the singing of Guardian Angels, has
some cause to envy.

It was originally intended that the vast
alterations to be made in the map of Paris
should occupy fifteen years; but the present
emperor had his reasons for ordering that
they should be finished in five years; so that
a considerable amount of capital had to be
raised in a very short time. Fortunately
the task was not difficult; for, as municipal
tom-foolery and gluttony are not the
business of the Hôtel de Ville, a fund,
applicable to the work, already existed in its
coffers amounting to about sixty millions of
francs. The credit of a corporation so flushed
with ready money, is in itself a bank; and
when more money was wanted, an additional
sum of fifty millions of francs was eagerly
lent by capitalists. No sooner are proposals
for a loan announced, than the scrip rises to a
high premium, and the competition for it is