so strong, that ten millions more francs
have been raised, by lottery, upon the excess
in premiums alone. Five millions of pounds
sterling have therefore been raised since
the year eighteen hundred and fifty-two,
for buying up property to improve Paris,
besides vast sums realised by old building
materials and fittings. Two years more of
well-spent and costly activity have yet to
elapse, before the contemplated regeneration
will be complete.

The doomed quarters having been marked
out, notices to quit are served upon the
occupiers. The bargain with each proprietor
differs little, in the first instance, from that
entered into between an ordinary buyer and
seller. The municipality is willing to give so
much; the vendor demands so much; if
terms cannot at once be arranged, the dispute
is referred to a compensation jury, composed
of members of the council-general of the
department of the Seine. Upon the whole,
our inquiries led to the belief that the sums
awarded are fair. Some cases of underpayment
and hardship could, of course, be adduced
on the one side, as well as instances of
exorbitant demand on the other. There are,
indeed, whispers, of tradesmen living in the line
of projected improvement, making out beforehand
on their books, enormous transactions
which only existed in their books, to mystify
the jurors into extravagant payment for loss
of trade by forced removal. Even lodgers are
compensated by indemnités locatives according
to the value of their holdings. Where one family
in London is put to the rout by the demolition of
a house, from four to five families are ejected
in Paris, where the inhabitants are nearly all
lodgers; each house being separated into
tenements; and each floor containing a
complete and distinct household.* The consequence
of the sudden sweeping away of habitations,
caused shelter to become uncommonly scarce.
Enormous rents were, for a time demanded,
even for the meanest garrets and the dampest
cellars; and the poorer and industrious
classes suffered intensely. Ejected families,
in a most piteous plight, were seen in the
streets, following the tumbrils or the hand-
carts in which their household appliances
were piled, unable to find a roof to cover
them. Many were obliged to remain out of
doors in the midst of frost and snow, until the
government caused certain waste places to
be hutted, in which they gave the houseless
shelter, free of charge. After a time, new
houses were ready, and these inconveniences
disappeared.

* In eighteen hundred and fifty-one, according to the
Census, the average number of individuals living in each,
house in Paris was twenty-six. In eighteen hundred and
seventeen the average was twenty-four inmates per
house.

There are, it must be remarked, some
circumstances which render these sudden
changes in Paris much more easy than in
London. House-building must always be a
more rapid operation in most parts of France
than in England. Hitherto, underground
works have not cost much time there; and—
although the ancient fosses surrounding the
garrison were converted at an early period
into main sewers, and a great straight sewer,
running east and west under the city, was
constructed in thirteen hundred and seventy
—yet few of the houses are drained into them
to this day. But, by a decree of the sixth of
December, eighteen hundred and fifty-three,
a system of tubular drainage into them, and
into a new sewer running parallel to the
Seine, on the south side, was established;
ten years being allowed to the proprietors
of house-property to cause the necessary
connection to be made. The main sewers will
be eventually discharged into the Seine a
few miles below Paris; but, so far above tidal
influence, that the sewerage will be carried
away. Not all the grand new streets and
beautiful houses, nor the noble monuments
and public buildings, will improve Paris so
thoroughly and fundamentally as this
measure. The abolition of cesspools centuries
old, with which its foundations are honey-
combed, and of the pestiferous voiries of
Montfaucon and Bondy into which they
have for ages been emptied, will increase the
hygienic condition of the city beyond all
calculation.

The ground cleared, at the expense already
indicated, had to be covered; and the four
thousand master-builders who habitually find
business in Paris- though taking upon
themselves a fair share of such work as adding
some half mile to the arcaded Rue de Rivoli
(already one of the grandest streets in Europe)
—were not able to provide capital for
realising all the gigantic projects demonstrated in
the plans laid out on paper. The universal
remedy in such a case, a joint-stock company,
instantly sprang into existence; and the
covering of those acres of rugged waste known
as the Place de Carrousel—with its noble
triumphal arch and its tall, grim coffee-shop
that stood for many years a solitary and.
shaky spectre of the past; with its second-
hand book, curiosity, and stuffed-bird stalls;
with its clamorous shoe-cleaners and politely
importunate dealers in second-hand umbrellas,
canes, and catalogues of the picture
gallery—has been gorgeously accomplished by
the Société des Immeubles de Rivoli assisted
by the funds of the Société de Credit Mobilier.
The palace of the Louvre and the palace of
the Tuileries—recently not much less than a
quarter of a mile apart—are now joined by
galleries and arcades of great architectural
beauty set with gateways and pavilions
adorned with caryatides and allegorical
groups of the most elaborate design and
execution. The new edifices thus enclosing
the Place de Carrousel, comprise two inner
squares, immense barracks, public offices, an
extensive riding-school, stables, and great
additions to the Tuileries palace itself. The