Paris as It Was and as It Is Part 57

It was founded in the year 1766, for the instruction of fifteen hundred children intended for mechanical professions, and was the first beneficent establishment opened in favour of the common people.

Literature, sciences, and liberal arts had every where public schools; mechanical arts alone were neglected. The lower orders, by whom they were exercised, had no other means of learning them, and of developing the faculties of their mind, than the blind routine of apprenticeship.

The success of this school had progressively caused similar ones to be inst.i.tuted in a great number of towns of France, but most of them are buried under the ruins of the revolution; that of Paris has escaped the general overthrow; and, though it has lost a considerable portion of its revenue, it still admits about six hundred pupils.

They are taught every thing relative to the mechanical arts, such as drawing in all its various branches, military, civil, and naval architecture, hydraulics, arithmetic, land-surveying, mensuration, perspective, stone-cutting, and in short such parts of mathematics and practical geometry as relate to those different objects.

The Gratuitous School for Drawing must not be a.s.similated to establishments intended for improving the taste of those who follow the career of the liberal arts. It presents immediately to the children of the lower orders of the people the instruction that suits them best. Here, every thing is useful. Not only are the pupils instructed _gratis_, but the school furnishes to the indigent, recommended by one of the founders, the paper, pencils, and instruments necessary for their studies in the cla.s.ses, and also models for exercising their talents at home.

I shall speak elsewhere of the _Special School of Medicine_ of Paris; there are two others, one at Montpellier, and one at Strasburg. At Alfort, near Paris, is established, on a grand scale, a

VETERINARY SCHOOL.

It would lead me too far to particularize every department of this extensive establishment; but one of these is too useful to be pa.s.sed over in silence. Here are s.p.a.cious hospitals where animals are cla.s.sed, not only according to their species, but also according to the species of disorder by which they are affected. Every person may bring hither sick animals, on paying for their food and medicaments only, the operations and dressings being performed and applied _gratis_.

There are also Veterinary Schools at Lyons, Turin, and Rodez.

In addition to all these schools are to be established, in different parts of the Republic, the following new _Special Schools_.

Ten of Jurisprudence.

Three of Medicine.

Four of Natural History, Physics, and Chymistry.

One of Transcendent Mathematics.

Two of Technology.

One of Public Economy, enlightened by Geography and History.

One of the Arts dependent on design, and, lastly,

A new Military School.

From the foregoing enumeration, it is evident that the government can never be at a loss for persons duly qualified to perform the duties of every branch of the Public Service. True it is that the nation is at a considerable expense in giving to them the instruction which fits them for the employment; but, in return, what advantages does not the nation derive from the exertion of their talent?

[Footnote 1: In France are reckoned seventy-fire lyric theatres, exclusively of those in the newly-united departments.]

LETTER LXII.

_Paris, February 5, 1802_.

In one of your recent letters, you interrogated me respecting the changes which the revolution had produced in the ceremonies immediately connected with the increase and decrease of population.

While the subject is fresh in my mind, I shall present the contrast which I have observed, in the years 1789-90 and 1801-2, in the ceremony of

FUNERALS.

Under the old _regime_, there was no medium in them; they were either very indecorous or very expensive. I have been positively a.s.sured that eighteen francs were paid for what was called a parish-funeral, and not unfrequently a quarrel arose between the agent of the rector and the relations of the deceased. However, as it was necessary to bury every one, the _Commissaire de police_ declared the fact, if the relations were unable to pay. Those for whom eighteen francs were paid, had a coffin in which they were buried; the others were laid in a common coffin or sh.e.l.l, from which they were taken to be put into the ground. In a parish-funeral, whether paid or not, several dead bodies were a.s.sembled, that is, they were carried one after the other, but at the same time to the same ground. They were conducted by a single priest, reciting by the way the accustomed prayers.

Other funerals were varied without end, according to the fortune or pleasure of the relations. For persons of the richest cla.s.s, a flaming chapel was constructed at the entrance of the house. This chapel was hung with black cloth, and in it was placed the corpse, surrounded by lighted torches. The apartments were also hung with black for the reception of the persons who were to attend the funeral procession. The priests came to conduct the corpse from the house of the deceased. They were more or less numerous, had or had not wax tapers, according to the will of those who defrayed the expenses. If the presentation of the corpse at the parish-church took place in the morning, a ma.s.s was sung; if in the evening, obsequies only were chaunted, and the former service was deferred till the next morning.

The relations and friends, in mourning, followed the corpse. These persons walked in the procession, according to their degree of relationship to the deceased, and besides their complete mourning-suit, wore a black cloak, more or less long, according to the quality of the persons (or the price paid for it), and a flapped hat, from which was suspended a very long c.r.a.pe band. Their hair, unpowdered, fell loose on their back. In lieu of a cloak, lawyers, whether presidents, counsellors, attornies, or tipstaffs, wore their black gown. On the cuff of their coat, men wore weepers, consisting of a band of cambric. Every one wore black gloves, and likewise a long pendent white cravat. People of the highest rank wore _cottes crepes_, that is, a sort of c.r.a.pe petticoat, which fell from the waist to the feet. This was meant to represent the ancient coat of arms.

Servants in mourning, or pages for princes, supported the train of the cloak or gown of persons above the common rank. Other servants, also in mourning, surrounded the relations and friends of the deceased, holding torches with his armorial bearings, if he was a _n.o.ble_. Persons extremely rich or very elevated in rank, hired a certain number of poor (from fifty to three hundred), over whom were thrown several ells of coa.r.s.e iron gray cloth, to which no particular form was given. They walked before the corpse, holding large lighted torches. The procession was closed by the carriages of persons belonging to it; and their owners did not get into them till their return from the funeral. Sometimes on coming out of the parish-church, where the presentation of the corpse was indispensable, the rector performing the office of magistrate in regard to the delivery of the certificate of presentation, the corpse was carried into a particular church to be buried. This was become uncommon before the revolution, as to do this it was necessary to possess a vault, or pay extremely dear, it being prohibited by law, except in such cases, to bury the dead in churches.

When the deceased belonged to a society or corporation, they sent a deputation to attend him to the grave, or followed in a body, if he was their chief. At the funeral of a prince of the blood, all his household, civil and military, marched in the procession. The _corbillard_, or sort of hea.r.s.e, in which his highness was carried to _St. Denis_, was almost as large as the moveable theatre which Mr.

Flockton transports from fair to fair in England. Calculated in appearance for carrying the body of a giant, it was decorated with escutcheons, and drawn by eight horses, also caparisoned to correspond with the hea.r.s.e. These, however, were but the trappings of woe.

While this funereal car moved slowly forward amidst a concourse of mourners, its three-fold hangings concealed from the eye of the observer the journeymen coach and harness makers, drinking, and playing at dice on the lid of his highness's coffin, by way of dispelling the _ennui_ of the journey. These careless fellows were placed there to be at hand to repair any accident that might happen on the road; so, while, on the outside of the hea.r.s.e, all wore the appearance of sadness; within, all was mirth; no bad image of the reverse of grandeur and the emptiness of human ostentation.

Such were the ceremonies observed in funerals before the revolution.

Pa.s.sing over the interval, from its commencement in 1789 to the end of the year 1801, I shall describe those practised at the present day. It now depends on the relations to have the corpse presented at the parish-church; but there are many persons who dispense with this ceremony. The priests receive the corpse at the door of the church.

It is carried thither in a _corbillard_. Each munic.i.p.ality has its own, and there are twelve munic.i.p.alities in Paris. Some of them have adopted the Egyptian style; some, the Greek; and others, the Roman, for the fashion of their _corbillard_, according to the taste of the munic.i.p.ality who ordered its construction. It is drawn by two horses abreast, caparisoned somewhat like those of our hea.r.s.es. The coachman and the four bearers are clothed in iron gray or black. An officer of the police, also clothed in black, and holding a cane with an ivory head, walks before the _corbillard_ or hea.r.s.e. Each corpse has its particular coffin furnished by the munic.i.p.ality. Arrangements have been so made that the rich are made to pay for the poor. The coffin is covered with a black cloth, without a cross, for fear of scaring philosophers and protestants. The relations follow on foot, or in carriages, even in town. Few of them are in mourning, and still fewer wear a cloak.

At the _Sainte Chapelle_, near the _Palais de Justice_, is a private establishment where, mourning is let out for hire. Here are to be had _corbillards_ on a more elegant plan. These are carriages hung on springs, and bearing much resemblance to our most fashionable sociables with a standing awning; so much so, that the first of them I saw I mistook for a _mourning_ sociable. Some are ornamented with black feathers. Caparisons, hangings, every thing is in black, as well as the coachman. This speculator also lets out mourning coaches, black without and within, like those in use in London. At a few funerals, these are hired for the mourners, and at a recent one, fifteen of these carriages were counted in the procession. However, this luxury of burials is not entirely come again into fashion. In the inside of the church, every thing pa.s.ses as formerly.

I shall now proceed from the _grave_ to the _gay_, and conclude this letter with a concise observation on

MARRIAGES.

The _civil_ act of marriage is entered into at the office of the munic.i.p.ality. But this civil act must not be coufounded with the contract, drawn up by the notary, and containing the stipulations, clauses, and conditions. The former signifies merely that such a man and such a woman take each other for man and wife. There are few, if any, persons married, who, from the munic.i.p.ality, do not repair to the parish-church, or go thither the next morning; the civil act being considered by individuals only as the ceremony of the betrothing, and till the priest has given the nuptial benediction, the relations take care that the intended bride and bridegroom shall have no opportunity of antic.i.p.ating the duties of marriage.

Political opinions, therefore, prevent but few persons from going to church. Ma.s.s is said in a low voice, during which the priest, or the rector, receives the promise of the wedded pair. With little exception, the ceremony is the same for all. Those who pay well are married at the high altar; the rector addresses to them a speech in which he exhorts them to live happily together; the beadles perform their duty; and the organist strikes up a voluntary.

In regard to marriages, the present and former times presenting no other contrast, I have nothing more to add on the subject.

LETTER LXIII.

_Paris, February 6, 1803._

The mode of life of the persons with whom I chiefly a.s.sociate here, precludes me from reading as much as I could wish, either for instruction or amus.e.m.e.nt. This, you will say, I ought not to regret; for a traveller visits foreign countries to study mankind, not books.

Unquestionably, the men who, like splendid folios in a library, make at present the most conspicuous figure in this metropolis, are worth studying; and, could we lay them open to our inspection, as we do books of a common description, it would be extremely entertaining to turn them over every morning, till we had them, in a manner, by heart. But I rather apprehend that they partake, more or less, of the qualities of a book just come out of the hands of the binder, which it is difficult to open. Let us therefore content ourselves with viewing them as we would volumes of a superbly-bound edition, not to be examined by the general observer, and direct our eyes to such objects as are fully exposed to investigation.

In Paris, there are several public libraries, the greater part of them open every day; but that which eclipses all the others, is the

BIBLIOTHeQUE NATIONALE.

Charles V, justly surnamed the _Wise_, from the encouragement he gave to learning, may be considered as the first founder of this library.

According to the President Henault, that king had collected nine hundred volumes; whereas king John, his father, possessed not twenty.

This collection was placed in a tower of the _Louvre_, called _La Tour de la Librairie_, which was lighted up every night, in order that the learned might pursue their studies there at all hours.

After the death of Charles VI, in 1423, the inventory amounted to no more than one hundred and twenty volumes, though several works had been added, because on the other hand, a great number had been lost.

When Paris fell into the power of the English, in 1429, the Duke of Bedford, then regent of France, purchased these books, for which he paid 1200 livres, and the library was entirely dispersed. Charles VII, being continually engaged in war, could not concern himself in its re-estahlishment. Lewis XI collected the remains scattered in different royal residences, and availed himself of the resources afforded by the invention of printing, which was discovered at Strasburg or Mentz in 1440.