as it now stands, was completed in 1786.  This building, like most of the palaces in Europe, is built around a quadrangle, and its plan may be compared to a pupil’s slate used for ciphering.  The frame corresponds to the form or ground-plan of the buildings, and the slate, to the court or yard which they inclose.  This inner court or garden, 700 feet long and 300 feet wide, containing nearly five acres of land, is planted with lime (linden?) trees from end to end, and two flower gardens.  In the middle is a fine jet d’eau (a fountain).  “The garden was thus arranged in 1799; it contains bronze copies of Diane a la Biche of the Louvre, and the Apollo Belvedere; two modern statues in white marble, one of a young man about to bathe, by d’Espercieux; the other of a boy struggling with a goat, by Lemoine; Ulysses on the sea-shore, by Bra; and Eurydice stung by the snake, by Nanteuil, a fine copy in bronze, but more fitted for a gallery than the place it now occupies.  Near this statue is a solar cannon, which is fired by the sun when it reaches the meridian, and regulates the clocks of Palais Royal.”

From the privilege of supplying refreshments and from the hiring of chairs, the Government derives an annual rent of $7,000.

The shops under the arcades are chiefly devoted to articles of luxury, and are among the most elegant in Paris.  Many restaurants are on the first floor; here, were formerly the gambling-houses which rendered this place so notorious.  The best time for visiting Palais Royal is in the evening, when the garden and arcades are brilliantly illuminated and full of people.  The shops of the watch-makers and the diamond windows are then particularly brilliant.  In the most magnificent windows the articles have no price marks; but in the best windows in which the articles have price marks, I saw lockets priced $200; rings for $900; ear-rings for $1,000 a pair; a pair of diamond studs for $2,800; crosses for $320; and a necklace worth $3,000.

Palais Royal has been called the capital of Paris.  During the early part of the first Revolution, its gardens became the resort of the most violent politicians; here, the tri-coloured cockade was first adopted, and the popular party decided on many of its bolder measures.

There is little room for doubt, that the Cafe, one of the characteristic features of French society, is a potent factor in civilizing and refining the human race, in these latter times.  Religion and intelligence—­moral ideas, moral habits and the collective knowledge of our ancestors—­has been transmitted from one generation to another down to our time, by the Church and the Schools, principally.  But the affairs of the human race have taken a new turn since the invention of printing, by which the steady development of traditional ideas has been arrested, so that the propriety of retaining the standards of ancient civilization as patterns for the present, is being questioned and discussed everywhere.