The administrator, a being of modern creation, now declares, with the most ludicrous self-sufficiency, that Bailly was not equal to the functions of a Mayor of Paris.  It is, he says, by undeserved favour that his statue has been placed on the facade of the Hotel de Ville.  During his magistracy, Bailly did not create any large square in the capital, he did not open out any large streets, he elevated no splendid monument; Bailly would therefore have done better had he remained an astronomer or erudite scholar.

The enumeration of all the public erections that Bailly did not execute is correct.  It might also have been added, that far from devoting the municipal funds to building, he had the vast and threatening castle of the Bastille demolished down to its very foundation’s; but this would not deprive Bailly of the honour of having been one of the most enlightened magistrates that the city of Paris could boast.

Bailly did not enlarge any street, did not erect any palace during the twenty-eight months of his administration!  No, undoubtedly! for, first it was necessary to give bread to the inhabitants of Paris; now the revenues of the town, added to the daily sums furnished by Necker, scarcely sufficed for those principal wants.  Some years before, the Parisians had been very much displeased at the establishment of import dues on all alimentary substances.  The writers of that epoch preserved the burlesque Alexandrine, which was placarded all over the town, on the erection of the Octroi circumvallation: 

     “Le mur murant Paris, rend Paris murmurant."[13]

The multitude was not content with murmuring; the moment that a favourable opportunity occurred, it went to the barriers and broke them down.  These were reestablished by the administration with great trouble, and the smugglers often took them down by main force.  The Octroi revenue from the imports, which used to amount to 70,000 francs, now fell to less than 30,000.  Those persons who have considered the figures of the present revenue, will assuredly not compare such very dissimilar epochs.

But it is said that ameliorations in the moral world may often be effected without expense.  What were those for which the public was indebted to the direct exertions of Bailly?  The question is simple, but repentance will follow the having asked it.  My answer is this:  One of the most honourable victories gained by mathematics over the avaricious prejudices of the administrations of certain towns has been, in our own times, the radical suppression of gambling-houses.  I will hasten to prove that such a suppression had already engaged Bailly’s attention, that he had partly effected it, and that no one ever spoke of those odious dens with more eloquence and firmness.

“I declare,” wrote the Mayor of Paris on the 5th of May, 1790, “that the gambling-houses are in my opinion a public scourge.  I think that these meetings not only should not be tolerated, but that they ought to be sought out and prosecuted, as much as the liberty of the citizens, and the respect due to their homes, will admit.