and others of almost every country or celebrated monarch or chief, with a collection of the ores in their mineral state, every instrument used for coining and in fact every object appertaining to such an establishment, which would demand much space and time to describe, and a work is written solely on the subject.  This interesting museum is open to foreigners with their passports on Mondays and Thursdays, from twelve till three.

Contiguous and on the western side stands the Palais of the Institute, or as we should call it the Royal Academy.  It was founded by Cardinal Mazarin in 1661, from designs by Levau.  The segment of a circle describes the front, whilst pavillions upon open arcades terminate the extremities, a portico in the centre with corinthian colums surmounted by a pediment, whilst a dome crowns the summit, and vases upon the entablature combine to give it a fine effect.  In the great hall of this building the members of the Academy hold their sittings; the vestibules are adorned by marble statues of men whose intellectual powers have rendered their names renowned throughout the world, as Montesquieu, Moliere, Corneille, Racine, Sully, etc., etc.  The Mazarine library is attached to this institution and contains 120,000 printed volumes besides 4,500 manuscripts.  There is also under the same establishment the library of the Institute, which includes 115,000 volumes; in the gallery in which they are contained is a marble statue of Voltaire, by Pigale, highly celebrated for its execution.  This building was for some time called the Palais des Quatre-Nations, as the founder at first designed it for natives of Roussillon, Pignerol, Alsace, and Flanders.  The subjects discussed within the halls of this institution are the Belles-Lettres, the fine Arts, moral and political Sciences, etc.  Persons desiring tickets for the meetings of the members must inscribe their names at the office of the secretary of the Institute.  Directly opposite is a light elegant bridge, called the Pont-des-Arts, it is constructed of iron and is merely for foot passengers.

Passing to the Quai Voltaire we turn into the Rue des Petits-Augustins, and stop before the front of the Palais and Ecole des Beaux-Arts, or School of fine Arts; this is one of the many institutions which exist in Paris requiring a volume to describe all its beauties and utility, there are a great number of professors belonging to the establishment which is divided into two sections, the one for sculpture and painting, the other for architecture, both of which the pupils are taught, and when they excel, receive annual prizes.  The present building was erected upon the garden of the Convent of the Petits Augustins, but there are still some remains of antiquity, which are rather strangely intermingled with the modern erection, as the front of a chateau at Gaillon built in 1,500 and transported here by M. Lenoir, who collected together on this spot relicks of the middle ages,