THE paragraph at the bottom of page 11, is intended to be merely
descriptive, but not ludicrous, so that the reader is requested to
expunge the word _night_.
In the enumeration of the Bishopricks (page 14) I unaccountably omitted
the ten metropolitan sees, which are those of _Paris, Lyon, Bourdeaux,
Rouen, Reims, Besançon, Bourges, Rennes, Aix_ and _Toulouse_: Thus there
are eighty-three bishopricks, or one for each department.
After what is said (in page 89) relative to the division of the country,
there should, in justice, be added: "To the confused medley of
_Bailiwicks, Seneschal-jurisdictions, Elections, Generalities, Dioceses,
Parliaments, Governments, &c._ there succeeded a simple and uniform
division; there were no longer any provinces, but only one family, one
nation: France was the nation of eighty-three departments."
Notwithstanding this, I regret the ancient _names_ of the provinces. The
old _Atlas_ of France is become useless, as the whole of its geography
is altered. The land is at present divided into nine regions, and each
of these into nine departments; Paris and the country about ten miles
around (24 square leagues) forms one, and the Island of _Corsica_
another department. In the modern _Atlas_, after every new name, is put
_ci-devant_, and then the old name, thus: _Region du Levant, departement
de la côte d'or, ci-devant Bourgogne_. I called one day, after dining in
a tavern, for a bottle of wine of the _Departement de l'Aube, Region des
Sources,_ the landlord consulted his _Atlas_, and then brought the
bottle of _Champagne_ I required. It will be some time before foreigners
are sufficiently familiarized to the new phrases which must be used for
_Gascon, Normand, Breton, Provençal, Picard, &c._[42]
[Note 42: The author of the _Voyage de France_ says, "The actual
division of France may appear to geographers as defective as the ancient
one. Perhaps artists should have been more consulted. Then there would
not have been shown in it so much of the spirit of party, which, in
great assemblies, too often smothers the voice of reason, nor so many
effects of the ignorance of political measurers, who lightly stride over
barriers which nature has opposed to them, and who appear to have
forgotten the necessity of communications."]
The following paragraphs are taken from the new _Voyage de France_.
"During fourteen hundred years, priority in follies, in superstition, in
ignorance, in fanaticism, and in slavery, was the picture of France. It
was just, therefore, that priority in philosophy, and in knowledge,
should succeed to so many odious pre-eminences."
"The French people, to whom liberty is now new, are like the waves of
the sea, which roll long after the tempest has ceased: and of which the
agitation is necessary to depose on the shores the scum which covers
them."
"The confusion inseparable from a new order of things, has necessarily
caused Paris to swarm with vagabonds; so that far from being surprized
that some crimes have been committed, we ought rather to wonder that
they are not more frequent."
"When _Louis XVI._ was brought back to Paris (25 June, 1791) the
inhabitants of _fauxbourgs_ pasted a placard (advertisement) against the
walls, saying, 'Whoever applauds him shall be cudgelled, whoever attacks
him shall be hanged.' An awful silence was observed."
After the account of the Pantheon (p. 28) should be added: In April,
1791, the body or _Mirabeau_ was deposited here; and in July following
that of _Voltaire_. Soon after this it was decreed, that _Rousseau_ had
merited the honours due to great men, but that his ashes should remain
where they were.
To the lift of engravings of the _Maiden_ must be added another,
prefixed to a little tract, called _Gibbet-Law_.
By _premier An de l'Egalité_,(first year of Equality) it is not to be
understood that every person in France is equal, but that as they have
no sovereign, no person is above, but every person is equally under the
protection of the law. This matter has been both misunderstood and
misrepresented in England.
On the 18th I was out of the barriers of Paris by three in the
afternoon, and proceeded to _Chantilly_, where we[43] arrived at nine,
and remained for the night. We were informed that two hundred
_Sans-culottes_ and _Marseillois_ had walk'd here from Paris, (28 miles)
two or three days before, had pulled down an equestrian statue,
(probably that of the Constable _de Montmorenci_) cut off a man's head,
carried it about the streets on a pike, _à la mode de Paris_, caught and
eat most of the carp which had been swimming in the ponds which surround
the palace above a hundred years, were then in the stables and intended
to return to Paris the next day. They did no other damage to the
building than breaking the _Condé_ arms, which were carved in stone.
[Note 43: The Gentleman who came with me, an English and an Irish
Gentleman, with their Ladies, in their own chaises.
There is an octavo Description of _Chantilly_ just published, with a
map, and twenty _mezzotinto_ views of the gardens.]
The night of the next day we passed at _Flixcourt_, and that of the
Monday at the Post-house, at the foot of the hill on which _Boulogne_ is
situated.
On Tuesday the 21st we arrived at Calais in the morning; the wind was so
violent and unfavorable that we were detained here till the 24th, when
we failed, and had a passage of seven hours to Dover.
There was nothing to remark on the road from Paris to Calais, except
that the harvest was not yet got in, for want of hands, that the corn
was _lodged_, and sowing itself again; that every person and thing was
as quiet as if nothing had happened in Paris, and that no one knew the
particulars of what _had_ happened.
At Calais many person wore trowsers, after the fashion of the
_Sans-culottes_.