sisting of eight spacious rooms, and below them on one side is the larder, in which there are several stupendous cookingapparatuses. Not far from this, which is devoted to food for the body, is a room which presents food for the mind, i.e., a library which contains 30,000 volumes, and here is a portrait of the Emperor, Napoleon III. In a room close by is a large quantity of models of the principal strongholds of France.

There are three chapels connected with this Institution, the altar-pieces of which are very imposing. Here too, are hanging the flags of conquered nations. There are a great many African trophies. In various parts of the church are monuments to celebrated military men. The centre chapel is surmounted with a fine dome, 328 feet in height to the top. The entire pavement underneath is laid with various devices relating to the Empire. There are six minor chapels under the dome, adorned with Corinthian pilasters. The last addition is the Tomb of Napoleon the

Great, which is daily resorted to by hundreds of persons, especially old soldiers of the Empire. From the centre dome is suspended a collection of colours, said to amount to three thousand.

My next visit was to the Luxembourg, a noble building constructed by Marie de Medicis, wife of Henry IV. The Hall of the Councils of State-the French House of Lords, or Chamber of Peers is exceedingly well adapted for deliberation. The peers' chairs are arranged in semi-circles, and in the middle of the dais, in a recess, are placed the chairs of the president and secretaries. The ceiling of this room is finely painted. In front of the president's chair is the bust of the Emperor.

There is a noble library connected with this palace, and a gallery of paintings containing the finest works of French artists. The garden connected with the palace is very beautiful, and is luxuriantly ornamented with orange trees. A A large sheet of water spreads itself in front of the building, and beyond it is the botanical garden connected with the school of medicine. The observatory close by is a square building with octagonal towers. The north hall is adorned with good paintings representing the signs of the Zodiac. On the ground floor is a well, 170 feet deep, formerly used for viewing the stars in the day time. On the first floor are various telescopes and astronomical instruments, in the second floor are other matters connected with the science of astronomy, maps, &c., calculating tables, the dial of an anemometer which indicates the direction of the wind, and two pluviometers for showing the quantity of rain which falls at Paris. At the bottom of the well are a series of caverns which commu

nicate with the subterranean galleries formed by the ancient quarries, and extending under all parts of Paris. In these caverns are some very beautiful stalactites, formed by the water filtering through the rocks.

The next place I reached was the Bourse or Exchange, where all the great money transactions are made. It is a very fine building, and thought to be one of the most elegant

in Europe. Over the entrance is inscribed "Bourse et Tribunal de Commerce." In the centre of the building, on the ground floor, is the grand place of meeting of the stockbrokers, merchants, and agents. It is of the Doric order, the basements of which, as well as the sides of the hall, are of marble. In the arcades are inscribed some of the principal mercantile cities in the world. Some of the paintings are very good, they are what are called mono-chrome drawings, that is drawings in one colour, which look like bas reliefs. One represents France receiving due tributes of the four quarters of the world. Then we have the City of Paris, with the genius of commerce, and other allegorical groups.

Not very far from the Bourse is the Halle au Blé or Corn

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Market, which is built of cast iron. It has a circular roof, formed by supporting columns, and an arcade of twenty-five arches placed round the inner area, and behind these are various spacious galleries, upon which are piled sacks of flour and corn. The place, it is said, will contain at least thirty thousand sacks. On the outside of the edifice and attached to the wall is an astronomical column, which Catherine de Medicis ordered to be built in 1572. It is of the Doric style of architecture, and is 95 feet high.

Another celebrated place in Paris is the Palace of Justice, an immense pile of buildings, opposite the river near the Pont Neuf, and was originally the residence of the Kings of France. It is here that the judicial courts are held. In the centre court is a fine monument to that upright minister, Malesherbes.

On one side of the palace is seen the church of St. Chepelle, which is a beautiful specimen of the gothic style of architecture, and its windows are filled with beautiful stained glass of very ancient date, much of it being more than 600 years old. This church, with its relics, is said to have cost St. Louis a quarter of a million of money. Among the relics are the crown of thorns, worn by our Saviour, (as asserted,) bought for a sum equal to twenty thousand pounds. There is, besides, Moses's rod, and some of the precious manna, and over these a lamp is kept burning night and day.

Close to these buildings is the Conciergerie, a celebrated prison, which is appropriated for the reception of prisoners who are under trial. It is a dark, grim-looking place, and as you enter among the portals it strikes you with awe. At

the end of one of the courts is a long dark gallery where the Princess Elizabeth, the sister of Louis XVI. was confined. Another room was the prison of Robespierre; in another, now transformed into an expiatory chapel, Marie Antoinette

was confined.

The dark vaults beneath, are very numerous, and you cannot quit them without a shudder. There, 239 persons were inhumanly murdered in the year 1792.

I next visited the celebrated Catacombs, which are immense receptacles for the bones of the dead. They were formerly stone quarries, and extend under the surface of at least one-sixth portion of the whole of Paris. The quantities of stone which were taken out of these quarries for building have been estimated at 10,000,000 cubic metres, and with this stone was built a great part of the city of Paris. They remained void spaces till about the year 1780, when Lenoir, General of Police, thought of converting them into sepulchres for the dead; and then all the bodies from the different