five hundred
feet, the slope covered and checkered the whole distance with vineyards,
meadows, woods, &c. The Poplar and the Pollard are still planted, but
the scale of cultivation is larger and the houses much better than
between Paris and Dijon. The intervale (mainly in meadow) is much wider
on the left bank, the swell beyond it being in some places scarcely
visible. The scenery is greatly admired here, and as a whole may be
termed pretty, but cannot compare with that of the Hudson or Connecticut
in boldness or grandeur. There are some craggy hill-sides in the
distance, but I have not yet seen an indisputable mountain in France,
though I have passed nearly through it in a mainly southerly course for
over five hundred miles.

As we approach Lyons, the hills on either side come nearer and finally
shut in the river between two steep acclivities, from which much
building-stone has been quarried. Elsewhere, these hill-sides are
covered with tasteful country residences of the retired or wealthy
Lyonnais, surrounded by gardens, arbors, shrubbery, &c. The general
effect is good. At last, houses and quays begin to line and bridges to
span the river, and we halt beside one of the quays and are in Lyons.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] _Boulevard_ means, I presume, rampart or fortified works (hence our
English _bulwark_). The rampart was long ago removed, as the city
outgrew it, but the name is retained by the ample street which took its
place. Our _Battery_ at New-York illustrates this origin of a name.

XX.

LYONS TO TURIN.

TURIN (Italy), June 20, 1851.

LYONS, though a French city, and the second in the Republic, wears a sad,
disheartened aspect. In '91 a stronghold of decaying Loyalty, it is
to-day the very focus of Democratic Socialism, being decidedly more "Red"
than Paris.--Here is concentrated the Sixth Military Division of the
French Army, under chiefs not chary of using the sabre and bayonet, and
with instructions to apply efficient poultices of grape and canister on
the first palpable appearance of local inflammation. Should Louis Napoleon
be enabled to override the Constitution and prolong his sway, it is
possible that, by the aid of the act of May 31st, 1850, whereby more than
half the Artisans of France are disfranchised, the spirit of Lyons may in
time be subdued, and partisans of "Order" substituted for her present
Socialist Representatives in the Assembly; but, should the popular cause
triumph in the en