odesty, and offend against public decorum. In
the time of Louis XIV. there were public dances at the Moulin de
Javelle; in the time of Napoleon there were dances in the Rue Coquenard,
and at the Porcherons, near the Rue St. Lazar. In the time of Louis
XVIII. and Charles X. there were dances at the Jardin de Tivoli. But at
none of these were decency outraged or morality shocked. At Tivoli, the
national pastime was indulged with decency and decorum, and although the
price on entering was so low as fifteen sous with a ticket, and thirty
sous without a ticket, and albeit the dancers were chiefly of the
humbler classes, yet, I repeat, in 1827, 1828, and 1829, public decency
was not shocked. But from the _bal masque_ of the Theatre des Varietes
in 1831, when, towards the close of the evening the lights were put out,
and the _ronde infernale_ was commenced, obscene and disgusting dances
were becoming more and more common in Paris, and continued to make
progress till February, 1848. They had attained the most unenviable
notoriety in 1845, when at the Bal Mabille a dance was introduced called
"La Reine Pomare." Then there was the "Cancan Eccentrique," introduced
by a personage called "La Princesse de Mogador," a feigned name, as you
may suppose, assumed by some _fille perdue_. These dances, commenced at
the Chaumiere and the Bal Mabille, were also introduced at the Bal
Montesquieu, at the Bal de la Cite d'Antin, and, if I mistake not, at
the Bal Valentino. The principal performers were students in law, in
medicine, in pharmacy, clerks, commis voyageurs, profligate tradesmen,
and lorettes, grisettes, _et filles de basse condition_.

"I must do the Provisional Government, so much abused, the justice to
say, that towards the close of 1848, when these disgusting dances were
again revived, the Gardiens de Paris interfered, and proceeded to clear
the room if they were persevered in. If this had been done in 1845 and
1846 by that austere minister, who so much boasted of his independence
and morality, events might have taken a different turn. But it is now
too late to speculate, and it is easy to be wise after the event. But M.
Guizot, his prefet de police, and the members of the Government, were
warned long before 1845-6 of the profound immorality and indecency of
these dances, and they made no effort to put a stop to them. It is
because these scandals are now in a course of revival that I advert to
this matter at such length. The subje