n them, thereby
proving their extreme temperance and forbearance, but certainly a band
of a more ruffianlike looking set of fellows, it would be difficult to
imagine, and the manner in which they were at first armed, had something
in it of the horrible, and at the same time of the ludicrous; iron bars,
pokers, pitchforks, and in fact anything that could be converted into a
weapon was taken possession of by the unwashed horde, who swarmed
towards the centre of Paris from the manufacturing suburbs; soon,
however, the public armouries, and the gunsmiths' shops, the musquetry,
and other arms taken from the soldiers during the battle, contributed to
arm them more formidably.

But in justice to the Parisians I must cite two circumstances; the one
is, that whatever they seized upon in the public institutions, as
instruments of offence and defence, were restored when the contest was
over; the librarian at the Royal Library told me that they took all the
ancient and modern arms from their establishment, but with the exception
of seven they were all brought back, and most likely the bearers of
those which were missing had been killed.

The other instance which does high credit to the Parisian mob, is that
they would not permit of any robbing or pillage in any house or building
which they might enter, but, as might be expected, some of the regular
thieves of Paris mixed amongst the people; one at length being caught
purloining an image in the palace of the Tuileries, they formed a circle
round the thief, tried him in an instant, and shot him; this was summary
justice with a vengeance, and certainly not exactly what ought to have
been done, but it showed the principle which existed. In fact honesty is
undoubtedly a quality existing in France to a most extraordinary degree,
a greater proof of it cannot be adduced than the fact that when any
person quits a theatre with the idea of returning in a few minutes they
leave their handkerchiefs on their seats by way of retaining their
places, which custom is even practised at the lowest theatres, where the
admittance is only half a franc.

Ingenuity and a tact for invention are certainly features peculiar to
the French character, but they are far behind the English in their
methods of transacting business; this remark is applicable even to most
of the public offices; that France is extremely flourishing, and Paris
more particularly so, cannot be denied, but were it in the hands of the
En