; the
front of the building is quite plain, towards the garden it is
ornamented by columns, and as a mansion, is one of the largest in Paris.
It is now occupied as the Royal Printing Establishment, and it is
impossible to surpass the order and regularity with which it is
conducted; 750 men, women, and children, are employed in it. It is
considered to possess the richest collection in the world of matrices
and fonts of types, having them in every written language, and when Pope
Pius VII visited the establishment, he was presented the Lord's Prayer
in 150 languages. A library with specimens of typography, executed on
the premises, is an object of the highest gratification to every
visiter, even if they be not connaisseurs in the art. For admission to
this establishment, application must be made a few days beforehand to M.
le Directeur de l'Imprimerie Royale, who appoints a fixed hour on
Thursdays. Almost facing one part of the Imprimerie Royale, in the Rue
d'Orleans, is the Church of St. Francois d'Assise. Neither the exterior
nor the interior possess any striking beauty; it was founded and erected
in 1623. It contains some very good paintings, and the kneeling figure
of the saint of the church in his monastic dress; the hands and head are
of white marble, and it is supposed to be Egyptian; one of St. Denis is
opposite to it.

Adjoining to the Imprimerie Royale, is the Hotel des Archives du
Royaume, which is entered by the Rue du Chaume, No. 12. It was formerly
a palace of the Prince de Soubise and the family of the Rohans. The
south and western part of the edifice is of the 15th century, the turret
is probably what belonged to the gatehouse. The decorations of the
apartments are extremely rich with gilt cornices and paintings, some of
them possessing great merit. In the _petits appartements_ is a boudoir
which belonged to the Duchess de Guise, with a window looking into the
Rue du Chaume, from whence it is asserted that her lover precipitated
himself at the approach of the Duke. A new building has been added, the
first stone having been laid in 1838, which has cost a million of
francs. Under Napoleon the whole edifice was appropriated to the
preservation of the national archives. Amongst them are documents of
diplomas granted to different monastic institutions, by Childebert,
Dagobert, Clothaire and Clovis II. The collections of the different
acts, deeds, charters, administrative, domanial, historical, judicial,
legisla