eautiful effect. The interior is splendid, indeed gorgeous, all that
painting, sculpture, and gilding can produce, is here combined, and the
effect is dazzling, and excites almost universal admiration, and would
mine also were it a theatre, but the chaste, still solemnity of a holy
sanctuary exists not here, amongst the gay colours and lurid glare which
every where meets the eye from the glitter, which blazes around in this
too profusely decorated church. Yet one must do justice as one examines
it in detail, and admit that in point of execution all its different
departments are most exquisitely wrought, and magnificent as a whole,
only not consistent with our associations connected with a temple of
worship.

We will now descend by the Rue Faubourg Montmartre to the Boulevards,
and bearing a little westward, shall come to the very handsome Rue
Vivienne, through which we will proceed until we are opposite the Bourse
(Exchange), and there we pause and contemplate what I consider the _beau
ideal_ of fine architecture; its noble range of 66 corinthian columns
have no unseemly projections to break the broad mass of light, which
sheds its full expanse upon their large rounded shafts, no profusion of
frittering ornaments spoil the chaste harmony which pervades the whole
character of this building, which to me appears faultless. If there were
any improvement possible, I should say that if the bold flight of steps
which leads to the front entrance had been carried all round the
building the effect would have been still more grand than it now is. The
interior is adorned with paintings in imitation of bas relief, which are
executed in the most masterly style. The grand Salle de la Bourse in the
centre of the building, where the stock-brokers and merchants meet, is
116 feet in length by 76 in breadth, entirely paved with marble. The
whole arrangements are such as to render it in every respect the most
commodious for all commercial purposes.

From hence we proceed by the street opposite to the Rue Richelieu, and
turning to the left, we arrive at the Place Richelieu, and must pass a
few minutes in admiring the elegant bronze fountain in the centre with
its noble basins and four allegorical figures representing the Seine,
the Loire, the Saone, and the Garonne, round which the water falls from
above, and flows beneath, producing a most beautiful effect.

Opposite is the Bibliotheque du Roi, or Royal Library, which certainly
is the mos