The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris, by William Walton

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Title: Paris
From the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 2

Author: William Walton

Release Date: June 19, 2010 [EBook #32888]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS ***

Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

PARIS

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY

VOLUME II

[Illustration]

[Illustration: TYPES OF PARISIAN WORKMEN

PHOTOGRAVURE, AFTER THE PAINTING BY N. GOENEUTTE]

_IL FLOTTE SANS ETRE SUBMERGE_

[Illustration: Crown]

PARIS

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY

WILLIAM

[Illustration: Crest]

WALTON

_VOLUME II_

PHILADELPHIA

GEORGE BARRIE & SON, PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY GEORGE BARRIE & SON

CONTENTS

VOLUME II

CHAPTER IV

THE ADMINISTRATION, NATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL

[Illustration: LIFE IN THE CASERNE: LATE FOR RECALL. From a drawing, in
colors, by George Scott.]

THE ADMINISTRATION, NATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL

[Illustration: INITIAL LETTER O FROM A DESIGN BY M. LELOIR.]

One of the grandest institutions of ancient France was the Parlement de
Paris, and its history and that of the _prevots_ would constitute a
history of the capital, while that of the fitful and accidental
convocations of the _Etats Generaux_ would in nowise illustrate that of
the nation. Our facilities for acquiring a knowledge of the functions
and methods of procedure of the Parlement have been greatly increased by
the numerous critical historical works which have appeared within the
last few years, amongst which that of M. Felix Aubert, which covers the
long period between its origin, in 1250, and the reign of Francois I,
when it was "the instrument par excellence of the national unity and
pacification," is, perhaps, the most valuable. The establishment of the
_magistrature prevotale_, replacing that of the Vicomte de Paris, has
been credited to Hugues Capet, but the first official record appears to
be a charter given in favor of the monks of Saint-Martin-des-Champs,
dated in the last year of the reig