to the deception practised on the public by fraudulent expositions of the state of the finances, and has used his official station for private speculations in the funds, which have been moderately fortunate. This gentleman, a few years ago, kept a small retail shop in Oporto. He is a man of some talent, a great deal of astuteness and flexibility of principle. had ever such strong and sincere support from the court; no representations against it were listened to. The king, who acts for the sovereign as he is directed to do by his former tutor and present councillor, the German Dietz, seems to have thrown himself and the interests of the crown wholly into the hands of the Cabrals. It is a matter of general notoriety that His colleague of the finance department, the king came to Portugal accompanied by Count Tojal, the son of a physician of Dom this German gentleman, and has retained John VI., is one of those public men of him in the palace ever since. Strong easy virtue, who never themselves commit objections were raised to this foreigner reany egregious acts of barefaced venality maining in the country, and about the and corruption, but who wink at their com- person of the king, exercising great inmission while they pursue their own less fluence, and entertaining very strong feelless flagitious schemes for acquiring riches ings of dislike to the Portuguese nation, The count is possessed of considerable which he took little trouble to conceal, and wealth. About twenty years ago, as plain still stronger dislike to the form of governJohn Oliveira, a wine-merchant and after- ment given to the nation by the father of wards a stock-broker, not very successful, the sovereign. He occupied no ostensibly he was well known in London and on the political situation at court, but he disstock-exchange. He came into office with charged the duties of a councillor to the some property inherited from his uncles, it king, a tutor to the young princes, and an is said, to the extent of 30,000. He is now intendant of the palace, in which situation, possessed of upwards of three hundred and every action of the queen, even to the most forty thousand pounds invested in the trifling affair of the household, was watched, Portuguese stock of the foreign debt, be- meddled with, and controlled by this German sides capital to a considerable extent in- favorite. The interference of this foreigner vested in the spoil of the church and in a in all the concerns of the court, but more manufacture of paper. All this property, especially in all important matters of state, with the exception of the first sum men- exasperated the Portuguese; their press tioned, was made during the last four years loudly inveighed against it, and the cry was by successful operations, for example, the echoed by political men of all parties, with purchase, of paper' claims on the treasury the exception of the Cabrals. The fact for salary discounted by him, and lucky of the education of the young princes, in a bits in the funds which his official position country in which the Catholic religion is afforded him the opportunities of making. by law the religion of the state, being comIt fortunately happened for the creditors mitted to a foreigner of a different religion, that the interests of the finance minister afforded likewise grounds of complaint; but were for a time identified with theirs. But all such complaints have been treated with it was only for a time, and a very short one, contempt by the court, and no wonder, for though the count labored hard to convince over it Mr. Dietz, the German, virtually then it would be for a long period. Men reigns. It has ever been a weakness of the of great cunning and eagerness to amass Braganza family, to allow themselves to be riches frequently deceive themselves, prac-governed by menials; but it is something tise on the credulity of others, and end by novel for the favorite to be a foreigner, in becoming the dupes of their own artifices. this country above all others, where stranThis, in all probability, has been the case gers are received with so much jealousy. of the Count Tojal. Such are the men who have exercised despotic power over Portugal, and by the rapacity and tyranny of their government have brought that country to its present alarming condition of open rebellion and impending bankruptcy. Their course has been a continued career of illegality, and wanton wickedness in their manifold violations of the charter. No previous ministry VOL. IX. No. II. 14 From the Dublin University Magazine. PARIS IN 1846. changed all this. The wand of an enchanter has been waved over the city, and a magical transformation has been effected. The ornamental has ceased to monopPARIS as it is after fifteen years' rule of olize the attention of government, and the the throne of the Barracades, and Paris as useful has claimed its due care. The frightit was under the divine-right crown of the ful ravages of the cholera, in 1832, left a Restoration-Paris as it presented itself to warning which has not been unheeded. In the staring wonder of the crowd that rushed an incredibly short space of time a perfect from Corn-hill to the Palais Royale as soon system of drainage by sewers throughout as the echoes of the cannon had died away this vast city has been completed. Footways on the plains of Waterloo, and as it now have every where been constructed. The addresses itself to the twenty thousand stran-system of carriage pavement with square gers that swarm between the Rue de la Paix blocks of granite, forming a convex road, and the Arc de Triomphe, is a subject in-with side drains leading to the sewers, has teresting to contemplate. Under the con- taken the place of the concave street with sulate and the empire, as of old under the an- open centre gutters. The offensive effluvia cien regime, the fine arts, in all their depart-which excluded the English visiter from cerments, engrossed the attention of the gov-tain quarters of Paris no longer exists, and ernment, and captivated the public. The the demon of malaria has been expelled. substantial comforts, the convenience and Gas illumination, extending now through health of the people, were subjects of com- every quarter, including the interior of paratively minor importance. Magnificent buildings as well as the streets, has superbuildings, splendid monuments, and gor-seded the suspended lanterns; and it is geous palaces every where attracted the hard to say which most attracts the admiraeye; and in their immediate vicinage, pov-tion of foreigners, the gaiety of the streets, erty, filth, and misery. The marble walls boulevards, and public walks by day, or of temples and palaces were defiled by the their brilliancy when lighted up by night. river of filth and offal which flowed through But the achievement which will be rethe sewerless streets. The passenger who membered in connexion with the reign of aspired not to a coach, unprovided with a Louis Philippe with the most grateful footway, scrambled along the inclined pave- feelings by the philanthropist, is undoubtedment which sloped from either wall to the cen-ly the example he has afforded even to the tral gutter, which discharged the functions advanced civilization of Great Britain in of a sewer, and was from time to time bespat-his efforts for the repression of gambling tered with the mud and filth flirted around and prostitution. He has accomplished by the wheels of the carriages in which the more wealthy were transported. Lanterns suspended like a performer on a cord volante, at distant intervals, like angels' visits, few and far between, in the centre of the street, and at a height sufficient to allow carriages to pass under them, served as a sort of light-lic thoroughfares of the city by day or by houses for the navigation of the vehicles of the rich through the streams of puddle, but by their distance, height, and position, afforded no benefit to the humble pedestrian. To say that they illuminated the streets would be an abuse of language; they just served to make darkness visible. Fifteen years of constitutional liberty, and the substitution of a representative government-presided over by a prince who has been schooled in misfortune, had experienced the sweet uses of adversity, and had known what it was to eat the bread of his own industry-for the throne of the restoration, vainly struggling against the spirit of the age and the popular will, have what the English authorities have not even thought of attempting. There are now no public gambling tables in Paris, and even private play is subject to so many restraints, that it has been stripped of half its evils. The purest female may now walk the pub night without the risk of having her sight outraged or her ears polluted by the indecencies which are still suffered to prevail in the most frequented streets of the metropolis of Britain. The theatres and other places of public resort are equally purified. Even the Palais Royale-that temple of vice-has been thoroughly reformed; and it is due to the present king to add, that this reformation has been ef fected by a large sacrifice of his private revenue, a considerable portion of the rental of the Palais Royale having arisen from the extensive and long-established gambling rooms by which it was occupied, and by the employment of the loftier stories for them. At The lines of railway now in actual operation are the following: still more impure, and not less profitable its own funds all the moveable capital nepurposes. cessary for the operation of the line. Among the improvements in the arts of the termination of the lease, the property life, imported from England, the most strik- in the line reverts to the state. ing, at the present moment, is the railway This method of proceeding is attended system, which is progressing in France with several obvious advantages. The more rapidly than is imagined at our side general projection of the lines of commuof the channel. The manner of accom-nication through the country is not left to plishing these public works here is essen- chance or to the fancy of individuals or tially different from the English system, companies, or the suggestion of local coand has certainly some advantages over the teries, but is governed by the high and genlatter in a national point of view. To eral interests of the state. By retaining a comprehend it, and the circumstances out general control and surveillance, which of which it has arisen, it must be remem- form part of the conditions of the lease, bered, that the construction and mainte- the interests of the public are better pronance of the public roads has always con- tected, and abuses of administration are stituted a department of the government in more effectually prevented than could be France, under the title of L'Administra- effected if the railways were the property tion des ponts et chausées, or the Department of independent bodies and associations, as of Roads and Bridges. Connected with in England. After the expiration of the this department there is a public school of leases, these enterprises becoming national engineering, the pupils of which ultimately property, may either be made a direct source form a corps of engineers in the immediate of revenue to the state, relieving the public pay, and under the control of the state. in a proportionate extent from less tolerable By this corps, or under their superintend- burthens, or be worked for the public benence, all the great public communications efit at rates only sufficient to maintain of the country are made and maintained. When the invention of railways, therefore, had been advanced so far in England, as to supersede, to a greater or less extent, common roads, and the improvement had forced itself upon the French public, the construction of such lines of intercourse by private companies presented a novelty in the civil administration of the country and after the concession of one or two of the first enterprises of this kind to joint stock companies (a large portion of the share-holders of which were English), the government reverted to the established usage, subject, however, to a slight modification. The great lines of railway are now projected, surveyed, and executed by or under the immediate superintendence of the Administration des ponts et chausées, and at the cost of the state. When they are completed, or nearly so, they are offered to public competition, on a lease for a specified time, varying from forty years to a century. The company, or individual, who, under sealed proposals, sent in within a specified time, and to be opened on an appointed day, offers the terms most advantageous to the state, obtains the lease. The lessee company usually replaces the capital expended by the government in the construction of the road, and provides from It is well known that the Palais Royale is the private property of Louis Philippe. Paris to Versailles (right bank)...... Paris to Rouen........... Paris to Valenciennes (and thence to Brus- ... Strasbourgh to Basle........ Mulhouse to Thann........... Montpelier to Cette ............ Nismes to Alaix.... Nismes to Benucaire.. DISTANCE TIME Miles. H. M. 0 30 0 30 12% 0 30 86 4 0 79 4 0 Besides these, there are several important lines of railway in a forward state of construction, among which may be mentioned the continuation of the Paris and Rouen railway, by two branches, to Havre and to Dieppe; a branch of the northern railway from Amiens to Boulogne and Calais; the railway from Paris to Lyons, &c. &c. The effects which in a few years may be expected to be produced on the inter-communication of different parts of Europe, but especially between France and England, when these enterprises come into operation, must be very striking. It is presumable 216 PARIS IN 1846. that between two capitals so important as sceptre, and the Church revives under its [OCT. Paris and London, no known practical fostering influence. After the revolution of means of expeditious communication will July, the few ecclesiastics who under the be neglected. At present, the express restored Bourbons had gained a sort of trains between London and Exeter travel footing in society, fell into such disrepute (stoppages included) at fifty miles an hour. that no one appeared for several years in The stoppages being much less frequent, it the public streets in the clerical costume. may then be expected that express trains The shovel and three-cornered chapeaux between Paris and Boulogne will travel at were laid aside, and the loose robe was the same rate at least; in which case the abandoned for the ordinary coat and round trip between Paris and Boulogne will be hat of the layman. In the churches, on made in less than three hours. Steamers the Sabbath, the congregation consisted of improved efficiency may easily make the almost exclusively of females, with a slight passage between Boulogne and Folkstone sprinkling of old inen, generally of the in an hour and a-half, and the trip between humbler classes. Within a few years, howFolkestone and London (eighty-eight miles) ever, it has-for what reason would be hard may be made in two hours. Thus the en- to say-become fashionable among the Patire distance between Paris and London, risians to observe the external forms of relimaking allowance for fair stoppages, may gion; and when the Parisians adopt any be effected in seven hours by express trains, fashion, they don't do so by halves. The and by common trains may certainly be streets now have become a perfect rookery. brought within twelve hours!! On an Black robes of every cut and fashion, emergency, a despatch may be sent to shovel hats, three cornered hats, and every Paris, and an answer obtained, in fifteen other characteristic of clerical costume, hours! But this emergency itself may be abound. The churches, on Sundays, are superseded by the electric telegraph, which as overflowing as the theatres, and as brilwill reduce the hours to minutes!! The railway from Paris to Lyons, and blies which fill them. Go to the Madeliant in the rank and fashion of the assemthence to Marseilles, is also in rapid pro- leine, and look at the luxurious velvetgress. This distance will be about five covered prie dieus, and you will discover hundred miles, and at the same rate of the rank of the habitués by the names of travelling for express trains, may be com- their owners engraved on the pretty brass pleted in ten hours. Thus an express train plates attached to them. Madame La may reach Marseilles from London in Duchesse de M-, Madame La Vicomtesse seventeen hours! The same rate on the de N-, Madame La Princesse de P-, Sardinian and Tuscan lines, when con- &c. &c., attest the rank of the votaries at structed, would reach the frontier of the this fashionable temple. papal states in a few additional hours; but here we must stop. The states of the Church forbid the construction of railways within their precincts, as dangerous to Christianity! There we must surrender the locomotive, and betake ourselves to the road. The papal authorities of the nineteenth century are as hostile to the speed of the railway as those of the sixteenth were to the orbitual motion of the earth, and are as strongly opposed to Stephenson as those of the latter were to Galileo. Shops have been opened in the vicinities of all the principal churches, pour la vente des objets religieux. In the windows are displayed rosaries of exquisitely carved beads; crucifixes in gold, silver, and ivory, beautifully sculptured; Agni Deis, Virgins and infant Saviours; ecce homos, missals, gorgeously bound in the richest velvet, with sculptured crucifixes on the covers; priests' robes of the richest cloth of gold; little shrines for the private closet of the faithful; objects, by which religion is rendered ornaand an infinitely various assortment of like mental and externally attractive. The children are reminded of the ob- dressed as a sister of charity. Sugar plums are formed into the figures of the Virgin and the Saviour, and priests in their robes are eaten in sweet chocolate, as images in sugar are swallowed from the crust of a twelfth night cake. With all this external parade of the forms of religion, there is at the same time scarcely a serious pretension to any real or deep feeling on the subject. Even among women the matter begins and ends in ceremonials. In the actual practical conduct of life all this religion (if it can be so denominated) exercises little or no influence. Whether this arises from the fact that the national clergy do not constitute a prominent section of good society in the country, as is the case in England, we must leave others to determine. The statistics of the population of Paris, published from year to year, disclose some curious facts which may aid in the discussion of such questions. It appears from the statistical returns of last year that the births which took place in Paris, in the year 1844, were as follows: Thus it seems that of the total number of persons who die in Paris, very nearly forty per cent. die in the hospitals. The improvement of the general comforts of the poorer classes in France, which has taken place since the Revolution, combined with the extensive use of vaccination, is exhibited in its effects on the average duration of life. By the statistical returns it appears that for the last twenty-seven years the ratio of the whole population, to the number of births, is 33.4 to 1, which gives the mean duration of life, during that period, to be 33 years. By the tables of Duvilland, it appears that before the Revolution the average duration of life was only 27 years, which gives an increase of 19 per cent. on the length of life since the Revolution. The proportion of the sexes among the children born, offers some curious and inexplicable circumstances. On taking the returns of births from 1817 to 1843, it is found that the total number of boys born in that interval was 13,477,489, while the number of girls was 12,680,776; so that, of the whole number there are 64 per cent. more boys than girls. But let us examine separately the two classes of legitimate and illegitimate children. It is found, that among legitimate children, 1063 boys are born for every 100 girls; while among illegitimate children 104 boys are born for 100 girls. In the latter class, therefore, there are only four per cent. more boys born than girls; while in the former there are nearly seven per cent. more of boys. This ratio is not casual, for it has been found to obtain, not only for different pe From which it follows, that above fifty-riods of time and for different parts of five per cent. of this large proportion of France, but is equally found in other counnatural children belong to classes suffi- tries where exact statistical records are ciently independent to provide for their comforts in private domiciles. From births let us turn to deaths, and we shall obtain a result scarcely less surprising. The total number of deaths which took place in Paris, in the year 1844, was as follows:— kept. It seems, then, that a greater proportion of boys are born among legitimate than among illegitimate children. What strange inferences this incontestably established phenomenon leads to! Are we to infer that the solemnization of marriage pro |