ART. VII.-Paris sous Philippe le Bel. By M. H. Géraud. 1 vol. 8vo. Paris, 1838.

THERE are few English visiters of the gay metropolis of France who give themselves the trouble, or who like to expose themselves to the not always pleasant task of piercing through the older parts of the town in search of the remains of the middle ages, with which it still abounds. The heart and core of Paris remains in many respects nearly the same as it was centuries ago; the width of the streets, the height of the houses, the wretched pavements, the dirt and the stench, are in many a quarter that we could point out much about the same as they were in the time of Francis I. Some of the smaller alleys of the Ile de la Cité,—many of the tortuous streets round the Hôtel de la Ville or touching upon the church of St. Merri, a place of sanguinary memory, have rarely been explored by a native of Britain; nor indeed are they ever seen by ninety-nine hundredths of the Parisians themselves; and yet to the artist, or to the antiquarian, they will repay the trouble of a walk of discovery better than a stroll under the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli or a lounge along the ever-varying Boulevards. The very conformation of the ground-plan of the centre of Paris attests the existence of the traditions of the middle ages; and from the foci of refinement in the Fauxbourgs, St. Germain and St. Honoré, any one so disposed may in a few minutes transport himself into scenes of comparative barbarism,-not of manners but of matter. As a mere question of art there is no doubt that the co-existence of cities of different epochs within one and the same precinct of walls, is beneficial to the eye of the painter, if not to the sensibilities of the fashionable dilettanti; and the want of something like a relief from the endless lines of dirty brick houses, few of them more than a century old, is felt, we know, by many an artist in London. It is this circumstance, that among many others, renders Paris a very fit nursing place for an archæological society; and cæteris paribus we should not be surprised to find the relative progress made by the modern archæological school of France become more rapid than that of our own school in London. The public institutions, and especially the libraries of Paris, hold out infinitely greater means of study in this respect than the corresponding establishments of London can pretend to do under existing regulations: and the archæological commissioners are so fully aware of the rich results which may be derived from a proper examination of their libraries, that every encouragement is given to those who attempt to bring any of their hidden treasures to light. It has been in consequence of this spirit of research that

M. Géraud has drawn out from the manuscript collections of the Bibliothèque du Roi the curious fiscal account of Paris under Philippe le Bel, which we have named with the other works in our title. It is drawn up from the original manuscript which, parish by parish, and street by street, contains the list of all the inhabitants of Paris subject to the impost of the taille in 1292, but which, having no title indicating the cause of its being made, is therefore probably defective at the commencement. The list begins with the Lombards of all the parishes: they were established for the first time in Paris. about the end of the 12th century, and, as is well known, were the bankers, money-changers, and money-lenders, or even pawnbrokers, of those times. It appears from the enumeration made of them in this document that they were in number 205, and that their united imposts amounted to 1513 livres and 14 sous: a Lombard named Gandoufle paid the highest contribution of his class, and is rated at 114 livres and 10 sous, which an ingenious writer in the Charte, a defunct journal, makes equivalent to 2657 fr. 10 c. of modern French money. If, the calculator adds, it be supposed that the Lombards were rated in the same proportion as other persons, that is to say, to the fiftieth part of their revenues, the income of the worthy Gandoufle would be equivalent to 130,000 fr. per annum. Making allowances for the circumstances of France at that period when fortunes in money were not large, whatever the extent of landed property might have been, Gandoufle must have been one of the Rothschild's of the day. Very few surnames are met with in the record; nearly all the individuals mentioned in it being distinguished by their Christian names, with the addition of some appellative, derived either from their native place, or their profession, or else a mere nick-name: thus Le-pelletier, Le-fevre, (Anglice Smith: Germ. Schmidt Faber) Le-peintre, for names derived from trades: Le-gallois, Le-normand, L'allemand, for names from countries and Le-jeune, Le-bossu, Boi-leau, for sobriquets or nick-names derived from personal circumstances. M. Géraud deduces from the MS. in question an ingenious topographical account of the boundaries of Paris of that date, and traces it through the mazes of the modern, or rather subsequently erected streets; into which, however, were we to follow him, we should probably appear prolix to any one who has not trodden the terra incognita of central Paris. It will be sufficient to state that of the three main divisions of the capital, that on the northern bank of the Seine, called the Outre-grand-pont, was even in those days the most considerable, and comprehended the inhabitants given to commerce as well as the most of the rich burgesses of the day the central division, the Cité, occupying the island in

the midst of the Seine, where the Roman civitas existed, was the ecclesiastical quarter of the town, and small as it was, contained twelve out of the thirty-five parish churches of the whole capital. The division of Outre-petit-pont, on the southern bank of the river, was occupied by the students, and the professors of the schools, the former, a noisy and somewhat seditious set, as they have been ever since. There it was that the Rue de la Fouarre, -Straw Street in its literal interpretation, received at one time the crowds of students, for whose better accommodation, in a sitting or recumbent posture, straw was laid down on the open highway. Cafés did not then exist, it should be remembered, although grisettes did; and the Rue Transnonain (olim Troussenonnaine), and the Rue des Mauvais Garçons,-des Mauvaises Paroles,-Tirechape,-Coupe gueule, &c.-several of which epithets exist to the present day,-indicate pretty well what the popular manners of the neighbourhood must have been. The Rue de la Fouarre is mentioned even by Dante, so well was the fame of its students known; it is now one of those filthy little streets that abut on the river south of Notre Dame. But to return to M. Géraud, he makes out that at the end of the 12th century there were only two advocates in Paris subject to the taille,—at least so the MS. would indicate: there are now more than 1300 inscribed on the Law List. Then there were only forty-two butchers paying taille; 500 are now reckoned within the walls of Paris; the shoetrade was divided amongst 140 scavetiers, or makers of light cloth shoes, slipper manufacturers; 226 cordouaniers, originally makers of shoes in leather of Cordova; and 25 sueurs, stitchers, botchers, or cobblers. It is curious to compare this number with those of the same trade, all branches included, of the present day, which is less than 600. The medical profession appears to have been divided among the mires or physicians, and the mirgesses or female medical practitioners; 29 of the former and 8 of the latter are all that we find subject to the taille; whereas nearly 1300 sangrados dispense tisane and eau sucrée to the modern Parisians. M. Géraud calculates the population of Paris to have been somewhat more than 228,000 in 1292: we think he must be entirely mistaken on this point, and we should rather estimate it at not more than the fourth part of the number, at least judging from the analogies presented by other European cities of that epoch. To those who take an interest in social statistics, a work of this kind, coming up from its grave of learned dust after more than five centuries entombment, is a real treat.

ART. VIII.-Defensa de los Tratados de Paz de Paucarpata; (Defence of the Treaties of Peace at Paucarpata) por Ant. Jose de Irrisari. Arequipa. 1838.

THIS is a most amusing as well as able performance; and for both reasons a novelty after its kind, especially from the quarter whence it comes. Whatever faults may be charged upon the government of Chile as to the choice or modes of action, and of negociators, assuredly the one act that selected M. Irrisari for a plenipotentiary is not to be numbered amongst them. He has shown himself capable of making, and under the worst circumstances of defeat and despair, a treaty in every shape advantageous to his country, rescuing a besieged and starving army from the necessity of unconditional surrender to the enemy, and restoring it in honour to its native shores; and farther, of obtaining for his own land in this very crisis conditions of the highest importance, including every thing they could desire or expect in any frame of mind short of political delirium.

One cause of this novel enlightenment in any portion of the Chilian service springs from the rare fact that the minister before us was, as appears from his work, a man of some information, and acquainted with history in general. He had actually studied the questions committed to him, and consequently was not, like the major portion of those who undertake government on the part of the people, profoundly ignorant of every thing connected with the subject. He did not trust wholly to inspiration, however amiable, for supplying facts, or rely upon obtaining experience by intuition. How such a man, therefore, came to be selected for the task might fairly be a matter of astonishment, did not the pamphlet before us satisfactorily prove that the choice was made in total ignorance of his qualifications, and thus relieve the Chilian government from the incongruity of intentionally delegating a man of common sense and ability to perform impossibilities, and set reason and honesty equally at defiance.

No such injustice must be done to the Chilian government; it is due to them to observe that the instant they discovered they had a man of sense in the country they sent him out of it; persons indeed who found that facts contradicted cherished theories could not too soon dispense with him who had made so novel a discovery; and whose conduct was the more unpardonable inasmuch as he had previously had some misgivings to the same extravagant effect. A man whose foreign studies had taught him—

"That what's impossible, can't be,

And never, never comes to pass,"

was clearly unfit for a land of sages who looked only to the future for experience; who raised an army entirely from the love of peace; invaded a neighbour solely to prove their dislike of intervention; and carried abhorrence of all dictatorship so far as to insist upon dictating the form of government to three foreign

states.

The Chilian ex-negociator, strangely enough, appears to have been surprised by this view of the case, and even to have argued, at first, upon its injustice. That his arguments are sound, his authorities first-rate, and his deductions incontrovertible, we are ready to admit; but since they only prove that he did all that could be done, and did not do what could not be done, they are manifestly insufficient for his vindication; and his government, with equal logic and consistency, have fixed him in this formidable dilemma, that, since he failed to exceed the powers he had not, he must have exceeded the powers he actually had.

To this mode of reasoning there is obviously no reply; M. Irrisari, to his credit, admits it at once, and as an excellent joke: to carry it on with spirit he details the facts; an act to which it is clear the government could not condescend. A more ludicrous statement seldom falls to the lot of diplomacy, and our readers shall judge of it for themselves.

M. Irrisari commences by declaring that his Defence is not written for diplomatists, politicians, nor philosophers, but for those who condemn the treaty of Paucarpata; and as his government stands in this category, it is clear the worthy envoy regards their talents somewhat negatively. He thus begins the subject.

"The treaties of Paucarpata which saved the honour of the Chilian arms; which had terminated the war satisfactorily for that republic; which had saved the Chilian army from certain destruction, and in fine had secured the highest possible glory in a most disastrous contest to the government that displayed the least strength; those treaties, I repeat, so advantageous for the Chilian nation, have been disapproved, and the plenipotentiaries treated in recompense for their services with the grossest insult and the most unmerited stigma."

Relieving General Blanco, who commanded the expeditionary army, from all responsibility on the subject, the writer proceeds to show that the negociators possessed the requisite powers, and quotes the government instructions, Art. 5. which enjoins these ministers," if compelled by unforeseen circumstances to stipulate with the enemy any thing which exceeds their instructions, or materially contradicts them," to reserve the ratification or rejection for the Chilian government. It is clear, therefore, he observes, that the very instructions authorised them to act in unforeseen cases and under the one specified reservation.

Having stated at full length in a former number the wanton ag