Paris Past & Present (Volume 1-2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV. Good works by the First Republic--Establishment of different Institutions--Public education greatly v improved--The Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers--Its location in an ancient Abbey--Church of Saint Martin without the walls--Building of a Monastery by Henri I--Its change to a Priory and its present condition--Free instruction to all workmen--Eleven Chairs established--Valuable collections at this Conservatory--Everything excellently arranged--The Paris Nautes of antiquity--Beginnings of the Municipality--Eighty members of the Common Council--The President and Syndic of the Board--Public and private sessions--Annual expenses of the Capital--State Control over appropriations--Police force and how governed. Michelet in his history says that the French Revolution has for its only monument the Champ de Mars-- le vide (vacant space)--as he puts it. The observation is hardly correct, however. It is true that the Revolution had something else to do than build houses at a time when all the Icings of Europe had ranged themselves against the French, when the Vendeans uprose at the appeal of priests and nobility, when the whole country was in danger. There were cannon to be cast, pikes to be forged, powder to be made, muskets to be put together, the dead to be buried, the wounded cared for--there was no time or money with which to erect monuments. And yet, speaking now of Paris alone, no period in the history of the great capital has left so many useful, valuable and sensible monuments as were raised in the city by those first Republicans. The Louvre galleries of art were founded in 1793, and that same year saw the Museum of History and the Jardin des Plantes greatly increased in size and improved in every way. It was in 1793 that the Conservatoire de...