LETTER XXXIX.
SIR,Paris, April 1, 1732.
Don’t imagine, that I am going to give you an exact Description of the City of Paris; for that would be an Undertaking to as little Purpose, as it is beyond my Ability. Paris has been so fully describ’d, and is so much talk’d of, that most People know what Sort of Place it is, though they have never seen it. Several Authors are so divided about the Antiquity of Paris, that I can say nothing positive to you upon this Head. Cæsar, in his Commentaries, speaks very much in its Favour, and says, that in his Time, this City was call’d Lutetia. The Learned differ also about the Origin
of this[41]Name; but I shall leave them to dispute this Matter as long as they please, and assure them, that I am not concerned in their Quarrel.
According to Father Daniel, Paris was the Capital City of France, in the Reign of Clovis, about the Year 507. But even then, Paris was a Place of very little Consequence; and, if it be duly consider’d, could not be rank’d among the great Towns, before the Reign of Philip Augustus; That Prince made it his Endeavour to embellish it, and added Buildings to it, which at that Time were reckon’d very magnificent. Since his Reign, Paris has always been the Seat of the Kings, and has been continually increasing in Grandeur and Beauty. But none of its Kings has contributed so much to the Magnificence of Paris, as the Prince who least resided in it, I mean Lewis XIV. who caus’d such Structures to be rais’d in it, as are worthy of the greatest Monarch in the World. Of some of these Works, I may hereafter give you a more particular Account.
The French pretend, that no City in Europe contains so many Inhabitants as Paris; but the English say, the most populous is London; yet, without the least Hesitation, I determine it for the latter of the two Rivals. My Reason for it is this: At Paris, eighteen or twenty thousand
People die every Year, and at London twenty-three or twenty-four thousand; tho’ I don’t dispute, but Paris seems more populous: For in the latter, every body is to be seen in the Streets, either on Foot or in Coaches; whereas at London, Passengers are continually going up and down the Thames; which River is seldom without carrying forty or fifty thousand People, who, if diffus’d in the Streets, would make them look fuller of People than those of Paris. Besides, what makes the Capital of France appear to be more populous, is, that it has more Coaches and Carts; whereas at London, one always sees Goods going up or down the River; which is the Reason, that Carts are not so much in Use there: And most of the Ladies, instead of Coaches, ride in Sedans. But a Frenchman will tell me, you shall see five or six Families in one House at Paris; whereas at London, they are seldom two. To this I shall answer, that ’tis true, there are more Lodgers in the Houses of Paris; but this stands for nothing, and only proves, that there are more Houses at London. At Paris, there are many Hôtels, or great Houses, Convents, large Gardens, public Squares, Quays, and a River that runs through the Middle; all which takes up a great deal of Ground; and in several of the Suburbs, without which Paris itself is but a little Place, there are intire Marshes. But at London,’tis quite otherwise, such Hôtels are uncommon there, and few Houses there have Courts to them. They are all very much pent up, and many a House at London is not so big as the Halls in a great many of the Hôtels at Paris.
But what matters it, whether London is bigger or less than Paris? I shall now speak of the latter, not as the biggest, but as the most beautiful City in Europe. ’Tis reckon’d, there are in Paris
nine hundred Streets, with above twenty thousand Houses, of which four thousand have great Gates, and Courts to turn Coaches in. The Number of Inhabitants amounts to above eighty thousand; in which must be reckon’d one hundred and fifty thousand Domestics. There are at least twenty thousand Coaches, and near one hundred and twenty thousand Horses for Carriages of all Sorts, of which, one Year with another, ten thousand die. In fine, the very Expence of the Lanthorns, which are lighted nine Months in the Year, is computed at two hundred thousand Crowns at least. The common Revenues which the City of Paris produces, are said to amount at least to twenty-eight Millions of Livres; a Sum, which, I believe, is not rais’d by some Kingdoms.
Paris enjoys all the Prerogatives that can be enjoy’d by the Capital of a powerful Kingdom. This City has not only the Reputation of being the Residence of Kings, but is the Seat of an Archbishop, a Parliament, an University, an Intendant, a Governor, and of all the Sovereign Courts in the Government. Its Metropolitan Church, which was heretofore no more than the See of a Bishop, Suffragan to the Archbishop of Sens, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. St. Denys, who liv’d in the first Ages of Christianity, is own’d to be its Founder, or at least its first Bishop. Its first Archbishop was Francis de Gondy, who obtain’d that Dignity by a Bull of Pope Gregory XV. in 1622. since which Time there have been seven Archbishops. Whoever is the Archbishop, has the Title of Duke of St. Cloud, and in that Quality is both Duke and Peer of France. The present Archbishop’s Name is N. N. de Vintimille of the Counts du Luc. He succeeded Lewis-Antony, Cardinal de Noailles, and finds his Diocese as disobedient to his Mandates, as it was to those of his Predecessor.