At Paris we had our trunks searched at the Custom-house, and went from thence in a coach to the Hotel de Beauvais, Rue des Vieux Augustins, No. 69, Quartier du Palais Royal, where a gentleman that had come from London with me, and myself, hired three large rooms, neatly furnished, for four livres a-day. We breakfasted at this place, which cost us fifteen sous a-piece each morning, besides what we gave to the servants.
I hired a servant, who remained with me all the time I tarried at Paris: he charged me forty sous per day; but he conducted me so well, that I gave him more than double that sum.
I found Paris very full of people from the country, and from foreign parts. They had met to celebrate the Revolution, and tarried till the next Sunday in order to have another grand convention at the Champ de Mars.
Whilst we were on our way from Calais to Paris, we were followed, in some of the intermediate towns and villiages, by swarms of beggars, who seemed to be in great distress. I asked the reason of their begging; and was told that they were reduced to poverty in consequence of the commercial treaty between England and France; that the manufactories in Great Britain were so much cheaper than they were in France, that the merchants bought many of their goods in England, which had thrown those poor people out of employ, and obliged them to beg for a livelihood.
We frequently contributed to the relief of those distressed objects: but because we could not give to every one, some of them threw a stone at our coach, which did not happen to strike any of us. At, and near Paris, we found but a few beggars, in proportion to the great number of people. Some how or another, they seemed to be much better provided for than they were in the country.
The face of the country between Calais and Paris, appears much like many parts of the Province of Quebec, in America. But I think the soil is not quite so rich. Though some have supposed it is full as good by nature as the island of Great Britain; and that it would produce as large crops, if it was as well manured and cultivated. I was told, that agriculture had been much discouraged in France, before the Revolution, by reason of the oppression that the peasants were under.
More then three-fourths of the land between Calais and Paris, appeared to be overspread with grain, consisting of rye, wheat, oats, and barley. There was also some excellent hemp and flax. The people had begun to reap, and there was a sign of a very plentiful harvest; but the crops were not so large in general as they are in England. We saw but a very few cattle, horses and sheep, and those we did see were small. The fields are not fenced, but lie open to the high-way. We often passed by boys holding cows to feed, by lines tied round their horns, to keep them from running into the fields. The wages for reaping are, generally, thirty sous per day. Both men and women follow the business, begin early, and lie down on the ground, and sleep in the open sunshine, at about ten or eleven in the morning; a practice which I esteem to be unhealthy. Perhaps one may see fifty asleep at a time.
CHAP. IV.
Views and Describes the Champ de Mars.—Goes to the Royal Palace belonging to the Duke of Orleans.—Dines with the French Officers at the Grand Hotel.