The Sun.
London, England, 1812-08-15 00:00:00

consecration. The remains of human hoslieS were
still so considerable in the sepulture of the inno-
-cent4 that no oilier places under the requisite qua-
lification could he found sufficiently capacious for
the reception of the-bones, without being entirely
filled, or greatly encumboeed. M. Lenoir,. the then
Superintendant of the Police, suggeSted the ex'Oe-
flient of depositing the bOties in an old. quarry,
situated between the -barrier d'Enter and that of
St. 'Jacques, under an extensive plain called la
Tombe Is oire.
The Inspestor-General of the quarries ,was
rected to Arange this new cemetery, or more pro-
_perly, these catacombs, and the very Reverend the
Grand Viears of his Grace. the 'Archbishop of 'aria
accordingly attended to consecrate it on the 7C.: of
April, 1786. This ceremony was solemnly per-'
formed in the presence of the Lieutenant-General
of Police, and an immense concourse of people ;
after which Messrs. .Legrand and Malinos pro-
ceeded to the exhuination and removal of the
bones—an operation an() small difficulty, and re-
' quiring great care and caution to preserve the two-
fold .Object of health and decency.
Since that time the banes contained in several
' other Sepultures; which had been previously sup-
, pressed by authOrity, havtbeen removed to the
new ossuary, as also a great quantity of those
which had ;been deposited in the different
•churches, convents, and
.cloisters, at the pe-
riod of ' the , almost general demolition of those
:-edifices. .
The persons employed in the conveyance and
.ileposition of the bones to the catacombs, con-
tentedthen-elves, arfirst, With- merely emptyiaig
them. out of their haMpers; without any regard to
re. clarity, except the "formation of a distinct
lie.lp from the produceof each
.successive exhu-
mation.

The Prefect of the Seine has within these two
years adopted a new'and improved arrangement in
those dark and dreary aboiles Hericart De
Thury, Engineer hi Chief to the.imperial.-corps of
miners, and .Inspector-General of quarries; and
who is charged in -the latter capacity, with the
planning and superintendance of the catatombs,
has intimated his intention of publishing a detailed
account of the alterations and improvements that
have. taken plans since his.
_appointment to that
office.

The subjoined is a short description of the
datacotnbs, which the public are permitted to
6sit,'-subject, however, to suitable rules. and re-
gulations :
You :,re conducted to the entrance of this im-
mense charnel-house, by an open stair-cake in
the area of thebuildings contiguous to'the bar-
rier d'Enter, on the west side of the road leading
froin Paris to Orleans. This stair-case is of the
spiral form, commodious, and well-cOnstracte'd,'
and descends perpendicularly upwards. of 'four-'
score feet under the surface of the earth. You
then wander with your guides a full quarter of an
hour along the windings of a passage (grillerie),
varying considerably in width and 'in height, but
everywhere more spacious than the avenues of the
Roman catacombs. The sides of the passages, as
well as tharoofs. are formed partly of rough-hewn
stones and partly of the solid rock. At inter4:rals, oa
the right and left, -east excavations present them-
selves'.. These quarries,',like those in which the
vaults of observatory are made,- Ayould Corn-
•
municate with an infinite number of Others be-
meath Montronge,. and 'tinder the suburb of St.
Jacques, if care had not been taken to cut off the
various' communications, which, dark and intricate
=as-.they are, the smugglers cOntriVed to use thera
-as places of. concealment for.theinseNts and their
. contraband goOds,,

.
With respect to the catacombs, properly so
called; they are comprehended in a vastinCloture
separated from the ossuaries, and closely shut uP.
The principal entrance to them has a sort of Ves-
tibule in froni, and is ornamented with two.
tres of the Tuscan order, on each .of which you
read a religious inscription, the same I think that
was composed for the gate of the cemetery Of
Saint Sulpice

I.IAS ULTIIA MI TA.S
REQI.IIESCUNT, -
74EATAM EXraT.I.NTES.
" Beyond these Columns,
They rest in Peace,.
Waiting for

Blessed ImTnortallty."

In the interior, the long passages and innumera-
ble recesses, are lined (tapiseaq with human"
bones ; the larger, such as skulls, spines, and.
thigh-bones, being uniformly placed in front;.and
formed in compartments, support the smaller,
which are thrown behind,' and. constitute the me-
lancholy
walls. Such of my readers as have made
an excursion into those provinces. where the use
of charnel-houses in burial places is still preserved,
will be able to form a correct notion of the spe-
cies of MOsaie,lt to which I allude.' it may be ob-
served that in the dark and damp gustrcies the bones
do not blanch.
The number of the dead,. whoSe bones have
been removed to the new receptacle, is estimated
:...more than two millions of individuals ! The '
walk which I tock among them seemed to exceed
the fourth of a league. Tablets are placed here
and there to indicate the various places from which
each particular mass of bones had been conveyed.'
In several of the recesses altars are formed, some
..of them resembling those that are used in churctes,
'others of antighe • shape, and many _uncouthly.
made of. bones, cemented with Mortar: In nein-
berless places you find'expressed in black charac-
ters, on a white ground, epitaphs, sentences°. in
prose and rhyme, some of them religious, some
moral, and others philosophical, and all in con-
formity to the tenets of some system, of religion
or other. Thus, after meeting at the entrance
with the inscription.above cited, expressive of the
hope of alift to come,.you read, on retiring from
the subterranean cavities, thi4 celebrated passage,
extracted from The:Georgics

57.
b 7.
55.
58
61.

Felix, qui poluit rerum eognoscere mums,
iftque,anotus wanes a inexoyabilf falict4
Subjecit pedibus, strepitiqrzquilcheronti.f avari
" Happy the man, who, studying Nature'slaws,
-Thiro, known (leas can trace the aeeretcause,
'Ms mind possessing, in a quiet state--
• Fearless of Fort.ine, and resiga'd to Fate !"
DaYDE.N; •

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'ubli4led. by WILLIAM ARM/QVC-3 ISouth.,M;->ittn -street, tiroAr?uvr-squal sip
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