New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-16
ruRoPE REVISITED. mo. Kill
FROM PARIS TO CHAMoUNIx.
Il, c.-r,opSese. Of he n. Y. TnbuDe.

mot ircluded; and it was with feeling of real
relief and satisfaction that found. myself at
last, after several vexatious delays, outside Of
the gay city and heading sosth-esstward q. rail-
rad speed for few weeks wondering among |
the glens Of the Alps. Paris IL a city Of delight !
for the young, the fortunate, the thoaghtiess,
the plessure-seeking; Jet Cannot realize that |
vss ever in condition, TO enjoy it thoroughly.
OF course, sm not forgetting that Science,
Art, Philosophy. haze their temples In The
Preach capital, ara that many Of their most
iIluxrious votartes there dispense knowledge
to s,aifing multitIdes; judge that syoang man
absolutely proef against the sorceries Of sensa4l
sv1ioyraent mipa. there qualify himself rapidly
and certainly for emisent and varied usefulness;
(for giris seeking substantial educatios, there ia
not another city on either continent that should
Eos be preferred TO tbis;) but the common,
otsious visible lhe Of Paris is so egctistic, SO
.saallow, 30 Fictitious, that doubt the possibili
ty of sharing il for even a season without de-
cline in moral sanity. voitaire is embodied
Paris acute, satirical, selfish cynical, sensual,
irrcrereDt, yaluiDg everything as it may be
turn ed to q present use and believing in nothing
that il cannot bite. Paris has probably produced
uiore libertine novels than all the world beside,
AID nowhere else arc the intellectual classes so
profoundly inveterately irreligioss. Faith in be-
nign Omniscience does not undere the general life;
and the painter who returning from an excursion In
the country reported to his brethren that Nature
wss badly got Up" too much green, with bad
arrangement Of light and shsde'-would have
been at home nowhere else than in Paris.
DION, two hundred miles southeast Of Paris, is
the natural point Of divergence for travellers TO
Geneva from the railroad leading from Paris 10
Lyons Italy and the Orient. In a few days
branch road will be opened from CbalOns below
Dion, to Besan con, seventy miles further on the
way to Switzerland, whence it viii probably be
pushed in time to the base Of the Jura Mountains.
Meantime Geneva is to be reached by line now
In progress from Lyons turning the Jura by the
south. France ia slowly but steadily covering her
self with a network of railroads which must add
sensibly 10 her future wealth and industrial de-
yelopment; but thus far they have exerted far less
influence than in our own country The peasantry
can rarely afford TO ride even in thrdclsss cars the
provinces, swsrming with inhabitants who cult
Vate their petty reehods of from one or two acres
each down TO onion bed ia size, eat nearly
all they produce and having little to sell, can buy
but little; 80 thHt the whole internal trade OF
France, with her tbirty-fve millions Of people, is
far less to-day than that of our Free States with
less than half the population, while ours is grow
ing with ten times the rapidty of hers. 1t will be
q century yet before France is as well supplied
with railroads as Massachusetts, or even Ohio
now it, And, in spite If the great disparity in the
WAGES of labor we make railroads cheaper than they
can here and while some in either country, built
under the impetus Of local OF personal interest,
will prove improbable, / think ours will pay
= IL r. Af III
Europe.
Dilon is an ancient city, formerly more impor
tant as the capital Of the extensive and practically
independent Dukedom of Burgundy than it now is
as the chief town of French department 1t is,
like other inland cities OF France, d miniature
Paris, with a fine theater, public garden sur
rounding fountain, excellent waterw0rks, few or
no manufactures, and a moderate trade in wine,
which appears to be the chief surplus product of
the department whose name Cote don its color
suggested Ii formerly walled city, and its
10000 inhabitants are still crowded within very
narrow space-less than would be covered in our
country by town OF one-fourth its size and i'm
portance. The Palace of the Dukes Of Burgundy
ancient but spacious and well built-is still the
focus Of the CITY, and the Place dArmes in front,
though smaller than would be thought de-
rirable still echoes TO the tread Of differing files
for here the conscrpts of the department being
drilled to swell the armies which hold France in
subsection and grspple in deadly feud with the
Russian hordes over the carcass Of the Ottoman
Empire. l believe portion Of the Palace is now
used as caserne" or barracks, but only passed
through the ten or twelve noble rooms devoted to
the Museum, filed with paintings (mainly copies
Of famous works by the old masters,) sculpture
medals, engravings, &c. good many Of the
paintings profess to be originals by French or
Flemish artists of considerable eminence. Here
are gorge0usly entombed the remains Of num-
Der Of the Burgundian Dukes, surrounded by
the memorials Of their va0r, their power, or
their ambition After the last named quality,
ms embodied in the restless aud INSCRIPTIONS
Charles the Bold, had proved the utter ruin of
their house on the field Of Morat, where the Swiss
routed and killed him, Burgundy ruled
French province by governors, the last of whom
was the famous soldier Condo, entitled 'the Great"
who also figures here, and, unless lbeled by the
painter, betrayed in his features no trace of the
genius for slaughter be eyinced in his life. These,
too passed away, and Burgundy itself is now but
a name, employed by knavish concOctors ofpotable
liquids TO flavor one Of their compounds termed
wine, and enable them to sell it at twice its actual
value, If value such witch-broth could have And
Dion, too, in the Middle Ages the capital of a
virtual kingdom, whence hammered hosts went forth
in all the swindling panoply of martial array TO
waste and desolste the peaceful hives Of Flemish
industry and thrift, or dash themselves into foam
on the unyieldng rock Of Swiss valor is now a
fifth rate French city, station on the Lyons rail
road, and the residence Of one of Louis Napoeon's
hundred Projects, or provincial viceroys. SO
passes mundane glory, leaving but relics and
fombs.
From Dion to Geneva, by the direct route
through the Jura, is 100 English miles, which the
diligence PROCESSES 10 traverse in eighteen hours and
actually sccomplishes IN twenty, leaving DION at