Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-04-10
THE FRENCH CAPITAL.

.
come to be, beyond comparison, the most beau
tiful city in the world. A single item, from
among hundreds on record, will serve to give
an idea how the national treasury has been
made to bleed in support of this metropolitan
glory. Thus, at the suburban palace of Yer
sailles, ten miles from Paris, Louis XIV, i'll
addition to his extravagances elsewhere in and
around the city, expended some three hundred
million dollars in paatal structures, parks
gardens fountains, statuary, and paintings
OF this regal residence the picture galleries
alone, their walls and frescoed ceilings covered
with works of the great masters, would, II eX
tended in continuous line, reach distance OF
five miles! Extending our course through the
environs of the capital, were we to estimate the
cost of the Handicapped towers the gorgeous
palaces, the solemn temples" and whatever
else contributes to beautify the surroundings
of the gay metropolis of la belle France, Com
piege, ST. Cloud, Fontainebeau, ST. Denis
and other places, would exhibit sum total OF
disbursements within the last two hundred
years, at which even the prodigal son, of the
parable, would have opened his eyes wide, in
blank amazement The Notifications alone
constructed since 1841, and now the bounda-
ries of Paris-cost not less than the pretty sum
of thirty million dollars
Whatever murmurs of dissatisfaction may
reach his ears from a distance, or whatever
Brutus eyes may glover upon him near by,
the modern Caesar follows boldly in the foot
steps of his predecessors, regarding no "bet-
terment law" when opening spacious new
streets, miles through the most crowded pur.
leus of the city; consulting no ones wishes,
when enlarging the municipal territory by the
annexation of an adjacent faubourg. To ap-
preciate these works of ameloration, which
the present emperor is now pushing SO vigor-
ously forward toward completion, it is neces-
sary to understand that the city of Paris is a
vast fort, nearly circular and over five miles
in diameter This unbroken enceinte, en-
bracing the two banks of the Seine, is bas-
toned and terraced, having in front contin-
uous moat, or ditch, lined with masonry, and
capable, in case of invasion, of being filled
with water. This moat is from sixty to one
hundred and sixty feet wide, and from its bot
tom to the top Of the parapet, or wall, is dis
lance of about forty-six feet. Drawbridges
over this moat connect the surrounding coun-
try with the city, by means of ninety seven
gates. What pity there is not a hundred
of them y Each gate is a little custom house,
where are collected the octroi-duties which
constitute the chief revenue of Paris, amount.
in IN of for
millions dollars! Immediately outside the
Notifications, entirely surrounding and enclos-
ing them, is fine wide military road, along
the whole line of which-a distance of thirty
miles-gas pipes have been laid and lamp
posts erected within the last two months
Previous to the commencement of the present
year, the duties were collected at the octroi
wall, which was from half mile to two miles
inside the Notifications, and was the enclosing
boundary of what, until last New Years, was
the city proper.
The demolition of this octroi-walI furnished
the present emperor rare opportunity to con-
struct another of those peculiar wide sort of
grand junction streets, called BouleUardS, which
are the pride of the French capital. The new
boulevard, which bids fair to eclipse any of
those already existing, will have a circuit of
over fifteen miles in extent, and will be, most
of the way. not less than one hundred and for
ty feet wide This immense street is to be
laid out after the following plan: In the CEN
tire, wide walk between two rows of trees
for foot passengers only on each side of this
We IVA 0lc
&C., and the other for pleas travel between
these carriage ways and the buildings, on
each side, spacious sidewalks, each lined with
a double row of trees, and paved, or rather
plastered, with bitumen, which makes as
smooth and hard footing as our cemented
cellar bottoms, in America. Suitable sites,
along the line of this magnificent street, will be
reserved for monumental structures, statues,
fountains, &c. The favorite street-tree in
Paris, at present, is the well-known horse
chestnut Wide, deep trenches are dug and
filed with soil, and the transplanting OF these
trees, eight to twelve inches in diameter, is a
common and successful achievement of those
having charge of this branch of the decorations
of the city
In the direction Of that immense suburban
park, the Bots de Boulogne, the city govern
ment has recently erected an ice house. the
largest in Europe, capable of containing so
million kilogrammes-equal to 10 million
pounds, or 5000 tons-of ice
But of the ameliorations now rapidly pro.
crossing in and around the great imperial cap.
ital-new wide streets through the heart of the
city, new fountains, new and costly statuary,
tree-planting on gigantic scale, constructions
and reparations of public and private edi6ces
the suppression of intramural cemeteries, and
the laying out of immense new ones beyond
the Notifications, &C., &c,-our limits would
hardly suffice to give a catalogue. Let us,
then, while gazing with wonder at what des-
pots dare to do, three thousand miles away
over the seas, thank our best stars that our PEG.
pie, here have the power both to tie their own
purse-strings and to cut off the head of any
president who should even have the presump-
ton to dream of any similar appropriation of
so much as thousandth part of our own
national revenues j.
The PANIC AT CHARLEsToN.-The Charles
ton newspapers are discussing the importance
OF volunteer guard, )" to watch over the city