New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-26
POLITICAL VANDALISM.

S@AAS
The destruction of the Tuileries by in
cendiarism, following SO closely the
razing of the Vendome Column, seems t.
leave little doubt that the vandalism o.
the Partisan mob is inspired by political
luminosity. 1t is as emblems of royalty
of Imperialism, that these magnificent
monuments of art are leveled to the
ground. In their towering and stupen-
dous grandeur the Infatuated crowd have
been taught by their INSCRIPTIONS leaders
to see only the fruit of despotic extrava-
gance and popular wrongs; in the stones
the petrifed tears and sweat of the poor;
in the gliding their hard earned substance,
wrung from them in the form of grinding
and rdinous taxation. They will have no
more palaces to shelter pampered royalty,
while men of the same blood are herding
in mud-foored cabins What to them
are works of art? Why should they spare
the beautiful faces glowing from the can
vas, or the graceful forms carved in
marble when their faces are begrimed
and their own forms bowed with ill-paid
drudgery? Down with the splendid mon
uments that mock their misery! No
future king or emperor shall find palace
waiting TO receive him. France has done
with royalty, and every record of its
selfish splendor shall fall by violence, as
it was raised by wrong
In this spirit (as it appears from the
meagre information received) has been
destroyed the most magnificent royal
palace in Europe; and a collection of
paintings and statuary whose loss would
impoverish the world of art have been en-
dangered. The Tuileries, so-called be-
cause the palace was built upon site
formerly occupied by a mandatory of
tiles; (t,tiles), was commenced more than
three hundred years ago, by the infamous
Catherine de Medici. Extensive addi-
tons were made to it by Henry w., in
whose reign was commenced the gallery
fronting the Seine, which connects the
southern extremity of the building with
the Louvre. In the reigns of Louis
Kill, and Louis XIV, the architec-
tural talent of France was still employed
upon this work, which engaged also the at
tention of the first Napoleon and that of his
incapable namesake. Under the last it
was completed, and the Tuileries and the
Louvre, united, formed single palace of
unequaled splendor and magnitude, occu-
plying, with their Enclosures, an area of
sixty acres. The Louvre is a still older
building than the Tuileries, having un-
dergone such transformations and embel-
lishments as have changed it from a
simple tower, built by Philip Augustus
in the year 1914, through the exertions Of
a succession of sovereigns and dynasties,
into the magnificent pile which the mad
of a mob has just doomed to
the flames The Louvre consists Tor
rather consisted, for, according to some
accounts, it is only partially saved) of the |
DID and new Louvre, the latter having |
been completed in 1857, at a cost of |
nearly six millions of dollars
The treasures of art and learning con-
aimed in the galleries of the Louvre are
.he accumulation of centuries, represent
ng every age and every country, and have
been the pride of the French people
There are, or were, for we know not how
much is saved, the gems of italian paint
ng and sculpture seized by that imperial
obber, Napoleon I. there, too, the
of ancient art, containing Gu
iosities in whose study lifetime might
'e spent; the Egyptian museum, the ma
inc museum, and the museum proper,
'esides the chambers devoted to the re-
option of the designs of all the various
chools of art. -.
That such inestimable brain wealth and
TT wealth should have been swept away
l moment by torrent of political van
alism was indeed hard to believe; and
e are happy to learn by the latest dis
atches that the galleries of the Louvre
ave probably been spared.