The times., 1898-01-21
NAPOLEON,s DREAM.
A Bahylonian Palace.ffor His Court,
Most Gorgeous in the World.
CFrom the New York SUM

NJ
tFron1 the New York SUM
Paris. Jan. 5.-M. Laffitte. founder OF
the Voltaire newspaper? and since many
years deputy mayor of Paris. has iust
contributed an interesting page to Ma
poleonic history in a memorial volume
dedicated to the little village C Passy.
NJ. Laffitte did deal OF rummaging
through the dusty state archives, and
he was rewarded by finding complete
details and drauEhtedt plans of wha:
was probably one of the pet dreams of
the great Emperor's later days.
1t appears that Napoleon, arrived at
the pinnacle of martial glory after hav-
ing vanquished Continental Europe
and forced the proud house of HapGburg
TO offer him princess for the purpose
of founding a direct dynasty, con-
ceiyed the plan of adding new luster to
his throne by constructing in his capt.
tai a Babylonian palace for his court,
which would eclipse all that had gone
before, even the works of Louis XIV.
With this idea in his mind he sum-
moned two OF the imperial architects,
Percier and Fontaine, and said TO
them:
Il wish to establish at the gates of
Paris, at the threshold of my capital
a monument the most vast and the
most beautiful of the universe. / have
chosen as the seat of this edifice the
heights which overlook the Seine and
the Champ de Mars. The palace itself,
which will dominate all the surround
ing country, shall face the field of ma
neuvers, conSecrated to my soldiers;
in the background shall be the EcoIe
Militaire. the cradle of my officers The
palace shall bear the name of the King
of Rome. the son whom | await il shall
be in every detail worthy of him and
worthy of me. Besides the grand state
apartments. the reception rooms and
the festal halls, there shall be ample
accommodation for the dwelling of my
self, the Empress, and our son, like
wise for the kings, queens. princes and
princesSes of my family and the high
dignitaries Of my court. | desire fur
ther, that the arts, the sciences the
university, the archives shall have each
its own particular palace. In a word
] wish to create a kremlin a hundred
that at Moscow. All this will be my i'm
times more beautiful and imposing than
perial city-the Napoleonic city"
The architects lost no time. The quar-
ries which existed upon the chosen site
We're Immediately closed and large
force was set to work deviSing plans
for what was to be the greatest build
ing, or series of buildings the world
has ever seen. 1t was these drawings
that NJ. Laffitte discovered among for
gotten State documents, together with
many notes by Fontaine of interviews
he had on the subject with his impe-
rial master
The palace as planned was to have
occupied very nearly the exact site OF
the present TrocadeTo. Three broad ter
races were to have risen from the
banks of the Seine, and the summit
was the emplacement of the central
palace, which was to have been fianked
by double colonnades copied after those
of st. Peters. The gala apartments.
with a huge and, splendid ballroom
were to have been separated from the
wing palaces by other colonnades On
the west. or Passy side. was to have
been the theater, and on the north the
chapel. Each waste have been many
times larger thanthoSe of Versailles
The palace on the east was to have
contained the apartments Of Napoleon,
the Empress. and the King of Rome.
To the rear of the chapel again, a
number of smaller palaces were
planned to afford dwelling places for
high people of the court; and further
back We're to have been established
the stables, the kennels, the orangerie,
and other dependencies. The Chateau
de la Muette was to have been given
over entirely to hunting horses and
their groems. The plans contemplated
turning the Bois de Boulogne into an
imperial private park. and all the in
tervening space up to the group of
palaces, including the present park of
La Muette, was to have been laid out
in lawns and pleasure grounds. The
entire palace park would have been
nearly three times the size of the park
of Versailles and the total cost of the
establishment, including buildings,
would have been nearly 5000. o00, goo, call
culated in money of our day.
Across the Seine, the Champ de Mars
was to have been left intact by Napo-
leon for reviews of his beloved army.
but the field was to have been hennled
in by monster administrative buildings
occupying the sites of the expositions.
Behind the Ecole Militiare wes to have
been a new official quarter. Thus the
heart of Paris was to have been car
red to the west had Napoleons dream
been realized. But this. like so many
other of the great captains dreams.
was destined to be obliterated in the