n, as
passages of ingress and egress--corresponding with the like number of
opposite streets. The present cupola (preceded by one almost as large as
that of the Pantheon at Rome) is built of iron and brass--of a curious,
light, and yet sufficiently substantial construction--and is unassailable
by fire. I never passed through this building without seeing it well
stocked with provender; while its area was filled with farmers, who, like
our own, assemble to make the best bargain. Yet let me observe that, owing
to the height of the neighbouring houses, this building loses almost the
whole of its appropriate effect.

Nor should the EXCHANGE, in the _Rue des Filles St. Thomas_, be dismissed
without slight notice and commendation. It is equally simple, magnificent,
and striking: composed of a single row, or peristyle, of Corinthian
pillars, flanking a square of no mean dimensions, and presenting fourteen
pillars in its principal front. At this present moment, it is not quite
finished; but when completed, it promises to be among the most splendid and
the most perfect specimens of public architecture in Paris.[5] Beautiful as
many may think _our_ Exchange, in my humble opinion it has no pretensions
to compete with that at Paris. The HOTEL DE VILLE, near the _Place de
Greve_, is rather in the character of the more ancient buildings in France:
it is exceedingly picturesque, and presents a noble facade. Being situated
amidst the older streets of Paris, nothing can harmonise better with the
surrounding objects. Compared with the metropolis, on its present extended
scale, it is hardly of sufficient importance for the consequence usually
attached to this kind of building; but you must remember that the greater
part of it was built in the sixteenth century, when the capital had
scarcely attained half its present size. The _Place de Greve_ during the
Revolution, was the spot in which the guillotine performed almost all its
butcheries. I walked over it with a hurrying step: fancying the earth to be
yet moist with the blood of so many immolated victims. Of other HOTELS, I
shall mention only those of DE SENS and DE SOUBISE. The entrance into the
former yet exhibits a most picturesque specimen of the architecture of the
early part of the XVIth century. Its interior is devoted to every thing ...
which it ought _not_ to be. The Hotel de Soubise is still a consequential
building. It was sufficiently notorious during the reigns of Charles V. and