each. The city clears over
$7,000 a year from this source of revenue. But several hundred steps
toward the west of this street stand the Academic de Musique (the most
splendid opera-house in the world) and the Grand Hotel--two of the most
brilliant edifices in the city.

Palais Royal,

as it now stands, was completed in 1786. This building, like most of the
palaces in Europe, is built around a quadrangle, and its plan may be
compared to a pupil's slate used for ciphering. The frame corresponds to
the form or ground-plan of the buildings, and the slate, to the court or
yard which they inclose. This inner court or garden, 700 feet long and 300
feet wide, containing nearly five acres of land, is planted with lime
(linden?) trees from end to end, and two flower gardens. In the middle is
a fine _jet d'eau_ (a fountain). "The garden was thus arranged in 1799; it
contains bronze copies of Diane a la Biche of the Louvre, and the Apollo
Belvedere; two modern statues in white marble, one of a young man about to
bathe, by d'Espercieux; the other of a boy struggling with a goat, by
Lemoine; Ulysses on the sea-shore, by Bra; and Eurydice stung by the
snake, by Nanteuil, a fine copy in bronze, but more fitted for a gallery
than the place it now occupies. Near this statue is a _solar cannon_,
which is fired by the sun when it reaches the meridian, and regulates the
clocks of Palais Royal."

From the privilege of supplying refreshments and from the hiring of
chairs, the Government derives an annual rent of $7,000.

The shops under the arcades are chiefly devoted to articles of luxury, and
are among the most elegant in Paris. Many restaurants are on the first
floor; here, were formerly the gambling-houses which rendered this place
so notorious. The best time for visiting Palais Royal is in the evening,
when the garden and arcades are brilliantly illuminated and full of
people. The shops of the watch-makers and the diamond windows are then
particularly brilliant. In the most magnificent windows the articles have
no price marks; but in the best windows in which the articles have price
marks, I saw lockets priced $200; rings for $900; ear-rings for $1,000 a
pair; a pair of diamond studs for $2,800; crosses for $320; and a necklace
worth $3,000.

Palais Royal has been called the capital of Paris. During the early part
of the first Revolution, its gardens became the resort of the most violent
politicians; here, the tri-coloured c