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 cockade was first adopted, and the
popular party decided on many of its bolder measures.

There is little room for doubt, that the Cafe, one of the characteristic
features of French society, is a potent factor in civilizing and refining
the human race, in these latter times. Religion and intelligence--moral
ideas, moral habits and the collective knowledge of our ancestors--has
been transmitted from one generation to another down to our time, by the
Church and the Schools, principally. But the affairs of the human race
have taken a new turn since the invention of printing, by which the steady
development of traditional ideas has been arrested, so that the propriety
of retaining the standards of ancient civilization as patterns for the