passport from the Secretary of States' Office, signed by Lord
Castlereagh, to satisfy them that I was no _avanturier_, a very numerous
class here. The expence I found differed but little from, that of most
of the hotels in London; but the French hotels are in fact more what we
should call lodging-houses, as they do not supply dinners, &c. which
must be procured from a restaurateur's, of which there are a vast
number; and I have heard it stated, that there are no less than 2500
coffee-houses in Paris.

The population of Paris is stated by Marchant, in the last edition of
his Guide to Paris at 580,000; the number of houses is estimated to be
29,400; this would give an average of nearly twenty persons to each
house. This I do not consider as too great a proportion to allow, if we
consider the vast number of hotels that can contain at least double that
number of persons; and that in many parts of the town each story is
occupied (as in Edinburgh) by a separate family.

The population of Paris has undoubtedly decreased since the revolution;
Dutens, who published his Itinerary about thirty years ago, tells us, at
that period the inhabitants of Paris amounted to 650,000: but even
supposing him to have over-rated them, still there remains a great
disparity in the two calculations, and it is reasonable to conclude,
that the present statement by Marchant is accurate, from the facilities
which the system of police affords in forming a just calculation on the
subject.

Paris, including all its suburbs, is said to be about eight leagues in
circumference, and, except London and Constantinople, exceeds all the
other cities of Europe in extent.