afforded by _Notre Dame_, and a few other subordinate public buildings,
altogether produce an effect--especially as you turn your back upon the
sun, sinking low behind the _Barrière de Neuilly_--which would equally warm
the hearts and exercise the pencils of the TURNERS and CALCOTS of our own
shores. Indeed, I learn that the former distinguished artist has actually
made a drawing of this picture. But let me add, that my own unqualified
admiration had preceded the knowledge of this latter fact. Among other
buildings, I must put in a word of praise in behalf of the
HALLE-AUX-BLÉ'S--built after the model of the Pantheon at Rome. It is one
hundred and twenty French feet in diameter; has twenty-five covered
archways, or arcades, of ten feet in width; of which six are open, 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 HÔTEL DE VILLE, near the _Place de