Lewis XIV, after having for a long time made the _Louvre_ his
residence; abandoned it for _Versailles_: "Sire," said Dufreny once
to that prince, "I never look at the _New Louvre_, without
exclaiming, superb monument of the magnificence of our greatest
kings, you would have been finished, had you been given to one of the
begging orders of friars!" From that period, the _Louvre_ was wholly
consecrated to the sittings of different academies, and to the
accommodation of several men of science and artists, to whom free
apartments were allotted.

I much regret having, for this year at least, lost a sight here,
which I should have viewed with no inconsiderable degree of
attention. This is the

PUBLIC EXHIBITION OF THE PRODUCTIONS OF FRENCH INDUSTRY.

Under the directorial government, this exhibition was opened in the
_Champ de Mars_; but it now takes place, annually, in the square of
the _Louvre_, during the five complementary days of the republican
calendar; namely, from the 18th to the 22d of September, both
inclusive.

The exhibition not only includes manufactures of every sort, but also
every new discovery, invention, and improvement. For the purpose of
displaying these objects to advantage, temporary buildings are
erected along the four interior walls of this square, each of which
are subdivided into twenty-five porticoes; so that the whole square
of the _Louvre_, during that period, represents a fair with a hundred
booths. The resemblance, I am told, is rendered still more perfect by