which, on a large scale, into public buildings in England. the present would have offered a favorable opportunity. The arrangements, respecting the department of the fine arts, have been finally made. Mr. Ayton, the father of Miss Fanny Ayton, we have heard, is appointed to superintend the Gallery of Paintings; and M. Turnerelli, the brother to the celebrated modeller, is to conduct the sculpture and virtù department. The arrangements, as respects the fine arts, appear to be popular with the English artists. Several members of the academy, and others of eminence, including Westall, Stothard, Martin, Daniel, &c. &c. having promoted their support; but we still think that a public and gratuitous exhibition of pictures, &c. connected as it will be with a Bazaar, will be found not to answer the sanguine expectations of the projectors: seeing that the public exposure of works of art, in this country at least, is always found to impair their estimated value in the eyes of those who alone are able to afford a remunerating price to the artist. The attempt, however, is novel, and undertaken withal, in a spirit of such liberal enterprise, we cordially wish it success. A WORD OR TWO FROM PARIS. -The gardens of the Tuileries are beginning to assume a shade of green; and between races and riding parties, the Bois is just now greatly in vogue. The Longchamps fashions are already visible, nor is it possible to imagine a gayer spectacle than the favorite drive on a Sunday. The equipages of Princess Bagration, and Count Demidoff, are always the most remarkable, but the English are of course, better appointed. Although the Duke of Orleans gives higher prices than any man in Paris, he is said not to have a good horse in his possession : his Royal Highness's daily appearance in the Bois does not fail to produce a great sensation among the fair equestrians. The dejeuners of Madame Appony will commence shortly. En attendant, there are the weekly parties of the Duchesses d'Albufera, and Duras, of Madame Shickler, Madame Boscary, and many others. The opera of Don Juan, by the way, is just now attracting the whole fashionable world to the French opera; which has been giving, as usual, the pas to the Italian, in point of selection of company during the winter season.-Court Journal.

CATACOMBS OF PARIS.-These vaults for the dead spread to a great extent under the city. The walls are lined with the remains of " poor mortality," which, at various periods, have been removed from the numerous churches in Paris. Innumerable inscriptions are written and cut upon several parts of the walls. One of them may be thus translated:"You seek where you shall be after death, Where were you before your birth?""

Another says:

says:-"

We swim whole gloomy silent years;
We whose light beings sadly fade,
Like flittings of a passing shade,

Which form'd, is seen, then disappears."

HINTS UPON STAYS.-Dr. Ryan, in one of his late lectures, Strong stiff stays are injurious. Tight lacing prevents the growth of the chest; impedes the breathing and action of the heart, causes palpitation, and renders the compressed parts a load on the lower parts of the spine, which bends to one side. Want of proper exercise, and tight lacing, are the causes of spinal curvatures in girls; and hence we can scarcely see a young lady with a straight back. Active pleasant girls, on the contrary, are models of symmetry and beauty, because they are not subjected to the causes just described."

M 2

ST. PATRICK'S DAY.-A grand ball was given at Dublin Castle, on St. Patrick's Day, to between 4 and 500 persons. At half-past nine the company began to arrive, and in an hour afterwards his Excellency and the Marchioness entered St. Patrick's Hall. The Marquess wore the Windsor uniform, decorated with the star and collar of the garter, and seemed to be in excellent health and spirits. The Marchioness was plainly attired. Immediately after their Excellencies entered, the ball was opened with a country dance by the Duchess of Leinster and Captain Lindsay. Quadrilles and waltzing were then introduced, and kept up with much spirit until supper was announced. After supper dancing recommenced, and at a late hour the guests retired. Amongst the persons present were the Duke and Duchess of Leinster, the Marquess and Marchioness of Downshire, the Earl of Hillsborough and Lady Charlotte Hill, Lord and Lady Killeen, Sir P. and Lady Pellew, &c.

PARISIAN CORRESPONDENCE.

Rue Saint Dominique, Faubourg St. Germain,
March 20, 1834.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

It seems as if the good Parisians were determined that the whole of Lent should be a carnival, so numerous have the public and private balls been. In fact, the Parisians have always a mania of one kind or other, and the dancing mania has, at present, superseded, in some degree, the political one. Or rather, I should say, the one reigns in the morning and the other at night. An ordonnance of the prefect of police has lately been issued, which, I believe, if it had been actually carried into effect, would have caused a revolution. It was for closing the theatres at eleven o'clock. The Parisians were already discontented at the public balls being previously prohibited by an order of the prefect, during the remainder of the Lent, but they consoled themselves by having a greater number of private ones. The public indig nation burst out, and the ordonnance became the subject of innumerable paragraphs, epigrams, and caricatures. Not one of the theatres has paid the least attention to it, and all

that the prefect has gained is to see himself, and his authority, turned into the most complete ridicule by one party, while another has signalized it as an act of the most atrocious tyranny. compared it to the curfew, and asserted that the motive assigned, that of care for the public safety, was at once a gross falsehood, and an outrageous insult to the Parisians; since it represented Paris, their bonne ville, as being but a cut-throat sort of place after midnight. And, by the bye, such is really the fact, however displeased they may be with the good prefect for publicly announcing it. There are not, as in London, regular guardians of the night, always upon the watch, but troops of municipal guards, headed by town sergeants, who patrole the streets every half hour, and in these intervals there is no doubt that many robberies and murders are committed. A singular attempt of the latter kind was recently made upon a friend of papa's. He had passed the evening in the Faubourg St. Germain, and was returning about one in the morning to his own house in the Chaussée d' Antin. In traversing the rue du bae he perceived a gentleman behind him, who appeared to follow him closely, but as there was nothing suspicious in the appearance of the stranger. Monsieur de Bfelt no alarm; just as he came to the Pont Royal, and at the very moment that he was close to the river, the stranger sprang upon him, and aimed a blow, with a poignard, right at his heart. M. B- was unarmed, he succeeded, however, in parrying the blow with his cane, and kept his antagonist for a moment at bay, crying, at the same time, loudly for assistance, and retreating towards the rue du bae. The other continued to press upon him, but a blow upon the elbow made him drop the poignard, and before he could seize it his intended victim got possession of it, and the villain took to flight. In stooping to recover it, his hat fell off, M. B-distinctly saw his face, and heard him as he fled utter a horrible execration. Poignard in hand, B. sued, but soon lost sight of him. A considerable time passed, B. had nearly forgotten the adventure, when one evening he went to pay a visit to some friends of his, who had recently arrived from one of the Provinces. I should tell you, that, wherever he goes, he is always accompanied by a little dog, whom he has had many years, and is very fond of. The animal, from his age and habits, is rather annoying to

pur

strangers, so that his master usually leaves him in the antichamber till he comes out, He found with his friends an officer in a foreign uniform, of gentleman-like appearance. and manners; but though his features were handsome, there was something very sinister in his countenance. B- felt that it made a disagreeable impression upon him, and had a confused idea of having somewhere seen it before, though he could not tell where. He was introduced to him as Captain De V. It was soon evident to him that the captain was very high in the favor of his country friends, and particularly that of their blooming daughter, to whom he paid most assiduous attention. The evening passed, the door of the antichamber opened opposite to where the stranger was sitting, and to the astonishment of every body, Noirod, the little spaniel, rushed upon Captain De V- and bit him severely in the leg. The captain swore a tremendous oath, and his countenance, at the same time, assumed a demoniac expression. B- instantly recognized both the voice and the countenance; he was convinced that the assassin was before him. While he stood in consternation, his host had succeeded in drawing away the dog, and the captain departed in the most abrupt manner. B- then inquired into the particulars of their acquaintance with him. He found that it commenced by their lodging some time before in the same hotel, that the captain represented himself as a man of family and fortune, and soon proposed for their eldest daughter, who was very favorably inclined towards him. B lated his adventure, but none of the party gave the slighest credit to his declaration that the captain was the assassin. However the opinion of some of them, at least, underwent a change, when he wrote the next day that letters had arrived which recalled him instantly to Sicily, and he could not fix a time for his return.

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Great preparations are making for the promenade of Longchamps. There is every reason to believe that it will this year recover, in some degree, its ancient vogue. For some seasons past it has been little followed, much to the joy of economical husbands, who always found it a dreadful tax upon their generosity. A married couple of my acquaintance who had made a love match about three years ago, separated last year, because the husband refused to purchase a new