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  The state of these two capitals differs materially in this, that in France the population of Paris is one, that [the rest] of another and they are quite distinct. The former comprises almost all the upper classes, all the members of government, all persons of large fortune & therefore of great influence there, pay only occasional visits to their estates & even then, if they go to stay above a day or two, carry theirs truly with them.

  The influential part of the inhabitants of London, those who from their intellectual refinements, their wealth & their professional inclinations give the principal tone to public opinion pass a considerable portion of his year in the country, in which they meet a very large proportion of the population no wise inferior to themselves in education, acquire merit & even wealth, whose habitual residence is in the country and whose opinions and feelings go a great way to the formation of public opinion. Consequently in England we never could see the metropolis dictating to the provinces as was the case in France during the Revolution.

  But such advantages as I have enumerated above were quite sufficient to gain Parisians who look no further than the gratification of the moment and with whom to gratify vanity and give some cause for spirit & holiday is to make happy. Another cause why Bonaparte was popular is because he is necessary to the gratification of their ruling passion, national vanity.

  He is wrong who supposes that desire of conquest existed only in the breast of Bonaparte and that the nation were his unwilling tools. I am convinced that the ruling desire of (if not the greater part of Frenchmen) at any rate of almost all Parisians is that all Frenchmen looked forward with pride to the expected period when France should be mistress of the world, this was not merely the darling object of the military but of the nation and they hope moreover to achieve this without any great sacrifices on their own part. The system that Bonaparte professed and bragged of was to make war support war, to make war with the blood of foreign nations. His avowed plan as his war against Russia in 1812 was to raise the Poles by exciting the hope of restoring their integrity as a kingdom, ‘Russie a choquer toute la Pologne’ [Russia has offended the whole of Poland] was his own expression. To arm the Poles and with them to conquer Russia while the French army occupied Poland, was the plan he avowed. Thus it is not to be wondered at that a nation greedy of conquest should be attached to a man universally & I think justly believed to be endowed with transcendent abilities and who promised to gratify their ruling passion which was also his own, with such little personal sacrifice on their part.

  12th To the Louvre again, it is really magnificent.

  13th I saw the King of Prussia in the Louvre today, he was very plainly dressed and is a fine looking fellow.

  I went to the King’s levee today in the Palace of the Tuilleries, saw Marshals Oudinot6 and Serrurier7 there. The Hall of Entrance onto the king’s rooms is called the Hall of the Marshals from being hung with pictures of the Marshals of France. The levee was almost entirely military.

  The avis [notice] at the commencement of the book of description of the statues states ‘La majeure partie des statues exposees dans la galerie des antiques est le fruit des conquetes faites en Italie, conform est au traite de Tolentino elles out ete choisis au Capitole et au Vatican par les citoyenne Barthelemy, Bertholet, Moitte, Thouin et Minet, nommes commissaries par le government Francais a la recherché des objets de science et des arts’ ‘Tout les travaux qui out ete faits dans les salles qui composent la galerie des antiques du musee sort pour leur donner une nouvelle disposition soit pour leur decoration &c ont elle executes sans les defigurer et sous la conduite de est Raymond member de l’Institut de France.’ [Most of the statues displayed in the antique gallery are the result of the conquests made in Italy, and compliant to the treaty of Tolentino they were taken from the Capitol and the Vatican and chosen by citizens Barthelemy, Bertholet, Moitte, Thouin and Minet, appointed commissaries by the French government as the desired objects of science and the arts’. All the work that was laid out in the halls that make up the museum of the ancient gallery are designed to give them a new provision either for their decoration &c and have it executed without disfiguring them under the leadership of Raymond a member of the Institute de France]

  14th Went to the Luxembourg palace now called the palace of the house of peers. The gallery of Reubens there is very fine, however I want taste to admire Reubens. There are two pictures there by their favourite living painter David, the drawing is very fine but I do not like the style of colouring, it is too glaring, too glazed. The gallery of Vernet is exquisitely beautiful, on the whole I like his pictures and those of Hue8 (whose style I cannot distinguish from Vernet’s, except that the costume is more modern) better than anything I have seen in Paris.

  The palace is a handsome building. By the bye, there is a statue by Pajou, a French artist, as Psyche Abandoned9, which I prefer to any statue I ever saw, not even excepting the famous Venus de Medicis10. There is also one by Delaistre of Psyche & Love11, Diana entering the bath12 & Venus coming out of the bath by Allegrain13 and La Baigneuse by Julien14 all French artists & which are very fine. I went this evening to the Opera L’Academie de la Musique Francaise.15 Had great difficulty in getting on in consequence to the king being there.

  I do not admire French opera or mime, consequently was not at all amused. The opera was Iphigenie.16 The ballet La Dansomanie17 which was pretty, they have no very brilliant dancers. The comedy is however very humorous & is on the whole very good. The orchestra is very strong & excellent, the leader does not play but directs the band with the motions of a staff as at Ghent. The house is not handsome & is lighted by one chandelier. I was on the whole rather disappointed, their manner of changing the scenes by trap doors is excellent.

  15th Went today to the Jardin des Plantes or Museum of Natural History, the museum is spacious & the specimens appear in good preservation. The Anatomical Museum is very curious, there is among others the skeleton of the man who murdered the French General Kleber in Egypt.18

  The live beasts are kept in the open air in enclosed places in the garden. The elephant is the largest I ever saw, after that I went to the Royal plate glass manufactory which is no very great curiosity and from thence to the Gobelins or Tapestry manufactory which is exceedingly curious. The tapestry is most beautiful, the paintings they [use?] to draw from are very fine, one in particular by Le Sueur19 a French painter on the theme of The Condemnation of the sons of Brutus, I think much finer than David’s picture on that subject. There is a fine tapestry piece of the death of General Desaix from a picture by Regnault. There are some fine paintings by Vincent20, Gerard21 & Regnault22. A middle sized tapestry piece is worth about 800 francs.

  Independent of the many masterpieces of art which the artists of the country have an opportunity of studying in their own capital, they have another advantage, every two years there is in the gallery of the Louvre an exposition of those works of living painters and those who gain the praises of the institute are sent to Rome for three years at the expense of the institute to study. There is nothing of this kind in England, the inhabitants of Ghent showed an instance of public spirit of the same kind to their countrymen in public.

  16th Rode into Paris after dinner, the number of people walking in the public places is immense, it is I think much more crowded than London. The people are also exceedingly well dressed, particularly the women. I heard the Emperor of Austria’s band play before his house, which it does every evening, which is very fine.

  17th Rode to the Hospital of Invalides, Ecole Militaire, Champ de Mars, to the church of St. Sulpice,23 there are some fine picture there. The cupola of the altar piece painted in fresco by Lemoyne24 is very beautiful and the way in which the lighting throws on it from above, adds greatly to the effect.

  I then went to the Pantheon, which I do not think any great curiosity and to Notre Dame, in which also I was much disappointed.

  18th To the catacombs, very curious, the origin of this place was in a quarry, the stone which is exactly l
ike what we call in England, Bath stone, as used for building. At last in 1786 the galleries formed by the taking away of these stones received their present destination.

  I then went to the Luxembourg into the chamber where the peers hold their sittings, the rooms adjacent have very large pictures of Bonaparte’s battles by David, but they are [now] covered with baize.

  19th To the museum of French monuments. During the troubles and anxiety of the French Revolution, it became the rage to destroy not only all titular distinctions and hereditary powers of the living but also all the monuments of deceased merits and nobility. Mr Lemoin undertook to save them from the hands of these modern vandals and deposited in this museum all such as he could collect.

  20th Went to the Royal ci-devant Imperial Library which is a large and apparently very fine collection launched like all the public establishments of the capital by the robberies of Bonaparte. It is open indiscriminately to everybody for the purposes of study.

  There is another advantage of public instruction, that the French together have over us, and they take their advantage of it, which they often remarked how much better they are informing upon historical facts than the generality of English people. That may be attributed partly to the facility of access to establishments of this kind and also to the cheapness of books in this country.

  Previous to this I have remarked, is that they are very fond of reading British papers.

  Walk[ed] along the promenades and the public gardens and we came out at a road of almost several hundred yards a table bearing besides masses of this ephemeral literature and almost every person whoever as well at home reading them after which they discuss the news of the day. But a French pictorial is not like an English one, confined merely to political news and advertisements, critiques of every description are to be found there and even essays on all literary subjects. This kind of reading though its result that is very much solid knowledge, yet it gives a plausibility and an air of general information to their command.

  Report is the rage of the French, they see talking or as they call it converse, as one of their first most lifelong merits.

  Another consequence of the fondness of the French for journal reading is the facility which it affords to a despotic government, which restricts the press at its pleasure to give what tome it pleases to the public mind in anything with an advantage which Bonaparte was perfectly aware of ‘je regne avec des gazettes’ [I reign by the newspapers] in his expression, M de Pradt p111.25

  21st The French army which retired from this place to the Loire & capitulating, is very much directed to the royal authority and the conduct is very economical, he maintains a kind [of] negotiation with the king and his proclamations to his army are such as excite great doubts with respect to the sincerity of his professions of submission. The convention itself is very much forward. It is said that Lord Castlereagh26 has expressed his decided disapprobation of it and says that Lord Wellington is the greatest man in the world in the field of battle but a mere baby in the cabinet.

  The Prussians are greatly displeased at his forbearance & disappointed in his character as for gaining battles say they who would not gain battles with such an army as he commanded.

  I cannot understand the state of France now, it is a complete chaos. I do not think that the people know well what they wish, they have just undergone a violent convulsion and now begin to settle after it. Their feelings are I believe divided between wounded pride at having been conquered & fear of what will be the consequence knowing themselves, in the power of an enemy whom they have imagined and think it most likely that these fears are kept alive on purpose by some design. It is now doubtful how things will end, the opinion of some is that as soon as the allies go away, the Bourbons will be dethroned, not that there is any idea of Bonaparte, nor would he if he were to return tomorrow to renew the struggle, find a friend except in the lowest ranks of the army. But the very circumstance of the Bourbons having been twice put on the throne by foreigners is a great attack to their popularity, now sits on his throne merely because they were conquered, he is then a memento of this defeat, a perpetual source of irritation to a wound inflicted on their hardest point of their vanity. It will depend much on his own conduct whether he succeeds in conciliating the nation or not. I know he is the most likely man of those placed in these circumstances to head it.

  There are a greater number of people without employ in Paris than in London. I mean of those kind of people in easy circumstances, people living on a moderate annuity who sit down in Paris to pass their lives. Here one may remark one of the most striking differences between the French and English characters. The English are much more domestic than the French. The English family circle, the home is one of the most perfect pictures of happiness according to the English idea of it that can be drawn. To it we look for content, a word for (which [is] no less singular than true).

  Of the Bourbons, the French have none which renders the idea, it is the seal, the kingdom as it were of our happiness. All the joys and pleasure we meet with in our proceedings and parties of pleasure, elsewhere are fugitive strangers. Like ourselves, it is at home that we expect it as a matter of course. Whether these domestic habits are the cause or effect of the reserve of the English I will not pretend to say. But on this point they differ from the French, who less accustomed to look for happiness at home are the more accustomed to go abroad. Hence the absolute necessity with them, to live in a large town, hence their fondness for promenade, for appearances in public, hence their badauderie [gaping].

  In France to live in the country is an idea too horrible to be dwelt on. ‘Cest au ménage au person’ [It is the person of the household] nobody can say he is in the world if his life is not passed in Paris. Thus everybody who calls himself a gentleman has his habitual abode in Paris or some city. There is nothing in France resembling a country gentleman. This is a great obstacle to national enterprise in the way of agricultural and manufacturing improvement. Again as Paris bears a greater pre-eminence over the other cities of France than London does over those of England. It swarms more with others of the description above mentioned.

  22nd The conventions are much blamed here and the English Lord Castlereagh, the army of the Loire it appears are very awkwardly disposed. Davout who commands it talks of submission in a most dictatorial style; Davout they say is to be sent to that army which will be disbanded and new organised.

  I believe there is a great deal of villainy among the administration of Paris.

  23rd Rode to St Cloud, the banks of the Loire there are very fine. I was disappointed in the palace of St Cloud. There are a few very pretty pictures there, particularly Jean Broc’s The Death of Desaix27 and the Education of Achilles by Regnault28 and two landscapes by de Valenciennes29 & Bidauld.30

  24th Lord Wellington’s army were reviewed today by the Allied sovereigns, it was very hot on duty.

  25th Rode today to Versailles. The town is very picturesque, the palace the most magnificent I ever saw, it is exactly to be the abode of a great king such as Louis XIV. The fountains which only play on particular occasions are reported the finest in Europe. The great palace has been allowed to go to ruin since the revolution, it is now refitting. The two smaller palaces, the Large & Small Trianon are the most beautiful little places I ever saw. There are some fine pictures there by Guerin,31 Denis,32 Vernet, Montgaland, Haguette33 & Berjon34 &c.

  26th Rode to Fontainbleau, about 45 miles south of Paris. I was much disappointed in both the palace & the country through which I passed. I passed through several villages near Paris, all of them very miserable and it was with difficulty I could get a breakfast on the road. The palace is a comfortable looking old castle situated in a large forest, the country is wild and rocky.

  There are some Austrian troops quartered in the town.

  27th Returned home.

  28th We get our pay now regularly as it is due a few days after the muster day.

  29th Blank

  30th The cavalry move f
arther off in consequence of the forage here being used up.

  August

  1st There are disturbances every evening in the gardens of the Tuilleries, under the king’s windows and reports of conspiracies. The brigade encamped on the Champs Elysees are subsequently under arms at night. It does not appear that [the] police are sufficiently active in suppressing these disorders or in punishing the culprits when arrested.

  Fouche35 is accused everywhere of conniving at such practises and several of the public journals comment very freely on his conduct and that of his party. The increasing freedom of this class is now very observable. The public are beginning to recover from the depths to which they were thrown by the late extraordinary events and consequently public opinion is beginning to revive. If the current of public censure continues to run against Fouche who is considered as the head of his powerful party, he must retire.

  2nd Went today to the Hospital des Invalides to see the models of French fortresses, they are very fine36. The Prussians and Austrians are taking away several, particularly those on the Rhine. Went to the Palais du Corps Logis lately, there are some fine pictures there.

  8th There was a review of Russian troops today in Paris. They are exceedingly fine looking men well equipped, the cavalry & artillery particularly surprised me, the officers are chiefly young men, there were only two to each company. The Russians have not at all the German style of countenance, their language is much softer.

  I went today to see the figure of [the] elephant fountain, which Bonaparte intended to erect on the spot where formerly stood the Bastille. It is to be 55 feet high & 45 foot long & it [when] eventually finished which [will] be the most magnificent public monument in Paris.37