CONSERVATOIRE DES ARTS ET MÉTIERS.' FROM the Hospice de la Vieillesse I hastened in a small four-wheeled citadine to a vast building in the Rue St. Martin, formerly the ancient abbey of "St. Martin des Champs," upon the outside of which is inscribed— "Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers:" a magnificent establishment, maintained by the public purse, for the instruction,-by gratuitous lectures, especially on Sundays, and by the exhibition of machines, models, drawings, and apparatus of the most scientific nature,-of mechanics and workmen of every description. In this laudable object are employed fifteen professors of practical geometry and mechanics, natural philosophy, manufactural economy, agriculture, manufactural mechanics, descriptive geometry, manufactural legislation, practical chemistry, and the ceramic art. On entering the great gate of this college 1 Museum of Arts and Trades. for the industrial classes, gratuitously open to the public on Sundays and Thursdays, from ten to four, and before which I found pacing two sentinels, I passed through, in succession, a series of splendid exhibition rooms, of which I can only attempt to give a very faint outline. In the lower halls I found, admirably arranged and beautifully lighted, models of cranes and of machines of various descriptions, of powder-mills, and of the apparatus employed for elevating the obelisk of Luxor to its present site on the Place de Concorde. At the latter a mechanic, dressed in a blouse, was very clearly explaining to three or four workmen, similarly attired, the power and application of the ten sets of double blocks that had principally performed this mechanical feat. Adjoining, two soldiers in green worsted epaulettes were pointing out to each other the operative powers of a spinning-machine; a little farther on, groups of people were looking in silence at models of silk-mills under glass, of various powerful presses, furnaces, gasometers, &c. In a large arched hall, lighted at both sides, I found in two divisions a variety of ploughs, spades, shovels, and tools of all possible and impossible forms of application; waggons, carts, harrows; model of a horse skinned, showing the position and mechanical bearing of all the great muscles; models of windmills, threshing machines, farm-buildings, farm harness, &c. &c. After ascending a very handsome double stone staircase, I entered on its summit a fine hall, close to the door of which was appended the following notice: "Avis-Conformément aux ordres de M. le Ministre de l'Agriculture et du Commerce, et de l'Avis du Conseil de Perfectionnement:-La belle collection d'instruments de physique que possède le Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers sera ouverte à l'avenir, "Aux physiciens, aux artistes, aux ouvriers en instruments de physique, etc., les Jeudis et les Dimanches, à partir du Jeudi, 24 Janvier. "L'Administrateur du Conservatoire, "Paris, 22 Janvier, 1850." In a room headed "Physique et Mécanique," besides chemical and physical instruments of various sorts, were collected models of railroads, 1 NOTICE. By order of the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, and by the advice of the Council, The beautiful collection of instruments, &c., for the improvement of arts and trades, shall be opened in future,— To men of science, artists, and workmen, on Thursdays and Sundays, from the 24th January. Paris, 22nd Jan. 1850. A. MORIN, Chief of the Museum. locomotive engines, tenders, carriages, furnaces, air-pumps, galvanic batteries, also a powerful electrifying machine, which apparently possessed the faculty of attracting to itself every human being within sight of it. On approaching it I perceived a circle of faces, all convulsed with laughter at the sudden loud, healthy squall of a fine-looking young woman who, from possessing in her composition a very little of Eve's curiosity, had just received a smart shock. “Tout-partout!”1 she exclaimed, as soon as she recovered herself, to the inquiry of her little sister, who, with an uplifted face of fearful anxiety, affectionately asked her "Where it had struck her?" In a department headed "Verrerie " I found on one side models of glass houses of various constructions, and on the other an omniumgatherum of locks, padlocks, mechanical instruments, and models of various descriptions. In this room I passed, carrying an infant, a maidservant dressed in a conical cap like a sugar-loaf, more than a yard high. In a hall headed "Géométrie" were models of breakwaters, bridges, arches, staircases, castiron roofs, of all descriptions; also, a model of a temple. In a splendid gallery 136 yards long, 1All over me! and headed "Céramique," were various specimens of glass, porcelain, &c. In a room headed "Chauffages, Eclairages" were patterns of lamps, stoves, and furnaces. In one, not very correctly named "Acoustique, Géodésie," I found almost every visitor within it congregated in the vicinity of some mirrors that so distorted the countenances of every one who looked at them that several ladies, in spite of the most earnest entreaties, positively refused to approach them. The few who did, suddenly screamed, and, putting both hands before their faces, ran away amidst roars of laughter. On looking into the first I was introduced to my own face flattened in so extraordinary a manner that it resembled John Bull himself, under a free-trade pressure that had made his features twenty times as broad as they were high. On standing before the next I appeared as if I had suddenly had the honour of being created President of the United States, for my face, which seemed to be a couple of feet long, was as sharp and narrow as the edge of a hatchet, and yet every feature was distinctly perceptible. On coming out of this admirable institution I inquired of a very intelligent young man dressed in a blouse the way to the General Post Office, |