"Has the revolution prevented people from sending messages?" I observed, rather incredulously.

"Monsieur," he replied," on ne fait rien. Les choses chères ne s'achètent pas à présent !"*

"But," said I, "people have the same money as beforewhy don't they spend it as before?"

Everybody," he replied, " is afraid of the future. Everybody is economical; everybody is hiding, hoarding, or saving his money, because he knows that affairs cannot continue as they are, that sooner or later there must be another revolution !"

I asked him whether, generally speaking, the commissionnaires of Paris were now as well off, better off, or worse off, than in the time of the monarchy ?

His answer was, that since the revolution he had not taken one-half of what he used to gain in the time of Charles X. and Louis Philippe.

"Why have you not?" said I.

The Commissionnaire's reply struck me very forcibly:-

"Monsieur," said he, "parce qu'il n'y a pas de luxe!" After a short pause he added, "Le luxe c'est la plus belle branche du commerce-c'est ce qui fait sortir l'argent. Les choses chères ne s'achètent pas à présent parce qu'il n'y a pas de luxe!" He then explained in very good language that the poor lived by the luxury of the rich, and that when artificial wants were discouraged the receipts of the commissionnaire were proportionately diminished In short, he merely explained to me what two or three bloody revolutions, ending in a republic, had practically expounded to him.

HALLE AUX VINS.

CLOSE to the Seine, and to the " Ile St. Louis," adjoining the Jardins des Plantes, and opposite the "Port Aux Vins," there

Sir, nothing is going on. At present nobody buys expensive things. Because there is no luxury. Luxury is the finest branch of comIt is what causes money to move. Expensive things are not purchased now, because there is no luxury.

merce.

exists, on the site of the celebrated abbey of St. Victoire, surrounded on three sides by its own wall, and on the side looking upon the Seine by iron railings, a little city, more than a quarter of a mile long by nearly a quarter of a mile broad, founded by Napoleon in 1813, and since finished, for the welcome reception in Paris-the merry heart of France-of about five hundred thousand casks of wine.

On entering a large gate in the eastern half of the iron railings, I saw running straight before me a paved road, and at right angles to it, and consequently parallel to the Seine, another one equally broad. On the left, close to the entrancegate, was the great Government bureau, besides which, in the space between the railings and the pavé, and also along that at right angles to it, I beheld, shaded by a triple row of trees, an innumerable quantity of little wooden, zinc-covered offices, of various colours, teeming with windows looking all ways at once, each belonging to a wine or spirit merchant, whose name was painted thereon. On the side next the Seine there were no less than 99 of these little shanties, to each of which was attached a tiny garden. The interior of this immense space, nearly surrounded by trees, is principally composed of rectangular blocks of low buildings, divided into broad streets or boulevards, also shaded by trees, appropriately designated by names suited to every palate, and, indeed, almost sufficient to make a person's mouth water to read or even write, namely,—

1. Rue de Champagne.

2. Rue de Burgogne. 3. Rue de Bordeaux. 4. Rue de Languedoc.

5. Rue de la Côte d'Or.

As a certain animal is recorded to have stood starving between two bundles of hay, so, with so many delicious streets before me, I hesitated for some time as to which I ought first to enter; at last I determined to engage as my conductor a man in a blouse, who happened to be standing near me, and, committing myself entirely to his guidance, we entered the Rue de Bordeaux, a fine, handsome paved street, sixty-six feet broad, bounded on each side, first by a double row of oaks and horse-chesnut trees, and then by a row of long, low, substantial stone buildings, divided into seven arch-doored vaulted compartments. In this street not a cab, a hackney-coach, a carriage,

person on horseback, a clergyman, gentleman or lady, on foot, were to be seen; but along its whole length there were, as might naturally be expected, arranged twelve rows of casks, full of a bright red fluid, in many instances like a blush on the human cheek, to be seen oozing through and suffusing the

staves.

Over every arched door there was written upon the whitewashed stones, in letters of black, the name of the wine merchant to whom it belonged. On entering one, instead of being asked what I wanted, I was with the utmost kindness invited by the master, who then immediately walked away, to remain in it as long as I liked. In various directions I heard, in utter darkness, little, refreshing, trickling, guggling noises; and as I stood listening to them I indistinctly,-by the faint light of a tallow candle, affixed here and there to a tin slide, stuck sometimes into the head of a barrel, and sometimes into its ribs or hoops,-perceived human fingers in motion, amidst seven piles, one above another, of barrels enjoying absolute rest. On coming out in several directions were to be seen a man or two rolling a barrel towards a one-horse dray.

In the Rue de Champagne, each side of which, shaded by trees, was divided into fourteen lofty vaulted cellars above ground, similar to those just described, the street was nearly full of men hammering and hooping up barrels. From the centre of this street I entered a subterranean cave or gallery of only ten yards less than a quarter of a mile !-containing cellars on each side. On the floor of this dark-arched alley, intersected in the centre by one at right angles of similar length, I observed a pair of wooden rails, along which men in white tucked-up shirt-sleeves were rolling casks of wine; here and there in the arched roof was a small square hole. through which streamed a corresponding patch of sunshine, illuminating the ground beneath. I purposely trod on one of these and instantly my boot, which I had not seen for some minutes, became visible.

In one part I heard a violent hammering, and on arriving at the point from which it was proceeding, I found men on poth sides of the rails occupied by candlelight in belabouring the convex surfaces of empty casks, until each bung, as if it could stand the din of war no longer, began first to loosen,

and at last almost to jump out, which was the object desired. Within the cellars, as I passed them, I occasionally caught glimpses of men tapping casks with syphons. On arriving into the open air, we ascended by a flight of broad stone steps to a series of magazines for spirits, built of hollow bricks, of the same enormous size; indeed, after I had been for some time walking through the long galleries I have described, I fancied as I passed the casks which were being emptied of their contents that I felt almost giddy.

After taking leave of the spirit department, we proceeded to a large long shed close to the great south surrounding wall of the establishment for measuring the exact quantity of brandy contained in each butt. For this purpose, on a platform about ten feet from the ground, were ranged in a row twenty large open copper vats; above them was a small railway, upon which the barrels to be tested, hoisted by a crane, were rolled along, until each was exactly over the copper vat, into which its contents were to be decanted; the bung was then extracted, and the ardent spirit rushing out was accurately gauged by a glass tube and brass scale outside the vat; by the turning of a large cock in the bottom of the vat, by a second transmigration it again rushed back to the butt from which it had just departed, and which, during the time of its measurement, had been lowered beneath to receive it. exact contents of each cask were then officially marked upon it in red by gentlemen inhabiting a bureau or office in the middle of the twenty vats, in front of which were lying, waiting to be gauged, several rows of large butts of spirits.

The

I was now conducted into an upper gallery, containing a series of cellars on each side, such as I have described, full of casks of wine of all descriptions. The odour was so strong, that, as my guide in his wooden shoes clattered along at my side, we often, I observed, were slightly disposed to reel against each other. Sometimes my hair and clothes smelt of brandy; sometimes as a whiff of claret passed me I tossed up my head and thought for the moment of " absent friends," -a younger man would probably have put it "Sweethearts and wives," in short, by the time I had visited the contents of the Rue de Champagne, de Bourgogne, de Bordeaux, de Languedoc, and de la Côte-d'Or, I felt that by highways and byways there had reached me rather more wine and brandy

than I had desired and yet my guide assured me that out of Paris at the Port de Vercis on the Seine, there are magazines of wine containing more than three times as much as in the whole of the cellars around us. How truly therefore may every inhabitant of Paris sing, in the air of "Vive Henri Quatre,"

"J'aimons le bon vin!"*

At the west end of the establishment I found ranged in a row, and shaded by trees, twenty-three little wooden offices, of various colours, belonging to different wine-merchants, also six large offices for "sappeurs, pompeurs," &c.

In my progress through the various streets and cellars I have described I did not see a single drunken or even intemperate-looking man, and all (it was on a Monday) wore clean shirts.

66

As I had now gone through the interior of the Halle aux Vins, I walked through the shaded Rue de Champagne, to the bureaux of the Government, situated close to the great gate by which I had entered. These offices, by notices over their respective doors, are described as follows:-"Conservation," "Inspection," "Contrôles et Comptes Généraux," " Déclaration de sortir pour Paris," "Recette de l'Octroi !" above them is a story inhabited by the "employés" of the department. As I wished to speak to the "Conservateur," I asked one of the porters in attendance if he was at home. The moment I opened my mouth I perceived the old man's countenance gradually to lower, until at last out it came-head over heels-that he had been eight years in the English prison of Portsmooth." Poor fellow! the recollection of it naturally enough haunted him; but as he talked to me a little sulkily on the subject, I submitted to him that he had only suffered one of the numerous evils which his "Empereur" had without mercy inflicted upon the whole of Europe. The old porter shrugged his shoulders, his countenance relaxed, and we ended by a joyous talk together about war and wine.

As fast as the one-horse carts, heavily laden with wine,

*I love good wine,

General management, Inspection, Accountant's office, Declaration for Paris, Receipt of Duty.

Principal manage'.