III.
PARIS BEFORE THE STORM.
I will pass over M. Pasquier's account of those conflicts between the old Parliament of Paris and the Court which were among the first heralds of the Revolution; I go on to quote a passage which is remarkable, though I do not think it can be correct. One of the disputed points in French history and in French political life to this hour, is the state of France before the Revolution. One can easily see why Conservatives are ready to proclaim that the country was progressing; while the Radical, who dates human progress from 1789, should draw just as black pictures of the ante-Revolutionary times. M. Pasquier was a Conservative, with certain Liberal leanings; and to that extent one must take his account as somewhat partial: but still here is his description, for what it is worth, of the appearance of Paris just before the breaking of the storm. The interest of the picture is largely enhanced by the contrast it suggests between Paris and its aristocracy in the days which preceded and those which followed the outbreak of the storm:
"I saw the splendours of the Empire. Since the Restoration I see daily new fortunes spring up and consolidate themselves; still, nothing so far has in my eyes equalled the splendour of Paris
