_Inspectors of Fairs._—In the course of the preceding notices of the chief fairs of France various references have been made to the inspection of goods, as forming part of the regulations of such fairs. These inspectors were appointed by the state. It was their business to attend at all fairs where there was any considerable trade in woollen and other textile fabrics; to inspect and mark them; and if deficient or not conformable to the authorized regulations, to seize them. Such examination it is obvious required to be made with great circumspection and reserve, and at hours suited to the convenience alike of buyers and sellers. The inspectors were usually accompanied, in the performance of their duties, by the judge of the police of manufactures, and the wardens and jurats of trades in the respective places. Some free fairs had their own judges and particular jurisdiction. An examination of M. Bottin’s “View of the Fairs of France” goes to show that they took place mostly on the frontiers of the kingdom, or on the marches of ancient provinces; or at the foot of high mountains, or at the beginning or end of the snow season, which for months shuts up the inhabitants in their valleys; or in the neighbourhood of the famous cathedrals or churches frequented by flocks of pilgrims; or in the middle of rich pasture tracks. But there are some marked exceptions to these rules. The establishment and abolition of fairs—with the exception of cattle markets and the markets of the metropolis—are now generally left to the discretion of the departmental prefects. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXI. THE FAIRS OF PARIS. The City of Paris had fairs in great variety, some of which I now proceed to notice. _St. Denis_ or _Lendit Fair_.—One of the earliest, perhaps the first, was the mercantile fair of St. Denis, chartered early in the seventh century by Dagobert “in honour of the Lord and to the glory of St. Denys at his festival.” This fair, by reason of the privileges granted, became known under the name of the _forum idictum_—whence _l’indict_, and its corruption to _landit_ and _lendit_. To it came the iron and lead of the Saxons, the slaves of the northern nations, the jewellery and perfumes of the Jews, the oil, wine and fat of Provence and Spain, the honey and madder of Neustria and Brittany, the merchandise of Egypt and the East. The fair, which lasted ten days from the 10th of October, was opened by a procession of monks from the Abbey of St. Denis; and in later times it was usual for the Parliament of Paris to allow itself a holiday, called Landi, in order that its members might take part in the great marriage-feast of commerce and religion: just as the English Parliament usually finds relaxation in horse-flesh and mammon on the “Derby day” at Epsom! English merchants frequented this fair in the ninth century, _vide_ Cunningham’s “English Industry and Commerce,” 1882, p. 82.