The municipality of the city of Paris nominated several literary men and artists who were to point out what books and monuments should be saved from destruction. These persons formed a “Commission des Monuments.” The desecrated convent “_des Petits Augustins_” was chosen for a deposit of sculpture and paintings and that of the “Capucins” in the Rue St. Honoré for books and manuscripts. This was shortly before the actual and final downfall of the Monarchy. But when a few months later Paris was torn by strong convulsions and the Republic ushered in amidst shrieks of murder and falling ruins, it became the fashion to _talk_ of nothing but philosophy and regeneration, while the demon of havoc made his devastating rounds. An era of uproar, confusion, fierce fanaticism and mental darkness overspread France. Science and learning were perverted to the vilest purposes; incendiaries and murderers, wearing the masks of patriots and philanthropists, deluged France with blood. A man of mild and unassuming manners, of spotless purity of principle, of general and profound knowledge, and of inflexible perseverance, devoted the labours of his life to collect and preserve from the general wreck the monuments of his country. This man is Monsieur Lenoir, the founder and director of the Musée des Monuments Français. [Sidenote: WORK OF LENOIR] This excellent man traversed France in every direction to save and preserve the precious evidences of his country’s former exploits. Examining the tombs of the dead, amidst crackling flames and temples crushing to atoms, he rescued much priceless worth from the tempest of destruction. Both my wife and myself consider it one of the happiest events of our lives to have been introduced to M. Lenoir and his lady. Grave, silent, modest and pensive, his character and manner in speaking of his work is that of an affectionate son who collects with tender care the ashes of a murdered parent. Monsieur Lenoir was for fifteen years the pupil of Doyen, by whom he was presented to the municipality of Paris as a proper person to act as conservator of the depôt of monuments, which by a decree of the Assembly, January 4, 1791, was established in the convent des Petits Augustins. He retained this post through all the anarchy and fury of the years which followed. In many cases he was able to arrest the hands of folly employed in beating down statues and tearing to pieces valuable pictures and destroying the finest bronzes. “From the Abbey de St. Denis,” says M. Lenoir, “the interior of which the flames seem to have consumed from the roof to the bottom of the graves, I have saved the magnificent mausoleums of Louis XII., François I., Henri II., Turenne and many more. I have collected such of the precious remains that I could restore, and I am already able to display those of François I. and Louis XII. in all their splendour. Happy shall I be if I succeed in making posterity forget the ravages of vandalism.”