Some of the old Frenchmen in the city proper, who have rarely trusted themselves three squares beyond their favorite cabaret, are very incredulous of the reported progress and improvement in the fauxbourg St. Mary. A few years since, a gentleman of the second municipality asked the old cabaret keeper, who has made himself illustrious and wealthy by vending, to the habitués of the lower market, a drink of his own compounding, called _pig and whistle_--why he did not come up into the fauxbourg St. Mary, and see the buildings?--at the same time describing the St. Charles Exchange, the Theatre, the Verandah, Banks' Arcade, the magnificent stores, &c. The old Frenchman, listened in doubting wonder for some time; at last, however, his faith and his gravity both gave way, and he burst into a laugh, exclaiming, "ah Monsieur B. dat is too much! You von varry funny fellow--I no believe vat you say--its only von grand--vot you call it--vere de mud, de alligator, and de bull frog live?--von grand--grand--mud swamp, vere you say is von grand city, I no believe it!" The city proper is bounded by Canal, Rampart, and Esplanade streets, and on the river by the levee, on which it extended about thirteen hundred yards, and back about seven hundred--in the form of a parallelogram. This portion is traversed by twenty-two streets, forming eighty-four principal and fourteen minor squares. The whole extent of the city, including the incorporated fauxbourgs and Lafayette, is not less than five miles on a line with the river, and running an average of half a mile in width. The houses are chiefly constructed with bricks, except a few ancient and dilapidated dwellings in the heart of the city, and some new ones in the outskirts. Wooden buildings are not permitted to be built, under present regulations, within what are denominated the fire limits. The modern structures, particularly in the second municipality, are generally three and four stories high, and are embellished with handsome and substantial granite or marble fronts. The public buildings are numerous; and many of them will vie with any of the kind in our sister cities. A particular description of these will be found in the ensuing pages. The view of New Orleans from the river, in ascending or descending, is beautiful and imposing--seen from the dome of the St. Charles Exchange, it presents a panorama at once magnificent and surprising. In taking a lounge through the lower part of the city, the stranger finds a difficulty in believing himself to be in an American city. The older buildings are of ancient and foreign construction, and the manners, customs and language are various--the population being composed, in nearly equal proportions, of American, French, Creoles, and Spaniards, together with a large portion of Germans, and a good sprinkling from almost every other nation upon the globe.