[Footnote 2: Whatever may be the beauty of this vase, two others are to be seen in Paris, which surpass it, according to the opinion of one of the most celebrated antiquaries of the age, M. VISCONTI. They are now in the possession of M. AUBRI, doctor of Physic, residing at N°. 272, _Rue St. Thomas du Louvre_, but they formerly graced the cabinet of the _Villa-Albani_ at Rome. In this apartment, Cardinal Alessandro had assembled some of the most valuable ornaments of antiquity. Here were to be seen the Apollo _Sauroctonos_ in bronze, the Diana in alabaster, and the _unique_ bas-relief of the apothesis of Hercules. By the side of such rare objects of art, these vases attracted no less attention. To describe them as they deserve, would lead me too far; they need only to be seen to be admired. Although their form is antique, the execution of them is modern, and ascribed to the celebrated sculptor, SILVIO DA VELETRI, who lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Indeed, M. VISCONTI affirms that antiquity affords not their equal; assigning as a reason that porphyry was introduced into Rome at a period when the fine arts were tending to their decline. Notwithstanding the hardness of the substance, they are executed with such taste and perfection, that the porphyry is reduced to the thinness of china.] LETTER XVIII. _Paris, November 17, 1801._ The _Louvre_, the _Tuileries_, together with the _National Fête_ in honour of Peace, and a crowd of interesting objects, have so engrossed our attention, that we seem to have overlooked the _ci-devant Palais Royal_. Let us then examine that noted edifice, which now bears the name of PALAIS DU TRIBUNAT. In 1629, Cardinal Richelieu began the construction of this palace. When finished, in 1636, he called it the _Palais Cardinal_, a denomination which was much criticized, as being unworthy of the founder of the French Academy. Like the politic Wolsey, who gave Hampton-Court to Henry VIII, the crafty Richelieu, in 1639, thought proper to make a present of this palace to Lewis XIII. After the death of that king, Anne of Austria, queen of France and regent of the kingdom, quitted the _Louvre_ to inhabit the _Palais Cardinal_, with her sons Lewis XIV and the Duke of Anjou. The first inscription was then removed, and this palace was called _le Palais Royal_, a name which it preserved till the revolution, when, after the new title assumed by its then owner, it was denominated _la Maison Égalité_, till, under the consular government, since the Tribunate have here established their sittings, it has obtained its present appellation of _Palais du Tribunat_. In the sequel, Lewis XIV granted to Monsieur, his only brother, married to Henrietta Stuart, daughter of Charles I, the enjoyment of the _Palais Royal_, and afterwards vested the property of it in his grandson, the Duke of Chartres.