Paris as It Was and as It Is: A Sketch Of The French Capital, Illustrative Of The Effects Of The RevolutionBlagdon, Francis William
History
Paris as It Was and as It Is: A Sketch Of The French Capital, Illustrative Of The Effects Of The Revolution
Blagdon, Francis William
Paris (France) -- Description and travel
Lord Cornwallis and suite sat in the box allotted to Foreign
Ministers, facing the President, as did the Marquis de Lucchesini,
the Prussian ambassador, and some others. A small box is likewise
appropriated to reporters, who take down the proceedings. The members
were all habited in their appointed dress, which consists of a dark
blue coat embroidered with gold, blue pantaloons and white waistcoat,
also embroidered, a tricoloured silk sash, worn above the coat, and
ornamented with a rich gold fringe. They wore a plain cocked hat,
with the national cockade, and short boots. This meeting of
legislators, all in the same dress, undoubtedly presents a more
imposing spectacle than such a variegated assemblage as is sometimes
to be seen in our House of Commons.
By the present constitution, you will see that no new law can be
promulgated, unless decreed by the Legislative Body.
The votes in this assembly being taken by ballot, and the laws being
enacted without any discussion, on the part of its members, on the
plans debated before it by the orators of the Tribunate and of the
government, it necessarily follows that the sittings present far less
interest to strangers, than would result from an animated delivery of
the opinion of a few leading orators.
Before I take leave of this palace, I must introduce you into the
suite of rooms formerly distinguished by the appellation of _petits
appartemens du Palais Bourbon_, and which, before the revolution,
constituted one of the curiosities of Paris.
In the distribution of these, BÉLISARD assembled all the charms of
modern elegance. The vestibule, coloured in French gray, contains, in
the intervals between the doors, figures of Bacchantes, and, in the
ceiling, wreaths of roses and other ornaments painted in imitation of
relief. The eating-room, which comes next, is decorated so as to
represent a verdant bower, the paintings are under mirrors, and
tin-plate, cut out in the Chinese manner, seems to shew light
through the foliage. In two niches, made in the arbour-work, in the
form of porticoes, which Cupids are crowning with garlands, are
placed two statues from the antique, the one representing Venus
_pudica_, and the other, Venus _callypyga_, or _aux belles fesses_:
mirrors, placed in the niches, reflect beauties which the eye could
not discover.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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