cochère de l'autre côté de la rue, pour savoir quand elle sortirait de cette 'rue-là. Madame a ètè au magasin de nouveautés, rue-(shrug), numéro De là Madame a monté dans une voiture citadine, qu'elle a arrêtée 'dans le rue en sortant du magasin de nouveautés. Moi j'ai couru de 'toutes mes jambes pour suivre la voiture. Madame est descendue rue(en fin violà), numéro Madame a renvoyé la voiture après avoir 'payé. Madame est entrée dans cette maison-là, et elle y restait une heure et demie. De là sortie de cette maison-là, madame est allée 'directement chez elle. Madame est rentrée à cinq heures et demie. Je 'n'ai vu personne, en fait, de monsieur qui a parlé Madame. Ainsi, Monsieur, voilà tous les renseignements et tous les détails que je peux vous donner (shrug) pour aujourd'hui.' Le monsieur me dit, C'est bien, commissionnaire; combien vous dois-je?' Je dis, 'Monsieur, vous êtes assez généreux pour comprendre combien que ça vaut cette commissionlà. Voici, commissionnaire, deux francs. Etes-vous content?' 'Oui, 'Monsieur, je suis content.' 'Si j'ai besoin de vous demain je vous ferai 'dire, ou j'irai vous dire moi-même à votre station.' Je lui dis, 'Oui, Mon'sieur (shrug), c'est bien. Je vous remercie; bon jour, Monsieur (shrug), ' voilà' (shrug). Le lendemain voilà le monsieur qui arrive. Dites donc, 'commissionnaire, faites-moi la même commission qu'hier,-vous savez? 'Venez avec moi; vous vous tiendrez en face de ma porte-cochère; quand il sortira une dame-une petite brune-elle doit sortir dans une demi'heure; elle a une robe de soie Ecossaise, un chapeau vert, et un grand schal, à fond bleu, à fleurs rouges-vous suivrez cette dame là; tenez' vous à une distance, un peu éloignée, que cette dame-là ne se méfie pas other side of the street, in order to know when she would leave the street. Madame went to the warehouse for novelties, Street (shrug), Number From thence Madame got into a hackney carriage, which she stopped in the street on coming out of the warehouse. As for me, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to follow the carriage. Madame got out of it in Street, say Number- Madame sent away the carriage, after having paid for it. Madam went into that house, where she remained an hour and a half. On going out of that house, Madame went straight home. Madame returned home at half-past five. I did not see any description of gentleman speak to Madame. In short, Sir, these are all the details and information which I can give you (shrug) for to-day. The gentleman says to me, 'Well done, Commissioner: how much do I owe you?' I say, 'Sir, you are generous enough to comprehend how much that commission is worth.' "Here, Commissioner, are two francs. Are you satisfied? Yes, Sir, I am satisfied.' 'If I want you to-morrow, I will let you know, or I will go to your station myself.' I say to him, 'Very well, Sir (shrug), it is all right. I thank you. Good day, Sir' (shrug). Well (shrug), the next morning the gentleman arrives. Tell me, Commissioner, can you do the same commission for me that you did yesterday? you understand? Come with me; you will keep yourself opposite my carriage-gate; when a lady comes out a little brunette-she is to come in half an hour; she has a gown of Tartan silk, a green bonnet, and a large shawl, with a blue ground and red flowers-you will follow her. Keep yourself at a distance, some que vous la suivez; rendez-moi la réponse bien exacte; vous me direz 'partout où elle s'est arrêtée, le nom de la rue, et le numéro de la maison, dans toutes les maisons où elle s'arrêtera. Je viendrai prendre la réponse ici à votre station ce soir à (shrug) sept heures.' "Voilà sept heures arrivées. Monsieur, j'ai fait votre commission bien 'exactement. Madame s'est arrêtée en partant de la maison sur le boule' vart chez un marchand de chaussures. Madame s'est arrêtée quinze minutes; de là Madame est allée rue, numéro-; Madame est restée 'deux heures dans cette maison-là; de là Madame est sortie, elle est allée au Jardin des Tuileries; Madame a causé une demi-heure avec un mon'sieur, très bien mis, pas trop grand, un brun; un monsieur qui peut avoir 'trente-huit ans; ce monsieur porte moustaches. De là Madame a quitté ce monsieur; elle est rentrée à la maison à (shrug) six heures et demie. Voilà tout le trajet que Madame a fait aujourd'hui.' 66 'Quelquefois une dame me fait également suivre son mari que je connais; pour que ce monsieur ne me reconnaisse pas, je m'habille en bourgeois proprement. Mon camarade, en face, a suivi un monsieur pendant dix jours à six francs par jour: dans ces dix jours il n'a pu rien découvrir, ni rien savoir! As soon as the commissionnaire, who, excepting to draw breath, had never once stopped for a single moment, had concluded describing to me in his own way, and in his own extraordinary words, his various qualifications, I asked him why he wished to go to England. He replied he could not now gain his bread. way off, so that she may not suspect that you follow her; bring me back a very exact account; you must tell me wherever she has stopped, the name of the street, and the number of the house, of all the houses where she may stop. I shall come and get your answer here at your station this evening at (shrug) seven o'clock.' "It is now seven o'clock. Sir, I have done your commission very exactly. On leaving her house, Madame stopped on the Boulevard, at a shoemaker's shop. Madame stayed there fifteen minutes; from there Madame went to Street, Number; Madame stayed two hours in that house; from thence Madame came out; she went to the Garden of the Tuileries; Madame was talking there for half an hour with a gentleman, well dressed, not very tall, of a dark complexion; a gentleman who may be about eight-and-thirty; this gentleman wears moustaches. From thence Madame parted from this gentleman; she returned home to her own house at (shrug) half-past six. This is all the tour that Madame has made today!' "Sometimes a lady in the same way makes me follow her husband, whom I know. In order that this gentleman may not recognise me, I dress myself decently, like a citizen. My comrade, opposite, once followed a gentleman for ten days, at the rate of six francs a-day: in those ten days he was not able to discover or find out any thing!" "Has the revolution prevented people from sending messages?" I observed, rather incredulously. "Monsieur," he replied, "on ne fait rien. Les choses chères ne s'achètent pas à présent !"* 66 But," said I, "people have the same money as beforewhy don't they spend it as before ?" "Everybody," he replied, " is afraid of the future. Everybody is economical; everybody is hiding, hoarding, or saving his money, because he knows that affairs cannot continue as they are, that sooner or later there must be another revolution !" I asked him whether, generally speaking, the commissionnaires of Paris were now as well off, better off, or worse off, than in the time of the monarchy ? His answer was, that since the revolution he had not taken one-half of what he used to gain in the time of Charles X. and Louis Philippe. "Why have you not?" said I. The Commissionnaire's reply struck me very forcibly:- "Monsieur," said he, "parce qu'il n'y a pas de luxe !" After a short pause he added, "Le luxe c'est la plus belle branche du commerce-c'est ce qui fait sortir l'argent. Les choses chères ne s'achètent pas à présent parce qu'il n'y a pas de luxe !"t He then explained in very good language that the poor lived by the luxury of the rich, and that when artificial wants were discouraged the receipts of the commissionnaire were proportionately diminished. In short, he merely explained to me what two or three bloody revolutions, ending in a republic, had practically expounded to him. HALLE AUX VINS. CLOSE to the Seine, and to the "Ile St. Louis," adjoining the Jardins des Plantes, and opposite the "Port Aux Vins," there *Sir, nothing is going on. At present nobody buys expensive things. + Because there is no luxury. Luxury is the finest branch of comIt is what causes money to move. Expensive things are not purchased now, because there is no luxury. merce. exists, on the site of the celebrated abbey of St. Victoire, surrounded on three sides by its own wall, and on the side looking upon the Seine by iron railings, a little city, more than a quarter of a mile long by nearly a quarter of a mile broad, founded by Napoleon in 1813, and since finished, for the welcome reception in Paris-the merry heart of France-of about five hundred thousand casks of wine. On entering a large gate in the eastern half of the iron railings, I saw running straight before me a paved road, and at right angles to it, and consequently parallel to the Seine, another one equally broad. On the left, close to the entrancegate, was the great Government bureau, besides which, in the space between the railings and the pavé, and also along that at right angles to it, I beheld, shaded by a triple row of trees, an innumerable quantity of little wooden, zinc-covered offices, of various colours, teeming with windows looking all ways at once, each belonging to a wine or spirit merchant, whose name was painted thereon. On the side next the Seine there were no less than 99 of these little shanties, to each of which was attached a tiny garden. The interior of this immense space, nearly surrounded by trees, is principally composed of rectangular blocks of low buildings, divided into broad streets or boulevards, also shaded by trees, appropriately designated by names suited to every palate, and, indeed, almost sufficient to make a person's mouth water to read or even write, namely, 1. Rue de Champagne. 2. Rue de Burgogne. As a certain animal is recorded to have stood starving between two bundles of hay, so, with so many delicious streets before me, I hesitated for some time as to which I ought first to enter; at last I determined to engage as my conductor a man in a blouse, who happened to be standing near me, and, committing myself entirely to his guidance, we entered the Rue de Bordeaux, a fine, handsome paved street, sixty-six feet broad, bounded on each side, first by a double row of oaks and horse-chesnut trees, and then by a row of long, low, substantial stone buildings, divided into seven arch-doored vaulted compartments. In this street not a cab, a hackney-coach, a carriage, person on horseback, a clergyman, gentleman or lady, on foot, were to be seen; but along its whole length there were, as might naturally be expected, arranged twelve rows of casks, full of a bright red fluid, in many instances like a blush on the human cheek, to be seen oozing through and suffusing the staves. Over every arched door there was written upon the whitewashed stones, in letters of black, the name of the wine merchant to whom it belonged. On entering one, instead of being asked what I wanted, I was with the utmost kindness invited by the master, who then immediately walked away, to remain in it as long as I liked. In various directions I heard, in utter darkness, little, refreshing, trickling, guggling noises; and as I stood listening to them I indistinctly,—by the faint light of a tallow candle, affixed here and there to a tin slide, stuck sometimes into the head of a barrel, and sometimes into its ribs or hoops,-perceived human fingers in motion, amidst seven piles, one above another, of barrels enjoying absolute rest. On coming out in several directions were to be seen a man or two rolling a barrel towards a one-horse dray. In the Rue de Champagne, each side of which, shaded by trees, was divided into fourteen lofty vaulted cellars above ground, similar to those just described, the street was nearly full of men hammering and hooping up barrels. From the centre of this street I entered a subterranean cave or gallery of only ten yards less than a quarter of a mile !--containing cellars on each side. On the floor of this dark-arched alley, intersected in the centre by one at right angles of similar length, I observed a pair of wooden rails, along which men in white tucked-up shirt-sleeves were rolling casks of wine; here and there in the arched roof was a small square hole. through which streamed a corresponding patch of sunshine, illuminating the ground beneath. I purposely trod on one of these and instantly my boot, which I had not seen for some minutes, became visible. In one part I heard a violent hammering, and on arriving at the point from which it was proceeding, I found men on poth sides of the rails occupied by candlelight in belabouring the convex surfaces of empty casks, until each bung, as if it could stand the din of war no longer, began first to loosen, |