before me four covered hand-carts, just trundled in, laden with effects that had been pledged at the branch establishments. On entering the portion of the department headed "Engagemens," I proceeded up stairs, and along a rather crooked passage, to its "bureau," a little room in which I found a stove, a large open sort of window with a broad counter before it, and round the other three sides of the apartment a wooden bench, on which were sitting in mute silence, with baskets or bundles on their laps, ten very poor people, of whom the greater portion were women. As I entered I was followed by an old man with a parcel in his hand; and without noticing or being noticed by any of those who had come before us, we sat down together side by side on the bench, where we remained as silent as if we had been corpses. Before me was the back of a poor woman, looking upwards into the face of an employé wearing large long mustachios, who was untying the bundle she had humbly laid on the counter before him. In about a minute, like a spider running away with a fly, he disappeared with it; very shortly, however, after the poor woman had returned to her hard seat, he reappeared, looking as if he had forgotten all about it, and received from a man a parcel of old wearing apparel-"most probably," said I to myself, "to be converted into food for a starving family!" The scene altogether was so simple and yet so sad, that I felt anxious to decamp from it; however, before doing so I was determined, whatever might be the penalty. I would peep into the window; and accordingly, walking up to it, and to the broad counter before it, I saw on the right of the gen tleman in mustachios a large magazine fitted up from ceiling to floor with shelves, upon which were arranged the heteroge neous goods as fast as they were pledged. In hurrying from the scene of misery I had witnessed, I almost ran against a man in the passage holding in his hand a frying pan he was about to pledge, and into which I managed to drop a small piece of silver which fortunately for him happened to be lying loose in my waistcoat pocket. In an adjoining still smaller room, the furniture of which also consisted solely of a stove and wooden benches against the walls, and which was devoted, I believe, entirely to "bijouterie," or jewellery, I found a similar window and broad lattice, at which a poor woman was pledging a ring. After she had left it, there walked up to the pawning hole, leading a thin dog by a very old bit of string, a young girl, who deposited a spoon. There were four or five other women, all of whom, as well as myself, became cognizant of every article that was brought to be pawned. Within the window before me, as well as within that of the chamber I had just left, there existed, out of sight of us all, an appraiser, whose duty it is to estimate everything offered, in order that the regulated proportion, namely, four-fifths of the value of gold and silver articles, and two-thirds of that of all other effects, might be offered to the owner of each. “Huit francs, Madame !"* said the man at the window who had received the ring; the poor woman, whose, heart had no doubt erred in over-estimating its value, began to grumble a little. Without a moment's delay a voice from within called the next number (for every article as it is taken is numbered), and the clerk in the window briefly informed the woman to whose property it had applied the amount of money she might obtain. Those satisfied with the sums they were to receive had to appear before a little door on which was written the word "Caisse," and underneath it "Le public n'entre qu'à l'appel de son numéro." Accordingly, on the calling out of each number, I saw a poor person open it, disappear for a few seconds, and then come out with a yellow ticket, an acknowledgment by the Mont de Piété of the effects held in pawn, and for which, from the hands of the cashier within, at a wire-work grating, covered with green dingy stuff, upon which is inscribed "Parlez bas, S. V. P.," she received her money. There exist several bureaux similar to those above described. Having very cursorily witnessed the manner in which, with the assistance of one "succursale," two other auxiliary offices, and twenty-two commissions, established in different quarters of the city, the Mont de Piété of Paris has received on an average of the last fifteen years, 1,313.000 articles, on which it has advanced per annuum 22,860,000 francs, averaging 17 francs 40 centimes for each, I proceeded to a different part of the building, upon which is inscribed "Comptoir de *Eight francs, Ma'am! + Cashier's office. No one to enter until his number is called. § Speak softly, if you please! la Deliverance,"* in which I entered a large gloomy room, full of benches, separated by an iron rail from a narrow passage leading close round the walls of two sides of the apartment to a small window. By this simple arrangement no one can take his seat on the parterre of benches until he has received from this little window, in acknowledgment of the repayment of the money he had borrowed, a small ticket, on which is inscribed his "numero," and which forms his passport through a narrow wicket-gate, sufficient only for the passage of one person to the benches, in front of which is a long square opening, which can be closed by a sliding shutter. On the right of the benches, on which were seated in mute silence about. twenty persons, many of whom were very respectably dressed (one was a poor woman with a baby fast asleep on her lap, or rather, on the brink of her knees, for although her eyes were fixed upon it, she did not touch it with either of her hands), was inscribed on the walls the following notice : "Toute personne qui aura attendu pendant trois quarts d'heure la remise d'un nantissement est prièe de se plaindre de ce retard à Messieurs les Chefs du Service du Magasin."† At the large open window stood an employé who successively called out the numéro of each person seated before him. In obedience to his voice, I saw one respectably dressed woman rise from a bench, walk up to him, produce her numéro, in return for which he handed over to her a bundle of clothing and a cigar-case. To another woman, on the production of her numéro-paper, he professionally rolled out upon the counter about a dozen silver spoons; in short, as in the case of the act of pawning, everybody saw what everybody received. One respectable-looking woman of about forty, dressed in deep mourning and in a clean cap, on untying the bundle of linen which she had just redeemed, and which, in the moment of adversity, she had negligently huddled together, carefully folded up every article, and then packed it in a clean basket, the lid of which was held open for the purpose by a nice * Dəlivering Department. Any person who shall have waited three-quarters of an hour for the restoration of his pawned goods is requested to make a complaint of the same to the Superintendents. little girl at her side:—the storm had blown over and sunshine had returned! As soon as each transaction was concluded, the recipient of the goods departed with them through a door pointed out by the words "Dégagemens sortie." In the vicinity is another hall, similar to that just described. For the redemption of articles of jewellery a rather different arrangement is pursued. At the end of a long passage I observed written upon the wall the words "Délivrance des effets."* Close to this inscription appeared three windows, over which were respectively written-1ore Division, 2me Division, 3 Division. To prevent applicants from crowding before these windows there had been constructed in front of them a labyrinth of barriers reaching to the ceiling, of the following form:— By this simple sort of sheepfold management, characteristic of the arrangements which at Paris in all congregations for business or amusement are made to insure the public from rude pressure, every person in the order in which he arrives successively reaches the line of windows, from which, on the presentation of his number paper, is restored to him the articles of jewellery he had pledged. There exist seven bureaux of this description. In another portion of the building, on the ground-floor, I visited the department for "Renouvellemens," in which in a number of very little rooms I found a quantity of mustachioed clerks writing. The approach to this department, the princi. *The delivery of arti·les. pal duty of which is to renew the duplicates of those unable to redeem goods according to their engagements, is guarded from pressure by a series of barriers such as have just been deli neated. There are throughout France forty-five Monts de Piété, conducted on the principles above described. In 1847 there were pledged therein 3,400,087 articles, valued at 48,922,251 francs. A system of such extensive operation must, of course, be liable to error, and occasionally to fraud. I must own, however, that although the interior of the Monte de Piété was repulsive to witness, I left its central establishment with an impression which reflection has strengthened rather than removed that that portion of the community of any country, whose necessities force them occasionally to pawn their effects, have infinitely less to fear from an establishment guided by fixed principles, and open every day from nine till four to the public, than they would be-and in England are-in transacting the same business in private, cooped with an individual who, to say the least, may encourage the act which nothing but cruel necessity can authorize. THE CHIFFONNIER. Ar both sides of every street in Paris, at a distance of a few feet from the foot-pavement, and at intervals of twenty or thirty yards, are deposited from about five to seven o'clock in the morning, a series of small heaps of rubbish, which it is not at all fashionable to look at. Every here and there, stooping over one of these little mounds, there stands a human figure that nobody cares about. By nearly eight o'clock the rubbish and the figures have all vanished. By the above process twenty thousand people, termed chiffonniers, maintain themselves and their families; and as I therefore, notwithstanding the furious part they have taken in the various revolutions, could not help feeling some interest in the subject of their avocation, in my early walks I occasionally, for a few seconds, watched the process. As soon as the heaps begin to be deposited, for they are |