How Beautiful They Are, With Their Grand Expressionless Faces, And Their Graceful Attitudes, And Their Simple Antique Drapery.

They are all sitting in their mural crowns, - the fortified cities on cannons, the commercial ones on bales of goods. Strasburg alone seems full of life.

She has her arm akimbo, as if braving Germany, to which she once belonged. Look, north from the Obelisk, up the Rue de la Concorde, and the splendid church of the Madeleine bounds your sight. On your right are the Gardens of the Tuilleries; on your left are the Champs Elysees; behind you is the Chamber of Deputies. Both before and behind you, in the Place itself, you have a splendid fountain, each being a round basin, fifty feet in diameter, in which stands a smaller basin, with a still smaller above it, supported and surrounded by bronze figures of rivers, seas, genii of fruits, flowers, and fisheries, and all manner of gods of commerce and navigation, all spouting water like mad.

See the famous marble horses from Marly. How impatient they look to break away from the athletic arm which holds them! what life and spirit they show! how beautiful they are! Take one look now at the Arc de Triomphe; it is nearly two miles off, but looks very near. Now turn; and directly opposite, at some distance, you see what James Lowell calls the "Front door of the Tuilleries."

The gardens are full of beautiful children. Their mothers or nurses are sitting under the trees, while the children run about at will. There are thousands playing at ball, driving hoops, jumping ropes, shouting, laughing, merry as children will be and ought to be.

Let us take a stroll in the Champs Elysees. You have never seen any thing so beautiful, so captivating, as the scene. It seems like enchantment. All the world is here - young and old, poor and rich, fashionable and unfashionable. All for their amusement. Let us see what this group are looking at so earnestly. A number of wooden ponies are wheeled round and round, and each has a rosy-cheeked boy upon it. Here is another in which they go in boats; another in chairs. This amusement costs only two or three sous apiece to the children. The parents or the nurses stand around enjoying it almost as much as the children. Let us walk on. See that little fountain gleaming through the tender green of the young leaves as you see them in the pretty wood that forms a background to the picture. All along in the road you observe fine equipages of all sorts standing in waiting, while the gay world, or the poor invalids whom they brought to this place of enchantment, are walking about or sitting in chairs, courting health and amusement. Here is something still prettier than any thing you have seen - a beautiful little carriage that can hold four children and a driver, drawn by four white goats, with black horns and beards.

The French are peculiarly kind to animals. No law is necessary in France for the protection of animals from the cruelty of their masters. You meet men and women, very respectably dressed, leading dogs with the greatest care; and in the fashionable drives, every tenth carriage (it seemed to me) had a dog lying on the seat, or standing on his hind legs, looking out of the window. A friend told me that, when present at a grand review where there was a great crowd, she saw a woman, who could not get near enough to see the show, hold up her dog over the heads of the people, that he might at least have the pleasure of seeing what was going on.

I must tell you about the ceremony of making an archbishop, which we had the good fortune to witness. It took place at Notre Dame.

The nave of the church was full. Around the altar, all the priests and dignitaries of the church were seated; the officiating archbishop in a high seat, and an empty chair by his side for the new archbishop when finished and prepared for the honor. All the priests were in full dress. Their garments were stiff with gold and silver. My eyes were dazzled with their splendor.

Perfect silence prevailed, and the ceremony commenced. The priest, who was to be made into a bishop, had all sorts of things done to him. He knelt, he prayed, he was prayed over, he was read to, he had hands laid upon him, he was crossed; incense was thrown up, the organ played, and all the priests and bishops knelt and rose from their knees, and knelt and rose again, and again; high mass was said, and the show was very remarkable.

Once the poor mortal, who was to be consecrated, knelt, and a large book was put upon him, like a saddle. Finally they took him and tied napkins upon his arms and his neck, and then led him to a knot of priests a little out of my sight. In a few moments, he reappeared with all his canonicals on, except the mitre. Now he was brilliant indeed, loaded with gold ornaments, stiff with splendor. His face, I noticed, was very red, and he looked weary. I did not quite understand the tumbled towels; whether these were to catch the consecrating oil that they poured on his head, or whether they were emblematic of the filthy rags of this world, which he laid aside for the new and shining garments of perfect holiness, I could not find out. Now the new archbishop knelt again before the old archbishop, and the old one put the mitre upon the head of the new one. Then the old archbishop embraced and kissed the new, and after that all the other bishops, who, as the French say, assisted at the ceremony, performed the same act on both sides of his face. After this, the new archbishop and his holy brother walked side by side, followed by all the other bishops and priests, down from the altar among the audience; and the new dignitary gave his blessing to all the people.

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