fashionable by the Renaissance, and reduced under the empire to mere imitations, in producing which all inspiration was repressed. The necessity of being rational in architecture, and of taking full account of practical wants, was recognized; and more suggestive and plastic models were sought in the past. These were to be found, it was believed, in Greece; and in consequence the government under Louis Philippe saw itself obliged to found the French school at Athens, in order to allow young artists to study their favourite types on the spot. In the case of churches it was deemed judicious to revive the Christian basilicas of the first centuries, as at Notre Dame de Lorette and St Vincent de Paul; and a little later to bring in again the styles of the middle ages, as in the ogival church of St Clotilde.
Old buildings were also the object of labours more or less important. The Place de la Concorde was altered in various ways, and adorned with eight statues of towns and with two fountains; on the 25th of October 1836 the Egyptian obelisk, brought at great expense from Luxor, was erected in the centre. The general restoration of the cathedral of Notre Dame was voted by the Chamber in 1845, and entrusted to Viollet-le-Duc; and the palace of the Luxembourg and the Hôtel de Ville were considerably enlarged at the same time, in the style of the existing edifices.
But the great transformer of Paris in modern times was Napoleon III. To him or to his reign we owe the Grand Opera, the masterpiece of the architect Garnier; the new Hôtel-Dieu; the finishing of the galleries which complete the Louvre and connect it with the Tuileries; the extension of the Palais de Justice and its new front on the old Place Dauphine; the tribunal of commerce; the central markets; several of the finest railway stations; the viaduct at Auteuil; the churches of La Trinité, St Augustin, St Ambroise, St François Xavier, Belleville, Ménilmontant, &c. For the first international Paris exhibition (that of 1855) was constructed the “palace of industry”; the enlargement of the national library was commenced; the museum of French antiquities was created by the savant Du Sommerard, and installed in the old “hôtel” built at the end of the 15th century for the abbots of Cluny.
All this is but the smallest part of the memorials which Napoleon III. left of his presence. Not only was the city traversed in all directions by new thoroughfares, and sumptuous houses raised or restored in every quarter, but the line of the fortifications was made in 1859 the limit of the city. The area was thus doubled, extending to 7450 hectares or 18,410 acres, instead of 3402 hectares or 8407 acres. It was otherwise with the population; to the 1,200,000 inhabitants which Paris possessed in 1858 the incorporation of the suburban zone only added 600,000.
Paris had to pay dear for its growth and prosperity under the second empire. This government, which, by straightening and widening the streets, thought it had effectually guarded against the attempts of its internal enemies, had not sufficiently defended itself from external attack, and at the first reverses of 1870 Paris found itself prepared to overthrow the empire, but by no means able to hold out against the approaching Prussians.
The two sieges of Paris in 1870-71 are among the most dramatic episodes of its history. The first siege began on the 19th of September 1870, with the occupation by the Germans of the heights on the left side of the river and the capture of the unfinished redoubt of Châtillon. Two days later the investment was complete. General Trochu, head of the French Government and governor of the city, had under his command 400,000 men — a force which ought to have been able to hold out against the 240,000 Germans by whom it was besieged, had it not been composed for the most part of hurried levies of raw soldiers with inexperienced officers, and of national guards who, never having been subjected to strict military discipline, were a source of weakness rather than of strength. The guards, it is true, displayed a certain warlike spirit, but it was for the sole purpose of exciting disorder. Open revolt broke out on the 31st of October; it was suppressed, but increased the demoralization of the besieged and the demands of the Prussians. The partial successes which the French obtained in engagements on both sides of the river were rendered useless by the Germans recapturing all the best positions; the severity of winter told heavily on the garrison, and the armies in the provinces which were to have co-operated with it were held in check by the Germans in the west and south. In obedience to public opinion a great sortie was undertaken; this, in fact, was the only alternative to a surrender; for, the empire having organized everything in expectation of victory and not of disaster, Paris, insufficiently provisioned for the increase of population caused by the influx of refugees, was already suffering the horrors of famine. Accidental circumstances combined with the indecision of the leaders to render the enterprise a failure. Despatches sent by balloon to the army of the Loire instructing it to make a diversion reached their destination too late; the bridge of Champigny over the Marne could not be constructed in time; the most advantageous positions remained in the hands of the Germans; and on the 2nd and 3rd of December the French abandoned the positions they had seized on the 29th and 30th of November. Another sortie made towards the north on the 21st of December was repulsed, and the besieged lost the Avron plateau, the key to the positions which they still held on that side. The bombardment began on the 17th of December, and great damage was done to the forts on the left of the Seine, especially those of Vanves and Issy, directly commanded by the Châtillon battery. A third and last sortie (which proved fatal to Regnault the painter) was attempted in January 1871, but resulted in hopeless retreat. An armistice was signed on the 27th of January, the capitulation on the 28th. The revictualling of the city was not accomplished without much difficulty, in spite of the generous rivalry of foreign nations (London alone sending provisions to the value of £80,000).
On the 1st of March the Germans entered Paris. This event, which marked the close of the siege, was at the same time the first preparation for the “commune;” for the national guard, taking advantage of the general confusion and the powerlessness of the regular army, carried a number of cannon to the heights of Montmartre and Belleville under pretext of saving them. President Thiers, appreciating the danger, attempted on the 18th of March to remove the ordnance; his action was the signal of an insurrection which, successful from the first, initiated a series of terrible outrages by the murder of the two generals, Lecomte and Thomas. The government, afraid of the defection of the troops, who were demoralized by failure and suffering, had evacuated the forts on the left side of the river and concentrated the army at Versailles (the forts on the right side were still to be held for some time by the Germans). Mont Valérien happily remained in the hands of the government and became the pivot of the attack during the second siege. All the sorties made by the insurgents in the direction of Versailles (where the National Assembly was in session from the 20th of March) proved unsuccessful, and cost them two of their improvised leaders — Generals Flourens and Duval. The incapacity and mutual hatred of their chiefs rendered all organization and durable resistance impossible. On Sunday the 21st of May the government forces, commanded by Marshal MacMahon, having already captured the forts on the right side of the river, made their way within the walls; but they had still to fight hard from barricade to barricade before they were masters of the city; Belleville, the special Red Republican quarter, was not assaulted and taken till Friday. Meanwhile the communists were committing the most horrible excesses: the archbishop of Paris (Georges Darboy, q.v.), President Bonjean, priests, magistrates, journalists and private individuals, whom they had seized as hostages, were shot in batches in the prisons; and a scheme of destruction was ruthlessly carried into effect by men and women with cases of petroleum (pétroleurs and pétroleuses). The Hôtel de Ville, the Palais de Justice, the Tuileries, the Ministry of Finance, the palace of the Legion of Honour, that of the Council of State, part of the Rue de Rivoli, &c., were ravaged by the flames; barrels of gunpowder
