LETTER XIV. National fête, in honour of peace, celebrated in Paris on the 18th of Brumaire, year X (9th of November, 1801)--_Garnerin_ and his wife ascend in a balloon--Brilliancy of the illuminations--Laughable accident.
LETTER XV. Description of the fête continued--Apparent apathy of the people --Songs composed in commemoration of this joyful event--Imitation of one of them.
LETTER XVI. _Gallery of the Louvre_--_Saloon of the Louvre_--Italian School--The most remarkable pictures in the collection mentioned, with original remarks on the masters by _Visconti_--Lord _Cornwallis's_ reception in Paris.
LETTER XVII. _Gallery of the Louvre_ in continuation--French School--Flemish School--The pictures in the _Saloon_ are seen to much greater advantage than those in the _Gallery_--_Gallery of Apollo_--These superb repositories of the finest works of art are indiscriminately open to the public.
LETTER XVIII. _Palais Royal_, now called _Palais du Tribunat_--Its construction begun, in 1629, by Cardinal _Richelieu_, who makes a present of it to _Lewis_ XIII--It becomes the property of the Orleans family--Anecdote of the Regent--Considerable alterations made in this palace--_Jardin du Palais du Tribunat_--This garden is surrounded by a range of handsome buildings, erected in 1782 by the duke of Orleans, then duke of Chartres--The _Cirque_ burnt down in 1797--Contrast between the company seen here in 1789 and in 1801--The _Palais Royal_, the theatre of political commotions--Mutual enmity of the queen and the duke of Orleans, which, in the sequel, brought these great personages to the scaffold--Their improper example imitated by the nobility of both sexes--The projects of each defeated--The duke's pusillanimity was a bar to his ambition--He exhausted his immense fortune to gain partisans, and secure the attachment of the people--His imprisonment, trial, and death.
LETTER XIX. The _Palais du Tribunat_, an epitome of all the trades in Paris --Prohibited publications--Mock auctions--_Magazins de confiance à prix fixe_--Two speculations, of a somewhat curious nature, established there with success--_The Palais Royal_, a vortex of dissipation --Scheme of _Merlin_ of Douay for cleansing this Augæan stable.