two surgeons, two apothecaries, one matron, one receiver of fines, one inspector of estates, several keepers of refreshment establishments, who resided within the precincts of the palace, sixty or eighty notaries, four or five hundred advocates, two hundred attorneys, besides registers and deputy registers.  Down to the reign of Charles VI. (1380—­1422) members of Parliament held their appointment by commissions granted by the King, and renewed eaeh session.  From Charles VI. to Francis I. these appointments became royal charges; but from that time, owing to the office being so often prostituted for reward, it got more and more into disrepute.

[Illustration:  Fig. 312.—­Judge.—­From a Drawing in “Proverbes, Adages, &c.,” Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Imperial Library of Paris.]

Louis XI. made the office of member of the Parliament of Paris a permanent one, and Francis I. continued this privilege.  In 1580 the supreme magistracy poured 140,000,000 francs, which now would be worth fifteen or twenty times as much, into the State treasury, so as to enable members to sit permanently sur les fleurs de lis, and to obtain hereditary privileges.  The hereditary transmission of office from father to son dealt a heavy blow at the popularity of the parliamentary body, which had already deeply suffered through shameful abuses, the enormity of the fees, the ignorance of some of the members, and the dissolute habits of many others.

[Illustration:  Fig. 313.—­Lawyer.—­From the “Danse des Morts” of Basle, engraved by Merian:  in 4to, Frankfort, 1596.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 314.—­Barrister.—­From a Woodout in the “Danse Macabre:”  Guyot’s edition, 1490.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 315.—­Assembly of the Provostship of the Merchants of Paris.—­Fac-simile of a Woodcut in “Ordonnances Royaux de la Jurisdiction de la Prevote des Marchands et Eschevinage de la Ville de Paris:”  in small folio, goth. edition of Paris, Jacques Nyverd, 1528.]

The Chatelet, on the contrary, was less involved in intrigue, less occupied with politics, and was daily engaged in adjudicating in cases of litigation, and thus it rendered innumerable services in promoting the public welfare, and maintained, and even increased, the respect which it had enjoyed from the commencement of its existence.  In 1498, Louis XII. required that the provost should possess the title of doctor in utroque jure, and that his officers, whom he made to hold their appointments for life, should be chosen from amongst the most distinguished counsellors at law.  This excellent arrangement bore its fruits.  As early as 1510, the “Usages of the City, Provosty, and Viscounty of Paris,” were published in extenso, and were then received with much ceremony at a solemn audience held on the 8th of March in the episcopal palace, and were deposited among the archives of the Chatelet (Fig. 315).