The interior of the dome of the Invalids is handsomely painted; but the exterior exhibits what I must consider as a very misplaced species of decoration for a place of this nature, being completely gilt, pursuant to an order of Buonaparte, dated, as I have been informed by good authority, from Moscow.  This decoration has, as can well be supposed, cost vast sums, but it probably obtained for the ex-Emperor that eclat, by which he constantly sought to please the vanity of the Parisians.  Many of his decrees for the embellishment of their city, being dated from Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid, he sought to astonish the multitude, by attempting to accomplish in a few years, what it would in general require an age to effect.  Perhaps, calculating on the instability of his power, he hastened the construction of whatever might render it famous.  A French writer observes, “Il vouloit courir a cheval a la posterite.”

Near the Invalids there is a Military School for 500 children; and near the Champ de Mars are two large barracks.  Indeed, Paris abounds with them, as the military power has long been predominant in France.  The Champ de Mars is only celebrated in the history of the Revolution; its present appearance is by no means interesting.  In this vicinity is the Place de Grenelle, famous for being the spot where military executions used to take place.  One of the last victims who perished here, was the unfortunate General Mallet, who whilst the oppressor of his country was still contemplating the devastation which he had occasioned in Russia, sought to deliver France from so galling a yoke; and he is said to have been possessed of many of the qualities necessary for so honourable and arduous an undertaking; but the reign of Buonaparte was still to continue for eighteen months longer; and he who had the resolution to attempt, had not the satisfaction of seeing, its subversion.  In his way to the place of execution, being assailed by a hired mob with cries of ‘Vive l’Empereur,’ “yes, yes!” said the General, “cry “long live the Emperor” if you please, but you will only be happy when he is no more.”  He would not suffer his eyes to be covered; and displayed in his last moments a fortitude, that will cause his memory to be long revered by the enemies of despotic power.

The Museum of French Monuments is one of the numerous institutions produced by the Revolution.  This place contains a collection of those tombs which escaped the fury of a Revolution that at once proscribed both royalty and religion.  They were deposited here as models of art, which did honour to the republic, by proving the genius of its statuaries and sculptors, (the works being classed according to the centuries in which they were made;) and as the busts of the most celebrated and declared enemies of Christianity, are every-where interspersed, the design seems obviously to have been to inculcate