Victor says that the salary of Mr., as professor in the College of France, is twelve thousand francs, and Victor and Madame Leblanc think it high; but it does not appear to me that two thousand four hundred dollars is a large income for Paris.

This evening Victor celebrates the anniversary of their wedding. We have to dine Mr. and Mrs. D., who, on arriving, both kiss Mrs. Leblanc on both cheeks; also, there is a Swiss gentleman who has lived several years in England, and who brings a nosegay of the French national colors, red, white, and blue.

Victor gives us a very good soup or potage, thickened with tapioca; a pie or vol au vent; a piece of roast veal, with pared and beautifully browned new potatoes; a salad, and wines of different kinds. The dessert is oranges, strawberries, cherries, and cheese, and then black coffee. We sit down late to the table, and it is long after ten when we leave it. One of the subjects spoken of at dinner is madame's confinement, and how she suffered, and how her husband went for the doctor. After dinner we go into my room or the parlor, and while Madame Leblanc accompanies them upon the piano, Mr. and Mrs. D. sing. She is from the south of France, and has been married about four months; she has a sweet voice and beautiful dark eyes. In thinking about her afterwards, it seems to me that I never saw more beautiful eyes,-dark, soft, and modest; and that they differ in expression from those of my countrywomen; we have more confidence.

Wednesday, June 19th.-I am invited to dine to-day

with Mr. and Mrs. Vibert, having brought a note of introduction to madame from a relative in our country. They are Protestants. Mr. Vibert is superintendent of a factory or machine-shop in a manufacturing district of Paris, and before dinner he shows me the shop, and we converse on the condition of the workmen. From what he says I take the following: "In this factory there are from one hundred to one hur ured and twenty hands. The mechanics, or workingmen, of Paris,―ouvriers,—are paid by the hour, and receive their wages once a fortnight. They work ten hours a day, and good workmen receive twelve sous an hour. Some work by the piece, and very skilful ones can make a franc an hour. Not more than four per cent. put money into the savings-bank,—caisse d'argent. In this factory the employers oblige the workmen to leave two per cent. of their wages in the hands of the cashier; and if they happen to be sick or wounded, they receive two francs a day. Until sixteen the apprentices are obliged to attend evening school, or until they understand reading, writing, and the first four rules of arithmetic. About ten per cent. of the men get drunk on Sunday, and five per cent. do not come back to their work on Monday. The families of these men suffer. The average number of children in a family is four." In speaking of the workingman who drinks, Mr. Vibert says that he contracts debts to the butcher and baker, and then he moves away and begins again. He adds that even as late as Wednesday some of the men are not fit to work from drunkenness. A law was passed that men should be arrested and fined for this vice, but Mr. Vibert has not perceived that it has had much effect. As usual among the French, Mr. and Mrs. Vibert do not consider total abstinence desirable.

It may be remembered that an inspectress in one of the

infant schools, when I spoke of the immense proportion of illegitimate births in Paris, said that these occurred among the workingmen and working women in certain quarters. Mr. Vibert estimates that there may be five per cent. of the workmen with them who are not married, and I think he adds that a few are living with women to whom they are not married. He thinks that the mechanicsouvriers do not trouble themselves about socialism; he does not know of one who does. He says that there are excessively few of the manufactories of Paris that carry on work on Sunday; yet of the hands in this factory not more than three or four per cent. frequent church.

If we come to the amusements of the workingmen, he says that their principal occupation when not at work is visiting the wine-shop. As for literary societies, there is no such thing thought of among them. However, the workingmen of Paris read many republican journals, and women too take a quantity of the same. As for building and beneficial societies among mechanics, Mr. Vibert says that he hears nothing of them. I have said that not more than four per cent. of the men here put money into the savings-bank. Madame Vibert speaks of the heavy expense of living when I inquire what the workmen lay by.

Mr. Vibert studied for three years at the School of Arts and Trades at Chalons-sur-Marne, beginning at the age of fifteen. At eighteen he entered into a machine-shop to make steam-engines. He is now superintendent-directeur ―of this factory, his salary being five thousand francs, with five per cent. of the profits, and his rent, he occupying a house upon the same ground as the manufactory.

He says that the Commune was not caused at all by the workingmen. The outbreak was produced by an effort of the government to seize certain cannon upon the Buttes de

Montmartre that were in possession of the national guard. He adds that the siege of Paris might have been raised had a patriotic general made use of the national guard, composed of all the men in Paris fit to bear arms. Victor Hugo was a member. But the military officers were only willing to employ the regular army, which was entirely insufficient. He thinks it probable that the Tuileries palace was burned by Bonapartists to destroy papers which might compromise them.

What we call the Commune is often called in France the civil war. Since my return to our own country, I have written to Mr. Vibert for further information upon the subject, and have received a reply at some length, of which I may speak hereafter.

I spoke to Madame Vibert, who, as I have said, is a Protestant, about Quakers, and about their having, two hundred years ago, turned their back upon all external forms of religion, baptism, and—hesitating for the French word—the communion. She shuddered or seemed shocked, and said, "The holiest of all." I believe that the French have never had any sect of this kind among them, of which we have had two in Pennsylvania, and I begin to perceive the very great importance that the external forms of religion have here. Even the liberal Protestants of France, as I have said, make baptism, the communion, and the church marriage the requisites for membership among them. However, I understand the doctor to say that there are many people who conform to the Church, who baptize their children, and commune; not because they have faith in these things, but because it is the fashion, the way of the world. As for Victor, he is of a different stamp; he will not have the little one baptized, threatening that if a priest

enters here, he will make him go down quicker than he

came up.

Thursday, June 20th.-This being the day of the great review of some fifty thousand troops at Longchamps, the Exposition is comparatively deserted, and therefore this is a very good day to visit it. Our educational department is quite small, but Mr. Philbrick, who is at the head of it, tells me that the American exhibit of printed books for the blind is quite remarkable. He says that it was much smaller at Vienna, yet Dr. Howe, who was the exhibitor, received the first medal,-that of progress. He says that France alone has here in the department of education four times as much as all countries together had at Philadelphia. Belgium, too, has a fine display.

I believe that, as yet, I have mentioned few or no articles of luxury at the Exposition. To-day, however, I notice gloves with twenty and twenty-four buttons. I see a hat of point-lace, with ornaments of carved mother-of-pearl, of which the price is two thousand eight hundred francs. Could one of our plain farmers look at it, and be told that it is very expensive, he might value it at six dollars. Another point-lace hat, with ornaments of fine carved gold, is put at two thousand francs.*

I have not yet tried the Seine boats, and, returning from the Exposition, I want to take one. However, I remark to a man that I am afraid to go upon the boat, lest there should be danger, when there are so many people. "There is no danger," he replies; "they will not take any more than there are places for." Oh, elegant and exact nation! I

* An immense sale by lottery of articles exhibited took place in the Trocadero after the close of the Exposition.