LETTER LIX. France owes her salvation to the _savans_ or men of science --Polytechnic School--Its object--Its formation and subsequent progress--Changes recently introduced into this interesting establishment.
LETTER LX. Pickpockets and sharpers--Anecdote of a female swindler--Anecdote of a sharper--Housebreakers--_Chauffeurs_--A new species of assassins --_Place de Grève_--Punishment for thieves re-established--On the continent, ladies flock to the execution of criminals.
LETTER LXI. Schools for Public Services--The Polytechnic School, the grand nursery whence the pupils are transplanted into the Schools of Artillery, Military Engineers, Bridges and Highways, Mines, Naval Engineers, and Navigation--Account of these schools--_Prytanée Français_--Special Schools--Special School of Painting and Sculpture --Competitions--National School of Architecture--Conservatory of Music--Present state of Music in France--Music has done wonders in reviving the courage of the French soldiers--The French are no less indebted to _Rouget de Lille_, author of the _Marseillois_, than the Spartans were to _Tyrtæus_--Gratuitous School for Drawing--Veterinary School--New Special Schools to Le established in France.
LETTER LXII. Funerals--No medium in them under the old _régime_--Ceremonies formerly observed--Those practised at the present day--Marriages --Contrast they present.
LETTER LXIII. Public Libraries--_Bibliothèque Nationale_--Its acquisitions since the revolution--School for Oriental Living Languages.
LETTER LXIV. _Bibliothèque Mazarine_--_Bibliothèque du Panthéon_--_Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal_--The Arsenal--Other libraries and literary _dépôts_ in Paris.
LETTER LXV. Dancing--Nomenclature of caperers in Paris, from the wealthiest classes down to the poorest--Beggars form the last link of the chain.
LETTER LXVI. _Bureau des Longitudes_--Is on a more extensive scale than the Board of Longitude in England--National Observatory--Subterraneous quarries that have furnished the stone with which most of the houses in Paris are constructed--Measures taken to prevent the buildings in Paris from being swallowed up in these extensive labyrinths--Present state of the Observatory--_Lalande_, _Méchain_, and _Bouvard_--_Carroché_, and _Lenoir_--_Lavoisier_, and _Borda_--_Delambre_, _Laplace_, _Burckhardt_, _Vidal_, _Biot_, and _Puisson_--New French weights and measures--Concise account of the operations employed in measuring an arc of the terrestrial meridian--Table of the new French measures and weights--Their correspondence with the old, and also with those of England.