and is the favourite promenade of fashionable loungers. In the Quartier de la Joliette. the streets are regular and uniform. From the end of the Boulevard des Dames a striking panorama is presented to the view;-the new harbours, the fleet of vessels of all kinds, the broad substantial quays, the immense warehouses and docks, the innumerable waggons, tramcars, and omnibuses, and the crowds of officials and workmen, make up a scene wonderfully significant of the vastness of the commerce of Marseilles. The Quartier St. Lazare is one of the poorer districts, being mostly given up to divers kinds of small industries; here also are seen the tall chimneys of numerous factories. The Quartier de St. Michel, or Quartier de la Plaine, is intensely respectable. It covers a hill that was once a Roman camp, and was for a long time a desert waste. Since 1848 it has become a fine suburb, with broad, well-planted streets, and a vast number of elegant villas with pretty gardens. In business hours a calm silence pervades this district, except when the Fair of St. Michel, in September, fills the central Place St. Michel, and then Provençal gaiety shows itself in a thousand characteristic forms. The Quartier de Longchamps displays rows of fine houses in monotonous uniformity. The Quartier de la Préfecture is chiefly inhabited by rich merchants, and is mostly deserted in the day-time. Les Catalans is a very aristocratic region; above it, on the hill-slopes, are a great number of the bastides, of which there are about 6,000 round Marseilles-Lilliputian retreats for the enjoyment of the dolce far niente on Sundays and holidays.

The above-mentioned quartiers comprise all Marseilles, but there are several streets and open places that may be mentioned before proceeding to speak of the public buildings and other monuments. The Place which has successively borne the names of Royale, Neckar, République, Révolution, Liberté, Impériale, and a few others, is a beautiful square, with a fine cascade, and a statue of Puget the architect. Shoals of infants, with their bonnes, congregate here daily. The Place de Leuche marks the site of the Convent of St. Sauveur, founded by St. Cassian. During its long existence, till the end of the eighteenth century, this convent experienced many vicissitudes ;-sometimes it was immensely rich, and sometimes wretchedly poor; sometimes noted for its holy austerity, and sometimes for its startling scandals. Amongst other early trials, it was occasionally pillaged by Saracens. On one occasion the good nuns cut off their noses, and otherwise disfigured their faces, to render themselves objects of disgust to their conquerors. They were all massacred; and in memory of the event, it is said that the convent at one period adopted self-mutilation as a portion of its discipline. Close by the convent were the famous Caves of St. Sauveur, leading down to the port, said to have been Roman baths or barracks, and to have been utilised as a prison for Lazarus. During adjacent alterations and rebuilding, the money was not forthcoming to purchase these caves, as desired by many archæologists, and they accordingly perished. Upon the Place de Leuche is seen the house which, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was the dwelling-place of the famous family of Riquetti de Mirabeau-a name destined to attain to a more world-wide celebrity in the great Revolution of 1789. Brilliant fêtes took place in the old mansion, and in it Louis XIV. dwelt three days in 1660. Since 1759 the house has been a hospital, a college, a barrack, and an amateur theatre.

The Place Neuve, beside the Old Port, is the most interesting and agreeable promenade

in the old city. It is now a rendezvous for sailors of all nations. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was the arena for exhibitions of skill with the arquebus and two-handed sword, and for other athletic sports on the festival of St. Lazare. Here also were the grand displays of fireworks that captivated the multitude on special occasions. Specially does the Place Neuve recall the memory of the famous conferences between Francis I. and Pope Clement VII. In order to cement the alliance between these two, it had been arranged that the Pope's niece, Catherine de' Medici, should be married to the king's son Henry, Duc d'Orléans. It was on the Sth of October, 1533, that

Francis I., with his sons, the Ducs d'Orléans and d'Angoulême, arrived at Marseilles, accompanied by a brilliant cortége. On the 11th a fleet of six vessels and eighteen galleys, bearing the Pope and his cardinals, was seen approaching the harbour. In richly-decorated brigantines the French nobility went forth to act as an escort, whilst a grand salute was thundered forth from all the ramparts and towers of the city. The Pope rode in state to the Abbey of St. Victor, and the next day went with great pomp to the Cathedral of La Major, and received homage from the assembled nobles. On the Place Neuve two palaces had been constructed, one for the Pope and the other for the king. On the first floor a gallery for conference connected the two buildings, and here the king and the Pope met daily till the nuptials were celebrated.

Grave indeed were the circumstances that called for these conferences. In Germany, Luther was pushing forward the Reformation with enthusiastic ardour; while Henry VIII. was threatening to sever the links that bound England to the Papacy; and the Ottoman Empire, under Soliman II., had reached a height of colossal power and splendour, and seemed ready to engulf Hungary by land and Italy by sea. It was then a matter of life and death with the Pope to prevail on Francis to do his utmost to stem the progress of the Reformed religion, and concert a league of Christian princes against the Turk.

Catherine was

On October 23rd the young bride, with her galaxy of twelve high-born maidens, rode into Marseilles, preceded by the king and a crowd of nobles and knights. distinguished by her luxurious tastes, her elegance and beauty, and as yet gave no token of Bartholomew Massacres and such-like horrors. Henry was a handsome prince, noted for his skill in arms and on horseback-doomed hereafter to meet an untimely end from Montgomery's lance, while displaying these accomplishments at a tournament in Paris. The wedding was duly performed; the bridegroom could boast fifteen years, the bride was six months younger. Costly gifts were showered on the young couple; four French cardinals were created in honour of the event. The Pope gave his benediction and general absolu

downfall of the Roman Empire, whilst despising commerce themselves, encouraged it in the conquered cities, on account of the luxuries and conveniences it procured. In the time of Charlemagne, Marseilles was carrying on an immense trade with the Levant, taking a place next in rank to Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. Her ships were familiar in every port, and twice a year her merchants repaired to Alexandria, and brought home Indian spices and Arabian perfumes. In the dark times that succeeded, Western Europe still obtained through Marseilles the products of the East. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries silk became an important article of trade. The union of Marseilles to France, in the seventeenth century, favoured its commercial prosperity. The era of independent cities was dying out, and Marseilles took its place in the new order of things as a maritime port of a great Power. Just before the Revolution 4,000 vessels annually brought the tribute of Asia, Africa, and America to the Old Port, and fleets were constantly sailing to those regions with the products and manufactures of France. The Revolution and the subsequent wars for a time severely damaged the trade of Marseilles, but the Restoration brought prosperity, which was considerably increased by the colonisation of Algeria. But the most marvellous growth of Marseilles has taken place since 1850. No other city in France has ever made such progress in so short a time, both as regards extension and embellishment of the city, and the colossal increase of its commercial importance.

Marseilles is now the first trading town in France, and one of the ten or twelve most important in the world. The shipping in its harbours is double that of Havre, three times that of Bordeaux, or six times that of Nantes. Its trade, however, is subject to great variations, as it consists to a very considerable extent in the importation of wheat, which, of course, largely depends on the yield of the French harvests. Next in importance to cereals from the East, from Russia, and from the Danubian Provinces, are cattle from Algeria, Spain, and Italy, cottons from India and Egypt, wools and iron ore from Algeria, wines from Spain, teas and silks from China, petroleum from the United States, timber from Canada, skins from South America, guano from Peru, sugar from the West Indies, and numerous other commodities. It exports, in return, wool, silk, and cotton goods, refined sugars, wines, and spirits.

Till 1850 Marseilles possessed, for the needs of its vast and growing commerce, only its Old Port, an oblong basin 1,000 yards long by 330 broad, occupying an area of about 42 acres, with a depth of water varying from eighteen to twenty-four feet, and capable of accommodating 1,200 merchant vessels at once. It is protected on the right by Fort St. Nicolas and on the left by Fort St. Jean, and the narrow entrance used formerly to be closed by a strong chain stretched across it. The harbour was formerly very offensive, in consequence of being a receptacle for the town drainage; but this nuisance has been modified, and the harbour is flushed with the surplus water from the Durance Canal. The harbour of La Joliette, to the north, with a surface of 33 acres, was completed in 1855. It is formed by a breakwater 1,300 yards long, parallel to the shore, at a distance of 1,300 feet from it. By means of piers, a basin and two outer harbours are formed, the basin being connected with the Old Port by a canal behind the Fort St. Jean. The increase in the number of ships frequenting Marseilles has been so great that it has been needful to open other basins beyond La Joliette, viz., D'Arenc,