On Tuesday a Bill was laid on the table of
• the French Chamber to transfer from the State to the city the fortifica- tions of Paris. It is proposed that the fortifications which form a rampart round Paris should be converted into a boulevard, and that at least four new parks and a number of squares and gardens should be laid out. As the Paris corre- spondent of the Times remarks, only four and a half per cent. of the area of Paris is open land, whereas London has fourteen per cent. The fortifications are obsolete for military purposes, and, besides being a dumping-ground for rubbish, they are the resort at night of dangerous characters. The open places of Paris have not kept pace with the growth of population, and the justly admired sense of space with which Paris has been laid out in accordance with the Napoleonic idea has become to some extent misleading. We look forward with pleasure to seeing Paris break out in what Dickens called "a spring rash" of pleasure-grounds.
