Another is united with a small island, formerly a part of the fortifications, on which is a very inferior statue of Rousseau, by Pradier. Since 1848 the fortifications have been razed, those near the Porte de Rive partly thrown into the lake, so as to form another new Quai, occupied by streets and houses.

Geneva is divided into the upper and lower town; and this distinction, arising from the uneven nature of the ground, is perpetuated in the rank and condition of the inhabitants of the two divisions. The upper town consists almost entirely of the large and handsome mansions of the burgher aristocracy, heretofore the senators and magistrates of the republic, between whom and the inhabitants of the lower town, consisting of shopkeepers, a strong social line is drawn. The Quartier de St. Gervais is the abode of the workmen, the seat of democracy after the French pattern-the Belleville of Geneva :— its streets are narrow, its houses lofty, and it has something of the air of the old town of Edinburgh.

The feuds arising between the high and low town would fill a long and amusing historical chapter: they often led to bloodshed; but the democrats below generally brought their exalted neighbours to reason by the simple expedient of cutting off the water-pipes, taking especial care to guard the hydraulic machine which furnished the supply to the upper town, and which is situated in their quarter. The disputes are now be tween the upper town and St. Gervais, the lower town siding sometimes with one, sometimes with the other.

On the island, in the middle of the Rhone, not far from the Hydraulic Machine, traces may, it is said, be discovered of a Roman structure, supposed to be the foundations of one of the towers erected by Julius Cæsar, to prevent the Helvetians crossing the river. The earliest mention of Geneva occurs in his Commentaries, where it is described as "the last fortress of the Allobroges, and nearest to the Helvetian frontier."

Although Geneva is deservedly a focus for travellers of all nations, it possesses within it few objects of interest to the passing stranger. As a town, it has few fine publie buildings; in short, scarcely any sights, It is owing to its beautiful environs, to its vicinity to Chamonix, to the scenery of its lake, and to its position on the high road from Paris to Italy, that it has become a place of so much

resort.

The Cathedral, or Ch. of St. Pierre is of an extreme simplicity of architecture. Its fine Corinthian portico added on the outside is a blemish where it is placed, but the interior of the building possesses interest as a very early and uncorrupted specimen of the Gothic of the 11th century. It contains the monuments of Agrippa d'Aubigné, the friend of Henry IV., and grandfather of Mad. de Maintenon, and that of the Duc Henri de Rohan, a leader of the French Protestants in the reign of Louis XIII., slain near Rheinfelden, 1638. A statue of plaster now replaces one of marble, ruthlessly destroyed at the French Revolution. The canopy of the pulpit is the same under which Calvin preached.

A Rom. Catholic Church in the Gothic style has been built near the rly. stat.; and a synagogue (Temple Juif) in the Saracenic style near the Porte Neuve.

The English Church, near the Bergues Hotel, built by subscription, on the site of the former fortifications, was consecrated in 1853 by the Bishop of Winchester. Mr. George Haldimann gave 10007. towards it. Service is performed every Sunday at 11 and 6.

A Greek Chapel has been built in the Muscovite style, on the Tranchées, where the worship is attended by 700 foreigners.

The Palais Electoral, outside the Porte Neuve, is a handsome building for elections, exhibitions, meetings, and festivals.

The Musée Rath, so named after its founder, General Rath, who left the reversion of his fortune to it, is a building in the Greek style, close to

the Porte Neuve, open daily from 11 to 3; it contains a collection of pictures and other works of art, the greater part by native artists. Among the Genevese painters, Calame (a Storm in the Alps), Diday, Hornung, and Töpfer deserve to be mentioned. There is also a beautiful landscape (a lake) by Thuiller. A statue of the Greek captive girl by J. Chaponnière. A bronze statue of David by the same sculptor is an ornament to the promenade opposite the Musée Rath.

The Musée Academique, No. 11, Grande Rue, is chiefly interesting to the student as containing the geological collections of Saussure, the fossil plants of MM. Brongniart and Decandolle, and the collections of M. Necker. It is principally filled with the native productions of Switzerland, and contains specimens of the chamois, the bouquetin, the dog of St. Bernard, the fishes of the rivers and lakes; among them the ferra, the lotte, and a trout weighing 43 lbs. from the lake of Geneva. Among the minerals is a cluster of smoked quartz, unequalled for size, from the Galenstock. There is a cabinet of antiquities; some of them found in the neighbourhood, such as a silver buckler, with fine bas-reliefs, discovered in the bed of the Arve, inscribed "Largitas Valentiniani Augusti;" some instru

ments of sacrifice found near the rocks of Neptune in the lake, &c. &c. Also the lantern dropped in the town ditch by one of the Savoyard soldiers engaged in the unsuccessful attempts to scale the walls in 1602 (see below); This museum is soon to be replaced by the large Academical buildings rising near the bastions of the Botanical Garden, where the immense collections of botany and conchology, bequeathed by Delessart of Paris, will form the magnificent nucleus of a museum of natural history. In the same building is the Société de Lecture, with a circulating library of about 67,000 vols., and a large reading-room for periodicals. Foreigners are easily admitted to the latter.

The Public Library, Rue Verdaine,

attached to the College, a scholasticlooking building, of no architectural pretensions, founded by Bonnivard (the Prisoner of Chillon), contains 73,000 volumes. Curiosities: -394 MS. letters of Calvin, almost illegible, but with fair transcripts (there is one addressed to Lady Jane Grey while a prisoner in the Tower); 44 vols. of his MS. sermons 1549-60; 12 vols. of letters addressed to him, and many important documents relating to the Council of Bâle; several volumes of letters of Theodore

Beza; the manuscript of the Noble Leçon,' a work of the ancient Waldenses; part of the account-book of the household of Philip le Bel, for 1308, written with a style upon waxed tablets, but now almost effaced; a translation of Quintus Curtius, with beautiful illustrations, taken along with the baggage of Charles the Bold at Morat; Discourses of St. Augustine, a MS. on papyrus of the 7th century; Letters of St. Vincent de Paul, J. J. Rousseau, &c. The library is open every day but Saturday and Sunday, from 11 to 4.

as a monument to Calvin, by private The Hall of the Reformation, erected subscriptions amounting to 10,000l., is set apart for educational and other meetings, lectures to working men, &c.

A Museum of Fine Arts, the gift to the town of Madame Eynard, called Athenæum, is a beautiful building near the Botanic Garden. It is the seat of the Soc. of Arts and of the Geogl. Soc.

The Botanic Garden behind the

theatre, and near the Porte Neuve, deserves mention, as having been laid out under the direction of the eminent botanist Decandolle; but the funds are so limited that the collection of plants is of no great importance. The ground it occupies has also painful historical associations. On this spot, in 1794, took place fusillades and butcheries too horrible to be detailed, in which the blood of the most respectable citizens was shed, condemned to execution by a band of wretches, most of whom were their fellow-citizens, though directed by a deputy from the Comité du Salut Public at Paris.