Note 3 — Chapter II · 1817-1820. TRAVELS IN FRANCE, ITALY, GREECE, EGYPT, AND THE EAST.

Thus, for example, he notes over and over again the curious contrast of dirt, bad drainage, and bad paving in the Paris of that day, with the external brilliancy of the city, so unlike anything he had ever seen in England. It was, it seemed, symbolical of the state of the country, in which apparent peace and gaiety covered much political stagnation and discontent with the Bourbons, breaking out, as he himself experienced, into personal insult to Englishmen in out-of-the-way places.