Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/397

 366

less sudden and less arbitrary; the prisons of Paris were placed under the superinten dence of magistrates who were bound to visit them weekly, and the houses of correc tion were annexed to the general hospital {la Salpetriere) . In 1675, Louis XIV reduced the number of the prisons of Paris, retaining only the Coneiersrerie, the Grand Chatelet, the Petit

Abbaye, the Salpetriere, and Bieetre, all of which were in a very bad state; labor was interdicted, and the prisoners were without classification. In pursuance of an ordinance, dated August 30, 1780, the Petit Chatelet and the For-1'Evequc were demolished; con siderable repairs were made to the Conciergerie and the Grand Chatelet; the Hotel de la Force was converted into, a house of

L'ANCIEN FREAU DES FEMMES.

ChAtelet, the For VEveque, the prisons of Saint Eioi, Saint Martin, and Saint Germaindes-Pres, the Offieialite, and the Villcneuvesur-Gravo1s. Notwithstanding these salutary arrange ments, the prison system experienced but little improvement. At the accession of Louis XVI to the throne, the prisons of Paris con sisted of the Coneiergerie, the Grand Chatelet, the Petit Chatelet, the For-E Eveque, the

detention, and a magistrate was appointed to visit and superintend the prisons. In the days when Paris had not so much as a gate to shut in the face of the invaders, the citizen raftsmen of the Seine thought it well to have a prison, and " dug a hole in the middle of their Isle." This, it seems, was the sorry beginning of the Conciergerie; but the details of that vanished epoch are scant. Palace and prison are thought to have been