PARIS, the metropolis of France and capital of the department of Seine, is situated on the river Seine, and about 110 miles in a straight line E.S.E. from its mouth. The church of St.-Genevieve, the pave ment of which is 199 feet above the level of the sea, stands in 48° 50' 59" N. lat., 2° 20' 57" E. long. The Observatory of Paris in the southern part of the city stands in 48° 50' 13" N. lat., 2' 20' 22" E. of Greenwich. The population accordiug to the census of 1851 was 996,067 within the old walls and barriers; but reckoning the inhabitanta of the suburbs inclosed by the new fortifications, the population exceeds 1,250,000.
Paris is mentioned by Caesar under the name of Lutetia, which was the chief town of the Parisii, a Celtic tribe, and stood on the largest of the islands formed here by the Seine. On this island, called 3le-le la-Cit4, the cathedral of Notre-Dame now stands. In B.C. 54, Caesar convoked an assembly of the nations of Gaul at Lutetia. The town was burnt in the following year by the Gauls to prevent its falling into the hands of the Romans; but it subsequently came with the rest of Gaul into their power, and was included in the province of Lugdunensis Quarts, or Senonia. For the next four centuries Lutetia appears to have been of little importance. About A.D. 360 it took the name of the tribe to which it belonged, Parisii. It was the seat of a bishop from 245; in 272 St-Denys, its first bishop, suffered martyrdom with his companions in the persecution of Valerian on the hill of Montmartre, which is said to have derived its name from this event. Lutetia was the favourite residence of Julian while he governed the provinces of Gaul. Under the Romans the buildings connected with the town extended beyond the island to both banks of the river. Several traces of Roman altars, tombs, and aqueducts have been discovered at various times on the site of Paris.
Childeric I. drove the Romans from Paris in 465. His son Clovis, after his conversion to Christianity, made Paris his capital iu 508, and was buried there in 511. Paris gave name to one of the kingdoms into which the dominions of the Franks were divided. After 567 it ceased to be the residence of the kings of the Franks. Several of the churches and other religious establishments of Paris were founded in the reigns of the Merovingian princes. A small basilica dedicated to St. Stephen is said to have occupied part of the site of Notre-Damo before the Frankish invasion. Under Clovis was built over the grave
of St. Genevieve a church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, which was afterwards incorporated with the abbey of St-Genevieve. Childe bert who died in 558 laid the foundation of Notre-Dame, and of the abbeys of St-Germain-des-Pres and St.-Germain-l'Auxerrois. Tho Paris of Merovingian times covered the ile-de-la-Cit6, which was surrounded by a wall pierced by two gates that opened upon two bridges correeponding to the Grand-Pont and the Petit-Pont, which now cross the northern and the southern arms of the Seine respectively. To the east of the street that united the two bridges lay the cathedral, the baptistery, and an hospital for the poor, which long after became the Hotel-Dieu. On the northern side of the island, partly on the site of the March6-aux-Fleurs, was a building called the prison of Glaucinus ; and between the cathedral and the present Palais-do-Justice was the commercial part of the city.
Charlemagne did not reside in Paris, but he established there in 779, with the assistance of the clergy, a school in which reading, writing, calculation, and singing were taught. Under his successors Paris became the patrimony of hereditary counts. In 845 the North men pillaged the city, which the inhabitants had deserted; in 856.7 they pillaged it a second time, and burnt some churches ; in 861 they pillaged it a third time, end burnt more churches, to which and to the clergy the .Northmen before their conversion to Christianity had a great aversion. At this time they broke down the Grand-Pont to enable their barks to ascend higher np the river, whither they repaired to plunder the towns on the Upper Seine. After their retreat, the bridge was repaired by Charles le Chauve. In 885 the Northman under Siegfried again attacked the place. The assailants, to the number of 33,000, made several attacks, in which they were foiled by the bravery of Count Eudes; the emperor Charles Le Gros came with succour to the beleaguered city, but instead of fighting, he concluded a disgraceful treaty with the Northmen. It was to recompense the bravery of Eudes, that on the death of the emperor in 888, he was elected to the throne of France in an assembly of the grandees of the kingdom. The Northmen again appeared before Paris, and were defeated by Eudes with fearful slaughter at the battle of Montfaucon.