(18th October 1748), and a statue of Louis XV. was erected there by the Municipal Council of Paris—the square then receiving the name of Place Louis XV. On 30th May 1770, at a display of fireworks to celebrate the marriage of the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI., with Marie Antoinette, a panic arose which resulted in the death of 1200 persons, and 2000 seriously injured. During the Reign of Terror in 1793 the guillotine was erected on the spot where now stands the Obelisk of Luxor (twin monolith to Cleopatra's Needle). Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette were among the first victims, and between January 1793 and May 1795, upwards of 20,000 persons were guillotined. In 1799 the famous square was named the Place de la Concorde; it was afterwards renamed after Louis XV., and in 1826 after Louis XVI., and, finally, in 1830 it was again renamed the Place de la Concorde; and it was on the site where the Obelisk now stands that our hero Lavoisier was executed—his work unfinished, but he left a fine legacy to posterity.
His house was in the Place de la Madeleine, Paris; and in 1900 (a hundred and six years after his death) a beautiful bronze statue of him, by Barrias, which rests on a massive granite pedestal, was erected in the same square and opposite the house where Lavoisier lived. The pedestal bears the inscription:—
