MONTPELLIER, chief town of the department of Hérault, France, is situated at the junction of several railway lines, on a small hill rising above the Lez l at its confluence with the Merdanson, about 480 miles south of Paris, and about 7 miles from the Mediterranean, from which it is separated by the lagoons of Pérols and 1’Arnel. As the headquarters of the 16th corps d’armée, as the seat of a bishop, of a university, and of a court of appeal, Montpellier is the principal place of lower Languedoc. The Place du Peyrou, 575 feet in length by 410 in breadth, one of the finest squares in France, occupies the highest part of the town, and terminates in a terrace, commanding a magnificent view of the coasts of the Mediterranean, and of a wide stretch of country reaching to the Cevennes on the north, to the spurs of the Pyrenees on the south-west, and to those of the Alps on the north-east. On the terrace is situated the reservoir of the town, the water being brought from a distance of 5 or 6 miles by an aqueduct of two tiers of arches, about 70 feet in height. In the centre of the square is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. To the right and left are promenades, on which the chief boulevards converge. The Boulevard Henri IV. to the north leads to the botanical garden, medical college, and cathedral; to the east the Rue Nationale leads to the palace of justice, the préfecture, and the citadel. The cathedral, which until 1536 was the church of a Benedictine monastery, suffered severely during the religious wars, but about thirty years ago it was restored in the style of the 13th century. It has four towers, and is one of the largest churches in southern France, being more than 300 feet in length, 92 in breadth, and 88 in height. The monastery, after being converted into ...