• The multitude around the church of the Ma

deleine now became most formidable in numbers, though manifesting no symptoms of disorder or violence. The regiment which had arrived were

they would suffice to create an agitation [sion submitted without any resistance, and marched that would force the government to give away, taking the route towards the eastern faubourgs. way; or failing to do so, the opposition, by resigning in a body, had the power in their hands of an appeal to the people. It was calculated that the number of Deputies retaining their seats, although a majo-drawn up in line along the railing of the church. rity, would be insufficient to constitute the legal quorum required for the further prosecution of the business of the session.

In the morning, a formal announcement that the banquet was deferred appeared in all the opposition papers, and the Minister of the Interior having been assured that no attempt would be made to form a procession, the orders he had given to the troops of the line to occupy the ground and all the avenues leading to the place of meeting, were countermanded. Picquets, only, were stationed in places where crowds might be expected to assemble, sufficient, it was presumed, to disperse a mob; but no serious disturbance was anticipated, either by the ministry or its opponents.

Soon after several squadrons of the municipal
cavalry arrived, and the populace was desired to
disperse. This order being disregarded, the charge
was sounded, and the dragoons rushed on the
people. A first effort was made to disperse the
crowd by the mere force of the horses, without
the use of arms, and the dragoons did not draw.
This, however, proving ineffectual, several charges
with drawn swords were made, the flat of the
By these means, the
sword only being used.
multitude was at length dispersed, without any loss
of life or injury that we could hear of. At one
o'clock, the main thoroughfares were clear. Dur-
ing the remainder of the day, the principal streets
were patrolled by the cavalry of the municipal
guard, the infantry of the line keeping clear the
footways.

66

"Each company of infantry carried, besides their usual arms, a collection of implements for cutting down barricades, such as hatchets, pickaxes, adzes, &c. These were tied upon the knapsack, each soldier carrying one."*

Throughout these operations the good temper, forbearance, discipline, and intelligence of the troops of every class were especially remarkable. The proclamations, however, of the pre-It is right to state that the same good dispositions fect of the police (M. Delessert), and the were observable generally on the part of the peoannouncement of the opposition journals, ple, who were seen shaking hands with the came too late. They had not been read by cavalry commanded to disperse them, and saluting multitudes of the working classes, who had the infantry regiments with Vive la Ligne !' previously set apart the day for a fete, and who, even when they had read the notices, were little inclined to be baulked of their holiday. The majority of these might be peaceably disposed, but their presence in the streets was necessarily calculated to render formidable the smaller number bent upon mischief, if an opportunity should arise. Unfavourable weather, rain falling at intervals, did not affect this disposition; and at an early hour the Place de la Madeleine, the Place de la Concorde, and the Champs Elysées, were thronged by the working classes.

We next hear of a mob of the lowest

rabble running through the Champs Elysées, breaking the lamps; of a crowd attempting to escalade the railings and walls surrounding the Chamber of Deputies, but repulsed, and afterwards retiring, singing the "Marseillaise," and a chorus from the new opera of the "Girondins," "Mourir pour la Patrie;" of a deputation of students, accompanied by another crowd, arriving at the office of the "National" with a copy of their petition to the Chambers for the impeachment of ministers; and towards evening of attempts to form barricades in different streets; attempts for the most part frustrated by the municipal guards, or the troops of the line. These petty commotions created so little uneasiness, that the funds not only remained firm, but in the belief that the threatened danger was past, slightly rose. The three per cents, which were on the Friday at 73f. 85c., opened on Tuesday at 73f. 90c., and closed at 74f.

"At noon, the vast area between the Chamber of Deputies and the church of the Madeleine was crowded with a dense multitude, which at one time could not have amounted to less than thirty thousand persons. A little before twelve o'clock, a procession of labouring persons, consisting of several hundreds, attired chiefly in blouses, arriv. ed by the Rue St. Honoré, and the Rue Duphot, at the Place de la Madeleine, and halted at the hotel where the meetings of the opposition deputies have been usually held. Until this moment no display of military force took place at this point. Soon afterwards, however, a regiment of infantry, accompanied by a civil magistrate, wearing the tricolor sash, arrived on the spot, and drew up in front of the hotel. The usual summons to disperse being read, the persons forming the proces-23, 1848.

The "Express" of Wednesday evening, Feb.

At the Chamber of Deputies three impeachments against the Cabinet were handed to the President, who without reading them ordered that they should be taken into consideration on Thursday. One of the impeachments was presented on the part of M. Odilon Barrot, and signed by fifty-three deputies; another on the part M. Duvergier d'Hauranne; the third on the part of M. de Genoude, deputy for Toulouse."

unconscious of danger. Eighty thousand troops of the line had been concentrated in or near Paris, and Paris was now surrounded by forts, to which the troops could retreat in case of need, and by which all the principal roads of the metropolis could be commanded. A portion of the National Guard were known to be disaffected, but the general body, it was believed, being composed of the middle classes, who had someIn the evening, the disturbances were re-thing to lose, were disposed to assist in the newed, and now began to wear a threaten- suppression of any riotous demonstrations, ing aspect. Gunsmiths' shops were broken that might directly or indirectly affect proopen; barricades were formed in the neigh-perty; and of the readiness of the municipal borhood of the principal markets; lamps guard, or armed police, to support the gowere extinguished; posts of the municipal vernment, there could be no doubt. The guards were attacked; the streets were worst that could happen seemed to be the filled with troops; and at night, anxiety | loss of a few lives, but lives which, in the for the result of the sanguinary contest on estimation of Louis-Philippe, could be well the morrow, which had become inevitable, spared, and the possible sacrifice of M. Guispread through the whole of Paris. zot, to his rival, M. Thiers.

Perhaps in saying this we should except the court party, for, although slumbering on the edge of a volcano, they appeared

The following was the act of impeachment of
M. Odilon Barrot and the deputies of the left:
We propose to place the ministers in accusation
as guilty-

I. Of having betrayed abroad the honour and the

interests of France.

2. Of having falsified the principles of the constitution, violated the guarantees of liberty, and attacked the rights of the people.

3. Of having, by a systematic corruption, attempt ed to substitute, for the free expression of public opinion, the calculations of private interest, and thus perverted the representative government.

4. Of having trafficked for ministerial purposes in public offices, as well as in all the prerogatives and privileges of power.

5. Of having in the same interest, wasted the finances of the state, and thus compromised the forces

and the grandeur of the kingdom.

6. Of having violently despoiled the citizens of a right inherent to every free constitution, and the

exercise of which had been guaranteed to them by the charter, by the laws, and by former precedents. 7. Of having, in fine, by a policy overtly counterrevolutionary, placed in question all the conquests of our two revolutions, and thrown the country into

a profound agitation.

The following were the signatures :—
MM. Odilon Barrot, Duvergier d'Hauranne,
Thiard (General), Dupont (de l'Eure), Isambert,
Léon de Malleville, Garnier-Pagès, Chambolle,
Bethmont, Lherbette, Pagès (de l'Ariège), Baroche,
Havin, Léon Faucher, Ferdinand de Lasteyrie, Le
Courtais, Hortensius-Saint-Albin, Crémieux, Gaul-
tier de Rumilly, Bimbault, Boissel, Beaumont (de
la Somme), Lesseps, Mauguin, Creton, Abatucci,
Luneau, Baron, Lafayette (Georges), Marie, Carnot,
Bureaux de Puzy, Dussolier, Mathieu (Saone-et-
Loire), Drouyn-de-l'Huys, D'Aragon, Cambacérès
(de), Drault, Marquis, Bigot, Quinette, Maichain,
Lefort-Gonssolin, Tessie de la Motte, Demarçay,
Berger, Bonnin, Jouvencel (de), Larabit, Vavin,
Garnon, Murat-Ballange, Taillandier.

It is of some practical moment, in reference to our own future prospects, not so much to comment upon the error of these calculations, as to trace its source. The mistake arose out of the ignorance of the government and its friends, of the extent to which they stood damaged in public opinion. They were right enough in their estimate of the weakness of a mob; but wrong in not perceiving that even that weakness was strength as compared with the feebleness of a party, left without a single honest or unbought adherent throughout the country. The ragged boys who break lampglasses and shop windows, do not make revoIutions; but let it come to a fair stand-up fight between a crowd of street vagrants and a royal family, for which a million of spectators looking on will not lift a finger, and there need be little hesitation about which way the victory will be decided. But whence this ignorance of the court party of the state of the public mind? The explanation is to be found in their own suicidal folly, which from July, 1830, to February, 1848, incessantly sought to repress the indications of opinion, whether as manifested through the medium of public meetings, or the press. Never had there been a government which bad originated so great a number of prosecutions of the press, as were conducted on the part of the crown solicitor, during the reign of Louis-Philippe; and by the stamp laws of September, 1835, all cheap newspapers, addressed to the mass of the people, had perished at a

blow.

The higher priced journals that survived, existed only under the guarantee of

good behaviour, conveyed by a deposit of the duty. And what have either the Whig several thousand pounds, as cautionnement, or Tory parties in the house gained by their which might be forfeited at once by an un- distrust of a free press? They destroyed favourable verdict of a jury. Thus even the influence which, long before this, would such papers as the "National" were com- have peaceably led to national education, an pelled to speak under breath of the court; improvement of the suffrage, and equalized all expressions having the remotest tendency taxation; and, like Louis-Philippe, they to bring the King into contempt, or which have shut themselves out from the might be so construed, being visited upon means of learning what is passing in the the editor with heavy penalties. minds of the working classes at the present moment. Where are the organs of the untaught, but sufficiently catechized labourer; and through what channels of communication is his mind to be reached ?* We have forbidden him to speak; and we cannot speak to him. In what way is he preparing to act? Already the signs that have escaped him are ominous. A mine of explosive materials lies beneath our feet.

The application of this moral lesson to our own case is important; for in regard to the suppression of cheap newspapers, the English government have followed closely in the footsteps of Louis-Philippe ; although in other respects the system of restriction has not, here, been carried to the same extent. It will be remembered that one of the consequences of the Reform Bill, was an agitation for the abolition of the newspaper stamp and advertisement duties; an Wednesday, February 23.--Crowds beagitation which proceeded so far, that at gan to assemble at an early hour, princilast unstamped newspapers were set up in pally in the neighbourhood of the Porte St. defiance of the law, and successively estab- Denis, and the Porte St. Martin, and to lished, although several hundred persons busy themselves in the formation of new were prosecuted, and suffered imprisonment barricades. These were attacked and parfor their publication. At the close of 1835, tially destroyed, -as fast as formed, by the the sale of unstamped newspapers was es- municipal guard, or the troops. The morntimated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer ing passed in skirmishes, in which some at 200,000 weekly; the whole of which were killed, and success was generally on were put down by an act of the following the side of the authorities; the people, session, which embodied for the object some however, when dispersed in one place, asof the most severe and despotic provisions sembling instantly in another, and rapidly to be found in the statute book, borrowed increasing in numbers. from the excise restrictions and regulations. This measure, which we owe to the cabinet of Lord Melbourne and Mr. Spring Rice (now Lord Monteagle), was accompanied by what, to a certain class of superficial thinkers, was considered a boon,--the reduction of the stamp and advertisement duties. The boon was a boon only to the proprietors of the high-priced journals, who pocketed a considerable part of the difference; and a boon to the rich, to whom the difference between 5d. and 7d. was an immaterial object. To the poor man, to whom the one price or the other rendered the purchase of political intelligence a rare and costly luxury, and to the whole body of the unrepresented classes, the act was, and remains, a cruel wrong. The evidence of the extent to which it has fettered political discussion, lies in the fact that we have not now, in 1848, a single additional stamped daily newspaper more than the number published in 1835, before the reduction of

*

The Daily News' only takes the place of the 'Public Ledger' and the 'Morning Journal.'

Orders and counter orders for calling out the National Guards, had been given on Monday night. The doubt whether they could be trusted had prevailed; many having refused to obey the summons. On Tuesday night, when the symptoms of riot had become general, a new order was issued in the hope that the National Guards, if not supporters of the government, would yet be true to the instincts of property in the suppression of disturbance, and that their moral influence with the people might prevent the further effusion of blood. On Wednesday, considerable bodies of the National Guards appeared in the streets,

*This is not the place for replying to the objec tions of the abuses of a cheap press, but we would here observe that the remedy is not to be found in of their cheapness, but in improved regulations. the suppression of any class of periodicals because The best check would be a good law of newspaper copyright. The most violent and ill-conducted newspapers have always been those which have lived by the piracy of intelligence, police reports, &c., obtained by other journals at considerable

cost.

"The Minister of Foreign Affairs then stated | that he did not think it for the public interest, nor proper for the chamber, to enter on any debate on the explanation demanded. The King had called on M. le Comte Molé-(cheers from the left)to form a new cabinet. (Renewed cheers.) He said such interruptions could not induce him to add to, or withhold anything of what he intended to say. As long as his ministry remained in office, he should cause public order to be respected according to the best of his judgment, as he had

hitherto done.

"After some interruption created by this an

nouncement,

M. Odilon Barrot rose, and said: In consequence of the situation of the cabinet, I demand the postponement of the proposition named for tomorrow. (The impeachment.) (Loud cries of Yes, yes,' and 'No, no.') I will submit to the decision of the chamber on the point. (No, no.)

M. Dupin then rose and said-The first thing necessary for the capital is peace. It must be relieved from anarchy. Every one knows that the spirit of July exists yet. Homage has been done to the will of the nation, but the people must know that its deliberations must not be on the public way. The assemblages must cease. I do not see how the ministry, who are provisionally charged with the public affairs, can occupy themselves at the same time in re-establishing order, and with the care of their own safety.

"M. Guizot: As long as the cabinet shall be entrusted with public affairs, it will cause the law to be respected. The cabinet sees no reason why the chamber should suspend its labors. The Crown at the present moment is using its prerogative. That prerogative must be respected. As long as the cabinet is upon these benches, no business need remain suspended."*

The motion for postponing the charge of impeachment from Thursday to a future day, was negatived by the Chamber, which then rose. Exit M. Guizot; who for the next twelve days vanishes into space. What has become of him, where he lies concealed, or whither he has fled, remains a mystery till the 3d of March; on which day the fallen monarch and the fallen minister land on the British shore, at different ports; the ex-minister at Folkestone, by the Dover mail steamer from Ostend, "looking pale and fatigued; as much perhaps from the effects of his voyage, as from the great and exciting scenes in which he had figured as one of the principal actors.' His arrival had been preceded some days by that of his colleague, M. Duchâtel, at Brighton.

The dismissal of the ministry produced but a momentary calm. At first the National Guards seemed disposed to be con

*"Express," of February 24, 1848.

tent with their triumph; but it soon be came evident to their chiefs that, after the step they had taken, some better guarantee was required for their own safety than a cabinet to be formed by a personal friend of the King, and in which the views of the Court party would necessarily retain the ascendency. This feeling was naturally encouraged by the only authorities recognised by the people, the small but energetic nucleus of republicans meeting in the office of the "National," and who now for the first time began to dream of the possibility of realizing their ulterior objects. The streets, therefore, continued to be crowded with rioters, who, as evening drew in, compelled the inhabitants to illuminate, and who, whenever they found themselves in sufficient force, attacked the picquets of the municipal guard, and often succeeded in disarming them; partly with the assistance of the National Guards, who acted as mediators in the contest ;-favoring the ultimate escape of the obnoxious force.

Between ten and eleven, the somewhat subdued excitement of the populace was changed into rage. A crowd passing the Hotel of Foreign Affairs, which, as the residence of M. Guizot, had been repeatedly threatened, and was now occupied by the 14th regiment of the line, was suddenly fired upon by the troops with fatal effect. Many fell, desperately wounded; some dead. The report of this discharge renewed the consternation of the friends of order, who had begun to flatter themselves that Twenty minutes after, says all was over. an observer stationed in the Rue Lepelletier,

'The buzz of an approaching multitude coming from the Boulevard des Capucines was heard, chanting the low song of death, Mourir pour la Patrie, instead of the victorious Marseillaise. Mingled with this awful and imposing chorus, the noise of wheels could be heard. A large body of the people slowly advanced. Four in front carried torches. Behind them came an open cart surrounded by torch-bearers. The light was strong, and discovered four or five dead bodies, partly undressed, which appeared to have been carefully ranged in the cart.

"When the head of the column reached the

corner of the Rue Lepelletier the song was changed to a burst of fury, which will not soon be forgotten by those who heard it. The procession halted at the office of the National,' and the whole party burst into a unanimous shriek or cry of vengeance! You know how sonorous is that word when pronounced in French. The dead bodies in the cart were those of the men who fell under the fire of the soldiers above mentioned.