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Antoine was marching on the doomed Dunsinane of the Palais Bourbon At about a quarter past twelve, just as the President of the Assembly took the chair, the head of the column poured, like a torrent, into the Place du Palais Bourbon. I had made my way along the quay, to the corner of the Chamber, and had some difficulty in crossing the Pont de la Concorde, encumbered as it was by the procession, with a double line of the Garde Mobile on either foot-path. The mob extended as far as the Place de la Madeleine, and there could not have been less than from twenty-five to thirty thousand men on foot. Thus matters continued until about three o'clock, when the gates of the Hall of Representatives were forced open, the guard overpowered, and the crowd, rushing in, invaded the lobbies, the committee-rooms, the tribunes, and, finally, the centre of the hall itself. The scene of confusion which ensued is beyond description. The occupants of the ladies' tribunes screaming and fainting; the President ringing his bell incessantly; honourable members fighting hand to hand for their seats with unwashed artisans ; others disputing the tribune with the leaders of the clubs, with a running accompaniment of oaths, imprecations, and general hubbub. The action of the National Guards within the precincts of the Palais is paralysed by the treachery of their commandant, General Courtais, and those almost within hail, on the Quais and in the Tuilleries, are kept in ignorance of what is passing in the Chamber. At halfpast four the mob are undisputed masters of the field of battle, and the representatives quit the Hall in a body.

Barbès, Albert, Blanqui, Huber, and the other chiefs of the conspiracy, after a few speeches of the most violent description, march off at the head of their faction, to the Hôtel de Ville, there to instal themselves as a new Provisional Government. But now the tables are turned. The intelligent bayonets in the vicinity of the Chamber are made aware of what has occurred. The rappel, which through the weakness of Buchez (unworthy successor of Baissy d'Anglas), and the treachery of Courtais (how unlike he to the noble Lafayette) had been countermanded, is again beaten through every quarter of Paris. In half-an-hour, a hundred thousand National Guards are under arms, the Hall of the Assembly is cleared at the point of the bayonet, the representatives are again in their places, and General Courtais' epaulettes are torn from his shoulders, and the decoration of the Legion of Honour from his breast, by the citizen soldiers whom he had betrayed. (For my own part I need no further proof of his treason, beyond the disposition of the Garde Mobile on the bridge, which I mentioned above. Instead of being in position at the head of the bridge, where they might have defended the chief approach to the Chamber, formed in line as they were on the trottoirs, pressed upon by the mob, and without space to make use of their guns, they could serve no earthly purpose, unless it were to furnish three or four hundred stand of arms to the factions.) And now Lamartine, having once more a theatrical part to play, mounts his horse, accompanied by Ledru-Rollin, and a large body of representatives,

and, at the head of the National Guard, marches upon the Hôtel de Ville. Arrived at the place, he encourages the citizens to attack the Hôtel, and raising himself in his stirrups, vows that for him there is no tribune like the saddle, and that he exposes his breast with joy to the first fire of the anarchists, in defence of order in the Republic. He is once more the Lamartine of the 24th of February-the hero of his own romance. The Hôtel is taken without the discharge of a single shot, and the self-constituted Provisional Government are arrested, and placed under strict guard, to be conveyed, during the night, to the Chateau de Vincennes. Lamartine and his friends return to the Chamber, the thanks of the country are voted to the National Guards, and Clément Thomas (appointed their commander-inchief) is charged to watch over the peace and security of the capital.

17th May.

During the whole night of the 15th, a strong force was under arms. The pale moonlight, and the red glare of torches, was reflected in every direction from gun-barrel and bayonet. I was out until past twelve o'clock. Strong patrolling parties were everywhere on the move, and here and there one encountered an entire batallion of the Mobile, with bugles, playing the Chant des Girondins, and drums beating in cadence. At every bivouack they passed they were challenged by the sentinels thrown out in advance. The officers exchanged the word, and the batallion passed on, with shouts interchanged of Vive la Mobile! Vive la Garde Nationale! It was an imposing spectacle, and a death blow to the hopes of the anarchists and terrorists. The National Assembly met yesterday at half-past ten. When the proces-verbal had been read, M. Buchez made a feeble attempt to excuse his worse than feeble conduct on the previous day. He was listened to first with silent contempt, then with ill-suppressed mormurs, and, at last, with a burst of indignation. The members of the Government were severely taken to task, and explanations demanded upon numerous points; particularly upon the conduct of the Préfet de Police (Caussidière), and their long toleration of the existence of bodies of armed men, acknowledging no government control. The house in the Rue de Rivoli, occupied by Sobrier, had been forced on the previous night, seventy-five Montagnards made prisoners, and a large quantity of ammunition seized. Several of the most violent clubs had likewise been expelled from their places of meeting; but there still remained the garrisons of the Hôtel de Ville, and of the Préfecture de Police, which refused to lay down their arms, and deliver up their posts to the legal force. I went down to the Préfecture at about four o'clock, and found the whole of the Quais, and every approach to it, bristling with bayonets. I was told that the Montagnards, or Garde Republicaine, had surrendered at discretion. At this moment, M. M. Periée, and Lacrosse, followed by their orderlies, rode up, and the Grille was opened at once; they remained about a quarter of an hour, and then returned to give an account of the state of affairs to the Chamber of Representatives. M. Perrée

spoke of the garrison fraternising with the National Guards, and protesting their devotion to the representatives of the nation. He said nothing, however, of their having either capitulated, or surrendered at discretion. This is unsatisfactory. Such a state of things cannot be allowed to continue. All posts illegally held, must and will be forced, if not delivered up at the summons of the national authorities. The Chamber cannot allow the ministers to persevere in their weak, not to say criminal, policy. I begin to fear greatly that they are false to themselves, to one another, and to the country. Scandal is already at work with Lamartine's character. It is whispered that there are other reasons besides his fear of civil war, for the coalition between him and Ledru-Rollin. It is well known that they are both criblés de dettes, and many people surmise that both have put their hands freely into the public purse. I sincerely trust that this may not be true in Lamartine's case. Ledru-Rollin is strongly suspected of being the false ally of both parties-anarchists and friends of order-of being double-faced, double-tongued, double-hearted. Could the men in power be but true to their duty, the events of Monday would make them stronger than ever for the public good. But, alas! I fear that this is not what they have most at heart.

*

Paris, May 18th, 1848.

* The latter part of my yesterday's letter is, no doubt, confused, unintelligible, even contradictory, in certain particulars. This very confusion, however, may serve to picture to you the troubled and turbid course of political events in Paris. There are a thousand conflicting rumours afloat during every hour of the day. Verification, in these cases, with all the advantages of official authority, seems difficult, if not impossible. For instance, on the 16th, there were three distinct reports, each differing from the others in many important particulars, made to the Representative Assembly on the state of affairs at the Prefecture de Police, by three members of the Chamber, who had gone thither to see with their own eyes, and, on their return, to inform the legislative body how matters stood in that quarter. No wonder, then, that the public should be confused, bewildered, désorienté. The stream now begins to run more clear, and a few drops of fact may be filtered from the muddy waters. In the first place, all the irregular and unconstitutional corps, Garde Républicaine, Garde de l'Hôtel de Ville, Montaguards, Lyonnais, have been disbanded: secondly, the clubs have been closed: thirdly, Caussidière has resigned his office as Préfet de Police, and M. Trouvé-Chavel is appointed in his stead: fourthly, General Cavaignac has accepted the portfolio of the war department. The Minister of the Interior has demanded the organization of a new Garde Municipale, under the title of Garde Républicaine Parisienne.

The same minister has also proposed, for immediate discussion,

First, A bill for the prevention of armed meetings and associations.

Secondly, A bill, to make the decree of banishment, promulgated against the elder branch of the Bourbons, applicable to Louis Phillippe and his family.

The latter measure naturally seems of primary importance to the men at present in power; who, if asked,-"What have you done to deserve hanging, if the monarchy were restored?" could not but answer, "Much-every thing."

The former is urgently demanded by every man of common sense in France, who desires order or dreads anarchy. There is a remarkable passage from a speech of Lamartine's in the Chamber of Deputies (13th March, 1834,) quoted by the Assemblée Nationale" newspaper, on this subject:

We

"France has a horror of clubs; the memory of nations is deep and tenacious. France cannot forget that the moral, generous, national Revolution of '89, was swallowed up by the clubs, which vomited forth, in its stead, the brutal, demagogic, sanguinary Revolution of '93. She does not stop to examine whether the times are the same, whether the spirit of the age, which then breathed destruction and death, breathes now reconstruction and life. Those hideous reminiscences arise all bloody before her; they pre-occupy her judgment, and fill her with affright: this should be enough for us. are not called to make laws for an imaginary people, but for France such as she is. We must respect her pre-occupations, and guard against the anarchy which she abhors; these saturnalia of patriotism, these parodies of republican turbulence, are deeply repugnant to the vast majority of the nation. Such terrors and such repugnances are easily understood, in men whose families have been the wholesale victims of clubs, in children whose memories are steeped in their fathers' blood. Any government, be it monarchical or be it republican, which shall allow clubs to be re-established, will be for ever unpopular in this country; and, I hesitate not to say, that liberty itself will be thought to cost too dear, if it must be purchased at the price of the permanence of political clubs."

Such is the record of Lamartine's sentiments, (I will not call them opinions) in '34; and what is the record of his conduct in '48? Read the report of Caussidière's explanations in the chamber (explanations, every word of which bears the impress of truth and rugged honesty, according to the principles he professes), and it appears, that Lamartine has winked at republican saturnalia, and truckled to demagogues of the most dangerous description; that he has given orders for the distribution of arms and ammunition to anarchists, whose show of patriotism was a mere mask to turbulence and sedition; that he has made common cause with a man who is the very incarnation of malversation and misrule. It was well said by one of the club delegates on the 15th, for the devil sometimes speaks truth: "Citizen Lamartine, we all admire you as a poet, but we cannot accept you as an approved statesman." He has no fixed principles, or rule of

guidance. On many occasions, particularly where a theatrical effect was to be produced, he has been striking and successful; but his efforts have always more resembled the convulsions of one possessed, than the well-regulated energy of a statesman calmnly possessing himself,-the short-lived intensity of fever-heat, than the continued glow of

health.

I have been looking in vain through the papers for the "Nouvelles de la Cour," about which you are all so curious. It is merely a short imitation of our Court News, somewhat to the following effect:"There was a breakfast at Trianon, yesterday. Several ladies were present. M. Ledru Rollin did the honours.

"The buck-hounds pulled down a fine stag at Apremont, after a fine run.

"In the afternoon there was a battue in the woods of Chantilly." Mr. Lovett left Paris some time since. All the orphans went with him to England, and he has found a temporary asylum for them at least, in various charitable institutions in London and the neighbourhood.

Paris, May 21st, 1818.

* The third act of our republican melodrame, which, on Monday last, threatened to terminate tragically, with pillage for action, and six guillotines en permanence for decoration, was brought to a close yesterday in the Feast of Concord. The rappel was beaten at five o'clock, and all Paris was astir before seven. We had storm and rain continually during the three or four previous days, but the morning broke clear and bright, with scarcely more wind than was agreeable to temper the heat of the sun. At ten o'clock, the government council of five, and the national representatives, were at their post, on an immense estrade in front of the Ecole Militaire, with other tribunes on the right and left for ladies, official personages, and delegates from the departments. The greatest good humour seemed to pervade the crowds of spectators and those who formed the procession. As I passed over the Pont d'Jena, which was encumbered with a legion of National Guards, some blackish clouds were rising from the West. Eh! l'ami, cried a gentleman on the trottoir, vous allez recevoir de l'eau. Non, non, answered the sergeant to whom he spoke, nous ne la recevrons pas; nous nous mettrons à l'abri de la gaité. The only exception to the general appear ance of light-hearted enjoyment that I witnessed, was in the ninth (St. Antoine) legion. They were halted as I passed them, and in the front rank of the leading company, were several soldiers of the disbanded Garde Republicaine. They had entonné the Marsellaise, and the whole company, carried away by their enthusiasm, joined in the chorus. One of the crimson-breasted gentry, in the centre of the line, sang with an unction that might almost rival Rachel's notorious performance. However, there are good and bad, men of order, and men of anarchy, even in this band; for a little further on, in the

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