elections should be postponed. In this he of course succeeded, as, being the master-spirit of the times, he has every thing in his own way--which means the best way; the way to insure the permanency of the great social reform he has so miraculously accomplished.

The rumor put afloat, that the circular of M. Rollin was disapproved by the other members of the Provisional Government, was an unmitigated falsehood; of a piece with the whole system of redemptionless depravity which has been pursued towards him by the tools of despotism and their dupes, on both sides of the water, from the very outset. So far from the Provisional Government putting forth another circular, modifying or condemning it, their circular re-affirms and approbates all that Ledru Rollin had so ably advanced in his official capacity as Minister of the Interior. As the papers on this side of the Atlantic have so magnanimously copied these specially manufactured condemnations of this circular, probably without reading, I will give here an extract from it, which will speak for itself. The circular, it will be remembered, is addressed to the Commissioners of the various departments throughout France, and it instructs them as follows:

"On your arrival at your head-quarters, invite around you the most influential patriots. Their advice should always have great weight with you, but forget not that the best mode of obtaining their assistance, and with them that of the entire population, is to impress an indefatigable activity on every branch of the administration. We are the servants of the people, and by our application and our zeal we will prove that we are worthy of their confidence. Give, therefore, everywhere the example of vigilance and of industry, that by your care no interest may suffer from the momentary perturbation occasioned by the fall of a detested power, and you will have usefully fulfilled your commission. I need not tell you that your attention should be directed in a special manner to the organization of the National Guard. Composed of all classes of citizens, as it is about to be, it is the force and the glory of the country and the guaranty of our liberties. Send me an exact statement of the composition of each of the cantonal legions of your department. Cause the chiefs to be elected, maintain numerous reports with them, and communicate to them the spirit which animates you. Apply yourselves, in fine, to collect clearly and precisely all facts relating to the operatives in your department. It is by them and for them that the Republic was founded, whose mission is to put an end to their sufferings, and to consecrate their rights. If urgent necessity should appear to you to command extraordinary measures, apply to me forthwith. But even in that case, endeavor to spare all sudden transition. Disturb no respectable interests; by so doing, even those you wish to serve may be injured. In some parts of the country lamentable acts of violence have been committed. Enlighten those who may for the moment be led astray. The operatives, by breaking machinery, compromise their cause, and produce universal ruin. Still a little patience, and those wonders of the human genius which have not merited mutilation, set in motion by capital and labor, will enrich those who at present execrate them. Agriculture, resuming the rank and importance of which it has been deprived, will cover the earth with the produce which the neglect of other governments suffered to be engulphed, and will thus throw into circulation elements hitherto unknown, which will regenerate industry. Such is the prospect reserved for us if we are really revolutionary; if our ideas, our deliberations, our acts, are conformable to the law of fraternity, which ought to be the rule of future societies. Happy to prepare such an advent which belongs to us, to re-assure the public mind, to consolidate credit, to renew transactions, and to collect the materials of the vast edifice which the national assemblage will raise, let all generous hearts and all intelligent minds set to work and come to our assistance. This is a subject of noble ambition. Give to the world the example of tranquillity after an extraordinary victory, and appeal to the influence of ideas and of reason to accept courageously the rude trials of the present VOL. II.-15 K 2

moment, and to unite in order to traverse and to vanquish them. Such a course characterizes, and must immortalize, a great nation. Such is the object of our common efforts. In order that mine may be efficacious, I have need, citizen commissary, of your assistance, and your patriotism enables me to count upon it unreservedly."

Does not this afford us incontestable proof that M. Rollin is fully worthy of the distinguished station he has occupied? And yet this circular has been most shamelessly and unjustly perverted and calumniated ; and its celebrated author has been denounced in one of the oracles of mole-eyed, timid, superannuated, stand-still American conservatism; as a second Robespierre, Danton, and Marat. Louis Blanc, one of the most generous philanthropists of the age, has been classed in the same category. Could even total political depravity go beyond this?

I have already said, that the civilized world never beheld such a spectacle of moral grandeur, as that which has recently been exhibited by the people of France-the down-trodden operatives of Paris-both during the progress of the Revolution, and since the Republic was established. France reached, under her mighty Napoleon, at the mention of whose name Europe still trembles and turns pale, the dazzling heights of military glory; but she has lately shown to the world, that there are nobler conquests than those of the sword; higher and holier aims than mere national aggrandizement; her whole working population seem to have been imbued with a new spiritual illumination of truth, justice and love. The new manifestation of Christianity has awakened in them the most exalted sentiments, the loftiest conceptions of true glory; it has pervaded every class of the hard-working men of that beautiful metropolis, spreading its divinely sanctifying influence through every heart. A perjured tyrant had trampled upon their dearest rights and highest interests, with his iron heel of merciless oppression; they had borne all these accumulated evils until forbearance had long ceased to be a virtue; the cup was brimmed at last, and finally ran over. Law had become the accomplice of oppression, and there was left them but one means of redress-the sword! And with what unparalleled forbearance was it wielded; with what unexampled prudence and moderation was their overwhelming power exercised! Even the crowned robber of their rights, whose mercenary troops were even then shedding patriot blood, was allowed to pass unharmed through the gathering hosts of deeply injured men. "Let him go, we are not assassins," was the noble sentiment of the patriotic bosoms that were throbbing with devotion to liberty. In no one instance were these hero-patriots guilty of unnecessary violence and bloodshed; they bared their bosoms freely to the winged bullets and the sabre stroke, returning the hand of fraternity, the olive wreath of brotherhood and peace, for cruelty and hate. act of sanguinary retaliation stains the character of these wonderful men. Smarting under a sense of their bitter wrongs, goaded to desperation by the overpowering burdens which centuries of misgovernment had entailed, yet when successful, with the whole property of their oppressors in their power, their lives at their mercy, not a single sous is plundered, not a single life sacrificed, except that of a few outlaws and robbers. Such was the sublimity of their patriotism, such the mea

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sureless grandeur of their moral virtue, that even the paid spy of the London Times is compelled to acknowledge their unapproachable worth. He says:

“And those men of the barricades—those grim-looking, terrific men of Wednesday and Thursday last-those unwashed, ill-dressed, tattered men of the Quarters of St. Martin and St. Denis, and of the Halle, and of the Hotel de Ville, and of the Faubourg St. Antoine, whose appearance and whose cries were appallingwhere are they? They have returned modestly to their hard labor-to the practice of their admirable industry—to their privations and their endurances.

"Let those men be known to the world. The great mass of the combatants of the 22d, 23d, and 24th of February were the poor, hard-working classes of the Parisians. They were laborers at the ports, shoemakers, sawyers, carpenters, shoeblacks in a word the operatives and laborers of the capital.

"What did they? They believed that the late government had cheated them of the fruits of their Revolution of July. They waited the proper moment for reconquering their rights, and they went without arms, taking their chance of finding a dead enemy, and arming themselves with his weapons. And when, by a succes sion of miracles, their courage and their constancy was rewarded by the most splendid victory ever achieved by insurgents, what did they?— rob', 'pillage,' ' murder?'

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"Search the columns of the newspapers, demand of the thousands of English and other foreign residents of Paris during the severe struggle, and they will tell you those men, so hideous and so terrible in the streets and at the barricades, so infuriated by the slaughter of their friends, seized the earliest opportunity for leav ing the chose publique (public affairs,) to be looked after by honest competent men, and returned to their workshops, their hotels, and their poverty, proud-for that too should be known-proud of having once more conquered liberty for their country."

When sentiments like these can be extorted from a paid libeller of a republican people, when one whose vocation it is to disparage and condemn, is thus compelled to eulogize and approve-we may safely conclude that history seldom affords such exalted examples for our imitation.

Look at the conduct of the men in blouses-the terrible men of the barricades, whom we have been led by British influence in this country to look upon as a band of desperadoes, whom we have so shamelessly and impudently styled "the mob," because that is the term used in England-look at them, watch them well, and then hide your faces with sorrow and shame that foreign falsehood should have been allowed to diffuse its poisonous influence so widely over the public mind in relation to these "world-redeemers." The only instance where mercy was not shown, was in the case of some vagabond robbers. At the Palais Royal, in the moment of victory, the masses rushed into the interior, and soon a man was discovered stealing spoons. They said, "You are not of us-you are a thief-kneel down," and instantly they shot five balls through his body, and labelled it "thief," and then left it for other scenes. Even these exceptions were momentary and few, as were the occasions for them. They serve to show with what more than Spartan virtue these champions of liberty were actuated. Everywhere violence was rebuked, everywhere the works of literature and art treated as sacred, by the great mass of the people. In the Paris Moniteur's report of the last scenes in the Chamber of Deputies, we see with what readiness these almost infuriated men listened to the voice of reason:

"Suddenly some one calls attention to the large picture above the desk and be

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hind the president's seat, which represents Louis Philippe taking the oath, and cries are heard of Tear it down! Destroy it!' Some men, who had mounted the desk, are about to slash it with sabres, when a workman, armed with a doublebarrelled gun, who was in the reporter's gallery, cries, Wait a bit, I am going to shoot Louis Philippe !' At the same moment two shots were fired. (Various cries.)

"Another workman throws himself at once upon the tribune and pronounces these words: Respect for monuments! respect for property! Why destroy? Why fire upon these pictures? We have shown that it will not do to deceive the people; let us now show that the people knows how to respect monuments and to honor their victory.' These words, uttered with energy and true eloquence, are received with great applause. Persons press around the brave mechanic and ask his name. He replies that his name is Theodore Six, journeyman upholsterer.

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Long live Theodore Six! He is a brave man and eloquent orator. Let his name be known, and do it honor. He is a man of the people.”

The following incidents, selected from the Constitutionel, serve to show the omnipotent power of forbearance and gentleness, over that of force the power by which the people triumphed :

"A barricade had been thrown up in the Rue St. Martin. A company of troops of the line were about to take it by assault. A lad of fifteen years of age, leaping on top of it and enveloping himself in a red flag, which he held in his hand, knelt and exclaimed in a resolute voice, Fire if you will! In a moment the example of this intrepid youth captivates the citizens who were behind the barricade; they dash across it and come and place themselves before the muskets, and uncovering their breasts cry out, Strike disarmed citizens, if you dare!' The soldiers, who had taken aim at them, turned away their pieces and refused to make use of them. Immediately cries of Vive la ligne !' resounded on all sides.

"A young man had been arrested in a crowd on the boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, and had been taken to the post established at the corner of the rue Sainte Barbe, opposite the Gymnasium. His comrades gathered in a mass before the post, claiming his release with loud cries. The troops threatened to fire. 'We don't care,' said the youths; do your duty, we will do ours!' In spite of the bayonets they scale the front of the post, enter by a window, set the prisoner free, disarm the soldiers, fire their muskets in the air, and return them, crying lustily all the time, Vive la ligne,' amidst the plaudits of the crowd, who were astonished at this act of valor and generosity."

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These are but parts of the great whole of that eventful struggle; they indicate the feelings and principles by which the Parisian operatives, the mob, the men in blouses, were actuated; but these are not all. of similar incidents which would fill volumes, allow me to call attention to the following:

"When the Revolutionists who won the Republic for France had forced their way into the Palais Royal, and had reached the apartments of General Athalin, one of Louis Philippe's aids-de-camp, they encountered the general's lady, a woman of dignified deportment and stature, whom the general had espoused for her rare beauty, being but the daughter of a poor fisherman of Granville. • My friends,' she exclaimed, I trust you have not come here to offer any injury to myself or my husband. I am not one of your fine ladies, but a daughter of the people; I throw myself then confidently on your protection. But I will not leave my husband; he is confined to his bed by illness.' The band were struck with the boldness of the appeal. They repaired to the general's chamber, placed him in an arm-chair, and, headed by this daughter of the people, they conveyed him to a friend's house in the neighborhood. On reaching his destination, the general recollected leaving a sum of 130,000f. (£5,200) in notes and gold in his desk. He handed the key of the desk to a working-man in a blouse, whom he did not know. An hour after, the man returned with every sous of the money.

"All the money, plate, jewels and other valuables of the king and royal family, which were found in the palace, have been carefully preserved, as they were first

found by the laboring men, who first entered the palace; and all recompense for so doing has been refused.

"The sums which have been carted to places for safe-keeping amount to four or five millions, and when this operation had been completed, and every dollar found secure, the two men who had watched over the deposit for the last twenty-four hours, said to the officers who had charge of removing the property. Sir, you have forgotten us-we have eaten nothing since yesterday noon. The officer was astonished-asked them what they would have-they answered, 'some bread.' "Upon remonstrating with, and asking them to receive some compensation, they declined. He then asked for their names; they refused to give them; said they had not fought for money, and they were not in want of any thing but some bread to appease their hunger."

These are the people, actuated by such lofty magnanimity, disinterested patriotism, and exalted nobility of soul, that we have been led to fear, by English public opinion, were not fully capable of self-government! British calumny, it is to be hoped, will not always be allowed to taint the American mind with its deadly venom.

And what have the members of the provisional government done— those prompt, efficient, bold, and able men, whom Providence seems to have raised up expressly for the crisis-what have they done? Forced their oppressors to disgorge their ill-gotten wealth, and given it back to those who earned it? Have they made war upon persons, property, or human rights? Examine their acts-look at the register of their edicts, and ask yourself whether they are not such as must entitle them to the unlimited confidence of the wise and the good of every age and every clime! They have abolished the Chamber of Peers, and all orders of nobility; have adopted, as the children of France, the families of all who fell in the struggle for their rights; converted the palace into a hospital for the widows and the wounded; abolished the punishment of death for political offences; guarantied the entire freedom of the press, and unlimited freedom of opinion; a diminution of the hours of labor has been ordered; property of all kinds to be restored to its owners; national workshops to be established for those who are unemployed; and more than all, labor is to take the first rank under the new order of things, not brute, inanimate capital-dull, gross, senseless wealth.

They have been consistent in all things; they have abolished the names appertaining to royalty, as well as the thing itself. They have not retained the spirit of all their old institutions, only changing their names and outward forms; they have not changed a political aristocracy for a social aristocracy; they have not thrown off their allegiance to a crown, and yet allow the crown to continue to govern them, indirectly, as completely as ever; they have no counties of King George and Queen Mary, and King and Queen, and Dukes: they have no King streets, Queen streets, and Duke streets; they have no ships bearing the titles of royalty, as we have in republican America. They have abolished the names as well as the thing itself; in that they are wiser than we.