were soon entered by the gate of the Pont Royal. Their defenders jumped from the windows into the gardens : all discipline was gone; the terror was universal, and the utmost efforts of the Marshal could only infuse some degree of order into the retreat. A Swiss battalion in the gardens covered the rear; the force in the Place Louis XV. checked the multitudes of the Faubourg St. Honoré, and allowed the troops still on the Boulevard de la Madeleine an opportunity to retire : retire they did by the Champs Elysées; and at the Barrière de l'Etoile, the Marshal received the letter which announced the appointment of the Duc d'Angoulême to the office of Commander-in-chief, and ordered the royal forces to be directed to St. Cloud.

Paris was now triumphant: the contest of the three days was over. The people had fought bravely, desperately; and doubtful as the struggle had been, they had not from the commencement wanted, among the legal and civil authorities of France, determined and courageous defenders.

26th, Civil resistance of the Journalists.-Meeting of Deputies.-View taken by M. de Laborde.—View by M. Périer.—How far M. Périer was right.→→→→ 27th, Meeting of Deputies at M. Périer's.-First meeting of Deputies at M. de Puyraveau's.-Second meeting at M. Bérard's.-Proclamation agreed to, and message sent to the Dnc de Raguse by the first.-The names of all the liberal Deputies at Paris affixed to the proclamation by the second.— 29th, Meeting of Deputies; different feelings among them from those of preceding days.-Fictitious Government of M. Bérard.-Real provisional Government appointed.-Civil transactions at Paris in favour of the people now arrived at the same period as that to which military affairs have been conducted. What took place at St. Cloud and the Court and among the Ministry during this time.-27th, M. de Polignac gives the command of Paris to the Duc de Raguse.-Want of preparation at Parls.-The Council assembles at night and declares the city en état de siége.-Charles X. in the meantime perfectly tranquil.-28th, The King might have made favour able terms.-Did not think himself in danger.-Mass, whist, ceremonies as usual. In vain a Deputation waited on M. de Polignac.--Confusion

among the troops,-Camps of Lunéville and St. Omer ordered to march.Ministers ignorant even on the 29th of the real state of things.-The Duc de Raguse's advice to the Council; M. de Polignac's opinion.-Mission of M. d'Argout and M. de Sémonville to St. Cloud.-The disposition in which they found the King.-The Ordonnances recalled by the advice of the Ministry.-New Administration formed with General Gérard, and M. de Mortemart, and M. Périer.-Charles X. would not sign any order but that which named M. de Mortemart President du Conseil-Fatal effects of delay. The fortunes of Charles X. and General Lafayette once more in opposition.

On the 26th the Journals had agreed to the protestation I have spoken of, and many electors, assembled at the bureau of the National, had determined to refuse the payment of taxes. A meeting of liberal deputies had also taken place at M. de Laborde's. At this meeting opinions were divided. Monsieur de Laborde himself, M. Villemain, M. Daunou, contended that a violation of the Charta had released the people from their obligations, that such an opinion should be loudly pronounced by the Deputies at Paris, and that the force which the crown arrayed against the nation should be met by such force as the national representatives could bring against the crown! Monsieur Périer was for more moderate councils :-he considered the Chamber legally dissolved; the Ordonnances themselves he looked upon as unwise and imprudent edicts, though justified by the letter of the Charta. "Even," said he, "if they be not so, the power to decide between the sovereign and the people cannot be assumed by any set of individuals."

"Let us," he continued, "as the guardians of the public peace, confine ourselves to presenting a respectful address to the monarch, requesting the repeal of measures by which that peace seems likely to be disturbed."

M. C. Périer* spoke reasonably. A resistance improvised against a government which has had the means of preparing for its defence is in most cases a hazardous expedient. An unsuccessful recourse to arms is more fatal to the popular cause than the most passive submission; and it is only in very rare and very extreme cases that a sound poliey will justify the more violent instead of the more moderate course; which, if it promise less than the former, also risks less.

Moreover, it is idle to disguise the fact. The right assumed

* Called in public life, M. Périer, M. C. Périer,

indiscriminately.

by Charles the Tenth would, if left to the calm decision of lawyers, have involved a doubtful claim. But there are cases which lawyers can never be called upon calmly to decide. If we can fancy a people with eyes bent on the ground, and arms folded, lost in the most peaceable and profound meditation, coming to an eminent jurisconsult, and requesting mildly to know whether they have a right. to resist their government, whatever might be their right, it would be their wisdom and their policy not to do so. But when a whole people feel at once, as by inspiration-feel without pause, or without reflection-that their government is changed that their liberties are violated, that their laws are broken through-they do not err, they cannot err, if all the lawyers in the universe, consulting all the laws that ever were written, declared the contrarythey have a right to resist, nay, more—they are certain to resist with success.

Monsieur Périer, and those who adopted M. Périer's opinions, spoke and thought, then, like reasonable men; but in all great crises, that part of our minds which is the most passionate and imaginative rises above our ordinary reason. It has a more powerful and comprehensive judgment; a clearer and more sympathetic prescience. In great emergencies, your man of feeling is right, your man of calculation is wrong. A few passionate words of Mirabeau judged and decided the revolution of 1789.

Thed meeting at M. de Laborde's was without result. On the 27th a similar meeting took place at M. Périer's. Here Messrs. Mauguin, Bertin de Vaux, de Puyraveau, were of the opinion expressed the day before by M. de Laborde; Messrs. Sébastiani and M. Dupin adopted the previous opinion of M. Périer.* After some debate on the propriety of a letter to Charles

* An assemblage of electors at M. G. Gassicourt's produced more important results. It was there agreed to form twelve committees to correspond with the twelve arrondissements of Paris; twelve committees sitting permanently, and organizing and exciting resistance in their several districts.

These boards were to have a common centre, and communicate through M. Schonen with the liberal deputies.

Such was the existing difference of opinion, even at this time, in respect to active resistance, that M. Périer said to M. Schonen, who was exciting the people,-Vous nous perdez en sortant de la legalité ;-vous nous faites quitter une position superbe. On the same evening, M. Odillon Barrot said that war

the Tenth, this meeting ended like the former, with an appointment for the morrow.

On the 28th, M. de Puyraveau, M. Mauguin, M. Laffitte, and General Lafayette (who had then arrived), pronounced all reconciliation impossible, and were for inviting the Chamber to place itself behind the barricades of the people. Messrs. Dupin, Sébastiani, and Guizot still protested against any act contrary to the law, and declared that the Chamber should remain as a mediator in the conflict, and pronounce itself merely the advocate of public order. A proclamation, much in this sense, containing a compromise between the two parties, although opposed by M. Laffitte as beneath the exigencies of the occasion, was at last agreed to: it was moreover resolved to send a deputation to the Duc de Raguse with an order, delivered in the name of the law, to stay, on his personal responsibility, the fury of the troops. This first meeting on the 28th separated at two o'clock, to meet at four.*

Its result had been the proclamation, which however was not to be published till the following day, the deputation to the Duc de Raguse, and a declaration from General Lafayette, expressing, as I have stated, the resolution he had adopted on his arrival at Paris, to place himself at all hazards at the head of the insurrection.

In the short interval which took place between the first and the second meeting of the deputies, the prospects of the people had appeared rather on the decline. Neither was the answer of Marmont," that he would only accept unqualified submission. as a basis of treaty," well calculated to restore the courage of any whose spirit had begun to fail.

Messrs. Villemain, Bertin de Vaux, and Sébastiani, although the two former had been hitherto sufficiently energetic, now refused to sign the proclamation of the morning, and retired in spite of the remonstrances of their colleagues. More favourable advices, however, arrived before the meeting had broken up, and M. Guizot, who, though willing to make an easy comwas declared, that force alone could decide the contest, and that it was the duty of every one to take arms.

This proclamation, given to M. Coste, the editor of the 'Temps,' for insertion, was rendered by him more popular and more energetic than it was originally conceived.

promise with the crown at a more fortunate moment, showed both courage and presence of mind at this important crisis, proposed at once to affix to the proclamation the names of all the deputies of the liberal party known to be at Paris. This measure, after, some dispute, was adopted at the suggestion of M. Laffitte, who rather happily observed,

"That if the people were defeated there was no fear but that the deputies, whose signatures had been used without their consent, would deny their connexion with the paper it was affixed to; while if things turned out otherwise, few would notice their absence or express any disapprobation at the liberty taken with their names."* Another meeting took place at eight o'clock, at M. Puyraveau's, when Lafayette, Mauguin, Laborde were still for adopting a decided part-for even publicly appearing in their uniform of deputies, and with the tricolour in their hats; while General Sébastiani, on the other hand, was still anxious that some power should remain capable of mediation, and not committed by any decided act of hostility against Charles X. Those who were of the former opinion agreed to meet at five o'clock the following morning at M. Laffitte's.

On the 29th at eleven o'clock, and not at five, the meeting took place; and instead of ten, Deputies who had met the night before at M. de Puyraveau's, between thirty and forty were collected. The disposition that prevailed, even among the more moderate, was different from that of the preceding day. †

At this time it will be remembered that the Swiss and Royal Guards still fighting, fought retreatingly: and, and driven successively from each post they had occupied, were concentrating themselves for a last stand upon the Tuileries, and the Place Louis XV. But it was not merely the retreat of the troops which inspired that extraordinary confidence which begets

* Monsieur Dupin's name was omitted, on knowing which he expressed great regret.

†This was natural: a great change had taken place in passing events; nor are such vicissitudes of feeling in moments like these to be held up to ridicule and blame. That which is caution at one time becomes timidity at another, and though in such crises men of an energic resolution are required, it is not amiss that some should show a more peaceful and careful disposition. We sympathise with the more daring; it is not necessary to censure the more prudent.