It

to look with interest upon the discoveries it made. denounced the Polignac ministry as traitors to the public cause, and made the breach in the strong-holds of misrule, where public opinion took up its firm position. To destroy the press, was a necessity for those whom the power of the press had reduced to the last extremity. But as a pretence must, in these days, be found for every thing; and the naked "sic volo" has lost many of its charms, thus did the Polignac ministry profess to reason about the press :-They said, that liberty was a different thing from licence-and that to blame the free acts of the sovereign was licentious: that the press had attacked the prerogatives of the crown, and would attack even the person of the monarch: that its insolence would not even spare inviolability itself; and that lawyers would be found to sanction and to defend its perversity, even in the sanctuary of justice that the press converted truth into falsehood, and light into darkness; that it visited innocence with judgment, and with condemnation; that it distorted evidence, and sought matter of accusation out of the privacies of life; that it would not allow even the sovereign to recompense an honorable deed, if the honorable doer had displeased the party whom the press represented the press, in a word, was the Pandora's box of evil; and the press must be destroyed, so the first ordonnance of the 25th July breaks out with these eloquent words,

"The Freedom of the Periodical Press is suspended."

But this was not all. The courage that could do so much, could do much more. This was the day of daring, and not of calculation. Valour was not to be tempered by discretion, but to play its own high and desperate game. There was a Chamber-the representatives of the people-it had been troublesome-almost as troublesome as the press-it had been dismissed, but it came again-it had been dispersed, but it had found a resurrection. All that power, that corruption could do, had failed the chamber was regenerated—nothing remained but to give it a death-blow. And the second ordonnance opens thus "The Chamber of the Deputies of the Departments is dissolved." Yet though the Chamber is dissolved-may not the same obstinate electors return the same pernicious Deputies as before? How could suffrage be left in the hands of those who had spurned the mandates of the monarch and the missives of his ministers? We will destroy (said they) the elective franchise wherever we cannot control and command it. We have our own way in the Departmental Colleges. These let us preserve, and let us sacrifice all the rest. So the third ordonnance thus ushers itself in

"The Chamber of Deputies shall be composed only of Deputies of Departments.

"

Such were the feats of high emprize of the Tenth Charles and his Cabinet.

The 26th of July dawned in calm-men dreamed that the Chambers were quietly to assemble on the 3rd of August, as had been announced. The Moniteur appeared-the columns were filled with the fatal ordonnances. The first impression was a universal stupor of incredulity. Such blindness and such boldness were impossible: the news rapidly spread-it was received for the most part in silence-no imprecations-no shouts at first nothing but that unuttered, that unutterable agitation which precedes a dreadful explosion.

At the Exchange every man looked at his neighbour with anxious disquiet-the discount of bills suddenly stopped-the funds rapidly fell. M. Mangin then took another step forward, and covered the walls of Paris with ordonnances against the press. The most rigid mandates were sent to the printingoffices. They were required, on pain of having all their presses destroyed by the police, to refuse to print any newspapers, except those whose appearance the government had authorised. The proprietors of newspapers met, and drew up a protest against the illegality of the ordonnances, which they denounced as null and void: they proclaimed that their Journals should still be printed, in spite of the mandates of the prefect of police; but many of the printing-houses had been already closed, and the journeymen printers dismissed. An appeal was made to the tribunals; and the president, M. Belleyme, honoured himself and his court, by sanctioning and legalizing the resistance of the Journalists. He authorised them to continue their publications until they had time to obtain the required permission.

There had been as yet no act of violence; but the manufacturers discharged their labourers, and thousands of unoccupied hands filled the streets. Boys-for they, in truth, began the revolution-were grouped together, and their shouts gathered round them the dismissed printers and workmen. The crowds collected in constantly accumulating numbers; but they only talked of wrongs. The stream of population flowed towards the public places, and especially towards the Palais Royal. There their discontent was greatly heightened, by a body of Gendarmes, which besieged the office of the Régenerateur. Transparencies were exhibited against the ministers and the Jesuits. Every word of reproach was echoed by the mass of the people. A commissary of police presented himself, and

was loudly hooted. Orders were given to disperse the people, who retreated before the bayonets of the soldiery. They retreated, however, with threats, and in a state of increasing excitement; and they stopped in the square of the palace, where they were again driven away by the royal guard. But the voice of resistance was heard, and the fermentation continued. When night came, the groups were so small that they were easily scattered by the patroles; but the windows of Polignac's hotel were shattered by the people.

Tuesday, the 27th of July, was the first day of blood. The police had received orders to appeal to force, and to call in the aid of bayonets, if necessary. The ministry calculated on the consternation which their promptitude would produce. They reckoned on the cry for mercy, and not the cry for vengeance. The cry for mercy was not heard; the cry for vengeance was

terrible.

The Temps, a noble and independent newspaper, had continued its publication. Its conductors caused it to be distributed in all the public places of Paris. Their courage was a fatal blow to the ministerial purposes. The "Temps" openly announced their determination not to submit. And their heroic obstinacy was the first formidable opposition with which the government had to struggle.

The officers of police marched to the printing-office, to seize the presses of the "Temps." of the "Temps." In the name of law they came to violate all law. The printers refused admission to the police : for seven hours they successfully resisted their entrance: at last they determined to force the doors. The blacksmiths to whom they applied refused their aid. At last an instrument was found worthy of committing the detestable infraction: it was the man whose office it was to rivet the fetters of criminals. He broke open the gates of the printing-office.

In the mean time, the liberal part of the Deputies, who were in Paris, assembled at the house of M. Casimir Perier. They there signed an address to the king, representing the perils to which the country was exposed, and protesting against the illegality of the ordonnances. They declared, that their duty and their honour compelled them to resist the decrees which overthrew the liberty of the press, and the representative rights of the people that the peace of the present, and the security of the future, were equally compromised; that the Chamber not having been assembled, could not be dissolved, nor could another be summoned without a violation of the charter: that deeming themselves the true representatives of the people, they would not surrender their rights, and would discharge the duties

emanating from their nomination, unless impeded by physical force and violence.

After these energetic protests several of the Deputies went to the Tuileries to present the address to the king; but the king had left Paris. Marmont, the commandant of the royal guard, received the, deputation, and offered to escort them to the council of ministers, or to go there himself. He went: the sole reply he obtained from Polignac was, "that he knew the orders of his Sovereign, and was bound to execute them." He brought this answer back to the Deputation. "They will have civil war then," said one of the most zealous and most admired defenders of the people, M. Lafitte. Marmont made no reply.

But the indignation of the populace grew stronger and stronger, and the slightest event was likely to lead to an irruption. That event speedily occurred.

A considerable number of unarmed young men had gathered round M. Perier's house, waiting, with anxious inquiries, the decisions of the Chamber. They were charged by the Gendarmerie, and several of them fell. In other parts of Paris the labouring artisans, armed with sticks only, had gone through the streets shouting Vive la Charte! Wherever the Gendarmerie met them, they marched upon them, as if the universal movement were the ebullition of a few mal-contents, to be quieted by the mere presence of an armed man. But indignation now began to spread like an electric fire; small groups became large ones; stifled murmurs broke out into loud execrations; and the gathering of the people, especially about the Palais Royal, was immense. There popular orators read the ordonnances to the assembled crowds. Chairs, tables, posts, all served as rostrums, whence torrents of eloquent indignation were poured out. Exasperation grew fiercer and fiercer, fed by the details which were brought from the different quarters of Paris. Presses had been destroyed; peaceful citizens had been murdered: there were victims to be revenged. One man had seized the bleeding body of a woman, with which he had rushed through the streets, crying-Vengeance! vengeance! to arms! to arms!'-he dashed it to the ground on the Place of Victories, and shouted aloud""Tis thus-'tis thus they serve our women!" The cries of "Tỏ arms!" grew deafening. They had no arms: they rushed unarmed on the corps de garde, who surrendered without resistance, and gave their weapons to the assailants.

Those of the citizens who had muskets took the lead. They were followed by an immense crowd with sticks, swords, hatchets, hammers, lances, spits, and bayonets-some only bore a knife. They emptied the warehouses and shops of the armourers as

they went and found themselves strong enough for attack. The only cries now heard were "Down with the Ordonnances! Death to the Ministers !"

They marched forward. The Palais Royal-the Halle and the Rue St. Honoré, were the principal scenes of the combat. They advanced upon the Royal Guard and were repulsed with loss; their loss only added to their exasperation; and the blood which flowed, flowed only to arouse a more maddening feeling of revenge. But they had obtained no position-they had won no post the streets were crowded with dead-and the royalists maintained all their strong holds. A retreat was determined on, after a part of the night had been spent in the affray. But there was a unanimous understanding that a more terrible battle would be fought on the coming day.

The re-organization of the National Guard was determined on. There was salvation in the very project, and hope seemed to animate all hearts.

Where were the ministers during these murderous combats ? They were hidden in the Tuileries, congratulating themselves on their intrepidity and their victory. They sent off a messenger to St. Cloud, announcing to the king that they had triumphed over the people. Congratulations echoed back congratulations, and Polignac received at that time-for one short-short daythe title of the "Saviour of Legitimacy."

The 28th of July brought with it new evidences of that military and civic virtue, of which we have already seen so many examples.

The Tribunal of Commerce was called to decide on a question of the highest interest. The printers had appealed against M. Belleyme's decision-they refused their establishments to the Newspapers. Alarmed by the threats of the Prefect of Police that he would destroy their presses, and ruin their fortunes, they demanded a revocation of the decree which compelled them to print the daily papers. It was amidst the roars of cannon and the confusion of battle that the Tribunal of Commerce recorded this memorable sentence:

"That whereas the ordonnance cited by the Printer is contrary to the Charter, and without obligation upon any one-and whereas by the terms of the Charter no ordonnance can be issued except for the execution and preservation of the laws→→ and whereas the ordonnance in question has for its object the violation of the laws-the Tribunal condemns the printer," &c. This memorable judgment speedily circulated among the crowd, and was, in fact, an invaluable testimony to the legality of that resistance, which had now become a matter of life and death.