[CHARGE OF LANCERS IN THE RUE ST. HONORE.] Or the various political revolutions which have occurred in the history of the world, none was ever so swift and sweeping in its course, or so extraordinary in its nature, as that of which Paris was the theatre in the last days of July, 1830. Of that great and interesting event, we purpose now to give a full and detailed account.

On the 25th of July, in the year mentioned, the King of France, Charles the Tenth, put his signature to the three famous ordinances which, in their effect, led to the overthrow of his authority, and his expulsion from his kingdom. By these ordinances, he totally changed the government from a limited to an absolute monarchy. The first suspended the liberty of the press; the second dissolved the new chamber of deputies beVOL. III.

fore it had assembled; and the third completely altered the law of election. They were countersigned by all the ministers; namely, Prince de Polignac, president; Chantelouse, keeper of the seals; Baron D'Haussez, minister of marine; Montbel, finance minister; Count Guernon Ranville, minister of ecclesiastical affairs; Baron Capelle, secretary of state for public works; and Count de Peyronnet, peer of France, secretary of state for the interior.

Thus the king and government had put themselves in array against the people and the parliament; the executive had usurped the powers and the authority of the legislative. The ordinances were founded on a report which the ministers had drawn up and presented to the king, recommending the extreme

step to which he had resorted. Yet, strange to say, so great was their infatuation, that they made no preparation for the coming storm. No measures were arranged, even with the police, to preserve the peace of the capital; no military power was in readiness to support the declaration of war which had been issued; and the commanders of even the small body of troops which was doing duty in Paris, had received no intimation of the crisis that had arrived, and no instructions to be ready to put down apprehended tumults. The whole garrison of Paris consisted of 4,750 men of the guards, 4,400 troops of the line, 1,100 men belonging to veteran battalions, and 1,300 gendarmerie; making in all 11,500 men. But of these, the 4,400 troops of the line could not be trusted; and when it became necessary to employ them, they refused to act. The veteran battalions were expected to play the same game; which in fact they did. Thus the effective force was reduced to about 6,000 men of the guards and gendarmerie. Of these, again, 1,800 were employed in supplying the daily service of the posts in Paris, at St. Cloud and other places in the neighbourhood, leaving a body of little more than 4,000 men to meet the insurgent population of Paris.

with the people, their duty of obedience ceased. The banks refused to discount bills; in consequence of which, the manufacturers immediately discharged their workmen, some of the masters paying them eight days' wages in advance. Many of the shops also were closed. Thus a vast number of idle persons were turned into the streets, ready to take part in any disturbance that might occur. The editors and conductors of the journals assembled, and having resolved that the ordinances were illegal, they determined to publish their papers as usual on the following day. A statement of their views, signed by forty-four proprietors, or editors, and principal contributors, of twelve different journals, was published in the National, This declaration contained these memor→ able words: "Legal government is interrupted, and that of force has commenced. The government has this day lost the character of legality, which commands obedience. We resist it in what concerns ourselves. It is for France to determine what resistance she ought to make." The prefect of police, on the other hand, issued a notice, that he would proceed to execute, strictly, the new ordinance relating to the journals. All this time the government continued in such a state of blind security, that the The first intelligence which the people officers who asked, as usual, for tempoof Paris received of the intended new rary leave of absence, obtained it withsystem of government, was the appear-out difficulty. The deputies then in ance of the ordinances in the Moniteur, on the morning of Monday the 26th of July. So little was this despotic proceeding expected, that the first sensation which prevailed, was that of perfect stupor; and some hours elapsed before the fatal news was generally known, and then the capital began to display the symptoms of rising agitation. Hundreds ran to the cafés and readingrooms, and heard the ordinances read. Anxious groups assembled in the streets. Every mind was filled with indignation, and each man determined of himself, and upon the instant, to resist these aggressions of the king and his treasonable ministry. The funds fell alarmingly. Several of the most respectable of the citizens openly declared that they would not pay the taxes, until the ordinances were repealed; for that, when government violated its engagements

Paris assembled, to the number of thirty-two. A number of constitutional peers also hastily met; and having signed a protest, they sent it by a deputation to the king: but the infatuated monarch refused to receive it. This rejection strengthened the resolution of the deputies, and forty couriers were sent off with despatches to towns and villages within a hundred miles of the metropolis, representing the outrages of the government, and urging the inhabitants to co-operate with the Parisians in a determined stand for the liberties of France.

In the course of the day, the groups collected in the Palais Royal, in the Champs Elysées, and other places of public resort, began to manifest their dislike of the gendarmerie, by insulting and menacing expressions. In the evening, young men, chiefly from the shops,

began their work by seizing the types and breaking the presses of the journalists who peristed in publishing their papers, in spite of the ordinance; and as some of the latter resisted the attempt to seize their property, crowds, ready for tumult, were collected round the various printing-offices, and the exasperation of the people was hourly increasing. Agitation prevailed throughout Paris; the Bourse was crowded to excess, and inflammatory papers were thrown in among those assembled there :-"Death to Ministers!" "To arms, Frenchmen!" The funds fell as the popular excite

and having the appearance generally of being the sons of tradesmen, paraded the streets with walking-sticks containing small swords, which they drew occasionally and flourished in the air, at the same time uttering loud cries of "Vive la Charte!" As the night closed in, they were joined by persons of better appearance, with similar sticks, and many of them armed with pistols; crowds of artisans, with bludgeons, rushed along, vociferating "Vive la Liberté" and "Vive la Charte!" A few riots took place. The mob proceeded to the hotel of Prince Polignac, on the Boulevard des Capucins. As it was known that the princement increased. The feelings of the was at St. Cloud, a considerable num- | populace were still more inflamed, by ber of persons even went so far as the the language of some of the journals Champs Elysées, to intercept him on his that, in open defiance of the police, return. Fortunately for the minister, were now distributed gratuitously, and another carriage was mistaken for his, received with enthusiasm by the mob. and while the attention of the people The paper called Les Temps, contained was thus engaged, he was driven rapidly a protest, which declared that the social past, escorted by two gensd'armes, and contract was broken; and recommended got home without receiving any injury. every possible mode of resistance. The Before eleven o'clock, the crowd of per- Figaro significantly stated, that twenty sous collected in front of Polignac's days were sufficient to overthrow the hotel, had broken his windows, and cut government of Algiers. Another journal, the cords on which the lamps were sus- which had not been able to appear, cirpended. The carriage of the prince was culated to its subscribers a notice, which assailed with stones, as it entered the concluded with these remarkable words: court. The people also attacked the "Between right and violence, the strughotel of M. Montbel, the minister of gle cannot be protracted, and we soon finance, in the Rue Rivoli, the treasury, shall see our national flag;" viz. the reand one or two other public buildings; publican tri-colour. About noon, the but the damage they committed was police and a large force of gensd'armes, confined to the breaking of the windows. mounted and on foot, appeared before The lamps also were beaten to pieces, the office of the National, in the Rue and the lights extinguished in several of Marc. They found the door fast closed; the streets in the neighbourhood of the and being refused entrance, broke in, Tuileries. seized the types, and carried the principal editor to prison, leaving five mounted gensd'armes to blockade the entrance to the streets. In the Temps office, the papers which contained the resolutions and protest of the journalists, were thrown out of the windows as they were printed off, and by this means were speedily circulated all over Paris. The police having been unable to force open the door of the Temps, sent for various blacksmiths to pick the locks; but every one of them refused to lend his aid. At last the services of an artisan, employed to rivet the manacles of the galley slaves, enabled them to enter: the types were scattered, and the presses broken, but nothing could remedy the moral effect

No other violence was committed, although it was reported and believed that one of the gendarmerie was shot during the darkness. Charles appears to have spent the day at Rambouillet, engaged with his son, the Duke d'Angouleme, in shooting. He did not return to St. Cloud till a late hour. The people of Paris passed the night in planning means for opposing the king's attempt to deprive them of their liberties. During the whole day, the imprecations against the ministers were frequent and unmeasured; but none had as yet ventured to declare openly against the king.

On the morning of the 27th, the gendarmerie, and other agents of the police,

prived them of their daily bread. It was only of these unemployed workmen, and of persons like them in the lower ranks of life, that the mobs as yet consisted; but immense crowds of them collected from all quarters towards the Palais Royal, and the adjacent streets, the Tuileries, and the hotels of the ministers. The only bodies employed to disperse them were the ordinary agents of the police-the gendarmerie, who attempted in vain to effect, on any one point, a permanent dispersion.

The streets and public places of Paris were now thronged with exasperated and idle crowds, fairly prepared for action, if they could obtain the means. The whole mass of persons connected with the press, and others, consisting of upwards of 30,000 individuals, were thrown loose upon the capital. A still more mischievous effect was produced by the closing of the shops and the manufac- The patriotic journals were read to the tories, which turned out thousands upon people by enthusiastic persons, mounted the streets, breathing vengeance against on chairs and tables: this was particuthe measures and the men who had de-larly the case in the Palais Royal; and

from the windows of the houses there were repeated shouts of " Vive la Charte!" "Down with the King!" "Death to Polignac !" "Death to Peyronnet!" "Liberty or Death!" "Vive la Republique !"

While this immense populace, giving utterance to threats of open resistance, and only watching the opportunity to provide itself with arms, was growing more and more unmanageable in all the principal streets and public places, no portion of the military had obtained even instructions of any kind; and Marshal Marmont had received his commission, as commander of the garrison of Paris, only that morning. He had received the king's command to repair to his majesty after mass. At the interview which then took place, it was communicated to him, that he was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops

in Paris. He accordingly proceeded to the Tuileries, where he established his head-quarters, and where he remained, till he was driven forth from that royal residence, at the termination of the conflict, by the triumphant arms of the people.

In the afternoon, the gensd'armes, though they succeeded in clearing the Palais Royal, and other inclosed public places, found themselves utterly unable to make head against the hourly increasing assemblages which filled the principal streets. Their orders were despised, their attempts at force were ridiculed, and they themselves were insulted. At length, at about half-past four o'clock, orders were issued to get the troops under arms; and so little were the military apprised of any such order being expected, that several of the officers were absent. On this occasion,

the line furnished one battalion, more or less strong, from each regiment. The regiments of the guards furnished two battalions of six platoons each; every platoon being of sixteen files, two deep. The regiments of cavalry gave each two squadrons of one hundred men; the artillery was four field pieces.

These troops took the following positions-a battalion of guards, with two pieces of cannon, were employed, at his desire, in protecting the official residence of Prince de Polignac, who entertained his colleagues at dinner that evening; and a division of lancers patrolled the Boulevards in its neighbourhood. Three battalions of guards were stationed on the Carrousel and the contiguous square in front of the Palais Royal. The Place Louis XV. was occupied by two other battalions of guards, and two guns. A detachment from the regiments of the line was stationed in the Place Vendôme, and occupied the Boulevards, from the Port St. Martin round to the square of the Bastille.

vouring to make good their way, without using their arms, a loaded fowlingpiece was discharged from one of the windows of the Hotel Royal, near which the detachment was attempting to pass. It was believed to have been discharged by an Englishman of the name of Foulkes, who lodged there, and who thus, it may be said, gave the first decided impetus to the revolution. The officer who commanded the detachment, finding arms used against him, ordered his men to fire. A volley was accordingly fired into the house from whence the shot had come, and Mr. Foulkes was killed in his room, as well as two servants who were there at the time. This was the first blood shed in the contest. The guards kept the mob in check till they were joined by a second and stronger detachment, preceded by a few gensd'armes and lancers, and commanded by a general officer, which had made its way into the same street through the Rue de L'Echelle. As it advanced along the Rue St. Honoré, it was stopped by a The occupation of these positions by new obstacle-viz., a barricade, which the troops failed to keep the populace in was formed across the street by one of check. New crowds were hourly pour- those long coaches to which the Parisians ing forward from the more distant quar- have given the name of omnibus, the mob ters of the capital, and bodies of dis- having unpaved the street for the purcharged workmen flocked into Paris from pose of entrenching it. Thus was the the environs. As the evening advanced, first barricade begun. The commanding the tumultuous assemblage had become officer of the detachment summoned the so great in the Rue Richelieu and the people behind this barricade to surrenRue St. Honoré, that all passage was der; the answer was a shower of stones stopped. The gendarmerie endeavoured and tiles. The general alighted from in vain to clear these great thoroughfares; horseback, made the cavalry file off and though the mob displayed, as yet, no through the Passage de Lorme, and orother arms than sticks and stones, appre- dered the infantry to repel force by force. hensions began now to be entertained, The officer commanding the latter adfrom their increasing numbers, and more vanced by sections of companies; a determined demeanour, that they would second and a third summons were made, attempt to plunder the numerous gun- and received as the first had been. The makers' shops in the vicinity of the Palais general then cleared the barricade, and Royal: detachments of the guards were, a platoon firing commenced; the first therefore, ordered to assist the gendar- volley was fired into the air-the crowd merie, and it was in performing this ser- began to retire: the detachments advice that the military first came into vanced slowly, with supported arms, but collision with the populace. One de- just beyond the church of St. Roque, tachment of the guards, consisting of the throwing of stones recommenced only eighteen men, commanded by a with more violence than ever. A second second-lieutenant, attempted to enter the volley in the air only encouraged the Rue St. Honoré, by a side street, but was assailants; a third discharge directed, so closely pressed upon, and pelted with partially at least, against the mob, morall sorts of missiles, that it was, for a tally wounded an old man in the crowd. short time, equally unable to advance or His companions lifted and carried him retire. While the soldiers were endea-off. The dead body was, all that night,