able action. He advised, he warned, and he finally threatened the disturbers of the public peace, and concluded by a solemn declaration, that, at whatever hazard to himself, he would do his duty. He was heard in silence; but when he retired, the shouts again commenced, and a few faint cries, “Vive le Roi !” were heard among them. From this scene I made my way through the crowd with an intention of visiting the Louvre with a young friend. We passed through the Gardens of the Thuilleries, which were now empty, and not one of the busy gay crowd which is always seen there was to be observed-all had retired in alarm to shut themselves up at home. We came out at the Quay, and, as we proceeded along, we heard an immense shout from the Pont Neuf, and then met a large detachment of the people from the Faubourgs, headed by a man in uniform, and proceeding rapidly towards the Palais Royal. We were for some time carried along with the crowd, but extricated ourselves and escaped into the Place de Carrousel. Here we found the few people who, like ourselves, were not concerned in the events going on, and were running in terror in all directions, and the fiâcres and heavy voitures were driving fiercely along, getting out of the way of some imminent danger. It was now generally understood that the National Guards were beginning to join the populace, and the appearance of this body, headed by one of them, was a confirmation of the fact. The people, as they ran past us, cried out, "la fusilade a commencé," and we expected every moment to be entangled between the parties. It is unknown to what dreadful extremities things would have proceeded, had not the battalion of National Guards placed at this avenue to the Palais Royal been strictly faithful to their duty. When the body of the populace, which passed us, came up to their post, they firmly refused to let them pass. A desperate scuffle ensued, in which they were obliged to charge with their bayonets, and, in a short time, the mass of the populace was scattered in all directions; several ran back and passed us wounded and bleeding, and the rest dispersed, leaving the leader, who headed them, in custody of the Guards; it was afterwards said he proved to be an officer of the old Royal Guards in disguise. Alarmed seriously for the fate of my young companion, I thought it would not be justifiable to gratify my curiosity any longer, while having such a charge, so I endeavoured to make my way back to our hotel. Every avenue and passage was guarded, and no persons permitted to penetrate the lines, so we had to make a considerable circuit. At length, having arrived at the farther end of our street, I made an appeal to the Guards. I was referred to the officer on duty, and after a strict inquiry as to who I was, and where I was going, he at length sent a detachment of soldiers to guard us home, who left us with a serious warning not again to stir out of our hotel. Our hotel was just in the centre of all the parties, and, had the crisis which was hourly expected come on, there is no doubt that it would be one of the first houses entered by the contending parties, either for attack or defence: I should have been just as well pleased to have been in some other for the sake of my young charge, but it was impossible now to change it, and we must abide here the result. I could not, however, cease to admire the indifference and gaiety of the people of the house. At every shout, or sound of new commotion, they all ran to the gate, both males and females, where they laughed and chattered at every thing that was passing, as at a spectacle, and seemed to enjoy the idea of the city being sacked and given up to plunder by the mob, as they would if they saw the same thing represented at the Odéon theatre. I, notwithstanding this, passed a night, I confess, of some anxiety. The threatened revolution was not one of any former character. It was literally a struggle between the very populace, who had every thing to gain, and the respectable part of the community, who had every thing to lose; and, had the former succeeded, there is no doubt that the plunder of property would be the first object, and no private house could afford any protection. The horrors of the scenes of the former last Revolution were naturally conjured up; and as the same class of persons would have gained the ascendency, exactly similar scenes were expected to follow, to which the sacrifice of the ex-Ministers by some bloody death would be but a prelude. The event of this awful crisis was determined by a cause which in England would be hardly believed credible. There are in Paris several schools, of which l'école Polytechnique, l'école du Droit, and l'école de Medecine, are the principal. The first was established by the National Convention, in March 1794, under the name of Commission des Travaux Publiques. In the year following, it assumed the name of Polytechnique, and in 1816 it assumed a new organization. No candidate was admissible before the age of sixteen, or after that of twenty, and must, moreover, bear certificates from competent authorities, that he was devoted to the King. They are instructed in mathematics and natural philosophy, particularly in the branches connected with a military education; but no regard is at all paid to moral or religious instruction. They consist of about six hundred, and have on all occasions taken a decided part in public affairs; and notwithstanding the precaution at their entrance to exclude all disloyal candidates, they have always shown a contrary spirit. On the memorable days of last July, it was they who organized the first irregular insurgents, and by the skill, judgment, and intrepidity they then displayed, they acquired an extraordinary ascendency over the minds of the people; and it was really surprising to see the moral influence these boys had gained over the old and experienced, who submitted implicitly to their directions. Next to the Polytechnique, 'école du Droit is the most influential. It consists of about fifteen hundred pupils. It stands near the former, and is divided into five courses— Roman law, criminal law, natural law of nations, executive law, and the civil French law. But all these have latterly been neglected for politics, and the law of the "Constitutionnel,” and the “ Journal des Débats,” is the only one attended to by the éléves. L'école de Medecine and de Chirurgie contain about nineteen hundred students, who attend the lectures of twenty-two professors; but so turbulent and disorderly have they latterly become, that they make no scruple of hissing and hooting them in the halls when they displease them. These, with the pupils of some other public schools, form altogether a body of five thousand lads, who have latterly become a new party in the State. They generally inhabit the Rue St. Jacques, and other streets leading to the Pantheon, where they are every day to be distinguished by their coats buttoned up to their chins, without any cloaks, with a book or two under their arms, and braving the cold bise with puffed-out cheeks. The houses are very high, with long corridors, where groups of grisettes and élèves are mixed together. In the vicinity are a number of restaurateurs, almost exclusively filled with them. I dined one day among them. The tables were laid out with plates and soup-basins, at which groups of pupils scrambled; their manners were rude and boisterous, and their conversation sometimes quite offensive, not only to manners but decency, in which the expletive of sacre was continually heard. Two young gentlemen, who sat near me, were particularly coarse in their language and dirty in their apparel. Yet it is these chaps who now dictate to the Government: the part they took in the present question, it was supposed, would be decisive; it was therefore looked for with intense anxiety, and it was not till Thursday morning they condescended to declare themselves. I was at the house of a friend in the Rue de Paix, leading to the Place Vendome. The shops were generally shut, and the usual business of the busy Boulevards in the neighbourhood interrupted, from the intense anxiety and suspense which prevailed; suddenly, we heard joyful sounds, and on going to the balcony to see what caused them, we perceived a very extraordinary procession. In the front was a battalion of National Guards, who were followed by dense but regular columns of élèves of the different schools, marching in companies. They had all their tickets of admission stuck in their hats like cockades, and in front of each division was a leader, who brandished an oak stick like an Irishman at Donneybrook fair. The rear was brought up by an irregular crowd of boys, shouting and hallooing. The appearance of this union of the schools with the National Guards was quite electric on the people of Paris. As the procession passed, confidence was every where restored; the shops were all re-opened; and in half an hour while I remained, I saw a whole district restored by these schoolboys from a state of terror and distrust to one of the most perfect confidence and hilarity. From this moment the revolution was considered as terminated, and the evening of the anxious morning passed off as if no disturbance was ever apprehended. The extravagant eulogies bestowed on these boys for the negative merit of not joining with the mob to plunder the houses of the peaceable, were received by them in a characteristic manner. A vote of thanks was to be moved in the Chamber of Deputies, and I went to hear the debate on it. It was opposed by some members, on the ground that they had published a very inflammatory declaration, which, though it bore no signatures, was generally understood to have had their concurrence: the vote was, nevertheless, carried by acclamation. But how did these embryo demagogues receive this flattering testimony of the nation's gratitude? They immediately called meetings, and the next day I saw groups of people at every corner reading the proclamations which they had posted up, signed by members deputed by the different schools, in the name of the rest. They stated" that the former declaration attributed to them was theirs, and they openly avowed it; that if they did not join with the populace, it was not because they differed in opinion from them, but because they thought it right to preserve public order, which was endangered; that on the grande semaine of July last they submitted to the chief-magistrate proposed to them, but on the express condition that his government should be based entirely on republican institutions; but not one of these expectations had been yet fulfilled; that the thanks of the French people would be highly acceptable to them, but they rejected with scorn those offered by the Chamber of Deputies, which assumed to itself the character of representing the people, to which it had not the smallest pretensions." Among other places, I read this loyal affiche, printed in large characters, and conspicuously posted in the front of the Ecole du Droit: immediately beside it was another, to call a meeting of the élèves, for the purpose of" casting lots to decide on the four persons who were next day to dine by invitation with the King!" Now, what would John Bull think if the students of the Temple, the medical pupils, and the boys of the Duke of York's military school at Chelsea, were to combine together, and after avowing their unqualified approbation of the Radicals dictating to the Government, and grossly insulting the Parliament, they had been asked to dine at St. James's, as a reward for their conduct? The ridicule and gross impropriety of not only suffering but encouraging those hot-headed lads, thus to abandon their studies and dictate to the country their crude absurdities, and the exceeding peril that arose from it in the highlyexcitable state of the people, at length compelled the Government to interfere. Marshal Soult, as governor and officer of the Polytechnique School — and he had learned from his old master Napoleon how to manage people under such circumstances without farther delay or remonstrance, put the whole school under arrest. Similar measures will be taken with the other schools, and these young gentlemen will be at length taught that they will be much more profitably employed in learning the particular professions by which they are to earn their bread, than in dictating constitutions by which the country is to be governed. With respect to the National Guards, their conduct on the present, as on the former occasion, was above all praise. When the liberties of the country were really endangered, and their free institutions threatened with total extinction, they rose as one man to resist the attempt, and reckless of every other consideration, they hazarded at once their properties, their families, and their lives, upon the important issue. When a second time called on not to attack, but to defend that Revolution they had so gallantly achieved, they again appeared with the same promptness and alacrity; and with sorrowful hearts, but determined hands, they resolved to defend all that was dear to man, even against their former associates. It was really a surprising, but an admirable sight, to observe these honest shopkeepers, every where hastily putting on their uniforms behind their counters, and issuing from their shops expert and resolute soldiers-to see them marching and countermarching through the streets with the most obedient dis cipline and perfect regularity. It was distressing to see them, under sleet and snow, with the thermometer twenty degrees below the freezing point, bivouacked all night in the open streets; and when they had retired to take a short refreshment in the morning, again turned out with the alarm-drum, without a moment's relaxation. Yet with all this anxiety, hardship, and fatigue, their patience and good temper never deserted them for a moment: it was quite affecting to see the kindness with which they remonstrated, and the gentleness with which they repulsed the furious populace, though sometimes grossly insulted and personally assaulted. One officer near me had his sword snatched from his hand by a fellow, who then attempted to cut him down with it. The officer was a powerful man, and soon wrested it from him, and then laying the flat of it lightly on his back, advised him to go home and mind his business. The populace at the Luxembourg pressed so close, that they were breast and breast with the Guard, and they both began to sing together the national hymn. "Marchons !" said the Guard, advancing. "En avant," responded the mob, retiring before them. The circumstance was so absurd, that they all burst out laughing, and this goodhumour tended not a little to allay the irritable feeling of their opponents. On the evening of the third day, the whole of the Guards were marched to different parts of the city, to be inspected and thanked by the King. I saw, from the gallery of the Louvre, about six thousand drawn up in the Place de Carrousel below, waiting for this purpose; several fathers had their little boys in complete uniform with tiny muskets; their wives and families formed the circle of spectators outside, and the whole displayed a most interesting spectacle; they had been several hours waiting in the frost and snow, and the King, though momentarily expected, did not come. They could not lay aside their arms, and they were almost stiff with the cold; so they all began to dance with shouldered muskets. It was now dark, and the King actually did come among them, in the midst of their fun. He rode through the dancing ranks, who greeted him with shouts and patriotic songs, and having thus performed their last duty, they returned home with their children in their hands, and their wives on their arms, carrying with them the respect and admiration of every man who witnessed their exemplary conduct. But we are not to suppose that the revolutionary storm, though suspended, is blown over. The elements of disturbance still remain, and will, sooner or later, explode here, if not timely provided for. Many causes of discontent are every day discussed, and even the National Guards have expressed a decided opinion on them. It is generally understood that the death of the ex-Ministers was a mere pretext, and, like the abdication of Constantine in Russia, was only an event of which the discontented wished to avail themselves to effect their ulterior purpose. Republican opinions are expanding in all directions, and a deep regret is felt and expressed that a Republic was not established on the ruins of the Charter, last July. Its preamble is loudly complained of. They have, on this, to be sure, the declaration that it was given by the King, but they have not inserted that it emanated solely from the people, on the British principle. While these and sundry other causes of discontent are daily increasing, the Chamber thought it right to insult their best friends in the persons of the National Guards, taking from them the right of choosing their own officers, and so wounding the spirit of the adored and influential veteran La Fayette, that he would no longer hold a post, which he had filled with such ability and benefit to the country, and many of his comrades are beginning to feel that they are treated in a degree much in the same manner as when they were disbanded by Louis le Desiré. To these causes, perhaps, may be added the state of religion in France. All traces of Christianity have nearly disappeared. The attempt made, on the restoration of the Bourbons, to re-establish Sunday, after much squabbling with the police and the shopkeepers, is now altogether given up, and, in France, the Sabbath is nowhere distinguished from a week-day, either in business or amusement, except, perhaps, by a greater attention to both by all classes of people. A clergyman is never seen; the churches are empty and falling to decay, and every thing formerly held so sacred is now an object of ribald blasphemy, as in the first revolution, but in a still more hopeless state. The people have quietly, but decently, laid them aside as altogether useless incumbrances. Meantime, sects are every where established to substitute some other doctrine; the most prominent of these are the St. Simonians, which, like the theophilanthropists of Lepaux, are making considerable progress, particularly in the great towns of Paris, Lyons, and Bordeaux. They take their name from their founder, St. Simon, a wretched man, of gross habits and immoral conduct, but who became before his death the Taylor or the Carlisle of France. His disciples have several chapels in Paris, and the shopkeepers, it is said, have begun much to frequent them. The upper classes are now, as they have always been, totally divested of any religion or substitute for one. The doctrine of the Simonianists is, that Christianity was very useful and necessary for the state of the world, when it was promulgated; but the time has passed away, and it is now altogether unfitted for the improved state of human knowledge, which requires something more perfect. They have substituted, therefore, for Jehovah the "Dieu du Progrès," or "Deity of Improvement," as the god of their adoration, reviving the opinions of the infinite perfectibility of man, and holding it necessary that he should never stop in his career, but continue to advance not only in moral, but in political, and every other knowledge. Change with them, therefore, is always considered improvement, and man is never to be content with his present state, but be continually engaged in new revolutions. With such elements, therefore, of discontent, and such doctrines to cherish and keep them alive, there is little appearance that France will be soon in a settled state. Meantime, wars and rumours of wars abroad are continually exciting them; the minds of the people and the whole country present a military aspect. Every town through which I passed was pouring out its contingent of conscripts, and we met every where, on the road to the capital, large bodies of fine young men marching to their respective depôts, chanting national hymns against foreign and domestic tyrants. That these things will terminate in another great change, seems to be here the decided apprehension of all. Should it take place, it will be again a recurrence to first principles, as in 1791. Those who now call out for a Constitutional monarchy, based on Republican institutions, will think it night to omit altogether the first part of their demand; and neither a Bourbon, nor any other man, I fear, will be again recognised as King of the French. THE SISTERS. "We grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet a union in partition; Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; And will you rend our ancient love asunder ?" Midsummer Night's Dream. "I GO, sweet sister! yet my love would linger with thee fain, "Oh! sister, sister! wherefore thus ?-why part from kindred love? I should but miss Earth's dearest voice in every tone of song! |