howling aloud, and spreading consternation and the CHAP. thirst for vengeance wherever they went.* XLVII. 1848. 59. sent for. During this eventful night, big with the fate of France and of Europe, the greatest embarrassment prevailed at M. Thiers is the Tuileries. In pursuance of the advice of M. Guizot Feb. 24. and M. Duchâtel, M. Molé had been sent for on the preceding day, and had had a conference with the King, but nothing definitive had been agreed upon; and towards evening the increasing agitation evinced too clearly that the time for half-measures had gone past, and that no alternative remained but strenuous resistance or unlimited concession. When intelligence arrived of the melancholy catastrophe in front of the Foreign Office, and the only question was a battle in the street or democratic government, the King, by advice of M. Guizot, who still, though out of office, remained in the Tuileries, sent for M. Thiers, who received the royal summons at midnight, and immediately repaired to the palace. At the same time the command of the entire military, regular and National Guard, was withdrawn from Generals Sébastiani and Jacqueminot, and bestowed on Marshal Bugeaud, whose high character and deserved popularity with the soldiers, as well as his long career of victory, pointed him out as the most appropriate person to surmount such a crisis. M. Thiers, on his arrival, asked to see the military plans of Marshal Bugeaud, of which, upon examination, he approved; but he declared at the same time that he could not, in the circumstances, form a *It is a curious proof of the difference of national character, and of the different temper of the public mind in Great Britain and France at this period, that a few days after this frightful theatrical exhibition had been got up with such effect in Paris-viz. on March 6, 1848-on occasion of the Radical riots in Glasgow, stimulated by the success of the French movement, a similar attempt, apparently suggested by the first, was made to enhance the excitement, by parading the body of one of the unfortunate persons who had been slain by the military, through the crowded streets. But in Scotland the effect was just the reverse of what it had been in France, and it contributed more than anything else to quell the insurrection, for it showed that the military would do their duty, and what the consequences of resisting them might be. XLVII. 1848. 1Lamartine, Cassagnac, Regnault, 60. agitation in night. measures. CHAP. cabinet without the assistance of M. Odillon Barrot. The King manifested the greatest repugnance to this proposal; it was the announcement, not of a change of men, but of To admit M. Odillon Barrot into the Cabinet was to abandon the whole policy of his reign, capitulate to the reformers, and accept democracy as the ruling power in the State. But the urgency of the circumstances would admit of no compromise; and at length the repugnance of the monarch was overcome, and M. Odillon Barrot was sent for and intrusted with the arduous duties of Minisi. 100, 108; ter of the Interior. The long-wished-for and entire change i. 223, 225; of Ministry was immediately announced by placards over iii. 408, 409. all the streets of Paris, with the appointment of General Lamoricière to the command of the National Guard.1 Meanwhile the agitation in Paris had everywhere Excessive become excessive, and in the crowded parts of the city Paris dur- reached a height which threatened an immediate convuling the sion. The insurgents, now relieved of all resistance by the dispersion of the National Guard and the paralysis of Government, got possession of the principal churches; and the dismal clang of the tocsin, which was rung all night, recalled to the few who yet survived, the terrible night which preceded the 10th of August 1792. Roused by the mournful and ceaseless sound, the inhabitants of Paris were all astir before daylight; few eyes were closed during the whole night. Under cloud of darkness, barricades were hastily run up in the central parts of the city, waggons and omnibuses overturned, pavement torn up, and every preparation made for a desperate defence. Already the gunsmiths' shops were broken open, and armed defenders were to be seen on the summit of the i. 109, 110, defences. At the same time, the few remaining leaders sagnac, i. of the constitutional Opposition, M. Duvergier de HaurRegnault, anne, M. Remusat, Marshal Gérard, and General Lamoiii. 409; De ricière, hastened to the Tuileries to offer, in its last extremity, to the Government of the monarchy, the aid of their counsels or the support of their arms.2 2 Lamartine, 140; Cas 223, 225; la Hodde, 455. CHAP. 1848. 61. success. But how urgent soever affairs may have appeared, or really have been, during the night, Marshal Bugeaud's vigour and capacity were equal to the crisis. No sooner did the veteran soldier receive his appointment as commander- Marshal in-chief than he hastened, at two in the morning, to the Bugeaud's King, received his last instructions from him in person, and went forth with them to the military headquarters in the city. He found everything in confusion, very few officers or aides-de-camp in attendance, and no one knowing who was to command and who obey. His vigour and capacity, however, soon gave a new direction to affairs; never was seen more clearly what a master-mind is, and what vigour and capacity can do in a crisis. Instantly, as if by enchantment, everything was changed; order succeeded to chaos, consecutive movement to vacillating direction. Orders were despatched in every direction, the bearers of which, in the obscurity of the night, were unobserved, and all reached their destination. By five in the morning the whole columns were in motion, and rapidly advancing to the important strategic points assigned to them in the city. They were four in number, and all commanded by officers of vigour and experience. The first was to advance to the Hôtel de Ville along the quay of the city, the same direction which the columns took which, on the 9th Thermidor, overthrew Robespierre; the second, which was commanded by General Bedeau, was to move by the boulevards to the Place of the Bastile; the third, to penetrate through the heart of Paris between the two others, so as to be able to aid either, if required; the fourth was to march to the Pantheon, and occupy it in force. The orders of the whole were to advance rapidly forward and destroy all barricades on their passage, and await further orders when they had reached the point to which they were ordered to advance. Such was the vigour employed in the movements, that by seven the whole columns had reached their points of destination except the second, which was a little XLVII. 1848. CHAP. behind, owing to General Bedeau having engaged in a conference with the commander of a body of national guards which opposed his progress. The Hôtel de Ville, Pantheon, and whole centre of the city, were strongly occupied, without the troops left at the Tuileries and Palais Royal being weakened. Twenty-five thousand men, who had advanced in the four columns, had done the whole, and done it by the mere force of an advance, without firing a shot. The barricades had all been surmounted and levelled, the important posts occupied, Paris was militarily won, the victory gained, the horrors of revolution averted. At this moment Marshal Bugeaud received an order, signed by M. Thiers and Odillon Bari. 106, 108; rot, to cease the combat and withdraw the troops! He 1Lamartine, Regnault, Cassagnac, 409,410; refused at first to obey it unless accompanied by an order i. 222, 224. under the sign-manual of the King; but soon one signed by the Duke de Nemours compelled submission.1 62. and Odillon cumb, and The secret of this extraordinary and most calamitous M. Thiers change, when decisive success had already been obtained Barrot suc- Over the insurgents, was that M. Thiers and Odillon withdraw Barrot, who, with Duvergier de Hauranne, formed the new the troops. Ministry, thinking that the time for resistance was past, and that nothing but conciliation and concession could either avert the dangers from the monarchy or consolidate their newly-acquired power, had come to a resolution not only to terminate the conflict by submission, but to withdraw the troops from all the positions they had won in the city. A proclamation to this effect was at six in the morning drawn up and signed, and immediately placarded over all Paris.* It was received with shouts of triumph by the revolutionists, with profound indignation by the troops, with dismay by the dynastic Opposition and * "Citoyens de Paris!--L'ordre est donné de suspendre le feu. Nous venons d'être chargés par le Roi de proposer un Ministère. La Chambre va être dissoute. Le Général Lamoricière est nommé Commandant-en-chef de la Garde Nationale de Paris. MM. Odillon Barrot, Thiers, Lamoricière, et Duvergier de Hauranne, sont ministres. Le but-Ordre, Union, Réforme.--ODILLON BARROT, THIERS."-Moniteur, 25th February 1848. 1 XLVII. 1848. iii. 410,411; i. 246, 248; Feb. 26, martine. i. National Guard. All saw that the victory was renounced CHAP. at the moment when it had been gained that the Ministers in the moment of triumph had capitulated for the monarchy. Such was the indignation of the soldiers, as they marched back through the barricades which they had just won at the bayonet's point, that many of the officers broke their swords and left them on the pavement, and numbers of the soldiers threw away their muskets. Then was seen the peril of that intermixture, on a crisis, of civil and military authority, and the wisdom of the Romans, who in war vested the supreme civil as well as military authority in the consuls, and in times of great danger vested supreme power of every kind in the hands Regnault, of a dictator taken from the military ranks. Had Marshal Cassagnac, Bugeaud been appointed dictator on the night of the Moniteur, 23d February 1848, instead of being subordinate to M. 1848; LaThiers, beyond all doubt the Orléans family would at 108, 109. this moment have been seated on the throne of France.1 The consequences of this capitulation to a body of insurgents and a dubious oscillating National Guard, proved Ruinous exactly what might have been anticipated by any one in quences the least acquainted with the march of events in a revolution. The insurgents, still few in number, instead of being pacified, were only the more excited by the concession which had been made; the vacillating and selfish in crowds joined their ranks, from the belief they were likely to prove victorious; the brave and loyal retired in despair from a conflict which its leaders had already abandoned. Surrounded by crowds which incessantly shouted in the triumph of victory, the soldiers, in the deepest dejection, slowly wended their way back to the vicinity of the Tuileries and the Palais Royal, where they were massed in still formidable bodies around the last asylum of Government and order. But, broken in spirit and paralysed in strength by the orders of Government, they were incapable of opposing any effective barrier against the torrent of revolution which now rolled impetuously for 63. conse of this con |