XXXIII. 1835. CHAP. example of the Revolution of July, and the difficulty of making the people understand how that which had been deemed the height of civic virtue in 1830, and rewarded as such, could become treason in 1834, and liable to punishment. The Peers felt the force of this appeal, and, to their honour be it said, notwithstanding the longcontinued provocation they had received, displayed great clemency and moderation in the sentences pronounced. The persons convicted were for the most part mere workmen from Lyons and St Etienne, the accused from Paris having escaped; and not one was sentenced to death, though several received very long periods of imprisonment. Seven were sentenced to transportation, two to twenty years imprisonment, three to fifteen, nine to ten, four to seven, nineteen to five, and four to three. In 1 Moniteur, addition to this, twenty prisoners absent, but against Aug. 14, 1835; Ann. whom evidence had been taken, were convicted tumace in absence, and sentenced to various degrees of the same penalties.1 Hist. xviii. 258,259. 27. on these trials. par con "The trials of April," says the Republican historian, "were to the Republican party, which the Revolution of July had engendered, a serious but not a decisive defeat. Some exaggerated the good they would produce; others, in a similar degree, went as far on the other side in overestimating their evil. They contributed to diffuse and keep alive agitation, and through it prolong the sway of the generous sentiments. They postponed for a little the reign of profound selfishness, the systematic abasement of the public mind which the Government was so solicitous to bring about, and which was ere long effected by the passion for sordid speculation, the thirst for mer * “ Il faut le dire, et le dire nettement: après la Révolution de Juillet le peuple a été sous l'empire de deux illusions, qui ont pu être funestes à sa tranquillité. D'abord il a cru que le pouvoir nouveau s'occuperait exclusivement de ses intérets. Ensuite, il a pensé que dans le cas où il serait trompé, il aurait encore la faculté de recourir à la force pour reconquérir ses droits illégitimement froissés. Voilà, Messieurs, quelle a été la moralité nécessaire de la Révolution de Juillet."-Discours de M. JULES FAVRE; Ann. Hist., xviii. 253. 1 XXXIII. 1835. 1 L. Blanc, cantile gain." It will immediately appear that this CHAP. effect soon after ensued, and from nothing more than the revelations made in this trial itself, which opened the eyes of all sensible persons to the abyss which was yawn- iv. 431. ing beneath their feet, and the hopelessness of any benefit from political change in a country so torn by contending and irreconcilable factions as France was at this time. The views of these opposite factions were so much at variance, that all attempts at an accommodation between them were fruitless, and every State trial became, not a judicial proceeding, but a duel en champ clos between them. "This is not a trial," said M. Trélat to the Peers; "it is the revolution in mortal struggle with the counter-revolution -the past with the future-selfishness with fraternity— tyranny with liberty. Tyranny has for its arms, bayonets, prisons, and the gilt collars of peers. Liberty has God on its side; that is to say, the Power which governs the world, which enlightens the human race, and will not permit it to retrograde. We must see with whom the victory will rest, and if, in the final result, the lie will be given to God. I am not defended. You, the Peers, are my political enemies, not my judges. For a trial, the accused and the judges must understand each other; but that is here impossible. We do not speak the same language; country, humanity, religion, laws, science, arts, -all that constitute society-the heavens and the earth -are different to us. There is a world between us. You may condemn me, but you cannot judge my cause; for iv. 436, 437. there is an impassable gulf betwixt us." 2 2 L. Blanc, 28. Yet is it impossible to close the continued survey of these memorable proceedings without melancholy reflec- Continued. tions. Among the persons brought to trial on this occasion there were doubtless many reckless and desperate characters-men who would bring disgrace on any cause by the crimes committed in its name. But there were others of a different stamp-men who ventured all for what, in their estimation, was a noble cause, and exhi XXXIII. CHAP. bited, amidst the selfishness of a corrupted age, the glorious example of unshaken courage and unselfish de1835. votion. It is the melancholy effect of revolution to blend such characters with the lowest and most abandoned of mankind if victorious, to sear them with their crimes; if vanquished, to involve them in their ruin. There could not be a more striking proof of the truth of these observations than is found in the fact, that the government against which the revolutionists now made these persevering and courageous efforts was the work of their own hands-that the despotism of which they so loudly complained was that which they themselves had imposed on their country. "Five years ago," said M. Trélat, "I heard M. Persil demand the head of the noble Prince Polignac, in the name of the Revolution of July; and now his delegates demand the heads of those who, in obedience to his orders, took part in that memorable conflict. I see at the bar he who first placed the tricolor flag on the palace of your ancient sovereign; and iv. 435, 436. those who have chased him from France are now delivered over to the vengeance of its new King."1 1 L. Blanc, 29. Fete of July, and conspiracy the King. But whatever opinion may be formed of this point, or of the comparative merits of the judges and accused in this memorable trial, one thing is perfectly clear, that to murder the conduct of the Republicans ere long afforded too good grounds for justifying the measures of Government on this occasion, and exhibited a proof of the truth of the mournful words extorted from Madame Roland at the foot of the scaffold, "Oh Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name!" The Government of Louis Philippe was not yet emancipated from the vexatious necessity of celebrating the anniversary of the Revolution of July; and on this occasion, as if to demonstrate the injustice of those who charged upon it a departure from the principles which had placed it on the throne, it was resolved to celebrate it with more than usual mag * M. Guernon. XXXIII. 1835. nificence, and that the King and whole royal family should CHAP. take part in the ceremony. The extreme revolutionists resolved to take this opportunity of cutting them all off at one blow. Society had now, as is generally the case at the termination of vehement political strifes, arrived at that point when crime takes the place of movement, and revolution degenerates into assassination. Foiled democracy now steeled the heart and armed the hand of the assassin; and the hired murderer, watching for his victim, took his place, like Maurevel when about to strike Admiral Coligny, behind a tree or under the shadow of an arch, and sought escape from justice in the mystery in which his crime was shrouded, or the sympathy with 262. which it would be received.1 1 Cap. viii. Ann. Hist. 193, 195; xviii. 261, 30. assassina King by On the 28th July, the second of the three glorious days, the King was to pass in review the National Attempted Guard drawn up on the Boulevards, from the Made- tion of the leine to the Place of the Bastile. Accompanied by his Fieschi. sons, the Duke of Orléans, the Duke de Nemours, the Prince de Joinville, and a brilliant staff, among whom were Marshal Mortier and several of his Ministers, the monarch rode along the wooded and splendid circuit, passing the troops, who received him with acclamations, and in the midst of an immense crowd of spectators. He had already arrived at the gate of the Jardin Turc, when a violent explosion was heard on the right-hand side, in the houses behind the trees, like that of a number of petards which had been fired at once. In an instant a huge void appeared in the cortège which surrounded the King, and the pavement was seen to be covered with dead bodies, wounded men, and horses whose riders had been struck down. Eleven persons were killed, and twenty-nine grievously wounded, many of whom afterwards died of the injuries they had received. Among the former were Marshal Mortier, General Lachasse de Verigny, and Colonel Raffé; among the latter, five other generals, two colonels, and XXXIII. 1835. CHAP. nine officers and grenadiers of the National Guard. Among the dead was a girl of sixteen, one of the spectators. The forehead of the King was grazed by a ball, and the horse he rode wounded on the collar, and those of the Duke de Nemours and the Prince de Joinville were 1 Moniteur, struck, the one on the forehead, the other on the side. July 29, 1835; Ann. But, strange to say, and almost by a miracle, the royal 262, 263. family, amidst the scene of carnage, escaped without Hist. xvii. 31. the assassin, covery of machine. further injury.1 Amidst the unbounded horror and alarm excited by Arrest of this wholesale massacre, the murderers had all but and dis- escaped. At length, on the third flat of the house the infernal directly opposite the entrance of the Jardin Turc, the blinds of a window were seen to open for a second, and a puff of smoke escaped. The house was instantly surrounded by the National Guard and the police, who forced open the door and ascended to the third flat, the entrance to which they found strongly barricaded. Having at length broke down the barriers and got in, they found the implement of destruction, but the assassin had disappeared, and a cord suspended from the backwindow into the court of the building showed how he had escaped. He was seen, however, stealthily making his way to the Rue des Fosses du Temple; the track of blood marked his steps; he was pursued and arrested. When taken, he was severely wounded, and covered with blood, from the effects of the explosion; so that he must have possessed great resolution to let himself down in such a state from a height so considerable. His name was first given as Gérard, but it was afterwards found to be Fieschi.* He was a Corsican by birth, and a common me * Joseph Fieschi was born in the canton of Vico, in Corsica, on the 3d December 1790. His father was a shepherd, and he was the same at first; but soon tiring of the monotony of his mountains, at eighteen he entered the army, and was incorporated in the Corsican legion, in which he went through the campaign of 1812 in Russia, under General Fianceschetti. Disbanded in 1814, he entered a provincial regiment in Corsica, which was disbanded in 1815, and he then joined the band which followed the fortunes of Murat in Calabria in that year, and on his return to Corsica in 1816 was dis |