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bloodshed would mend the matter. Many of them, poor souls, were living in wretched cellars, without work, subsisting on a scanty supply of vegetables. But these poor people are only made tools of, and we must look in a rank above them for the beginning of the mischief. On Monday, as I walked along the streets, I noticed many groups loitering about. Most of them were people in work, and gaining a very fair livelihood; these were the ringleaders of all the mischief. On Tuesday I did not go out; but I heard from a friend, that the people were all gathering, in order to form their procession, and make a display of their numbers; though they were forbidden by a proclamation to hold the meeting and banquet they had intended. The king, unwilling to cause bloodshed or to provoke retaliation, would not allow the troops or the municipal guards (who are in Paris what our police are in London) to disperse the people, so long as they conducted themselves peaceably. The people, as you will have seen in the papers, went on barricading the different gates of the city, to prevent more troops from entering, and arming themselves, as far as they could. On Wednesday night this work went on to a frightful extent. The mob burst open cellars to get glass bottles, drank of the wine till they were infuriated, then threw the bottles down in the streets. They broke into houses, and seized on all kinds of furniture to assist in making their barricades; they also took possession of all the arms they could find. Much property was thus injured; the respectable part of Paris now became seriously alarmed both for themselves and their king; but instead of rallying round their monarch, they acted as if they were panic struck. They remembered the horrible massacres of the first revolution, and they seemed determined not to resist. The mob succeeded in seducing the national guards from their allegiance, and so threw the king from his throne. I question if any of them, when they set out on the Tuesday morning, intended to go these lengths; but iniquity is as when one letteth out water, who can stop its flow?

"On Wednesday evening, just as we were preparing to go to bed, there came a report that our quarter of the

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town was to be attacked. Our hostess begged that no resistance might be made; all lights were to be put out, and the outside shutters carefully closed. To go to bed under these circumstances was useless; I therefore again put on my clothes, and falling on my knees, I committed myself, and those dear to me, into the hands of Him who is ever with us, and can deliver us out of all danger. My own mind was calm; but I shuddered when I heard the discordant yells of the people, and listened to the quick yet mournful tolling of the Tocsin; this was ringing in all the churches, and is the signal in Paris of alarm and danger. I was reminded of all I had read of the first revolution; and I prayed earnestly to God to arrest such another dreadful calamity, to put his hook in their nose, and his bridle in their lips,' and restrain the madness of the people. And, oh, how earnestly did I pray that my own poor country might be spared from such horrible scenes, that England might stand as a glorious exception, among the loyal found;' that the discontented spirits there lurking might take warning by seeing to what such discontent leads; and that the people might be on their guard, and not, like these poor misguided wretches, be hurried on to their ruin. In the morning, continual reports were brought to us; one moment we heard some instance of individual suffering; then came the news that fifty poor guilty wretches had been killed by the troops, who once fired on the people from a mistaken order. Then we heard with what insults the different concessions of the king were received; and at last came the worst news of all,The palace is attacked, and the king has fled.' It appears that on the Wednesday evening, when it was beginning to get dark, the horse of an officer, who was at the head of his troop, was shot under him. The officer, probably conceiving this to be the beginning of an attack, gave the word to fire, and many persons were killed. The mob were more enraged than ever, and placing the corpses of their companions in riot in carts, they carried them all round the city, singing revolutionary songs, and calling upon the people to rise and revenge their blood. This had a dreadful effect in rousing a sanguinary and blood-thirsty

spirit in the people. It was in vain that on Thursday morning the king offered to change his ministers. It was in vain that he even offered to give up the throne himself in favour of his grandson the Comte de Paris, and to make the Duchess of Orleans, his mother, who is very popular in Paris, the regent. No! the mob resolved to try their own hand, and wholly rejected their king, and forced him to fly the country."

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'Paris, March 3, 1848. "You say, "it is a comfort to know you are all now in peace and quiet.' We are, thank God, comparatively in a state of peace and quiet; but these words mean very different things here from what they mean in dear old England. It is more like the sudden lull in a gale of wind; a calm, as the sailors say, too still to last. The state of the people becomes worse and worse. departure of the court, and of the English, have added materially to the distress and want of employment. The mischief, also, done in the days of riot, falls heavily on the shopkeepers; broken windows must be mended, broken doors must be repaired, and, in many cases, broken heads and limbs must be attended to. You must not think that this Revolution was accomplished without any mischief of this kind. The fine old palace of the Tuileries has now its finest rooms all ruined and destroyed, and turned into a hospital for the sick and wounded. The destruction in this way has been most and this is quite sufficient proof of the bad spirit existing among the rioters. The Palais Royal, the private property of the king, has been served in the same way; the mirrors thrown out of window, as a very good joke; all the furniture hacked and destroyed; and the burning torch lighted to finish the work. If it had not been for the merciful interposition of God's providence, who sent torrents of rain to restrain the madness of the people, Paris might by this time have been a heap of ashes, and

wanton;

how many must then have perished! They set fire to several of the king's palaces, the Tuileries, the Palais Royal, Neuilly, and Chantilly. More than this, they burnt the station-house at the terminus of the railroad,

and the houses at the gates of the city, where the officers live, who collect the tolls and customs from all who enter in. Happily, these houses were of stone, and so the fire raged within, but did not spread without. As I heard of all these violent doings, I could but remember the words of David, His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. They set a bridge on fire, and many persons were by this means thrown into the water and drowned, whether friends or foes they cared not. And what has become of the poor old king and queen, and the royal family? We only hear vague reports of their being in England; but I fear they must have suffered much in their flight. The rage of the people was so excited against them, that they were obliged to separate soon after they left Paris. After the royal family had left the palace, one of the young princes, a child of the Duc de Nemours, was found playing in the garden of the Tuileries. He was carried to the duke in the Chamber of Deputies, and was thus separated from his mother, who knew nothing of his fate for two days! I hear, too, that they had not money enough with them to pay the expenses of their journey, and they could not even carry a change of linen with them. All this distress and suffering must be remembered, when we hear people glorying in this Revolution, as if it had been accomplished without doing harm or injury to any one! Those who have lived in Paris these last few days, will have a different story to tell."

"March 13, 1848.

"ARE you not a little surprised at the first acts of our free government? The rich English are refused their passports, and every possible hindrance is given to their leaving Paris; while the poor English, as well as other foreign workmen, are to be hurried off without wages and without clothes. Is not this adding insult to injury? Ten thousand Belgians have been sent back from one of the railroads, and several hundreds of English and Irish from Boulogne. The savings-bank is threatened, and

2 Psalm vii. 16.

the people, the tyrant people, insist upon, what it is in no human power to give, full work, and high wages.

"I' question whether any ministers ever worked so hard as the Provisional Government of the people; they hold the reins, but it is the mob who drives; and a very few weeks will, I think, suffice to show them all their folly. It is the mob alone who profit; the respectable people find that they have only exchanged one master for many and while all business is stopped, they are called upon to pay their taxes in advance. Every moment the confusion is increasing. No one calculated beforehand on the misery and suffering which the absence of the court, and of the English families resident here, would at once occasion. I am told that twelve thousand servants are now discharged. I know one pastry-cook, who used to employ fourteen men, and now only keeps four. It is the same with laundresses, and all those who live by ministering to our daily wants,—washerwomen, water-carriers, shoe-blacks, street-sweepers; nor is it only in Paris this is felt; those in the country round, who are accustomed at this time to find a ready market for their produce, come into the city as usual; but there are none to purchase. Think what distress is thus occasioned! The mob thought, without doubt, that the king's treasury was rich enough to supply all their wants; they thought, 'there will now be no court, no officers, no servants, to be paid, and clothed, and fed; what a saving this would be!' But they did not consider that the merchants and shopkeepers of Paris were supported by this very court, with its officers and servants; and that through their means the money comes in, in the best and most profitable way, into the pockets of the honest and industrious.

"The poor feel the change in another way. They have lost the charitable purse which was kept open at the royal palace for so many; the charities of the queen and the duchess of Orleans were very liberal and extensive, and their daily pensioners at this season most numerous. All this is at an end; and it is sad indeed, to hear the cries of distress on all sides. I cannot but sympathize in all the details of this suffering, and feeling

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