17 NOVEMBER 1849, Page 17

CHAMIER'S REVIEW OF THE FRENCH REVOLVTION

or 1848.*

AMONG the various histories or reviews that have appeared on the sub- ject of the French Revolution,.Captain-Chamier'a is the best we have met as regards freshness and readableness. Greater impartiality might be desired, and the book would be much improved by a closer adherence to the topic in hand, as well as a snore historical tone of mind ; but the ab- sence of these things contributes to its character. If Captain Chamier advocates Monarchy, and rather panegyrizes Louis Philippe, he is simply on the other side of the "media via" from those who abused the King, extolled the Provisional Government, and were enraptured with the Re- public. A loftier character of mind and a severer style would not have descended to the particular anecdotes and really curious details that abound in Captain Chamier, even if we are not yet too near the event to permit a- "history" to be written. The personal opinions of the man, too, give a character to the book; forming at onceaconnecting link, like the

- 'moral of a tragedy, and infusing into it a savour. As regards great historical facts that are matter of public record, or which are obvious and indisputable, there is no novelty in Captain

- Chamier's book : . the press is too active to allow of that species of originality. The freshness is owing to the circumstance that the author speaka from personal knowledge, his knowledge being coloured by his Opinions . Thns,, iVeLkinte 'darker or at least the coarser aide of things, and see tlie,reyf4p j4ndsiogiint,ikwas. And it seems to have been an aces

dent, extern conspirators who were as doubtful of success as a desperate litigunty-andinihsaucceeded owing to a variety of circum- stances. Foieuitist amchigilbese were the cowardice and incapacity of !' the Crown arid' tt's advieers, the sullenness of those National Guards who .were not Reptitlinans, the quickness and ability of the Frencltpeople in 0; abeing and pursuing an advantage, the audacity and promptness of the chiefs in pressing the declaration of the Republic at all risks. While

.8tim etfiltitig,his 'views in plain language, Captain Chamier seems impartial in ' 'Tittejilddinitit as to the essence of facts. The merits as well as thlrle2' allparties are fairly enough admitted ; it is the style of state2 Wigntv ihe numerous remarks, that indicate the partion. eid, Iowa` Review of the French Revolution of 1848, from the 24th Fetitititij to the Election Lit, ovine Fast President. By Captuhreinun5er,28-21. 1ntWOVa1I*V Putilshodlion Reeve, Benham, and ROCIT. ,sgeri aid aes'rqzo act

The value of the book arises from the actual observation, the personal knowledge of the author. Captain Chamier appears to have been a resi- dent in Paris for some years, and a frequenter of all that was to be seen of a remarkable kind. His incidental reminiscences represent him as present at various public scenes under the reign of Louis Philippe,—as

the trial of Barbee before the Peers. During the revolution and its sub- sequent events he seems to have been everywhere. He exhorted the National Guards to- energetic action before the Throne was overturned,

and entered the Tuileries with the mob. In the contest of Juue,he penetrated the fighting quarters, andcarried a despatch to Cavaignan and the National Assembly, when no Frenchman could be spared. Ile appears

to have been a visiter of the Clubs, an habitu6 of the Chamber, a specta- tor of every sight, and in the thickest of every ihneute. Leisurely ob-

servation in such times seems a contradiction in terms ; but Captain Chamier was not hurried to pack up his budget of news for the post, and he writes at a time sufficiently long after the event to allow the minder details to drop out of sight, while the salient and distinguishing points re- main. Either from this cause or from some essential difference of mind,. oar author l gives a better idea of the characteristics of the revolution. than the correspondents of the newspapers at the time, notwithstanding their activity. There is less of news and more of thought.

A few months since, we quoted from Lennie Vermont a description of the mob entering the Palace of the Tuileries. It is singular to see how closely the fiction approached the reality. The incidents are different, the matter of fact is coarser, but the spirit of the whole is the same.

" The Datchess d'Orleans was scarcely clear of the threshold of the Tuileries. before the mob, having forced their unopposed way by the Place du Carousel, broke into the sanctuary of Royalty. Some few armed themselves from the piles of muskets now deserted by the soldiers; but the generality made a rush at the palace, mounted the great staircase, and began the grand scene of destruction which ensued. We, who were eye-witnesses of what we relate, can safely vouch for the truth of all that follows.

"Directly the people were in possession of the palace, a sudden change came over them: it appeared no longer a dangerous revolution, but a masquerade. Some of the sovereign people, for they soon usurped that appellation, placed themselves as sentinels; having, apparently, tasted the contents of the cellars before they mounted guard. Entrez, Messieurs,' said one,-' entrez; vous n'aves pas besoin d'une carte d'admission'; and crowds, sucoeeding crowds, invaded the palace. Some sat down to finish the breakfast which the Royal Family had left; others rushed to the private apartments, from the windows of which came a. regular snow-storm of paper. These were shreds of valuable records, destroyed without being read, and thrown not by handfuls but basketfuls into the enclosed garden which fronts the palace. "Whilst this scene of destruction was going on in the second story of the Tuileries, the cellars invited many spirited Republicans to a Bacchanalian revelry. 'Ali qua Is vin eat bon I' we heard; 'at le champagne!' shouted another; an diable le via!' cried a third, already a king in idea, and reeling under the property of royalty, and declaring with a becoming oath, that the brandy was good, but the rhum excellent.' The reader need not imagine that each of these sell-invited guests required a cork-screw; nor need they believe that the old command of 'eat fair but pocket none' was strictly adhered to. We saw many heavily laden with bottles forsake the cellar for their homes, no doubt to return and continue this trading voyage. "The god of mischief presided at this unhallowed orgie. The valuable china was broken to atoms—not a plate remained entire; never was destruction more rapid or more certain. All the collection of Sevres, valuable as chefs d'couvre of art, were smashed, and the noise of one tremendous crash only provoked another. In the rooms of state, destruction necessarily followed the admission of the sove- reign people; who took possession of their palace with rather confused ideas.. The bedroom of the Queen soon became the resort of one or two of those ladies. who are foremost in a masked ball or a Parisian emeute; we cannot repeat what passed in that chamber: it appears that the precincts of royalty added a charm to licentiousness.

" Whilst the interior of the palace presented this extraordinary Beene of rah2 lad riot, destruction and prostitution, the exterior was not without its mas- querade& The scene cannot be more aptly compared than to a tree attacked by wasps. On the summit of the palace, where the flag flies, about a dozen men were screaming and shouting, and going through fantastic attitudes, the results of long apprenticeship in those semaphorioal exhibitions so conspicuous in French gesticulation: legs and arms seemed doing the work of the telegraph. Hundreds crawled over the roof, some sliding down some clambering up.

"On a parapet fronting the garden, there walked in most majestic and solemn step a man—a sovereign—dressed up in robes which, from the short distance, appeared to us as really robes of state: he held in his hand a most uncommon,

sceptre, a broomstick, and was followed by a regular gamin de Paris, who bore his train. The king, in all his mimic pride, walked with great stateliness and steadiness, whilst the train-bearer at every step raised the train, and made a

semblance of performing a very familiar act, known most to cheats, swindlers, and cowards; certainly, if it is as liudibras says, 'just on the spot where honour's

placed,' his majesty-must hove felt the plebeian foot most uncomfortably: it was a sad satire on woyalty, and performed in a palace. Those who witnessed this curious scene, which certainly lasted half an hour, were convulsed with laughter. Another facetions-fellow possessed himself of the Prince de Joinville's hookah, and although the daywas not well warmed, threw himself in a reclining positioss in the gardens, whilst a little boy kept bowing and pretending to light the pipe, which had evidently fallen into strange hands. The gardens rang with shouts of laughter • and but for the hundreds who crawled over the palace, the destruc- tion visible laughter; the windows, the loud smash, and the hun; of thousand voices,

with the occasional discharge of fire-arms, no one would'think that a king had been dethroned and a nation ruined. It was much more likes masquerade scene.

It must not be thought from the foregoing that all were bent on mischief; many gave up all revolutionary feelings for amusements, while others endeavoured to

stop the strong tide of destruction. • •

"Return we to the Tuileries. Even here, as at Neuilly, the apartments of the Datchess of Orleans had been respected, and not even the toys of the infant Princes were injured: there was a silent reverence the instant her apartments. were entered, whilst outside was one reign of destrnetioa and tumult. "The Datchess had preserved the hat and whip of her husbod under a glass case, and no one dared profaue the relic by a touch; it. was looked at with respect and reverence. The books she had been reading still lay open; and even the curious seemed to imagine that she would return, and left undisturbed the leaves of -the 'Constilat' of Thies. • We have recorded her just reproach to that states- man, and it is a strange coincidence that she had been perusing this work but a qnertee-of am hoer previous to herrienouncement of its writer." The.apkesinnee of Paris after the revolution, with the fears and feelings of the .me, 'respectable classes of society, were dwelt upon at the time, I;ooth in the public and private correspondence of the newspapers ; but we have not met with Bo striking an account as this, of the lengths to. which apprehension drove women and men.

"Is it not shocking to think tbatin this great country—for great it may be in spite of the cowardice which it displayed—is it not shocking to think that when the darkness set in, it the daylight was inconvenient, no reunion of the nobility, no remnant of the Deputies, met to save their country? No; a general sauva qui pent' succeeded the declaration of the Provisional Government, and those whceconld not fly changed their abodes. Neither was this puerile fear only visible in the French; we know many English who believed that they were either con- demned as rich, (alas! how soon some of these became poor,) or because they had insulted their porters, or been uncivil to their tradesmen. Meurice's Hotel be- came a refuge for the destitute; many resorted to disguises, and we saw a Duke of great fortune dressed in a blouse, and walking arm-in-arm with about as des- perate a ruffian in appearance as even a French revolution could produce. Liberty, Fraternity, and Etprality seemed at once translated—Liberty, the sacred privilege of telling lies; Fraternity, a kind disposition to relieve your neighbour of some of his superfluoas wealth; and Equality, the state of the nation's and individuals' funds. Not a voice was raised in defence of the Monarchy. Every man expect- ed to find the guillotine mounted by the morning of the 26r11 of February, and to see carts loaded with the condemned going slowly to execution. Red became the fashionable colour ; women wore red caps and sashes, and red handkerchiefs suc- ceeded the black cravat. Some took refuge behind shop-counters; others dres-ed themselves as set wants; the paint-brush removed all armorial bearings from the carriages. The plate was eith r buried or sent away; some melted it down: all the packers of Paris were employed—indeed this was the only trade which flou- rished; and the nobility sneaked out of the capital. S •

"Not a shop was opened; men came and went, and passed here and there in solemn silence. The new sovereigns changed the decent garb many of them used to wear fer blouses; they were never silent. The eternal • Marseillaise' and the Mourir pour la Petrie' weie to be heard in every step; every man as he walked beat time and marched to them; but it was, after all, the heavy footstep of care, the uncertain tread of dismay. One or two carriages moved slowly about; the remises usurped the places of the flame, or drove leisurely along soliciting cus- tom.

"It was too aristocratic to ride, and many gentlemen considered a greatcoat a dangerous covering, as it was not fraternal for one man to wear two coats whilst equality shivered in a blouse. The only persons who thrived were the packers: opposite their establishments the trottow was not available. The once great and happy seemed now particularly small and sorrowful: no one thought of remedy- ing the evil; the only chance was to guide the storm, or entice-it, as warmth dues a current of air, into a uew direction. A thousand tongues bellowed forth a thou- sand newspapers; every man seemed to have set op for himself in the news line; and those who could not afford the luxury of the lies—fur not one, from the De- bats to the Lampion, wrote one word of truth—looked over, or fraternally shared the news with his neighbours. The people collected in various knots, and any per- son joined in the conversation: if three friends met and talked, the sound drew

around them strangers, who quietly and very orderly mingled in the debate. •

"As the shopkeepers did nothing, an opposition was got up to them by huck- sters, who spread out their wares on the pavement It required great care to Ock one's steps through the heterogeneous mass of articles thus exposed for sale. Everything, from a looking-glass to. a bandana handkerchief, was exhibited; it appeared as if all the pots and pans of Paris had revolted against their imprison- ment, and taken possession of the highways. There was no police; it was an evil to be got rid of by rain and cold; and Nature, which seems to have protected the French revolution from its beginning, did her work, and at last washed the pavement of these rags and tatters. There were no soirees, no petits sonpers, no dinners, balls, roots, or masquerades; no carriages enlivened the streets; dirty fellows, linked together, shouting and screaming, relieved the monotony of the scene; whilst intense anxiety occupied every mind. Paris was an inhabited tomb: such was the difference between the capital before and after the revolution."

Amid all the riot and saturnalia, Captain Chamier bears testimony to the honesty and good-nature of the sovereign people. Some robbery of the public property took place ; but mostly, he thinks, by professional thieves ; and occasionally there might be extortion from private persons, but very little. No other city in the world, he believes, would have ex- hibited such an example of honesty, or given so little reason for alarm as Paris at first, when the whole town, from sheer terror on the part of "respectable" people, and the absence of all government, was at the mercy of the rabble. Even when the goodnatured feeling of their first triumph passed away, and doubts of reaction with the disappointment of their hopes began to obtain, their personal politeness and gallantry re- mained. This is Captain Charnier's account of their conduct at an early stage of the business--the fete of the 27th February, held on the pro- clamation of the Republic at the foot of the column of July. "On this day all those who fought turned out with their arms, and all those who had not fought (the National Guards, for example) joined in this leviathan demonstration; the one actuated by a reasonable desire to maintain the fear which they had instilled, and the other party to show a great willingness to fraternize anti to avoid a rencontns.

"The glorious people wore principally blouses, carried every species of arms, from a crow-bar to a musket, and looked savagely suspicions. The more re- speetable warriors load muskets, which formerly belonged either to the army or the National Guards; whilst the last misnamed force came forth in particularly clean die-sea, by no means blackened by gunpowder. "The whole body fi eternized; the Red Republicans taking good care to inter- mix with the National Guards and both parties singing of course that spirit- moving song ..Mourir pour la Guards, From the Bastile to the Madeleine was one mass of people: at inns, vale there were regimental bands, almost always blowing the same tune, and every youngster of Paris seemed to have inflated his lungs with an, extra proportion of air to join in the chorus, and to shout • Viva is Re- publique!'

"We were present at this fete. And here we would do justice to the civility and protection a woman always receives: indeed, in this strange abode, a woman is a much better safeguard than a musket, and we wuuld much sooner be under the shield of a woman ihen behind a barricade. 'Place aux dames' is no fiction; excepting always at a supper-table, where the smell of truffles lures the invited: then it appears from the rush, is 'every man for himself.' "We were on this great and solemn occaeiou protected by two ladies, one of whom sat on the seat with the citoyen cocher, and the other stood up in the small carriage called a mi-lor, which is nothing but a cabriolet on four wheels. "The coachman was a Republican of the day—a man not easily diverted from his course. Hundreds of times as we slowly crept through- the ranks was he told to turn round and take a particular street: he had a ready answer= The ladies were anxious to Kee the ceremony: there were barricades in such and Such streets. He drove-no aristocrats, not he; but these were foreigners of the right sort; and go on he would,' and Ise did.

"During the low tireeome walk of the horse, not one word which could be construed into levity or insult was uttered; but several compliments, by on mails diaagreeable far any lady to hear, were frequently paid. Some gamin/Volt up be- hind, and hung on by the roof of the carriage: they only excited-Mari:Must ; and one Red Republican stood OA the step,. and gave every information .,40 we re- strired,, without far a moment overstepping the- bounds of the tociativederly

zr

The work closes with the election of Louis Napoleon ttellierPtiesitleitt- ship ; but Captain Chamier takes a review a the charactersTreeral persons who emerged at that time into greater distinction, and indulges in some speculations as to the future. Of the President and Changer.. nice he entertains a more favourable opinion than many do; be rather leans against Cavaignac. Of the future he can only speak with qualie. cations. He thinks the Legitimists have the best chance, but they may be defeated by waiting too long, or by accident. Some change he thinks is imminent; but whether an Emperor, or a restoration of the elder branch of the Bourbons, or the acknowledgment of the Count de Paris, or ano- ther revolution, with a war, civil or foreign, he cannot determine.