-LITERARY SPECTATOR.:

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1830.i

Tan is not exactly all that we could wish in a narrative of the events of which the author of Lacon has become the historian, hut it is the most consistent, continuous, and satisfactory upon the thole that has yet reached England. It is written in a fair spirit, with- out apparent exaggeration either of the wonderful exploits of The brave people, or Of the wicked folly of the infatuated rulers. The author is perhaps too fond of the grand style, and too liberal in the use of French words and terms of art, where plain English would have done quite as well and been more intelligible. In other re- spects, the narrative is well written.

The fight of " the three days" occupies the first and most im-

portant portion of the volume. This part, it strikes us, might have been profitably extended. Numerous instances of individual heroism must have occurred during the memorable struggle, which a person resident on the spot might without much trouble have collected. We wish to see the adventures of a few of the brave survivors told in their own way and language. Mr. COLTON gives a number of anecdotes, it is true, but they lack raciness : they re- semble the report of one who had heard of, rather than of one who had seen the strange and terrible things that he narrates. When the work of the revolution ends, the interest of the history flags ; we then get among speakers instead of actors. The debates of the Chambers, the accession of Louis PHILIP, the journeyings of CHARLES, and the capture of POLIGNAC and PEYRONNET and the rest, " come tardy off" compared with the spirit-stirring scenes of the Place de Grilve, the storm of the Tuileries, and the other speciosa miracula that precede them.

The least interesting part of this little volume is, notwithstanding, useful ; and indeed, all the documents connected with the revolu- tion—the ordinances and the amended charter—will be matter of frequent quotation and allusion by politicians and historians, in England as well as in France, for many years to come.

There is a theory abroad, that the whole of the revolution was planned ; that the train which was to blow up the reigning family had long been laid, the ordinances were merely the match by which it was accidentally fired. If the writers who espouse this theory mean, that the French people were resolved on obtaining a greater degree of freedom than CHARLES was disposed to allow them, and that they were willing to lose their king rather than forego their demands, the said writers announce a -truism that hardly required the parade of proof. If they mean that the French people were not perfectly ready to accept of freedom—a much smaller portion of freedom than they now enjoyat.the hands of CHARLES the Tenth, but that his dethronement and the exile of, his family were considered as necessary elements in the political reformation -of France,—they assert what is disproved by every fact that has reached the public. - To those logicians who tell us that the exile of CHARLES is the fruit of the Charter granted by Louis, we hardly know how to answer. If Louis, backed by all the Sovereigns of the Continent, and supported and encouraged by the Government of England, had been able to establish an absolute monarchy in France, we shall not affirm that it might not have stood for a period of fifteen years ; but the more probable consequence would have been, its destruction at the time of BONAPARTE'S return from Elba—there would have been no second restoration. Every one, even mode- rately acquainted with the history of his own times, knows that the real cause of NAPOLEON'S first, and more especially his second fall, was his despotism. The climate of Russia might destroy his army, but it left him five-and-thirty millions of subjects. Is M. COTTU, or his friend Captain BASIL HALL, so egregiously absurd as to imagine that five-and-twenty thousand English at Tou- louse, or eighty thousand Germans and Prussians on the heights of Montmartre, could have conquered France, without the consent of the people of France ? or that, if the only change offered to the French people had been an aged and useless member of a despised family, instead of that General whose achievements form the brightest page of their annals, they would have silently submitted to it? What was it that produced the apathy which, unless with a handful of the population, marked the return of NAPOLEON? Was it not, that all thinking men in France were inclined to keep, as the more tolerable evil of the two, le bras du view- Roi, rather than le vieux bras de l'Empereur PI' If Louis had not granted the Charter, the Revolution would never have taken place ! If Louis had not granted the Charter, the Restoration would never have taken place. To the real and substantial freedom which that measure conferred, Louis owed the tolerance with which he was received—a tolerance which in another generation, had he left a successor as prudent as himself, might have ripened into attach- ment, but which, abused as it was, has sent the poor dotard, who wanted both intellect for a constitutional and courage for a despo- tic monarch, into a second exile, from which no interference of foreign arms or movement of internal sympathy will ever again

summon him.

The narrative before us confirms the account which was given

• Narrative of the French llevolution in 1830. An Authentic Detail of the Events which took place on the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th of July ; with the Occurrences pre- ceding and following those Memorable Days. Accompanied with State Papers and

Documents. Paris, 1830.

* "Il faut le bras, le vieus bras de PEmpereur," said NAPOLEON, to those who sought from him, before the battle of Waterloo, some guarantees for the public liberties. The fact is, that BONAPARTE did, not keep pace with the age in which he lived, any' more than 1411. Corru. In this respect, the despot and the advocate of despotism are alike. by us at the time, that it was not the appearance of the ordinances on Monday which, being published during that day, in a journal not mueh more extenvively read in Paris than our Gazette is in London, were hardly known to the people ; but the non- appearance of the ordinary journals on Tuesday in conse- quence of the ordinances. On Tuesday, Mariam, the Pre- fect of the Police, issued a proclamation, ordering that every person found distributing any journals not authorized by the ordinances should be immediately arrested, and the joqrnals seized. This proclamation was very generally placarded, and added seriously to the popular discontent. The squares and other open spaces were soon crowded with talkers and listeners, discussing the astounding news ; for which not a human being in Paris seems to have been prepared. It became necessary to clear them ; and in the attempt to do so, the fight commenced. The Palais Royal was cleared, and the gates shut, by four o'clock. The masses of people, how- ever, still lingered in the Rue St. Honore,; and it being impossible to shut them out there, strong measures were soon resorted to for the purpose of dispersing them. The first shots were fired about five o'clock. By the discharge, two females were killed, one in her own house, and one in the street.

r

"The corpse of the latter, mutilated and trampled on, was afterwards taken up by one of the populace, who had the appearance of a baker's work- man. This man, whose athletic form, cast in Nature's manliest mould, gave effect to every word and gesture, carried the body to the foot of the statue of Louis the Fourteenth, in the Place des Victories, where he addressed the surrounding crowds in a strain of rude, but overpowering eloquence, which was responded to by every heart, and Vengeance," Vengeance,' burst in thunders from every tongue. The same man then bore the corpse to the military post at the Bank, and laying it down at the feet of the soldiers, he exclaimed, Look ! See how your comrades treat our wives and sisters I Will you act in the same manner?' ' No," replied a soldier, taking his hand, 'but come with arms.' " Arms were not, however, easily procured ; at length, some one suggested the theatres, and placards were immediately posted up directing the attention of the people thither.

" The theatres opposed little if any resistance, and, an immense quantity of muskets and other arms were obtained. Bands of citizens im- mediately surrounded the shops and houses of the armourers, cutlers, and sword-smiths, where they without ceremony helped themselves to every species of offensive weapon which these private depots °farms could supply. The Museum of Artillery, which is situated near the church of St. Thomas d'Aquin, and contains specimens of every implement which the ingenuity of man has invented for the destruction of the species, many suits of antique armour, two-handed swords, bucklers, lances, pikes spontoons, halberds, faulchions, battle-axes, maces, as well as matchlocks, netronels, and every other species of fire-arms,—all these were pressed into the corn. mon service; and weapons which, since the battle of Pavia, had remained in inglorious disuse, again mingled in the bloody affray, to assert that liberty which too often, it is to be feared, they had assisted in suppressing. Boys of fifteen might be seen tearing off the buttons of their fencing-toils, and whetting the points upon the pavement ; and the execution done by these young noviciates, and the address and courage universally displayed by them, were worthy of the glorious cause in which they were em- barked."

These unwonted weapons were the first, with the exception of sticks and stones, with which indignation supplied the brave popu- lace of Paris. The appearance of the city on Wednesday is well described by Mr. COLTON. "Nothing at this moment was more remarkable than the sudden and complete change, both of scenes and of sounds, which this great city now presented. A total stagnation of all business had taken place—every shop was shut up and barricaded, houses converted into fortresses, and 'windows, like the embrasures of a castle, presented nothing but armed men and the muzzles of their muskets. Without having witnessed the scene, it is impossible to convey to the mind of the reader an idea of the awful impression produced by the solemn stillness, so unusual at noon- day in a large capital ; a stillness produced by the absence of every kind of wheel-carriage ; a stillness rendered still more appalling by that 'which alone disturbed it—discharges of, musketry or cannon—the de- sultory firing of individuals on the one hand, and the volleying of the fu- sillades from the disciplined platoons of the military, on the other. In whatever part of Paris an observer had been placed, it must now have appeared to him that the war was raging on all sides around him, and that he himself was the centre of the circle of conflict."

The wonderful forbearance of the people is a theme that has been repeatedly dwelt on. The only outrage, if it deserve the name, committed on Wednesday, was the burning, by a party of work- men, of a post that had been taken from the soldiers appointed to keep it. This was done with a degree of considerateness truly singular—a little shed belonging to a poor woman who sold fried potatoes, and which was in the immediate neighbourhood, was carefully defended from the fire, and still remains.

In no quarter of the city was the struggle more deadly and obstinate than in the Place de Greve; where, it might have been almost imagined, the people were now suffering the punishment due to the blood which their fathers had shed in that spot—delicta majorum immeritus luens. Of the numerous instances of per- sonal courage exhibited in the assault of the Hotel de Ville, the following is a specimen. "The possession of the Hotel de Ville seemed to be a point of honour for which both parties eagerly struggled ; and three several times during this eventful day of the 28th, did it yield to the attacks of the citizens, although defended by a numerous force of gendarmes and Garde Royale, aided by six pieces- of artillery, the first discharge of which, loaded with grape and cannister, took place upon a dense mass of the populace, who crowded the square almost to the cannon's mouth. The effect was terrific; heaps of slaughtered citizens on every side told with what fatal accu- racy each gun had been directed. This severe check, instantly followed by vigorous and well .sustained vollies of musketry from the troops, for a moment produced hesitation, and signs of irresolution be- came visible on the side of the populace. It was at this decisive crisis that a young man, whose name, which merited immortality, unhappily perished with him, waving the tri-coloured standard, which he had car- n all the morning, cried out to his associates, who had already begun

to retire in some confusion, My friends 1 my friends I it is necessary we should learn how to die I ' With these words, worthy of Leonidas, he again rushed forward to the attack several paces in advance of his compa- nions, and fell, pierced with a hundred bullets."

We shall give another, in which the gaiete de cceur characteristic of the Parisian populace is eminently conspicuous. The defenders of the Hotel de Vile were galled by a constant dropping fire, kept up from the left bank of the river by some twenty young men, including three or four of the National Guard, who had posted themselves behind the parapet wall at the end of the suspension- bridge which leads from the Place de Greve to the Quai de la Cite. " At length a small body of Swiss were ordered to cross the bridge, to put this little band hors de combat. On their approach, these citizens, who in all probability never saw blood shed until this dreadful day, with the intrepidity of ancient veterans, left their protecting parapet, and placed themselves at the head of the bridge' where they received their adversa- ries with so well-directed a fire, that three of their number were killed, and several wounded, and after a hasty discharge, the remainder retreated to their former position. We must not here omit to mention an extraor- dinary act of gallantry performed by one of . these soldiers of a day, who, amid a shower of bullets from the retiring enemy, ran upon the bridge, and taking the arms and cartouche-boxes of the three fallen Swiss, re- turned unhurt to his companions, exclaiming, " Amis 1 Voici des armes et des belles."

In the neighbourhood of the Palais Royal, the fight was main tamed with equal obstinacy ; but there the soldiers were exposed, and the populace were sheltered. At the Place de Greve, the converse had been the position of the two parties. " in the Rue St. Honore the combat began about three o'clock. The Place du Palais Royal had been occupied by strong detachments of in- fantry, and gendarmerie, mounted and on foot. The Place du Carrousel was occupied by the grenadiers a cheval, and the lancers of the Garde Royale, waiting for orders. Their appearance was most imposing, and their numbers seemed to laugh to scorn any effort of an undisciplined mob, however numerous. About forty pieces of field artillery were all in readiness for action. The contest began by the people seizing the corners of the numerous small streets leading into the Rue St. Honor-6, from the Church of St. Roch to the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, on both sides of the way, firing as tirailleurs, and retreating to shelter while they loaded. Many were posted at the different windows, and the piles of stones heaped up in every story to the very garrets, showed plainly the reception the troops would meet, should they move from the open space, and attempt to dis- lodge their antagonists, who annoyed them at every point, but retreated with such rapidity, that they could scarcely get a shot at their unseen and harassing enemy ; while, on the contrary, almost every discharge

took effect upon a body of men who were compelled to show two fronts, the one up and the other down the street. This desultory mode of war- fare was dreadfully harassing to the soldiers, who maintained their post with firmness indeed, but without producing any effect. It was easy to see that many of these skirmishers, though clad as masons, or carpenters, from the skill and activity they displayed, had not on that day for the first time cultivated an acquaintance with a musket."

Nothing seemed so much to destroy the moral as well as phy- sical power of the Royalists, as the grosspegligence of the Court in supplying them with necessaries. Many of the men were with- out food for twenty-four hours. The 55th Regiment of the Line, which showed a noble forbearance throughout the whole of Wed- nesday, uniformly directing their muskets so as not to injure their fellow citizens, were almost the drily exception. They bivouacked in the Place Vendeme ; where their wants were generously sup- plied by Mr. ROBERTS, of the London Dispensary, and also by Bishop L1TSCOMBE.

The labours of Wednesday were not suspended at nightfall, but continued throughout the whole of the night. It was indeed on Wednesday night that those formidable barricades were thrown up, which extorted praise from even military connoisseurs, and in whose construction, it is but fair to add, many hundred veterans, in the habiliments of ordinary tradesmen, assisted.

"Things inanimate seemed almost to partake of the general enthusiasm, so instantaneous was the movement by which they were rendered subser- vient to all the necessary purposes either of defence'or of aggression. Men of every trade and calling lent themselves, as by one common instinct, to that peculiar department, in this general division of labour, with which they had been rendered most conversant by their previous habits and pursuits. The plumber betook himself to the casting of balls ; the sawyer to the felling a trees; the paviour to the throwing up of stones, as mate- rials for the barricades ; the water-carriers and hackney-coachmen might be seen busily employed in drawing up and overturning vehicles of the largest size, and in obstructing every communication of street with street, by means of these ponderous and massy impediments. The carpenter went to work in his vocation, and every species of timber, or of scaffold- ing was put into immediate requisition, to strengthen and fill up the in- tervals left in the stockades, and which were alternately completed by the ponderous materials torn up from the streets."

The activity of the populace on that eventful night formed a strong contrast to the deserted and forlorn condition of the military.

"Already many of their comrades had seceded, and had refused longer to oppose the cause of the people ; others amongst them held on their obedience, as it were by a thread. Harassed by such reflections, their arms dropping from their tired hands, with the bare stones for a couch, divided between the fear of attack from without and of treachery from within, the troops betook themselves to such repose as fatigue can some- times find, even amid the torments of anxiety."

Thursday opened with the attack on the Louvre, which was garrisoned by a numerous party of Swiss, who, posted at every window of the Palace, took aim with deadly precision. The people suffered dreadfully in this attack: it was at length successful, through the efforts of a party under General GERARD, and the boys of the Polytechnic School, who contrived to occupy the towers of the Church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and thus to command the palace windows.

"The church afforded a commanding situation for the besiegers, from whence they fired at every aperture, and at every point where a ball was likely to take effect. To a citizen named Rouvat, the people were indebted for the first idea of the occupation of the towers, and the galleries of the church, from whence their fire did tremendous execution upon the Swiss.

The first tricoloured flag: which floated over its ancient towers, built by the English during the regency of the Duke of Bedford, was hoisted by an old trumpeter of the chasseurs of the Royal Guard. In accomplishing it he was slightly wounded in the hand. For some hours, the fire was kept up with vigour and effect on both sides ; but soon after eleven, that of the besieged began to slacken. At that period, M. Langan, formerly a captain in the army, arrived at the head of fifty men, and having killed several Swiss with his own hands, assisted in the storming of the palace. Three columns now attacked it nearly simultaneously, on,e by the Pont des Arts, another by the Quai de l'Ecole, and a third by the colonnade, from the Place St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and Rue des Poulies, already mentioned. The assailants rushed forward, notwithstanding the terrific fire to which they were exposed, to the gate ; and after a brisk discharge, the last heard in this part of the building, entered in triumph at precisely a quarter to twelve, amid loud shouts of Vice la Mate t" The regard displayed for the treasures of the magnificent gallery has been often noticed, but the name of the young artist to whose efforts their preservation was chiefly owing deserves to be recorded. "M. Prosper Lafalst, a young painter, after having contributed to the capture, devoted all his energies to the safety of these valuable productions. He penetrated into the interior ofthe Museum, and did not quit it the whole day. His utmost efforts, however, to preserve the picture of the coronation of Charles the Tenth, by Gerard, were unavailing ; it was literally drilled with balls. A portrait of the same monarch by Sir Thomas Lawrence, experienced a similar fate. These were the only losses sus- tained by the Museum on this day of miracles." The readers of the SPECTATOR will recollect the lively and inter- esting account which we published of the capture of the Tuileries, and our correspondent's bodings of mischief from the wine of CHARLES'S cellars. It appears that he did not miscalculate in his an- ticipation of the effects of the Burgundy. It must at the same be ob- served, that the party which destroyed the interior of the palace was not the same as that which took it ; the former consisted almost entirely of the rabble, which formed the " tail " of the combatants. k. "It is remarkable, that in the library of the Duchess of Angouleme alone were found any pamphlets, or other works, calculated to give in- formation upon the state of popular feeling, or the events passing without the walls of the royal residence. The literary treasures found in the apartments of the Dauphin were limited to a complete set of A/manacks ! from the sixteenth century. It must not be supposed, however, that the royal library was deficient in valuable works ; on the contrary, it con- tained a truly noble collection, including the works of nearly every re- nowned writer from Homer downwards. The devastations of the popu- lace were not, however, confined to the Pavilion of Flora. All the royal apartments suffered considerably. Splendid specimens of porcelain, or- naments of the most costly description, and magnificent mirrors, were broken without mercy. A portrait of the Duke of Ragusa, in the Salle des Marechaux, was torn into a thousand pieces, and every bust or por- trait of the Royal Family was instantly mutilated or destroyed. An ex- ception indeed was made : one of the victors had raised the but-end of his musket to demolish the bust of Louis the Eighteenth when he was reminded that to this licnarch France was indebted for the Charter."

-The fight was raging at the Louvre and at the Palais Royal at the same moment. At the latter place, the military had recourse to a trick of unparalleled baseness, by which a great number of the people lost their lives.

"About noon, a proposition was made, or rather a boon solicited on the part of the Royal troops, for a cessation of arms for two hours; which being looked upon as a preliminary to a final arrangement, that might put a stop ta the effusion of blood, was acceded to without hesitation by the citizens ; who, far from suspecting treachery at such a moment, at once turned to the melancholy task of removing their wounded associates, and placingThem under surgical care. Hundreds of the populace unsus- pectingly entered the Place of the Palais Royal, and were already con- gratulating each other upon the termination of the bloody conflict, when, to their eternal shame be it recorded, the attack was suddenly re- newed by the Royal troops from the windows upon the amazed and un- prepared masses beneath."

In the assault on the Swiss barracks in the Rue de Babilone, led by M. JorFaEs, the ammunition of the assailants failed them. M. JOFFRES called for straw to set fire to the barracks, and in an instant the street was crowded with females, each with her palliass on her head! The Swiss were compelled to retreat before the smoke, after making a gallant stand against the fire.

The combat of Thursday ended about half-past three, by the capture of the Palais Royal. The Swiss, who laboured under the belief that no quarter would be given them, fought most despe- rately, and suffered greatly. The belief was groundless ; for, not- withstanding all the provocation offered to them, there is not a single authenticated instance of the murder or even maltreatment of any prisoner, during the whole of the sanguinary struggle of Wednesday and Thursday. The retreat of the soldiers towards St. Cloud is picturesquely described by our author. " The principal body of that confused mass, which once formed an army, took the direction of the road to St. Cloud ; and if the slightest spark of hope still remained in any of the adherents of the Court, it must have been extinguished by the silent tale of total discomfiture, so visible in the forlorn appearance of this shattered band. Their march, or rather their flight, was retarded at times by the feeble resistance of their rear- guard, occasionally facing about, and keeping up a desultory file, re- turned with vivacity by the people, who harassed their flanks, and con- tinued.their pursuit as far as the barrier of the Etoile. Cuirassiers min- gled with the gendarmes de chasse, officers grouped with privates, trum- peters and drummers thronged in by dragoons and lancers, some dis • mounted, others on horses jaded or bleeding, portions of regiments of the line mixed up with the splendid but disordered trappings of the Garde Royale—some fainting and breathless from exhaustion, others ten- dering their feeble help to the wounded—the flashes of musketry piercing at intervals through the heavy cloud of dust that enveloped them—the triumphant acclamations of the people—the melancholy and dejected air of the vanquished—formed altogether a moving picture, which the ima- gination may conceive, but a true idea of which can be formed only by those by whom it was witnessed." Here our extracts must close. The events that succeeded the victory of the Parisians, are not only better ascertained, but more of a commonplace kind, than those that we have been considering.