The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-26 00:00:00

NI

At 9 o'clock the Quart:er Transnonain and part of
**Rue St. Martin were filled with barricades, which
woe (guarded in military fashion by the people. The
inhabitants were politely conducted to their resi-
dences. Fires e ere lighted for the bivouac. In the
Rue Rambuteau, the people carrying torches knocked
at the doors uetil some one answered. They then
cried, " Have yon arms ? " " Yes." " Then give
them." When the arms were given, the people wrote
on the doors, "On a donne lea armes."
At about 10 o'clock the troops were all under arms,
opposite the hotel of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
A large body of cavalry was drawn up in the middle
of the greet, and s dense mass of infantry was drawn
round the whole of the hotel. Drums were heard,
and a body of infantry advancing. As they ap-
proached, it was perceived that they were pre-
ceded by a body of the people, all armed in dif-
ferent ways, and bearing the tri-coloar flag.
The people and this body of soldiers advanced towards
the soldiers on guard, and, after some explanations,
accompanied by shaking of hands and crossing
swords, in the military style of salutation, all the
soldiers, en imiese, sheathed their bayonets, the offi-
cers sheathed their swords, and q uitte d the hotel, leav-
ing the people ti act as they pleased. All that the
latter did was to cheer vehemently, while a young
man mounted up over the gate and took down, amid
loud cheers, the flag which was waving over it.
Shortly after this a body of national guards came from
the Rue des Capucines, amidst great cheering, and
took their station opposite the hotel, as the cavalry
retired towards the Madeleine. Everywhere the
soldiers, along the Boulevards, took off their bayonets
from the muskets, which they then reversed.
A little later, as the crowd was assembled before
the hotel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and were
uttering the usual cries, they were fired on without
any previous notice, and fifty-two persons fell dead or
wounded. A cry of vengeance was immediately
uttered by the people, and several of them hastened
into the neighbouring streets, shouting, " To
arms! arms! We are being assassinated!" Shortly
after a cut arrived at the offices of the National
containing dead bodies. The vehicle was surrounded,
by people, who were weeping and full of indignation,
crying, "They are assassins who have slain them!
We will avenge them! Give us arms I—arms !"
The torches, casting their glare by turns en the
bailee and on the people, added violence to the mo-
tions produced by the scene. M. Gavnier-Pages,
being at that moment in the offices of the
Nahonal, addressed the people. lie promised. that
he would employ his alerts to obtain for them the
satisfaction which is required from the ministers. The
carts left the offices conducted by torch-bearers; they
conveyed the bodies to dis,sint quarters.
M. de Courtais, deputy of the Opposition. hastened
to the Boulevard des Capucines to ascertain the causes
of this shameful butchery. lie found that tee colonel
of the regiment which had caused the firing to take
place, was in consternation at what had occurred.
He thus explained what he called a &Thimble im-
prudence. At the moment at which the crowd arrived
a bullet from a gun, which went off by accident in
the garden of the hotel, broke the leg of the lie u-
tenant colonel's horse. The officer covnmitelirre the
detachment believed that it was an a a k, and im-
mediately, with a guilty want of reflection, com-
manded his men to fire. This officer was immediately
placed in prison.
At 11 o'clock there was no actual disturbance in
the Rue St. Denis and the Rue St. Martin, and from
that !neighbourhood, the trerope were all withdrawn.
But the people were busily engaged in constructing a
formidable barricade near the l'orte St. Denis. They
had turned u? a great part of the font-pavement, had
seized several carts, broken down some iron railing,and
in fact possessed themselves of almost every thing
which it was possible to remove. The difficulty of
removing some of the stones was considerable, but the
mob enlivened their labour with reiterated shouts of
"Down with Guizot!" In the line Montmartre a
barricade was being constructed, near the hotel of
Baron Delessert, a short distance from the Boulevard.
The pavement was there dug up, the railin4 in front of
the hotel was brokai down, and several hack-cabs were
seized. At the entrance into the Faubourg Mont-
martre from the Boulevard, the mob was also en-
gaged in constructing a barricade. Surprise was ex-
pressed at all the troops being withdrawn, but it was
said that they were busily engaged near the Hotel of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the noise of the
fusillades described above confirmed that statement.
Some barricades were also thrown up in the Rue du
Faubourg Montmartre, the Rue Montmartre, and other
streets close to the Boulevards. Some cabriolets,
trees, barrels, and other articles were also flung
together across the Boulevard des Italiens, so as to
form a kind of barricade, but the pavement had not
been torn up as in the other places mentioned.
Daring the whole night a battery of the artillery
was bivouacked on the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle,
opposite the Gymnase Theatre, where the perform-
ance took place as usual. This battery, served by a
detachment of horse artillery, on horseback, had been
placed in the centre of a detachment of the line,
formed in a squ,re, which remained stationary.
The service of the arrondissement post-offices was
impeded on Wedneeday, and the day before, by the
insurgents, who prevented the postman from taking
the letters from the receiving boxes.
The democratic electoral committee published the

following:
The ministry is dissolved ! But the last events which have
agitated the capital call the attention of every good citizen
upon measures which are henceforward indispensable. A
legal manifestation, long since announced, tell suddenly be.
fore a lib rticide threat, denounced by a minister from the
tribune. An immense military force has been displayed, as
if Paris had had a foreign enemy, not only at her gates, but
in her very bosom. the people, generously moved, and
without arms, have seen their ranks thinned by the sol-
diery. Heroic blood has been shed. In these circum-
stances, we, the members of the democratical electoral
committee of the arrondissements of the department of the
Seine, make it our duty to call to the mind of the people
that it is upon the honour of the citizens, organized in a no-
tional guard, that repose, according to the articles
of the charter itself, the guarantee of our liberties. We have
seen, in sundry parts of the city, the soldiers stop with noble
sadness, with fraternal feeling, before the unarmed popula-
tion. And, in fact, how painful must it not be for men of
honour to be placed in the sad alternative of breakieg the
laws of military discipline or of killing their fellow citizens.
The city of science, arts, industry, civilization, Paris, in
short, cannot offer to the courage of our soldiers that field of
battle they so fondly dreamt of. Their attitude is a convinc-
ing proof of what we advance, and condemns the part they
have been compelled to act. On the other hand, the na-
tional guard have moot energetically pronounced themselves,
as it was their duty so to do, in favour of the reIOTIII move-
ment : and it is certain the result obtained would have been
effected without bloodshed, had there not been, on
the part of the ministry, the most direct provoca-
tion, resulting from a brutal display of troops.
In consequence the members of the democratic electoral
committee propose the following petition to the signature
Of all their fellow citisens .• Considering that the applica-
tion of the army to the repression of civil troubles is an at-
tempt against the dignity of a free people and the morality
of the army itself, constitutes a violation of true order, and a
denial of our li .erties. That the recourse to force alone is a
crime against the rights of the nation. That it i• unjust and
barbarous to force men to choose between the duty of the
soldier and that of the eitiecn. That the national guard has
been instituted for the express porp.se of protectirg the re-
pose of the city, and the liberties of the nation. That to it
alone does it appertain to distinguish s resolution from an
*nettle. The citizens undersigned demand that the whole
population be henceforth incorporated in the national guard.
They demand that the municipal guard be dissolved. They
demand that it be decided legislatively that for the future
the army shall no longer be employed to repress civil
troubles."

THURSDAY..

Barricades had been thrown up at an early hour in
different parts of the Boulevards, especially near the
Porte St. l )enis, where there was a very formidable one,
and near the Rue Richelieu, where there were two ;
in the upper end of the Rue :Montmartre two, the
Faubouig Montmartre, the Rue Geoffrey Marie, the
Rue de Provence, the Rue Cadet, the Rue Vivienne
two, the ltue Richelieu, the Rue dee Deus Ecus, the
Rue St. Honore, the Rue des Vielles Etuves, the
Rue des Fosses St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and in a
multitude of other places. The barricades were
constructed partially of cabs, diligences, carts, boards,
or anything else the people could lay their
hands on ; and these different materials, being piled
and fitted together as well as possible, were kept in
their places by paving stones torn up from the streets.
On the Boulevards a great many trees were cut down,
and the bureaux of the men who register the hackney
cabs were dragged into the middle of the roadway.
Almost every barricade was guarded by a small num-
ber of persons, some of whom were armed with guns,
others with clubs, but the great majority were with-
out arms at all. The people at the barricades behaved
very civilly to the passengers, allowing them to cross
moat of the barricades without difficulty ; but at
some of those which opened on the Boulevards, per-
mission to pass was refused. Early in the morning a
short placard was posted, without signature, to the