The Express.
London, England, 1848-06-05 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, SATCRDAT.
Government has not been cured of the mania of
substituting itself as general employer. The railroads
being likely to escape it, it has snatched at the'
theatres; these, having become losing concerns, are to
be kept open at the public expense and under govern-
ment management.
Trade seems not more flourishing than the drama.
A large proportion of the shops in the I'alais Royal,
the Passages, and on the Boulevards are closed.
Within the immediate view of my window I can now
count a dozen closed, the shutters being all pasted
over with placards of every colour is the rainbow,
consoling the bankrupt within with endless repeti-
tions of " Libertk, Egalitk, Fraternitk." I counted
yesterday ten successive shops closed in the busiest
part of the Palais Royal.
The committee of the assembly have decided, by
15 votes to 3, that M. Louis Blanc should be im-
msched. Their report was read on Friday. M.
Louis Blanc addressed a letter to the President,
which was read at the opening of the debate on
Saturday, and in which the writer announced that he
would decline entering on any defence, and wished
the chamber to come to a division without any de.
bate ; nevertheless, several members addressed the
house on both sides, and Louis Blanc himself inter-
posed a few observations. The debate, which corn-
I mencecl at half-past one, closed at half-past four,
when the house divided, the result being as follows :
—After two divisions it was decided by a majority of
33 that the authorisation to impeach should not be
given.
M. Louis Blanc has ei:otilated a printed statement,
which he had previcraly delivered to the committee,
whose report was read in the assembly yesterday.

As this vindication was therefore before the com-
mittee, it most be assumed that the law officers of
the republic had communicated to it evidenoe against
Louis Blanc, to which this vindication was intended
to be an answer. After some preliminary observations
of no importaroe he proceeds to give the following
narrative of what occurred in his presence, and of the
part he took in the affair of the 16th May :-
1 commence by declaring, and that only to expo,' the au-
dacity of certain falsehoods, that I have never bad any rela-
tion direct or indirect with the cities= Blanqui, Respell, and
Huber. I have only seen the two former once In my life,
some years ago, and I have never seen the latter at all.
rationally I know neither of them. Like several of my col-
leagues of the old providonal government, I was sometimes
with liar, n Sobrier before the meeting of the National Aa•
aemhly, bas: since then we have remained complete strangers
to each other. As regards Albert and Barba, I should bo
'Aimed of myself, if, knowing them to be prisoners and un-
happy, I should hesitate to say boldly that I am their friend.
M. Louis Blano denies that he had any previous
knowledge of what was to occur on tho 16th :
I equally deny Bathes and Albert were engaged in any
plot; my relations with them authorise me to declare it im-
possible. My conscience and not my friendship for them
demands this testimony. On the 15th May I took at my
accustomed hour my way to the National Assembly. Some
libellers have asserted that on the morning of that day I was
at the Café Tortoni, with Barba, Manger:, and other chiefs,
concerting the movement—an infamous falsehood that I
throw back en passarie At the Assembly I sat, to hear bet-
ter, on the seam sat the droll*, near the tribune, when all at
ones a distant murmur announced the arrival of the crowd.
Many of the repre.entatives entered precipitately ; a cry of
"To your places!" was made, and I mounted to
the highest seats of the extreme gauche, where I
sit. Toe noise approached. The tribunes at the
end were immediately tilled with the populace bearing
standards. A short time afterwards, the doors having been
broken in by the crowd, and those persons who were in
the tribunes slipping down from the galleries into the body
of the hall, it was wen filed in all parts. A thousand did
ferent and confused enders filled the air. The tumult be-
came horrible. In the midst of this disorder I was deter-
mined to observe the same conduct as my colleagues. I re-
winked there, as they did, in my place as an alarmed but
powerless spectator of the invasion of a sanctuary that the
triumph of universal suffrage ought to have rendered in-
violable, as inviolable as the sovereignty of the people. But
soon (and there arc not wanting witnesses who can certify,
if need be, to the perfect exactness of these details) the
huissiers and attendants of the chambers dune to
inform me that an immense crowd was in the Rue
de Bourgogne and demanded me vociferously, and that,
if 1 did nut go out, they threatened to force themselves al.,
into the chamber. What was Ito do? Ought I nut
to remain at my post in the assembly ? or if I had
abstained when my presence was demanded as a means of
'calming agitation, would this not have been to incur a
grave responsibility ? I refused for some time the requests
that were male me, but as they became more and more
pressteg, I determined to place myself at the disposition of
the assembly. I then ascended the bureau of the presi-
dent, and addressing him, I asked if in case he should thick
it desirable that I should speak to the people, I was autho-
rised to do so by the assembly of which I was a membn,
and from which 1 would not separate myself. The president
observed that as at that mono nt he could not make himself
hoard by the assembly from the tumult, it was impossible to
consult the chamber. " Then," replied 1, "in the name of
the chamber, and your own, will you authorise me to inter
Jere 1" Ile answered me affirmatively, in presence of
one of the vice-presidents, the citizen Corhon. It
was then only to restore order, and after lusting
received official authorisation that I addressed the crowd.
Standing up on the secretary's desk I asked for silence
which was obtained, and I profited by it (I am supported by
the statement of the Munsteur) to invite the people to calm,
mod ration, respect for its own sovereignty, personified in
fact by an assembly proceeding from universal suffrage. The
tumult however continued In the hall and the agitation
without became every instant greater. I was assailed again
by solicitations. Relying on the consent of the president of
the assembly, I went to one of the windows of the court
which leads to the Place de Bourgogne ; I ascended the sill
of the window, where Albert and Be:Ws also came, and I
addressed to the multitude the language most proper as it
appeared to me to appease them. I said to them an substance
that the lawfulness of their wishes for a more equitable divi-
sion of the profits of labour as a means towards the gradual
extinction of misery could nut be denied, but that the
sacred interests of the workman would not I they might be
assured) be abandoned by the assembly ; that the eternal
honour of the republic would be to have laboured inces-
rantly to realise the right of all to be happy; that if
' there were fully in raising the level of this hope too
high, was at least one of those sablime follies to
which it was quite pardonable to devote one's life ; that it
was a very touching and noble spectacle to see a people for-
getting their own sufferings to attend to those of other na-
tions ; that in that was recognised the essentially generous
and universally benevolent genius of France, but that in just
proportion as the sentiments of a people were entitled to
respect, so it behoved them to present them in a legal and
regular manner, and I concluded by beseeching them to
leave the National Assembly full liberty in its deliberations.
I then retired to take my place amongst my colleagues,
when, seized by a numerous group who had collected be-
hind the wiadow, I was earned acmes the Salle des Pas
l'erdas. They wished again to hear me address them,
they insisted on it; they formed a circle; a chair was
brought on which they obliged me to mount, and I
was forced to address them. It wu then that speaking of
the invincible force of the revolution of February, but of the
absolute necessity of imposing it on the admiration of the
whole world by its moderation and wisdom, the only means
I of rendering it victorious over all kings, I pronounced these
words, so cruelly tortured since, "This revolution, in truth,
is not one that shakes but that overthrows thrones;" anal at
the conclusion of my speech was the cry that all the auditors
repeated with enthusium, " Viva la republique univer.
stile !" Almost at the same moment I was surrounded on
ail sides; they took me up and would carry me into the as-
sembly. It was useless for me to resist or to answer ; the
only shout really worthy of the people is " N'ive la ripe-
blique," Ten times I fell among the crowd—ten times they
raised me again. Some of them embraced me : others cried
" Don't stifle him." If it be wrong to excite such sympa-
thies, when one has opposed them by every means,
and when one hu always nerved the cause one be-
lieves to be the cause of truth, without condescen-
sloe, without flattery, without truckling to popularity,
I am guilty. Let them tied another trice in me.
It was thus that, in spite of myself, I was carried into the
assembly through the compact mass of invaders. They who
were present can judge by my conduct if I did not do all in
my power to avoid such a melancholy display. But what
could I do by physical force or entreaties? Worn out by
fatigue, bathed in sweat, my voice completely lost, I was
carried to the extreme seats of the amphitheatre. An
warier came to me, and said, "You cannot speak any more,
but if you will write en a piece of paper that once more you
conjure the crowd to retire, perhaps I can read it in a
sufficiently loud voice to be heard." I immediately took a
pea, and wrote, "In the name of the republic, in the
name of the sovereignty of the people, in the interest of
all, I adjure you to —" when from the tribune were
pronounced the fatal words " The National Assembly is dis-
solved." A great movement then took place in the body of
the hall, the impetuosity of which earned me to the Salle
des Conferences. I was called on all sides. A dense
and violent crowd surrounded me, crying, " To the Hotel
de Ville!" I answered with profouud consternation, that
every one might observe on my countenance, that to go to
the Hotel de 'Ville would be to risk the effusion of blood. I
asked where were many of my colleagues. I could learn
nothing of Albert; but someone told me they wished to con-
duct Barbas to the Hotel de Ville, and that he had opposed
himself to it with much energy: this was confirmed by many
of the persons present, who were strangers to me. Every
ore rushed to the doors ; the torrent carried me along
with it.

NI. Blanc here goes on to disprove that he ever
went to the llotel de Ville.
At last, having returned to the chamber, I was recog-
nised by some national guards. They rushed on me with
rage. " Prosecute him," said some: "kill him," said
others, "it will be sooner done." Happily some others, and
I am glad to state this, defended me with the same zeal that
their comrades attacked me. General Davivier appeared in
uniform, and was one of the first to protect my life. Amongst
those who surrounded me and were most active in protecting
me were my colleagues Larochejaquelin, Buulay (de la
Meurthe), Wolowski, Ailetiwaerd, my fellow-countryman
Couti, the citizen Moussette, the painter Gigour, a lieute-
nant of the national guard named Fcrey, • delegate of the
Luxembourg. I have since been told that, faithful to our
long friendship, M. Franpois Arago came hastily out of the
chamber to my assistance. lam happy thus to express to all
these my gratitude. It is certain, at least probable, that
without their intervention I should hare been killed. They
tore my hair, destroyed my clothes ; some wretches tried to
bayonet me from behind; there was one who, not otherwise
'able to vent his rage, seized my right hand and bit it. I
entered the assembly really covered with rags. In this
sondition I might have expected from my colleagues some
consideration prompted by mere humanity; but such is the
eruel effect of curtain misunderstandings inseparable from
times of revolution, that I only found in part of the &nem-
bl y thi most hostile feelings.