The Express.
London, England, 1848-08-05 00:00:00

Previous to June 23, the least able citizens conceived no
doubt of en approaching explosion. Besides the signs we have
just given, a letter to Blanqui had been intercepted on
14th June, in which he was informed that a plot was about
to break out; that they would have recourse, if necessaryp
to fire and murder to insure its success; and that he should
soon be restored to liberty. The tumult in the public
squares—the daily assemblages in the boulevards—all
afforded a proof that an insurrection was about to break
rut and again defy society. In certain meetings of the
factions, the plate and object of which are well keown at
present, none of she members feared to express aloud their
regret fir the failure of the 15th of May, and their hopes of
a better result. An important witness has made the follow.
leg declaration : " I was in my coffee-house at St. Cloud ;
I overheard some men who had na,t in an adjoining room ;
one of them manifested his discontent with the
government who left republicans without places; he
epske of a man who had spared the country from
eighteen to twenty and who bad received
no reward. Some one exclritned, "Since they bad pistols
and poniards they should here made use of them." Their
conversation lasted about an hour and • half, and when

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these men were going away, oho of them was shown to me
as being Caussichere, the termer prefect of police, and whom
I had already a en five or six times with Mr. Desirabode. go-
vernor of St. Cloud; on s=eing, him pass before me, I said
aloud, alluding to what I had just heard, "These are famous
weals." Meunier, secretary general of the prefecture.
Grandmenil, and 13.irees, were members of the meeting. M.
Desirabode, whom we have interrogated, has denied this
conversation. The police seemed to suspect nothing. What
were its 12000 or 1,500 agents (Ding? It is true no
prtper instructions had been given to this vast
service, and that of the four police which had
, their seat at the executive committee. at the ministry of

tieinteriol,jat the prefecture, and the Hotel-de-Ville, not-one
w u well informed, each contradicting the action of the three
others. A witness declares the Minister of the Interior,
discouraged by such contusion, had ended by tailing his
agents to send no in more reports. (Citizen Recurt makes a
sign of denial.) The r"nieute had its establishments, its:powder
mills, end the authorities were ignorant of it, or if not, paid no
attention to it; it. auxiliaries, and recruits of men and money
andwere thein
p 1 i somee e. Thus,manner reofferedpuhi i era ni t both
guardsby whoth the
agrbe:nmdie "et-.
/teemed en the first dap of :Lt.., as bolos hoatil• to order
were still in pay on the 20th, and a great number
of them ware seen on the barricades. The harpies and con-
vects who had teamed from justice, aaso afforded their
contingency to the insurrection. By a fatal coincidence, at
the very moment of the insurrection, 20 cases of muskets
which nag just arrived from La Force, were deposited at La
Villette, one of the principal theatres of the combat ; the in-
surgents got them auto their possession as if by miracle,
without lighting, and notwithstanding the generous efforts
oh the national gnarl. Go the 28th of May, M. Trouve
Chouvel informed the executive committee that the focus of
the ,gitstiou was in the lechers nationaux, and that the pre-
veiling spirit of those ateliers had reached the clubs, especially
that of toe Rights of Mau. Ile transmitted the statutes of
that society, and demanded that measures should be
turn against its most influential members, against all
the chiefs of sections. Tho executive committee refused....
It appears it is impossible to stop on the fatal dee:Heat,. We
are ea the eve of the catutroihe ; imprudences and uncer-
tainties continued; the most urgent orders, even those which
came tram superior authority, were not put into execution.
On the 22nd June, iu tree m ailing of Thureday, M. Marbe,
one of the members of the executive committee, was apprised
that tetrad 400 workmen de sired to speak to him. He refused,
and declared that he would admit but fine delegates. They
were introduced. lie receipt sed Piz il, one of the invaders of
the lath May. Ile Mused to h. ar him, and, a felresti g the
others, who were silent, he said, " You, who are real work-
men, speak to me then ? Ds you need the leave of
Puzol 1 Are you hie slaves ?" The spokesmen began,
and complained bitti rip of the decree expelang th m
from Perm, and ended by threats of death. An
order, which was immediately sent to the prefect of
police, to have these five delegates apprehended could not be
put into execution, it was already too late. At thq same
moment 5G delegates of the 12. h arrondissement had met at
the Jardin des Plantes. At 10 o'clock cm. the Minister of
the Interior received, in person, the order of their arrest. It
likewise remained unexecuted. It was delivered on the 23rd
at 9 a.m, to the prefecture de police. It was remarked that
the date had beeu altered. The next day these men were
on the barricades, and directed the movements of the in-
surgents. It is thus, that from the bosom of the atelier
natioareue, where the delegates of the Lux• mbourg had in-
stilled the poison of their theories, through all these circuits
of action, this crossing of orders, these accumulated com-
plications in the police of the state—it is thus we
see the insurrection rise and develop itself instantaneously.
The money accounts of the ateliers nationaux presented
1 great disorders. The signatures inscrihed on the books often
appear suspicious. Dissimilar signatures are often seen for
the same name. It is a notorious fact that signatures were
obtained at the price of 25 cents. The number of signatures
which appear to be false can be reckoned at one-sixth. We
have called the attention of justice to this fact. A chef
d'Arrontliseement does not hesitate to say that since the
census of the 7th of J unc the brigadiers did not cease to
excite the workmen, becaure this census, by regulating cer-
tain parts of the service, would most certainly try the source
of the exactions which took place daily. The delegates of
the ateliers nationaux bad organised a club, and had
organised a formidable rues, thmugheut which was to
be found the influence of M. Louis Blanc. These delegates
received a high salary, and every person who attended the
club received 50 cent& per sitting. There was no more talk
of mere profcsions and of their opposed interests, nor of the
quarrels of masters and workmen. The ques.ion now was
armed socialism—that is to say, a permanent change, not
only for our finances, but for society at large. How were
honest workmen allowed to be deity empoisoned by such a
club ? Was it not a sufficient warning that a minister hci
been the object of its threats, and its prisoner for several
hours? Can we now he surprised that the departure of the
workmen for the departments proved impossible ? The
documents which we have examined prove that the insur-
rection found in the ateliers nationaux not only its army,
but the treasury which was to pay them. All the etepe we
have taken to discover from whence came the money distri-
buted on the barricades have revealed no other source than
the ateliers nationaux.
Citizen Thecae.—l beg leave to speak.
The 13.1:1•OKTER.—The brigadiers of the ateliers nationaux
were most probably the cashiers of the ..meute. Nothing was
then wanting for the struggle—the violence of passion, the
number of combatants, resources in men and money. On
the 23rd June, the insurrection, like a torrent which over-
flows its boundaries, enveloped one third of l'aris. Col.
Allerd, entrusted with the conduct of a column by Gen.
Perrot, deecribes the measures taken by the insurgents in the
tollowing manner e.—" I had preserved the historical remem-
brance of the siege of Sarregossa, analogous in more than one
respect to the present one. General dispositions had been
combined with most consummate art for the defence
of the faubourg. These dispositions must have been taken
long beforehand. The great number of barricades, and the
manner in which they were erected, cannot allow of a doubt
on that point. Some fragments of a bill published during
the lest hours of the insurrection complete the testimocy of
this witness:—" We demand a democratic and social re-
public. Alert ! Citizens, let not one of you be wanting at
this appeal ! If a blind astioacy should find you indiffe-
rent tothe blood which has been spilled, we shall all die under
the burning rains of the faubourg St. Antoine! Tnink of
your wives, your children! You will come and join us!"
Thus assudnatiors, pillage, fire, the introduction of empoi-
toned matters with the cartridges prepared for the enteule,
all assumed the character of a savage war, worthy
of the times oe the most horrid barbarity. Let us say one
word of the means employed by the authorities to repel this
horrible aggression. Public opirion had loudly blamed the
giving mon y to the ateliers nationaux during the insur-
rection. An honourable general had exclaimed, ' The ml.
ministration of the ateliers nationaux is in the emeute." We
must Will-Nish the truth on that point. It was thought
there was a chance of throwing thousands • more Iva
the barricades, if those workmei who had contracted the
fatal habit of making it a condition of labour, were left
unpaid. The president of the assembly and the chief of the
executive agreed in this opinion ; it was by their order
the payments were still continued. Another im-
portant - circumstance, and which might have had the most
serious consequences, was believed by the population
and national guard. At the comm ncement of the hostilities
a complaint was heard on all sides that the army was not to I
be seen. Wu it absent ? Did not the effective correspond
to the great exigency of the moment ? General uneasiness
prevailed; the barricades were 1 eing erected on all sides
without the leant resistance. Was it treachery? What was
going on ? Where were those men who were to defend
society, attacked with such violence ? Every one was lost in
conjectures, and the insurrection was rapidly gaining ground.
This situation is explained by the combinations and plan of
General Cavaignac. He had c acentrated his troops around
the seat of government end the assembly, and from thence
he sent them on in columns towards the principal points of
1 the insurrection. He would not allow his troops, as at
former perieds, to be distributed in small tevliee :end
ezeiseed thus to humiliating capitulations. Ile would
net slow the honour of the army to be sullied in these new
combats, nor that paths' defeats should damp its courage sr
demoralise its ronks; he wished the insurgents to receive a
mortal stroke on every point where the defenders of order
should present themselves, that the insurrection should
be convinced at once of its inferiority and inevitable defeat.
Success has fully justified the provisions of the able general.
Moreover, we have positively ascertained by the examination
of the official documents, that upwards of 25,000 men were
quartered in Paris and the environs. Another general said
to US :—" What has caused the struggle to last, is, that in
the first day, the authorities were averse to em-
ploying great means, as in the case of a city taken
by storm ; from the moment the circumstances ren-
dered such means obliaatory, all was evidently decided."
After having spoken of - the courage, devoteduess, and abne-
gation which were displayed during the bloody battles by
all the corps organised for the defence of the state, it is a
duty to ourselves, in order to complete our task, to say a
word of the political men we have met in this part of our
investigation. Among the first, is the name of a represen-
tative, who though he has taken no active and ostensible
part in the insurrection, has had great influence over the
events of June. M. Trelat, former minister of public work',
declares ."I know nothing particularly of a visit paid by M.
Louis Blanc to the ateliers of Clichy a few days before
i the taking up of arms on the 23rd of June. But in my tole-
:ions with the workmen I have always recognised the lan-
guage of M. Louis Blanc, his manner of expressing
himsed, !Ds accent, his gestures even, in short, all
his inem:ations. I was mote especiallystruck
with this coincidence in a meeting of workmen on the North
Railway. They made use of his own expressions. I thought
be had preceded me: a few seconds. before, FO great, so vivid
was the impression of tie personality. L. Mine was an old
friend of mine, but since these events I have nat courage to
speak to him. I look upon him as the cause Of all the eats-
fortunes of our country. (Agitation.) I dull say a word of