The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-18 00:00:00

FRANCE.

M. Buchez, ex-President of the National Assembly,
has addressed a letter to the journals in defence of his
conduct on the 15th May. After entering into some
details of what had occurred during the early 'Art of
that day at the Chamber, and protesting that he had
taken every caution in his power to protect the
Assembly, he proceeds as follows :
" Persons who have seen and studied popular emo-
tions have remarked that assemblages never disperse
until the solution they call for has been obtained. In
the circumstances in question the solution could only be
an act of violence towards the representatives. That is
what I saw on the point of happening every moment.
It was evident that the ringleaders of the affair
were no longer masters of those under them.
Huber admitted that fact at Versailles. Raspail used
all his influence, but in vain, to induce the people whom
he had led there to withdraw. Every one feared a
terrible dinotenaext.' ,It was at this moment that I saw
Huber near me, and addressed to him those words
which have been so wrongly interpreted—' Make
the people retire, or have me turned out.' Cer-
tainly I never thought, I never wished that it should
have been done by any public declaration, or by
such words as Huber made use of half an hour after-
wards—the idea of such an enormity was the farthest
from my mind—but I called down on myself, as I said
at Versailles, some act of violence which shonld drive
me from the bureau, and which would have been
the solution which the people appeared to wait for.
Every one who saw me can attest that I was at the
time perfectly cool and collected. I had calculated
the danger which I incurred, and it was perhaps
less serious than it appeared. I had also another idea:
I said to myself, that if I went through the storm as
I had done up to that time, I should derive great
honour from it; but that if through any fault of mine
any misfortune should happen to any one of my col-
leagues, I should be most culpable in my own eyes.
store interested for the glory of the Republic than
fur my own, I wished above all things to avoid a
sanguinary collision. That was my first duty, which
I considered it bettor to fulfil 'at the risk of incurring
blame. I saw but one means of gaining time, and that
was to write those orders not to beat the repel, for
which I have been so much reproached. I only wrote
five, three of which were placed in hands which de•
stroyed them. They were, besides, written in such
a manner, on little scraps of paper, without address
or date, that no one would have considered them as
li.4ving the character of a real order, and as I have
before explained from the tribune, would rather have
d to the arrest of any one who should have the auda-
city io make use of them. Besides, of what use could
they have been t Twelve picquets, of 1,000 men
each, had been assembled at ten o'clock in the morn-
ing, and the order to heat the general rappel in Paris
had been given by the Minister of the Interior at one
o'clock. It was then four:o'clock, and I was aware that
all the legions were under arms. It has been said that I
trembled when I wrote the orders alluded to. Let any
one, ,however, look at the writing if the two which
are preserved, and they will see from the firmness of it
whether I was alarmed. I signed them with more cool-
ness than I write the present letter. It is well known
how I was expelled after a declaration which was a
constitutional absurdity. what did I then do
I told M. Degoussile, the questor, to assemble
the Deputies at the Presidency ; to retake the
Chamber, if possible, and, if not, to send the deputies
to the Luxembourg, where I shonld convoke the As-
sembly. I myself went to the Luxembourg to centralize
the forces on that paint, in order to act against an
&acute which I considered to be more forreitlal and more
compact. When I arrived at the Luxembourg, I signed
the convocation of the Assembly at that place. That
measure was, however, useless; the rioters had ev scuated
the National Assembly, and the members were able again
to assemble Caere."