The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-29 00:00:00

3,030 packets of cartridges for percussion
1)135 of 0,0163 with capsules.
2d. To No. 16, Rue Rivoli, to be transmitted to
Citizen Sobrier.
400 percussion guns ;
3,000 packets or cartridges for percussion
guns, halls of 0,0163 with capsules.
The Lieut.-Colonel, Director during the interim
(Signed) C. LEJEUN E.
These two pieces are now before the public. Never-
theless, if I have not this wrong upon my conscience,
I might have acted thus with perfect innocence, and
I will tell you wherefore : from the 24th of Feb-
ruary to the 16th of April we had no public force of
a legal character to protect either order, the streets,
or property. The Government—threatened con-
tinually, both in its individual and collective capacity,
with risings, with manifestations, with imprison-
ments, and with assassinations—was compelled to
employ, in the defence of its cause, forces, whether
voluntary, personal, or even illegal. Each of us had
his army of friends and of clients as they had of old
in Rome during the times of the civil wars. On
certain nights, and under certain circumstances, the
Hotel of Foreign Affairs was transformed into a
camp. In case of attack, Sobrier placed himself
at the disposal of my political friends. He
had, according to his own account, between
five and six hundred men devoted to him, who would
hasten to an appointed rendezvous at the first signal.
We were then, be it remembered, in a state of legiti-
mate defence, for in our persons we defended both order
and society. It is a good time truly to discover
scruples as to the legality of placing a few arms at the
disposal of citizens without title, when we had a dic-
tatorial Government, four hundred thousand men at
the gates, and the law in our hands !
Some time previous to the election I ceased to
have any further communication with Sobrier. He
displayed in his journal the list of candidates adopted
by the Reforine and the Luxembourg, from which
catalogue my name was excluded, and which com-
prised only the workmen of the Luxembourg and
some names of political men of another colour than
mine. General Courtais afterwards came to inform
me that Sobrier held an armed club in the Rue
Rivoli, and he entreated me to use my former
influence over him for the purpose of persuading him
to dissolve this club, without which eventuality we
should be compelled to disperse it by violence. I did
as he desired. Sobrier, however, followed this advice
too slowly. Since that occasion I have had no rela-

don whatever with Sobrier. I learnt that hii name
had become an object of exaggerated terror in Paris
Until the morrow of the 16th of May I heard nothing
further respecting him, when upon that occurrence
he was conducted to Vincennes.

Behold the whole of my complicity with Sobrier !
It is the complicity of reason with excess, of calmness
in thought, with the whirl of opinions !
Many are astonished that I should have had inter-
views with men who appeared only yesterday from
the midst of the public dangers, and who were then

in some measure a means towards the restoration of
safety and tranquillity. I reply as I have already re-
plied in the tribune of the National Assembly, al-
though in somewhat different language—" What!
Citisens! You wish me to emerge from the volcanic
crater of a revolution, and you do not wish me to
have any contact with the lava ! How, let me ask
you, could I, by any possibility, have directed it, if I
hail not touched it ? And these men—they are the
Revolution itself ! Have you forgotten that ?"