The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-26 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 26, 184

Thanks be to the Gob of battles, the sword of the
French Republic is reaping down the Parisian
anarchist's by the hundred ! From the innermost
core of our heart we utter that exclamation of grati-
tude, and we utter it with the most profound reve-
rence for the doctrines of eternal peace, with a per-
fect appreciation of the inviolability of human life,
with the most intense abhorrence of bloodshed, and,
above all, with an indescribable horror at the atroci-
ties of civil war. Yes—animated as we are with
these sentiments, we nevertheless thank GOD, from
the vary depths of our conscience, that the madmen who

have broken out into open insurrection in Paris are
falling rank upon rank before the majesty of an out-
raged nation. Bloodless the revolution of February
was until now, bloodless at least as compared with its
predecessors, and the first act of the young Republic
was an act of such sublime amenity—an act so glo-
rious and so gentle—we mean the abolition of the
punishment of death for political offences—that it
seemed to have invoked the blessing of OMNIPOTENCE,
it seemed to have sanctified the victory of the people
by a spontaneous sacrifice of vengeance, it promised
even to realise that beautiful vision of LAMAR-
TINE—the vision of a Republic consolidated by
order, illumined by magnanimity, consecrated by
virtue, and filled with the vitality of Religion. Dur-
ing three entire months the realisation of that splen •
did daydream appeared to be a possibility ; during
three months it seemed possible that the Genius of
Christianity and the Spirit of Civilization might, by
an intimate alliance with each other, lead to the or-
ganization of a Government " immaculate as a virtue,
holy as an idea, and everlasting as a principle."
Notwithstanding the reiterated efforts of the terror-
ists—of those men whose symbol is the red flag,
and whose only hopes are those of successful
crime and uninterrupted spoliation—notwithstanding
the 17th of March, the 16th of April, and the 15th of
May, the noble aspiration of LAMARTINE did not
seem to be impracticable, and the progress of mode-
ration was visible in a thousand auguries of its ulti-
mate fulfilment. To prove that the lovers of order in
the French metropolis were not over-sanguine in the
indulgence of such anticipations, look at the calendar
of the political events of that capital since the 24th of
February. A Provisional Government, aided only by
the confidence of the citizens, preserved tranquillity
until the inauguration of the National Assembly ;
that Assembly concentrated the authority of the law
in the hands of five Executive Commissioners; and
those Commissioners forgot, for the time being, their ,
many political differences of opinion, in the fervent
unanimity of their patriotism. No effort was ne-
glected to insure the bloodless re-organization of
society throughout France, after the terrible confu-
sion consequent upon the last triumphant outbreak of
demOCraCy• BARBES was confined in Vincennes ;
ALBERT was arrested in the Hotel de Ville ; BLANQUI
was hunted from his concealment; the Montagnards of
,SORRIER were disbanded ; the Garde Republicaine of
CAUSSIDIERRE were transformed from the :soldiers of
rebellion into the champions of the Legislature ; Louis
BLANC was frightened into an open repudiation of the
conspirators ; LEDRU ROLLIN was, by a master stroke
of policy, withdrawn from the side of the seditious,
and seduced into the ranks of moderation by the
lures of supreme power; COURTAIS was rendered for
ever after harmless by an unparalleled military degra-
dation—every man who was considered at all dan-
gerous to the Republic was deprived of the power of
carrying out his yearnings for an insurrection,
either by placing him in a false position with
his followers, or by conquering him with temptations,
or by crushing him under the heel of the Law by a
sudden and overwhelming punishment. The admir-
able success with which those exertions of the Re-
publican Government were attended, justified the
lovers of moderation in looking forward to the day
when Liberty—Equality—Fraternity should be not
merely a sonorous symbol, but a sublime and visible
reality.
Meanwhile, the cause of anarchy was gradually
accumulating to itself an appalling energy among
the obscurer quarters of the capital. Deprived of
their leaders, the Terrorists were by no means
disposed to despair. They felt that their
weakness would he dissipated by the awful and
almost irresistible strength derived from the anguish
of famine, and the necessity of employment. The
urgency of this was felt also—not the less keenly—
by the Executive Commission. We can recognise
the gradual dawning of the conviction from the day
which witnessed the mysterious abduction of EMILE
'fuomAs. Since that event—unwillingly and even
furtively, but at the same time vigilantly,
and with unutterable emotion—the eyes of
the Commission have gazed askance upon the
Ateliers Nationaux, upon those establishments
which had been founded by benevolence, but which
were rapidly merging into dens of insubordina-
tion, haunted by an insensate and traitorous rabble,
agitated by a hatred of proprietors, by an instinct for
carnage, and by the fanaticism of ultra-democracy.
On Friday, the 23d of June, 1848, the storm
which had been so long brewing burst over Paris—
' the Anarchists rose, and against them rose also the
friends of order and of moderate republicanism.
Often as Paris has resounded with the noise of civil
warfare, it never before exhibited such a spectacle
of horror and desolation. The 13th Vendernaire
was scarcely anything compared to it ; the days
of July are as nothing in the balance; and
the three days of February will for ever con-
trast with it as with an epoch of massacre. Imagine
to yourself Paris—that Paris which VICTOR HuGo
apostrophised only the other day as the metropolis of
civilization—imagine to yourself Paris declared in a
state of seige, the national representatives sitting in
permanence, the diffused power of the Executive
Commission concentrated into a temporary Dictator-
ship, and that Dictatorship confided to the hands
of one of the great soldiers of Algeria—to the hands
of CAVAIGNAC. Imagine to yourself the throbbing
of the rappel in all the arrondissements, the booming
of the artillery and the rattling of the musquetry in
the streets, the rapid erection of barricades all over
that vast city, the hand-to- hand encounters at those
barricades, the slaughter of the ouvriers on the one
side and of the National Guard and the
soldiery on the other. Imagine the Hotel Dieu,
the principal hospital of Paris, in the possession
of the insurgents, and the sick men and women
dying from sheer fright in their beds of agony. Imagine
the Clos Saint Lozarre riddled by batteries placed on
the heigths of Montmartre, its doors burst open at
the mouth of the cannon, and 200 of the Garde
Mobile out of one single battalion shot down in the
compass of a few hours. Imagine the ruffians in
defence of a barricade in the Faubourg Saint
Germaine, cutting off the heads of five of this same
Garde Mobile and leaving their bodies still warns and
bleeding as an omen of death to their comrades.
Imagine 1,500 of the rebels being marched across
the garden of the Luxembourg as prisoners,
and the Garde Mobile, infuriated by their
infamies, firing a volley among the gang
continuing
killing one hundred men in that
one blaze of
00 n vengeance.tin gwithout
Imagine
intermissioncarnage
and
these atrocities for
eighteen consecutive
hours, and you will then have
some faint
conception
the appearance of Paris and
the condition of Parisians during Friday and
Saturday. the f

From the latest intelligence, however, it would
seem that the cause of order is proving everywhere
victorious. CAVAIGNAC has acted with the resolu-
tion of a soldier, and the self-devotion of a patriot.
The National Assembly, guarded by an imposing
force, has maintained the dignity of its character in
the midst of its solemn and prolonged deliberations.
The Executive Commission, conscious of the grand
responsibility imposed upon it by circumstances, has
mingled in the greatest danger, vacating the halls of
the Legislature to distribute itself in all parts of the
insurgent metropolis. And above all LAMARTINE—
TEE MAN of the Revolution—lifts preserved the con-
sistency of his career and the glory of his reputation.
To quote the declaration of one now resident in Paris
LAMARTINE has exhibited the greatest firmness
and courage, being constantly with General CAVAIG-
/vac." It was by the side of LAMARTINE that Prince
PIERRE BONAPARTE had his horse shot dead under
him. It was from the lips of LAMARTINE (speaking
from the tribune of the National Assembly) that on
Friday came that heroic sentence----" Let it never be
forgotten, it is not in such a moment as the present
that the Assembly is called upon to show itself in the
streets ; that privilege belongs exclusively to the Go-
vernment; this evening and to-morrow We alone
ought to march forth, the Assembly remain-
ing here to deliberate in permanence : as
for ourselves (meaning the Commission) it is our
duty to march forth into the heart of danger; and, if
we have been unable to prevent the effusion of the
blood shed so nobly by the National Guard, we ought
at least to aspire to the happiness of mingling our
blood with theirs." Memorable words those—worthy
of the occasion, of the cause, and of LAMARTINE.
With patrotism like that for its defence, the French
Republic is indestructible, invincible, eternal!

THE INEAV
INSURRECTION