The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-11 00:00:00

THE CRISIS IN PARIS.

The Standard thinks it would be very rash to promise
that the accession to office of the new Ministry would
not be marked by some disturbances in Paris.
There is in that city, as unfortunateiy there
is in London, an army of roughs to whom
the idea of patriotism and of citizenship is
altogether unknown. But the fact that Tuesday night
passed over without any disturbances, and the fact that
in times like these the military titthorities will act
sharply and energetically, leave little doubt that
the promised revolution in Paris will not come
off: The feeling of the people of the capital,
whether for or against the Emperor, whether for
or against the Republic, is clear and unanimous for
war. Even the most i'iolent and the most foolish of the
actors in that most undignified sitting of Tuesday ask in
the most energetic manner for the prosecution of the
struggle. The cry throughout France is attx arm es, and
although it would be most unsafe to speak with assurance
upon such a point, it is our firm conviction that a
revolution will not break out. The sentiment
of a national danger, the conviction that the safety
and the honour of France depend upon the cordial action
of all Frenchmen, are too strong and too universal. The
blatant declarations of the Corps lAgislatif, for whom the
one great object is the gratification of their personal
hatreds, do not represent France, do not represent the
electors who returned them. 100 doubt, if the conduct of
the war should be marked by the same mistakes which
have hitherto attended it, the nation would ask, and with
justice, for the transfer of power to other hands. But
there is every reason to believe that these blunders will
not be repeated, and that if the French army is not
aided to victory by the superior strategic talent of its
generals, it will not be condemned to defeats by the
singular incapacity or indecision of those responsible for
its position.

The Telegraph says the meeting of the Chambers re-
calls such historic incidents as the dispersion by Bona-
parte of the Council of Five Hundred ; the strife be-
tween the Provisional Government and the Legisla-

tive Assembly in 1848 ; and, most vividly of all,
the armed dissolution of the Chambers in the
coup &eta of 1851. The whole of Paris seems to
have expected that the meeting of the Chambers
would be the signal for the outbreak of revolutionary vio-
lence. The courtyard of the Tuileries was filled with
lancers and dragoons ; the great expanse of the Place de
la Concorde was covered with a surging crowd, which
belied by its cries and its movements the appellation
of the square ; the cavalry were charging the excited
people, who in turn were clamouring far arms ; and
all the neighbouring streets were filled with fierce
blouses, held back only by the swords of the troopers. A
part of the Garde Nationale, when summoned to join in
the task of keeping order, flatly refused, and throwing
down their arms, declared that they would not leave the
barracks, since their duty was not to fight their fel-
low-citizens, but to go to the front, and do battle with
the invaders of France. That refusal recalls the
conduct of the bourgeoisie in 1814, when they listened with
deaf ears to the frantic assurances of the Emperor, that,
if they would only empty their money bags, and send
their surviving sons to the front, he would still save
France. They preferred to save France by
leaving him to his fate, and thus Napoleon
the Great fell. •rust as on Tuesday last, so
on the dark Tuesday nineteen years ago, and on
the subsequent days. Paris was in a state of siege, the
streets were filled with tumultuous crowds, the cavalry
charged the people, and then there came a ffght which
Paris has not forgotten. The two Tuesdays are strangely
alike in their lurid brightness and their suggestion of
coming woe. Both witnessed a scene of revolution—
strife in the Chambers, battle in the streets. The one
witnessed the birth of the Empire ; does the other fore-
tell its end ?