The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-18 00:00:00

IheAnn 11A --=:)11111;
'44. r- •

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1848.

Anarchy has beeh effectually and permanently dis-
armed in Paris by a spontaneous demonstration of
attachment to the Provisional Government. A more
sublime ebullition of enthusiasm could never have
been witnessed than that which agitated the capital
of the French Republic throughout the whole of
Sunday, April the 15th, 1848. It was a splendid
corollary to the noble revOlution of February ; it was
a triumph of tranquillity over disorder, of wisdom
over insanity, of patriotism and virtue over a de-
praved and demoralising conspiracy of demagogues.
Thanks be to Heaven that the movement among the
ouvriers and the bourgeoisie has terminated in a man-
ner so eminently consolatory ! Li imu ROLLIN
will now find himself compelled to retire into the
recesses of that cabinet to which he has
only been elevated by a political accident ;
he will have leisurk to' con with delibera-
tion that inimitable essay upon rgoisme which
has recently revealed anew the intellectual re-
sources of ARMAND MARRAST. May the admirable
and patriotic truths, condensed into that essay, pointed
as they are by the caustic barbs of sarcasm,.and
fledged with the wings of eloquence, penetrate deeply
into the bosom of Communism !

An epitome of the circumstances which have
recently transpired among the Parisians may
not be altogether uninteresting or unprofitable.
What has just occurred in the republican metro-
polis on the Seine is too momentous in its
character to be regarded either superficially
or with indifference. Simply the facts are these :
A little after day break on the morning of Sun-
day a placard appeared upon all the walls of the
capital, convoking an assemblage in the Ciiamp
de Mars, ostensibly for the purpose of electing
officers for the Garde Nationale out of the labouring
classes. That placard was the signal for an insur-
rectionary movement; its initials formed the watch-
word of sedition. Under an appearance of legality
the foes of order were secretly preparing the weapons
of rebellion. Still the plot was germinated and de-
veloped in obscurity—the march of counter-revolution
was subterranean. So profound, indeed, was the
darkness which shrouded the intentions of the con-
spirators that the oucriers began to congregate upon
the place of rendezvous without any suspicion that
the object for which they had been summoned to-
gether was of the most malign and sinister descrip-
tion. Groups traversed all the principal streets
leading to the Champ- de Mars, and very soon
that vast area began to present an appearance
rather more animated, if not more formid-
able, than Kennington-common upon a recent
occasion. Before midday, however, a rumour got
afloat—a rumour which stirred Paris in its head and
its very entrails, in the council chambers of the
Government and among the gamins of the most
destitute localities. It was whispered abroad that a
thunderbolt of destruction was about to descend
upon the heads of the most illustrious members of
the " ;
Administration that a sudden catastrophe was
aoout to burl from authority the venerable President
DUPONT (de l'Fure), the Mayor of Paris, the
Minister of e
first Finance, and the immortal Founder of
the Republic, Provisional Minister for Foreign
Affairs. At the whisper of that ominious
rumour the whole beart of Paris leaped with indig-
nation, and before many minutes had elapsed the pul-
sations of the popularrageappeared to become audible
in the beating of the rappel. The result was
instantaneous. The sound of that the ocsin of civism
evoked from the different faubourgs a demonstration ,
such as had seldom been witnessed even in
of enthusiasm. The National Guards rose to that
city
a man
they swarmed through the streets ; they surrounded
the principal of the public buildings of the metropolis ;
they " presented a forest, of bayonets" in the great
square of the Hotel de Ville. It was a manifestation
of love for the Republic, of confidence in the Govern-
ment, and of hatred for the doctrines and schemes of
the Communists. Through this immense mass of
the armed guardians of 'liberty a column of merely
16,000 or 20,000 unarmed_ workmen, associated in
some manner with tho conspirators, advanced
towards the seat of the Legislature, but these
gentlemen very speedily dispersed 04 perceiving
the extravagant superiority of. their opposseskts.
Row enormous that superiority must have been may
be conjectured from the circumstance that the Ns-

"At, .
- *A,
41e4 dio
.
6)- I •
- . • 111 ;l°.
Q -011• .9"