The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-25 00:00:00

0
Ittnnt I An

LONDON. FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 25, 1843.

CONTINUED
INSURRECTION AT PARIS.

FRIGHTFUL LOSS OF LIFE.

GU?ZOT has fallen, and yet the insurrectionary move-
ment rages with redoubled fury in the streets of
Paris. Count MOLE is installed as Prime Minister,
and yet the insurgents are more than ever irate, are
more than ever enthusiastic, are more than ever
resolute in bearding the military strength of the
SOVEREIGN. The revolt of a faction has dilated into
the revolution of a people, the disturbance of a day
into the convulsion of an epoch, the peril of a
Cabinet into the endangerment of a Monarchy.
Nor can this be any matter of astonishment. Con-
servatism has so long tampered with the personal
rights of Frenchmen, and has so flagrantly outraged
the nutional liberties of Franee, that some prolonged
struggle for their reclamation, their vindication, and
(if possible) for their permanent consolidation, has
become inevitable. Louis PiiimPPß has trifled with
the dearest and; holiest aspirations of a great people,
and must consequently anticipate a lengthened crisis
when once the passions of that people have been
fairly aroused, and especially now that their phy-
sical puissance has been so signally displayed in the
face of a standing army of nearly 100,000 of the
best disciplined soldiers in Europe, supplied with an
almost inexhaustible ammunition, furnished with an
abundance of provisions, shielded at once by the
constitutional lag i s of the law, and by the stone
defences of immense and almost impregnable forti-
fications.

Without any outrage beyond that of destroying a
stray omnibus, overturning a fiacre, pillaging a gun
factory, breaking the doors of a guard-house,
liberating a few prisoners, and heaping the
stones of the pavements into barricades, the
Parisians have conquered the despotic force
which had of late years enthroned itself
in the Tuilarise, and have driven a Ministry of eight
years' duration from authority, amidst the igno-
minious execrations of the Opposition. The Pari-
sians had acaomplished all this without as many arms
as would go into the quiver of a Paphian huntress;
they had subjugated the flatterers of the Orleans
Dynasty without the clink of a bludgeon or the
detonation of an ounce of gunpowder. Has any
city, under such infuriating circumstances, ever
evinced a more sublime and undeniable moderation ?
No; not one ! History is its witness. At ter
such testimonies of magnanimity, therefore, after
so many noble evidences of the popular wish
to combine legality with innovation, it is not
surprising that the citizens of that splendid capital
should be driven into the commission of excesses, now
that their forbearance has been repaid by such tardive
and insufficient concessions. GUIxOT, it is true,
has been compelled to deliver in his resignation, but
then that resignation has been succeeded by the
formation of a Cabinet quite unfitted for the emer-
gency, under the presidency of a statesman whose
energies are unstrung by extreme age, and of whom
it must be confessed, notwithstanding his integrity,
that his genius is suite inadequate to the occasion.
Not only is this inefficiency of the new Adminis-
tration an ample reason for the renewed excitement
of the insurgents, but it must be recollected that this
aggravation has been coincident with a very me-
morable and animating occurrenoe. The National
Guards here fraternised with the people, they have
declared for reform, they have joined their voices
with those of the multitude in crying out, "A bas
GuizoT!" they have chaunted with the mob the
heroic couplets of the Marseillaise, they have
bee■ saluted with that most glorious of all
titles, " Les Vrais defenseurs de la Patrie r Now
that the vast and organized army of the National
Guard has declared itself in favour of the populace
it is impossible to put any limits whatever to the
results of the present insurrection, or rather to the
new phase in that great French Revolution which
virtually commenced in the middle of the eighteenth
century.

Extraordinary results, in esicraso of the revolt,
have already taken place—results so extraordinary
to betoken in a conspicuous manner the increased
agitation and reanimated daring of the already victo-
rious Parisians. Several of the railway stations conti-
guous to the metropolis have been seized isy the in-
surgents, and the iron rails torn up so as to preclude
the possibility of any very speedy reinforcements of
troops to the Government. Severe conflicts have also
occurred in different quarters between the mob and
the Municipal Guards, who, from the commencement
of the outbreak, have been treated with jealous ab-
horrence. On the other hand, the regular troops
have received every token of friendship from the
people, and have evidently fulfilled the directions
of their superiors with an excessive re-
luctance. In the Faubourg St. Martin and
the Faubourg St. Antoine—localities already
famous for the conflicts they have witnessed under
the championship of HS/MOT—the fury of the in-
surrection appears to have attained its acme. Not
only were platoons of infantry posted before the.
Hotel des Affaires Etrangeres, not only were squa-
drons of cavalry placed in the Champs Elysees and
the Place de Carrousel, not only were forty
pieces of cannon on the esplanade of the Invalides,
not only did the troops of the line bivouao
in the Boulevards during the night of Wed-
nesday, but formidable bodies of infantry, cavalry,
Chasseurs u cheval, cuirassiers, dragoons, and
Municipal Guards were clearing the streets at inter-
vals, occasionally charging down upon the dense
masses of the people, and sometimes alarming the
more pacific civilians by the roar off cannon and the
rattling fire of musketry. According to the vague
reports which have arrived, the bloodshed in several
directions has been frightful, although every exertion
has been made and every device resorted to by the
insurgents to prevent a needless expenditure of life.
Glass, for example, was scattered aver the causeways
to impede the movements of the cavalry; and the
National Guard, in like manner,cos operated with the
multitude in striving to hinder an much as possible
any very serious collision.
Altogether, Paris is in a deplorable state of panic
and agitation. If we may credit some of the most
recent intelligence which has been. received, more
barricades have been now raised in the streets of the
capital than were erected in the Tevolutionary days
of 1830. Traffic was impeded--most of the shops
were closed—and, as during the Great Plague
of London, the ejaculation " LORD have mercy
upon us ! " was chalked upon the doors of
those houses where the inhabitants were stricken
with the pestilence, so it would seem that the
doors of several of the tenements in the Rue St.
AvoYe are narked with the insc4iption, " loi ox

donne des acmes r as a protection from assault and
pillage. Among other causes of terror to the more
peaceful Parisians are the conflagrations which have
lighted up several of the districts in which the gas
lamps had been entirely destroyed. In this manner
it would seem that the manufactory of omnibuses at
Neuilly had been ignited, and a guard-house in
the Champs Elysies committed to the flames.
The Government is in a state of dismay—the troops,
numbering almost 100,000 men, are strong enough
to crush a mere rabble twice their superiors in nume-
rical
strength—the Bourse experienced; the effects of
this great emergency, as visibly as a magnetic
needle vibrates under an extraordinary electrical con-
dition of the atmosphere—the more sober citizens
were breathless with agitation—and a terrible blood-
shed was anticipated.
Such was the position of the French metropolis up
to the period when our latest dispatches had been
received; and from the unwonted delay of our
ordinary express, we dread that some unusual catas-
trophe has interrupted the line of communication.
Whatever may be the immediate consequence, the
Reformers of France have at last drawn the sword.
The standard of a new revolution has been unfurled
at Paris; it flutters from the church turrets of
Amiens, and we doubt not but that the tocsin is now
sounding, and the rappel beating in many of the
ancient cities of the French dominion.

A grand alternative at length presents itself to
King LOUIE PHILIPPE. Shall he reign by liberality
or by despotism—by a liberality strong in the po-
pular affections, or by a despotism potent through the
sword, the bayonet, and the howitzer ? Shall he
secure to himself the love of his people, or the
hatred of all posterity—the first by taking the
initiative in constitutional reforms, the second
by empowering his troops to commit the " can-
naille" of Paris to destruction ? Shall he sink
into decrepitude in a palace guarded night and day
by praetorians and janissaries, or shall he, like the
Reforming Princes of Italy, pass unattended through
the swarming concourse of his subjects—unscathed
in his security and invulnerable in their love ?
Will he still hearken to the insidious incitements of
GUM; as CIiARLES X. listened to those of the
recreant POLIGNAC? Will BUQSAUD enact the part
so feebly enacted of old by MARMON; and will
JACQUEMINOT become his lieutenant, and conduct
the detested guards of the municipalities against
those brave Nationals who have been hitherto taught
to regard him as their father ? Amidst all these
memorable tumults, in the midst of this remarkable
insurrection, an Arm, a Voice is wanting—Paris is
waiting for a LAFAYETTB.

The agitation against the Income-tax goes on
gloriously. The metropolis is meeting by parishes to
protest against the re-imposition of this iniquitous tax,
and all the large provincial towns are doing their duty.
Norwich meets this day. The Chamber of Commerce
of that ancient oity, which has taken the initiative
on this occasion, represents, we are told, upwards of
two hundred arms, all the members of which protest
against the iniquity of taxing the hard-earned in-
come of the man of industry at the same rate as the
income derived, by the idler from invested property,
which property goes to his family after his death,
while the income of the industrious man dies with
him.

At Bury a petition is in the course of signature,
which will be presented on Monday. Liverpool and
Birmingham are organizing, and the Scotch are loud
in their expressions of indignation. We are rejoiced
to find this spirit so generally prevailing through-
out the country. The provincial press is unanimous
in its expressions of reprobation. Whig, Tory, Ra-
dical, Protectionist, there is no exception 1 all are
against the abominable five per cent. income-tax.
We would urge on all the necessity of not slumbering
at their posts. Petition! Petition! Petition I Let
each elector sign the petition against it,
and add the designation Elector to his name.
Bombard the House night after night with these
petitions, and Lord JOHN RUSSELL must and will give
way. He will not want a good Whig precedent to
justify himself for so doing. Lord ALTHORP was
obliged to withdraw his first budget, and propcse a
new one, and it will be the fault of the people them-
selves if Lord JOHN RUSSELL be not compelled to
follow the example of his predecessor.

The Grand Duke of TUSCANY has given to his
subjects a constitution even more liberal than that
given by the King of NAPLES. The Members of the
Senate are to be elected for life, and those of the
Council General for a fixed period. It is declared in
the 6th Article, that the liberty of commerce and in-
dustry shall be the fundamental principle of the
economical law of the State. All religions are
tolerated, and the law of mortmain is extended to
the whole of the Duchy.

Intelligence has been received from Lisbon of the
16th.

The Prime Minister SALDAMIA had promised a
modification of the Charter, and the Government had
proposed a Bill for th• regulation of the National
Battalions, which it was supposed would pass. The
debate on the Speech from the Throne had not com-
menced in the Deputies, nor concluded in the Peers.
There were rumours of a split in the Cabinet.

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