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

Obtning

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL Is, 1848.

Anarchy has been effectually and permanently dis-
armed in Paris by a spontaneous demonstration of
attachment to the Provisional Government. A more
sublime ebullition of enthasiasm 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
oureiers and the bourgeoisie has terminated in a man-
ner so eminently consolatory I M. LEDRU 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 leisure to con with delibera-
tion that inimitable essay upon egoisme 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 he 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 Champ
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 ourriers 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
afluat—a rumour which stirred Paris in its head and
its eery 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
about to hurl from authority the venerable President
DUPONT (de l'Eure), the Mayor of Paris, the
Minister of, Finance, and the immortal Founder of
the Republic, the Provisional Minister for Foreign
Affairs. At the first whisper of that ominious
rumour the whole heart of Paris leaped with indig-
nation, and before many minutes had elapsed the pul-
sations of the popnlar rage appeared to become audible
in the beating of the rappel. The result was'
instantaneous. The sound of that tocsin of civisre
evoked from the different fauhourgs a demonstration
euoh as had seldom been witnessed even in that city
of enthusiasm. The National Guards rose to a man ;
they swarmed through the streets ; they surrounded
the principal of the public bu gme
tropolis;
they s of the
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
15,000 or 20,000 unarmed workmen, associa7ed in
some manner with the conspirators, advanced
towards the seat of the Legislature, but these
gentlemen very speedily dispersed on perceiving
the extravagant superiority— of their opponents.
How enormous that superiority must have been may
be aenjeetuTed from the circumstpoe that the Na-