South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1835-02-14


sharpsned by princely conspiracy on
one hand, and by popular frenzy on
the other. He Witnessed, too, without
being able to prevent it, the butchery
Of Foulon before his eyes, and the reek-
ing heart of Berlhier, torn from his life
less trunk, was held up in exulting tri-
umph before him. On this occasion,
and on another, he threw up his COM
mission as Commander of the Nation.
al Guards; but who could have sue.
ceeded him even with equal power to
restrain these volcanic excuses AT
the earnest solicitation of those who
we'll knew that his place could never
be supplied, he resumed and continued
to command until the solemn procla.
nation of the Constitution, upon which
he defnitively laid it down, and retired
TO private life upon his estate in Au-
vergne.
| As member OF the Constituent As
sembly, it is not in the detailed organ
izstion Of the Government which they
prepared that his spirit and co-opera.
ton is to be traced. 1t is in the prin.
ciples which he proposed and infused
into the system. As, at the fist As.
sembly OF Notables, his voice had been
raised for the abolition of arbitrary i'm
prisonnent, for the extinction Of reli-
gious intolerance, and for the represen-
tation Of the People, so, in the National
Assembly, besides the Declaration Of
Rights, which formed the basis Of the
Constitution itself, he made or support-
ed the motions for the establishment OF
trial by jury, for the gradual emanci-
patton OF slaves, for the Freedom oflhe
Press, for the abolition of all titles Of
nobility, and for the declaration Of e.
quality of all the citizens, and the sup
preston Of all the privileged orders,
without exception ofthe Princes Of the
royal family. Thus, while as a legis-
lator, he was spreading the principles
of universal liberty over the whole sur
face Of the State, IS COMMANDMENTS
chief of the armed force Of the Nation,
he was controlling, REFRESHING, and mi
tigating, as far as it could be effected by
human power, the excuses ofthe PEG.
pie.
The Constitution was at length pro-
claimed, and the Constituent National
Assembly was dissolved. Ia advance
of this event, the sublime spectacle OF
the Federation was exhibited on the
18th Of July, 1890, the first auniversa-
ry of the destruction Of the Bastille.-
There was an ingenious and fanciful
association of ideas in the selection Of
that day. The Bastile was State
Prison, a massive structure, which had
stood four hundred years, every stone
of which was saturated with signs and
tears, and echoed the grcans of four
centuries of oppression. 1t was the
very type and emblem Of the despotism
which had so long weighed upon
France. Demolished from its summit
to its foundation at the first shout OF
Freedom from the People, what day
could be more appropriate than its an
niversary for the day Of solemn conse.
Grafton of the new fabric of Govern
men,, founded upon the rights Of man 7
| l shall not describe the magnificent
and melancholy pageant of that day
Ii has been doas by ADLER hands, and
in style which could only be weaken
ed and diluted by repetitiono* The
religious solemnity Of the mass was per.
formed by Prelate, then eminent a.
mong the members of the Assembly
and the dignitaries OF the land still
eminent, after surviving the whole cir
Gle ofsubsequent revolutions. No longer
father Of the Church, but amongst the
most distinguished laymen and most
celebrated statesmen of France, his
was the voice to invoke the blessing OF
Heaven upon this new Constitution for
his liberated country; and he and
Louis the Sixteenth, and Lafay ette, and
thirty thousand delegates from all the
Confederated National Guards of the
Kingdom, in the presence of Almighty
God, and Of five hundred thousand OF
their countrymen, took the oath of II.
deity to the Nation, to the Constitution,
and all, save the M onarch himself, to
the King. His corresponding oath was,
of fidelity to discharge the duties OF his
high office, and to the People.
Alas and was it all false and hol-
low had these oa.hs no more sub
stance than the breath that ushered them
to the windsl Ii is impossible to look
back upon the shor. and turbulent exist
eoce ofthisroyal democracy TO mark the
frequent paroxysms Of popular frenzy