South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1835-02-21

Oi Tie CouIt} PisuouHCiuB tue Oiutbdn'
ces null and void. A Marshal Of
France receives the commands of the
King to dispense, by force of arms, the
population of Paris !; but the sponlane-
GUS resurrection Of the National Guard
organizes at once an army to defend
tie liberties ofthe Nation. Lafayette
is again called frem his retreat at La
Grange. and, by the unanimous voice
Of the People, confirmed by such De-
puties Of the Legislative Assembly ss
we're able TO meet for common consul>
tation at that trying emergency, is again
placed at the head of the National
Guard as their Commander.in.Ch Chief.
He assumed the command on the Sc.
cond day ofthe conflict, and on the
third Charles the Tenth had ceased to
reign. He formally abdicated the
Grown, and his son, the Duke dan.
gouleme, renounced bis prelensions to
ipe succession. But, humble imitators
Of Napoleon, even in submitting TO
their own depreciation, they chung TO
the last gasp Of hereditary sway, by
transmitting all their claim Of dominion
10 the orphan child Of the Duke de
Berri.
AT an early siege Of the Revolution
of:1789, Lafayette had declared it as
a principle that Instruction against
tyrants was the most sacred of duties.
He had borrowed this sentiment, pers
haps, from the motto of Jefferson =.
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to
God.n The principle itself is as sound
as its enunciation is daring. Like ell
general maxims, is susceptible ofvery
dangerous abuses : the test of it's truth
is exclusively in the correctness Of its
application. AS forming part Of the
political creed Of Lafayette, it has been
severely criticised nor can it be de-
MED that, in the experience Of the
French Revolutions, the cases in which
popular instruction has been resorted
10, for the extinction of existing au-
thority, have beenso frequent, so IN.
justifiable in their causes, SO atrocious
in their execution, so destructive TO lib
erty in their consequences, that the
friends of Freedom, who know that
she can exist only under the supremacy
Of the law, have sometimes felt them.
selves constrained to shrink from the
development Of abstract truth, in the
dread Of the danger with which she is
surrounded.
In the Revolution Of the three days
of 1880, it was the steady, calm, but
; inHexlole adherenuo sfLafayette to this
maxim which decided The fate OF Inc
Bourbons. After the struggles of the
People had commenced, and even
while liberty and power were Crap
ping with each other for life or death,
the Deputies elect to the Legislative
Assembly, then at Paris, held several
meetings at the house oftheir colleague,
Lafitte, and elsewhere, at which the
question Of resistance against the Ordi-
nances was warmly debated, and aver.
sion to that resistance by force was
the sentiment predominant in the minds
Of a majority OF the members. The
hearts Of some of the most ardent
patriots quailed within them at the
thought Of another overthrow of the
Monarchy. All the horrible recollec-
tions Of the reign of terror, the massa-
ere Of the prisons in September, the
butchsries Of the guillotine from year
to year, the headless trunks of Brissot
and Danton and Robespierre, and last,
not least, the iron crown and sceptre of
Napoleon himself, rose in hideous sue
cession before them, and haunted their
imaginatcns. They detssted the ordi.
nances, but hoped that, by negotiation
and remonstrance with the recreant
King, it might yet be possible to obtain
the revocation of them, and the substi-
tuition ola more liberal Ministry. This
deliberalion was not concluded till La.
fayette appeared among them. From
that moment the die was cast. They
had till then no military leader. Louis
Philippe, Of Orleans, had not then been
seen among them.
In all the changes ofGovernment in
France, from the first Assembly of No.
tables, 10 that day, there never had
been an act of authority presenting a
case for the fair and just application Of
the duty of resistance against eppies-
sion, so clear, SO unquestionable, SO fla
grant as this. The violations of the
Charter were so gross and palpable,
that the most determined Royalist could
not deny them. The mask bad been
laid aside. The sword Of despotism
had been drawn, and the scabbard cast
away. A King, openly forsworn, had
forfeited everv claim To ellepiance. and