fully restricted, and for that purpose and with that object, held what they termed Reform Banquets in various parts of the kingdom. A great meeting of this kind, which was to have been held (peaceably of course) in Paris, was forbidden by the king at a late hour. The people were aroused; they passed from one step to another, from one pitch of excitement to a higher, until the working-classes took the power into their own hands, elected a provisional government, and declared for a Republic. Previous to this great final consummation, the king had abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Count of Paris, with the Duchess of Orleans, as Regent. It was at this trying crisis-at this most perilous juncturethat Odillon Barrot, the heretofore acknowledged leader of the liberal party, turned traitor to the people, and unblushingly advocated the claims of the new king in miniature-the boy-monarch of some eight or ten years of age. It is not pleasant to dwell upon such undisguised treachery; I will leave him to the scorn of posterity, by quoting a sketch of his personal appearance and character, as given in the British Quarterly Review:

"Odillon Barrot is a stout, stalwart, strong-built man, with a comely, inexpressive, and meditative face. His voice is full and sonorous, and he has a pompous and measured style in speaking, and he generally gives you rather the idea of a professor of moral philosophy, or a lecturer, than a political debater. But occasionally he warms to his subjects, and at such times an auditor may ever and anon hear some finely-conceived sentences, well delivered, with earnest and appropriate action. Lukewarmness, however, and temporizing, are the characteristics of the He is almost always tame, and generally timid, and though he has come out with more fire and force recently, during the reform banquets, yet if the people resist, Barrot will not be the man to lead them on. The great defect of this cold, calm, colorless man, is, that he is too full of theories and abstractions. Though he occasionally generalizes luminously, yet being totally devoid of fine fancy and imagination, his didactic disquisitions fall on heedless and unlistening ears.'

man.

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British authority, in all matters appertaining to France, is of a very questionable character; but as recent events have shown up M. Barrot in a similar light, the writer of the above is undoubtedly correct in the general estimate of his character. The American revolution had its Benedict Arnold; the revolution of France had its Odillon Barrot.

During the crisis to which I have just alluded, when the destinies of France hung trembling in such fearful jeopardy, a hero-democrat rushed into the arena, and with the strength of his giant intellect, patriotic devotion, and unfaltering firmness, gave Liberty to France, and we hope will give Equality and Fraternity to the whole of Europe. The idol of the Working-classes of France-the long-tried champion of social equality as well as civil liberty-Ledru Rollin, stands before the world, as the Father of the Republic-the successful champion of Equality and Fraternity. Abused without stint, slandered, maligned, aspersed, by the lying oracles of English toryism, the hired mercenaries of the British crown; all this repeated by the sycophantic echoers in America, in the venom of their spleen; commented upon by the "Mocking-bird nation," as the British Magazine writers are pleased to style " the free and enlightened" on this side of the water; yet he and his glorious compeers stand "towering sublime, like the last mountain in the deluge, the last resting-place of liberty and the light of heaven."

When one after another had given in their adhesion to the new Regency, Ledru Rollin rushed to the tribune, and made himself heard ; his powerful voice drowning even the Babel-like confusion which prevailed. In words of burning eloquence and indomitable fearlessnessin the very face of the Queen Regent and her stripling boy-king, he denounced the doings of the assembly; an act, which, if he had failed, would have cost him his head. This of course he well knew; he bravely staked his all upon the hazard. Hear him!

"In the name of the people, everywhere in arms, of the people, masters of Paris, in spite of all of them, I come to protest against the government which has been proposed to you." (Loud cries of "Bravo!" from every quarter.)

*** "If you pretend to say that a government of a day, now swept away by a sudden outburst of revolutionary anger-if you say that this government still exists, then we will keep on fighting under the banner of the Constitution of 1791, by which it is declared that an appeal to the people is necessary before there can be any regency created." ("Vive Ledru Rollin.")

*** "I tell you here again that the effusion of blood will not stop, till the people are satisfied and their rights are guarantied and respected. And those who have been fighting these three days past, will begin to fight again this very afternoon, if their rights are denied them." cries of" Yes! yes! yes!")

(Loud

*** "In the name of all that is right--for even in revolutions right must be respected, for we are only strong in proportion as we are in the right-in that name I protest, on behalf of the people, against your fresh usurpation." (Deafening shouts of "Bravo! bravo! Long live Ledru Rollin.")

He proposed a provisional government, which was agreed to, and after M. Lamartine had made a short speech in favor of the measure, M. Rollin read the names of those he proposed should compose that body, and moved an adjournment to the Hotel Ville, where they should be duly installed.

The talents, the courage, the genius, the intrepid, persevering, patriotic energy of Ledru Rollin, saved France, gave Liberty to the old world, and raised Labor from the dust..

Nor should his glorious compeers ever be forgotten. The great and good Lamartine, who so nobly followed and seconded the efforts of the prime-mover in the glorious work, and a long list of heroes, sages, patriots, thicken upon the view, whose virtues are like the dazzling constellation of the heavens, stand a brilliant group of immortal men, whose names can never die.

In nothing has our abject, slavish subserviency to English public opinion been more glaringly visible, than in the fears and doubts, and terrible apprehensions, which have been publicly expressed, not only in relation to the permanency of the Republic in France, but more particularly in relation to the character and patriotism of its most distinguished founder and champion. Our public press, and our public men generally, have exhibited a deplorable spirit in relation to this whole matter. They have taken the opinions of the enemies of Liberty in

K

England; copied without thought, published without examination, the monstrous perversions of the mendacious organs of British aristocracy; never seeming to reflect for a moment that the festering animosity of Englishmen against France, nurtured as it has been by them for ages, would of itself prevent an English journalist from giving a correct statement of facts as they actually existed; particularly at the present crisis in England, when if the Revolution of France was allowed to have its legitimate influence, allowed to stand out in all its measureless grandeur, it would overthrow the British government within a month. We do not seem to realize all this; we do not seem to reflect upon the almost imperative necessity that exists in England, among the monarchists in particular, to cast discredit upon the Republic in France, and to heap odium and dishonor upon its most prominent champions and advocates. Hence the unsparing abuse which has been cast upon Ledru Rollin, by the English tory organs, and which has been so faithfully and extensively copied by their echoers in this country. In all this, the conductors of the American press have shown how illy qualified they are to give a true tone to public opinion-how utterly incapable and unworthy they are of being any longer the banner-bearers of freedom among an intelligent people. Many of our editors resemble a young crow, constantly hopping about with the mouth wide open, ready to swallow any thing, from a rusty nail to a lump of dirt, if it only comes in the shape of Foreign News. The people swallow whatever is offered with equal avidity.

This

A diabolical falsehood was put into circulation by the British presses on both sides of the Atlantic. It was blazoned abroad all over the country, in staring capitals, that Ledru Rollin had attempted to overthrow the provisional government; that an immense procession of the Working-classes had been gathered for that purpose, but were overawed by the powerful force which was ordered out to put them down. infamous fabrication of British toryism passed current; was caught up and circulated by every gull-trap in the shape of a newspaper from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, when "Presto!" it was not Ledru Rollin at all, but A. M. Blanqui! When the truth came out, there had not been the slightest thought of hostility to the government by anybody; the operatives had turned out to make some election to the National Guard; and the National Guard, so far from being ordered out to put down the operatives, were out to give a military fete, receive their new flags, and fraternize with the other Guard. Shall we not become a laughing-stock for fools all over the earth, if we can be duped so easily as this by the English papers upon all occasions? From the first to the last, Ledru Rollin has shown himself an unswerving champion of the people's rights; this is the cause of the unrelenting hostility manifested against him on all occasions, by the enemies of equality everywhere.

It needed no extraordinary sagacity to perceive that all these rumors in relation to Ledru Rollin were base and fabulous. My own instincts as a radical reformer compelled me to discredit them from the very first. Besides he was the idolized champion of the toilers in Paris; and I had seen such indubitable evidence of their exalted virtue and intelligence, that I knew it must be utterly impossible for them to yield so implicitly to the guiding influence of any one man, unless he was noble, generous,

and just. Such has Ledru Rollin fully proved himself to be. I saw that he alone, of all the other leading men in Paris, was everywhere greeted with the deafening Vive! whenever he appeared. This was what stung the English spies in France to such a fever of desperation; it filled my heart with unwavering confidence and hope. That hope has since been strengthened and increased every hour.

Some of the rumors set afloat by the English journals, had at first an appearance of plausibility. For instance that an army of one hundred thousand men had been immediately sent to the frontiers after the three days' struggle was over. This was probable; the inference was immediately drawn, that France was about to propagate Liberty at the point of the sword; then followed, of course, a long train of predictions and anticipations, fears and forebodings. It all turned out to be "a flash in the pan.' Then the masses in Paris were on the brink of anarchy and civil war this proved to be a regular Munchausen. Then Ledru Rollin and Garnier Pages had come to high words; Lamartine had spoken in scorn; a pistol had been drawn, and the terrible wolf-eaters who had driven Louis Philippe into richly merited exile, were to be roused into a towering fury, somehow, somewhere, and by somebody, and the provisional government was to be devoured at a single meal. The whole turned out to be a ridiculous falsehood from the beginning to the end. The next whine of the fawning spaniels of royalty, was that the English servants and laborers had all been ordered to leave Paris in a little less than no time; this was superlatively shocking a hideous monstrosity—at least it was so considered by all the Englishmen born in the United States, as well as those born in Great Britain. The simple facts were these: when republican simplicity in the mode of living took the place of costly parade and hollow magnificence, the French nobility and others discharged their army of servants, reduced their household expenses to the rigid rules of republican plainness, making for once in the world, profession and practice to correspond. The English servants, of course, shared the fate of all others, no matter whether natives or of foreign birth; hence the wailing of the tory press of England, and hence, also, the unjust comments of the republican (?) press in this country, which declared that "this did not look much like democracy." Are such "blind guides" qualified to give a correct tone to public opinion in democratic America?

The next chapter of lamentations was over the formation of democratic clubs in Paris. It was considered as something superlatively atrocious, that the patriotic Workingmen, who had so gloriously achieved what no other nation upon earth had attempted to accomplish, a great social reform, should effectually guard the holy prize their matchless valor had so nobly won, so that they should not "be cheated again." I have seen no intimation anywhere, except in the "lying oracles" of conservatism, that they were intended to overawe the doings of the Convention to meet in May; but most sincerely do I hope that they will.

We have had too many false-hearted traitors in our own legislative halls, elected as the friends of the people and of the rights of Labor, who have sold themselves for "a mess of pottage," not to fear that the newly elected delegates to the French Convention, some of them at

least, may not also betray their high trust, unless they are "overawed" by the omnipotent power of public opinion, and the strong arm. The very fact over which the tory press of monarchy-ridden England groans so dolorously, that the Convention is to assemble in Paris, is the one of all others that should fill the heart of the true patriot with confidence and hope. Let any corrupt and treasonable demagogue in the Convention attempt to plot against republican France-if he dare!

So far from it being a fact that these clubs were organized with base motives and unpatriotic designs, the very opposite of this is the truth. A prominent American in Europe, in writing to a distinguished Whig statesman in this country, says: "I have this morning seen an intelligent friend just from Paris, who says that the spirit of the people is moderate, reasonable, and as firmly opposed to anarchy as to the return of the Bourbons. He denounces the strictures of the Times newspaper, as false in regard to the sinister influence of the French clubs. He listened with delight, he says, to the many harangues of workmen, that would have done honor to the most enlightened legislative body. He considers the London Sun and Daily News as the best for correct information and reasonable views of the revolution in progress." The papers in England which give any thing like a just and fair exposition of the true state of things in France, or the true character of the distinguished leaders of this great reform of modern times, are rarely, if ever, quoted from by the American press. The conductors of the press in this country seem to prefer the false coloring given to every thing by the English Tory journals, to any approximation to truth and justice on the liberal side. Even the liberal papers in England have a taint of the bitter prejudice so common and so natural to John Bull; how much more deeply influenced by it, then, must be those unscrupulous maligners of liberty, who have such a deep interest in maintaining things as they are, with all their aggravated accumulation of oppression! And yet it is from this polluted source that our prostituted press copies its opinions of the Republic in France and its patriotic defenders.

Another deplorable tribulation into which the English Tories and American-Englishmen fell, was caused by the powerful and patriotic circular of Ledru Rollin, addressed to the Commissaries throughout every department of France. In this most valuable state paper, he explains the pure principles on which the Republic was founded; urges, in the most forcible manner, the most zealous efforts in disseminating among all classes a knowledge of their rights, duties, privileges, and high responsibilities; exhorts them to maintain peace, harmony, love; to avoid all unnecessary changes, all violence and disorder—indeed, every thing that could possibly militate against the sacred principles of Brotherhood and Equality, upon which the new Republic was founded. This paper fell upon the ear of the minions of despotism like a clap of thunder from a cloudless sky; if their counsel should be followed, if these wise suggestions should be acted upon, their hopes of electing Bourbons and enemies of liberty enough to defeat the Republic, or else to produce anarchy and civil war, would be overwhelmed with disappointment. To make assurance doubly sure, to allow the people time to make themselves fully prepared to elect unswerving democrats, M. Rollin proposed that the