Paris, 23 June. One o’clock in the afternoon. At 10 o’clock in the morning the
Nr. 26, 26. Juni 1848
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
eleventh Legion proceeded to the Luxembourg Palace. The 73rd Line Regiment
arrived from the same direction, drums beating. The dragoons, the
National Guard and the Republican Guard took the same direction. During this time the rappel was being beaten in the tenth Legion, which is adjacent to the National Assembly. The general march
took the place of the rappel an hour later. Cavaignac issued orders to his
adjutants and to General Negrier in the courtyard of the Presidency of the National Assembly.
It is announced that barricades have been thrown up at the Porte Saint Denis and at the
Porte St. Martin. The first was probably formed by a cart laden with quarry stones, which, at that hour,
as I am told, was passing by those spots and was overturned.
It is said that the agitators are armed.
Two o’clock. At two o’clock the President of the National Assembly,
who had left his seat, ascended the tribune to confirm the above-mentioned
facts. He indicated the Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle and the Rue de la
Hachette as the points where hand-to-hand fighting had taken place. The population, he says, shows on the whole little disposition for the
émeute. I underline: on the whole. A woman of the people complained to me just now that the National Guard, whose uniform I
am wearing, fired first on the people. She cited the quarter
of the Halles and the Morgue. I retorted that we are doing our duty in dispersing the émeutiers. What does that matter? she answered, they ought not to fire on the people: it is so unhappy!
Many musket shots were exchanged in the Marais, barricades
were thrown up on the Place de Châtelet and in the Faubourg St. Jacques;
they are very threatening on the Place du Panthéon. The blood of the National Guards and that of the people has flowed. The National Guards are marching
in advance, mingled with the troops of the line; but it is asserted that the
Republican Guard has on some points joined forces with the people,
which has not occurred since 1834; several musket shots were fired from
windows.
The gamins of Paris figure, as usual, among the combatants; a National Guard sees a dead man carried past on a stretcher; he approaches; who was it? His son, the gamin. He flings
his musket to the ground.
The barricades of the Porte St. Denis and the Porte St. Martin were
taken from the émeutiers. The National Guards are in complete
possession of them.
Representatives of the people are running through the Salle des Pas-Perdus and are returning
to the assembly hall with the cry: That is no insurrection,
that is a conspiracy.
Half past three. Cannons are being brought up in the direction
of the Faubourg St. Jacques.
Four o’clock. A thunderstorm cooled the other
storms for a moment.
The National Guard is beside itself; it maintains that the government has betrayed
it. It had allowed the barricades to be thrown up without resistance
and later had had them attacked solely by the National Guard, instead of by the National Guard and the troops of the line. Gigantic barricades have been erected in the streets of Planche-Mibray and St. Mery. The barricade
in the Rue St. Mery rose above the first floor. I do not
yet know whether it has been stormed. The workers who yesterday evening
presented a petition to the National Assembly swore not to leave Paris
until they had been guaranteed at least bread for their old age.
The impression made by this day upon the bourgeoisie is indescribable. It
fears that from one day to the next it will fall into the hands of a Committee of Public Safety formed by
Barbès, Blanqui, Huber, etc., or of military despotism. The most complete discouragement prevails among it.
The workers, for their part, are driven to despair at seeing the
fruits of the February revolution, which they bought with their blood, so swiftly wrested from them and confiscated by their old oppressors, indeed their claims
treated with scorn and themselves once more deprived of the most elementary political rights.
The rain continues to pour down in torrents and will calm the émeute
a little. I communicate the following news to you as a rumour:
The National Assembly is said to have declared Cavaignac President of the Republic and Paris in a state of siege.
It is said that grapeshot was fired on the Pont St. Michel and in the Rue St.
Jacques.
After 4 o’clock. From time to time musket shots can still be heard.
Another correspondent writes: The National Guards marched
against the émeute with the repeated cry: Long live the Republic! Down with the Pretenders! At about half past three a certain movement was noticeable among the troops assembled around the National Assembly. The order to load rifles was given to the entire infantry—
the line, the Mobile Guard and the National Guard—two dragoon squadrons established themselves firmly on the Place de Bourgogne; the guard post at the
Place de la Concorde was reinforced.
At about three o’clock people again began to throw up some barricades in
the Faubourg St. Martin and the fusillade began anew, though
I have no more detailed reports from that quarter. Mr. Thayer,
battalion commander of the second Legion, was wounded in the foot. Another
senior officer, Mr. Lefèvre, an old artillery officer, received a dangerous wound. A commissionaire, Mr. Avriol, is among
the victims of the fusillade at the Porte St. Denis. Two individuals who
spread the rumour that the second Legion was marching down on Paris to make common cause with the insurgents were arrested.
Five o’clock. A downpour facilitates the dispersal of the last remnants
of the émeute.
The losses of the second Legion are said to be considerable; there is talk
of 100 dead and wounded.
A butcher from the Faubourg Montmartre is at this moment being carried into his house
with three bullets in his body.
All is over in the Quartier Laffitte, where the last hand-to-hand fighting took
place. It is said that quiet has not yet been restored in the district of St. Marceau.