A Residence in France eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 393 pages of information about A Residence in France.

A Residence in France eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 393 pages of information about A Residence in France.

[Footnote 7:  No such exposure has ever been made; and the writer understood, some time before he quitted France, that the information received from America proved to be so unsatisfactory, that the attempt was abandoned.  The writer, in managing his part of the discussion, confined himself principally to the state of New York, being in possession of more documents in reference to his own state, than to any other.  Official accounts, since published, have confirmed the accuracy of his calculations; the actual returns varying but a few sous a head from his own estimates, which were in so much too liberal, or against his own side of the question.]

I have no intention of going over this profitless controversy with you, and have adverted to it here, solely with a view to make you acquainted with a state of feeling in a portion of our people, that it may be useful not only to expose, but correct.[8]

[Footnote 8:  See my Letter to General Lafayette, published by Baudry, Paris.]

LETTER IV.

Gradual disappearance of the Cholera.—­Death of M. Casimir Perier.—­His Funeral.—­Funeral of General Lamarque.—­Magnificent Military Escort.—­The Duc de Fitzjames.—­An Alarm.—­First symptoms of popular Revolt.—­Scene on the Pont Royal.—­Charge on the people by a body of cavalry.—­The Sommations.—­General Lafayette and the Bonnet Rouge.—­Popular Prejudices in France.  England, and America.—­Contest in the Quartier Montmartre.—­The Place Louis XVI.—­A frightened Sentinel.—­Picturesque Bivouac of troops in the Carousel.—­Critical situation.—­Night-view from the Pont des Arts.—­Appearance of the Streets on the following morning.—­England an enemy to Liberty.—­Affair at the Porte St. Denis.—­Procession of Louis-Philippe through the streets.—­Contest in the St. Mary.—­Sudden Panic.—­Terror of a national Guard and a young Conscript.—­Dinner with a Courtier.—­Suppression of the Revolt.

Dear ——­,

Events have thickened since my last letter.  The cholera gradually disappeared, until it ceased to be the subject of conversation.  As soon as the deaths diminished to two or three hundred a day, most people became easy; and when they got below a hundred, the disease might be said to be forgotten.  But though the malady virtually disappeared, the public was constantly reminded of its passage by the deaths of those who, by force of extraordinary care, had been lingering under its fatal influence.  M. Casimir Perier was of the number, and his death has been seized on as a good occasion to pass a public judgment on the measures of the government of the juste milieu, of which he has been popularly supposed to be the inventor, as well as the chief promoter.  This opinion, I believe, however, to be erroneous.  The system of the juste milieu means little more than to profess one thing and to do another; it is a stupendous fraud, and sooner or later will

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A Residence in France from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.