CHAPTER IV.

ACCURSI IN PARIS.-RUSCONI IN LONDON.-CARE TAKEN OF THE WOUNDED FRENCH AND THE PRISONERS.-EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. -ADDRESS OF FILOPANTI IN ST. PETER'S.-EXCUSES AND ACCUSATIONS OF GENERAL OUDINOT, AND OF THE FRENCH AMBASSADORS AT GAETA RELATIVE TO THE COMBAT OF THE 30TH APRIL.-REMARKS.-CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PARISIAN MOVEMENT OF FEBRUARY, 1848.-ON ITS CONSEQUENCES.-ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NEW STATE.-ON THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.-EXCITEMENT PRODUCED IN THE MINDS OF THE ASSEMBLY BY THE NEWS OF THE 30TH OF APRIL.-SPEECH OF JULES FAVRE.-ANSWER OF BARROT.-CONCLUSION OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE ASSEMBLY.-TEXT OF THE COMMISSION GIVEN TO LESSEPS.-SOME EXPRESSIONS USED BY BARROT AND BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC.-TENOR OF A SPEECH MADE BY BARROT TO THE ASSEMBLY.-ORDERS GIVEN TO GENERAL OUDINOT BY THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.-LETTER FROM GENERAL OUDINOT TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC.-ARRIVAL OF LESSEPS IN THE FRENCH CAMP.

THE governors of Rome thinking, on account of the victory which they had obtained, that they must endeavour to work upon France, sent Accursi to Paris for the purpose of treating, not so much with the Government as with the parties and sects which were opposed to it. At the same time, Rusconi wrote to the Catholic Governments, endeavouring to convince them that the enterprise in which they had engaged was bringing dishonour upon religion, by contaminating its robe with the blood they were shedding in order to

restore the temporal throne of the Pope. And inasmuch as he hoped but little from the French, and thought it was his duty to endeavour by every means in his power to obtain the countenance of England, he went himself to London to second the exertions of the Deputy Marioni, whom the Triumvirs had sent thither as an ambassador.

The French prisoners in Rome, and especially the wounded, were provided with every comfort, and attended to with the greatest care. History disclaims the whispered imputations on the character of the ladies who distinguished themselves in these charitable works, for if there be truth in the charge that all were not wholly irreproachable (a charge which the rightminded would not urge, and the pious would ignore), private life is sacred in the temple of charity. Nor was it only to the wounded who had fallen into their power that the Romans showed kindness, for General Oudinot having asked as a favour that physicians might be sent to attend those whom he had left at Maglianella, they complied with his wishes, on which followed an exchange of good offices, and reciprocal proofs of generous feeling. When discussions were commenced respecting the exchange of prisoners, the General set at liberty the battalion of Mellara, and the Triumvirs announced that, as there was no reason for war between France and Rome, the latter, whilst firm in defending her own independence, was most anxious to avoid any misunderstanding between the two Republics, therefore the Roman people would not consider the soldiers who fought in obedience to the commands of

the French Government as responsible for its errors, and would accordingly liberate the prisoners of the 30th of April. These soldiers were led through the streets of Rome amidst crowds of an applauding people, and entered St. Peter's, where Filopanti solemnly addressed them in these words:" Frenchmen and Italians! in this holy and sublime temple, let us together pray to the Omnipotent for the liberty of all people, and for universal fraternity." It was a striking sight to see them, Frenchmen and Italians, offering up their prayers together. When the French soon after left the church, they were accompanied to the gates of the city by the rejoicing people, and took their way to their quarters at Palo.

The news of the events of the 30th of April having reached Paris, the Government, the Assembly, and the factions, were affected and excited in various ways, according to their different characters and opinions. General Oudinot, whilst urging that he should have immediate reinforcements, had sought to retrieve his own reputation by laying on the refugees all the blame of the resistance offered by Rome, and had excused his own blunders by the supposed stratagems of the enemy. The ambassadors at Gaeta having also urged the General to attack the capital, when they found that the enterprise had turned out so contrary to their expectations, exaggerated the violence and the number of the foreigners, who they said were overpowering. Perhaps when this period shall become antiquity, and when the memory of the events here narrated shall be far removed from the passions which cast a veil over

the judgment, it will seem difficult to believe that those foreign Governments who bore arms against Rome could have made charges so insulting, and so contrary to the rights of nations, and that a private foreigner had undertaken to defend them. Yet we are witness to these and other insults and impostures, which, proceeding coolly with the narrative, I leave to the conscience of civilised nations to judge.

The Constitution of the French Republic having been sanctioned, and Buonaparte chosen President by the people, the Constituent French Assembly had now arrived at the termination of its existence. Although, generally speaking, in popular assemblies created by revolutions, moderate opinions only gain the ascendancy after a long interval from the stormy moment in which they have their origin, yet in this Constituent Assembly it was conservative ideas that prevailed, and the Catholic and Monarchical party had the upper hand. Which circumstance we must not refer so much to the stratagems they employed (which those persons are accustomed to do who ground their opinions upon circumstances which are merely accidental and lie upon the surface), as to the very nature of the movement which, in February, 1848, converted France into a republic-to its immediate consequences-and to the fallacy of the doctrines on which the new State was based. This movement, Parisian rather than national, was brought about much more by the influence of Papal cosmopolitanism, which had become liberal by a recent chance, and by the reforming movements in Italy, than by the virtue or strength of the French

Republicans, who, had it not been for the obstinacy of Louis Philippe and his counsellors, would not have been able, even temporarily, to catch fortune by the forelock. If this were not sufficiently shown in other ways, it would be conclusively proved by the mode in which the movement ended; for the nature of revolutions is better seen in their course, and the results in which they terminate, than in the noise which they make and the ephemeral changes which they generate. In the people and amongst the educated citizens there was a strong and just desire for greater extension of the franchise; in the lower orders of the large cities, the need and ardent desire for economical reforms was in some degree real; in all classes admiration of the triumphant Italian commotions prevailed, and the mania for imitation. The blindness of the Government and of the Conservative bigots gave opportunity to their eager adversaries and rivals of stirring up the city-to the republican faction of overpowering the Government-to the economic party of putting themselves forward and making their own use of the Republic. Monarchical institutions having fallen, those who had insurrectionised the city by attempting to extend them were struck with alarm, together with the conquered Conservatives; the men who had proposed to themselves the Republic as the ultimate end of their conspiracies, proud and astonished at their easy triumph, became at once conservative, and thus the Parisian movement suddenly took a retrograde direction; for every revolution which stops, recedes, or rather ceases altogether. The economic party