the day, and heard the report of the commissaries returned from communicating the thanks of the representatives to the army, which they found amounting to 73,000 soldiers, 14,000 of whom were of the old guard.

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M. Regnault then moved, that the national guard should be released from its oath of fidelity to the chamber, be considered as a guard of honour only, and directed to make no resistance to any armed force that might attempt to enter the hall. "You alone," said the orator," are to "encounter; you alone have to resist the ene"mies of your independence." He concluded by moving, "that Marshal Massena should be instantly informed of this resolution, and that "the prefect of the Seine should be recommended "to take every measure necessary for the pub"lic safety." Both propositions were adopted, M. Durbach having first premised, that the mover, when he mentioned non-resistance to an armed force, did not allude to an assemblage of traitors, the tools of a faction, but to foreign troops. M. Durbach himself then said, "I propose, that, conformably to what is prescribed by our constitution, the ministers do assemble " and form a council of government; " but M. Carnot assured the chamber, that the ministers were still in activity, and that the public service

would suffer no interruption.

The assembly

then proceeded to vote on the peerage. The chamber divided twice; the decision remained doubtful, even at the second trial, but the president pronounced the assembly to have voted that the peerage should be hereditary and unlimited. After this vote, which was concluded at six o'clock, several members demanded, that the remaining articles of the constitution should be debated; but the president rose from his seat, and adjourned the assembly to eight o'clock the next morning. As he was retiring, General Brouard exclaimed, " why not maintain the "actual permanence of the sitting? you have "adjourned us until to-morrow, because you

think that to-morrow we shall be forcibly ex"cluded from this place." The president only replied, "I do not think so," and retired; but the voice of General Solignac was heard as the assembly rose. "L'Histoire est là, elle recueille "chacune de nos actions. Songez, Mons. le prési"dent, que vous prenez sur vous une responsabilité terrible." The chamber separated.

In the house of peers the sitting had hardly commenced, in consequence of an extraordinary convocation at three o'clock, when the Duke of Dantzig, Marshal Lefebre, notified to the house, that Prussian troops had taken possession of the

Luxembourg gardens, in defiance of the convention of Paris: he moved that a deputation should remonstrate with Marshal Blucher on this subject. The chamber then heard the report of the Count Boissy d'Anglas from the committee appointed to consider the two declarations of the chamber of representatives, the first of which they judged to belong to the lower chamber exclusively; and the second, or declaration of rights and fundamental principles of the constitution, they thought, should be adjourned until the constitution itself should come to be considered. After he finished his report, the adjournment was moved and adopted, and at that moment, half past five, a message from the government announced its dissolution. The sentence was listened to in silence, and immediately followed by the spontaneous separation of the assembly. It met no more, nor attempted a meeting; but many members of the other chamber presented themselves at the palace of the legislative body, at eight o'clock this morning, when they found the gates shut, and guarded by sentinels of the national guard, who invited them to retire. All effort would have been entirely useless. The alternative of M. Mirabeau and M. Manuel had occurred, for it is little difference, surely, whether the representatives be excluded, or expelled by

the bayonet. There was but one course to take, and that was adopted in conformity to the de, claration previously made by the chamber, one hundred members of which repaired to the house of the President Lanjuinais, and there drew up and signed a short detail of proceedings, and a protestation against the act of violence by which the representatives of the French nation had been driven from their posts.

Thus the king, amongst the other benefits which must make his name dear to Frenchmen, may join that of having brought to a close the la bours of a representation as moderate, as enlightened, and as truly national, as it is possible to assemble in France; a representation less tinctured, perhaps, than might be expected, with the faults incident to popular bodies, and developing each day, in circumstances of unparalleled difficulty and danger, qualities both of the head and heart, which will reflect honour on their labours, and, however unsuccessful, will not be wholly lost; for they will serve as an incitement and example for those whose future efforts shall meet with a more deserving and a better fate. king himself, as well as his nation, must be considered infinitely their debtor, as the resolution of the secret committee, on the 22d of June, compelled Napoleon to abdicate, and saved his

The

eapital, if not his crown. It redounds, however, to their glory, that none of them made any merit of this action, as if performed in his favour, or from any other motive than that of saving their country from extremities. The royalists would not have had the requisite courage, which, in France, is to be found only amongst the friends of freedom. These partisans insult them with surviving their functions, and ridicule M. Manuel's quotation from Mirabeau, with a spite which shows how happy they would have been to witness the extirpation of the patriots. Their spirit has been already sufficiently displayed. They did not die on their curule chairs, it is true; but personal exposure is rendered respectable and useful by the time in which it is employed. The senators of Rome who were massacred by Brennus had a very different fate with posterity with those who were whipped naked in the squares by the German Otho, yet the courage of both and their cause were the same. The representatives would not have been shot, but sent to jail.

At the first signal of the king's probable return, fifty inhabitants of Marseilles were torn to pieces' by their partisans in that city. Not half that num.ber suffered throughout the whole extent of the empire, by any popular violence on the part of the imperialists or patriots, at the return of Napoleon.