that although M. Baude's zeal was praiseworthy, he was in no very such official position.'—p. 25.

No, no-that station belonged to Bonnellier himself. But now a second third man (the first third man having vanished without even leaving his name behind) appears in the Cabinet: this was Colonel Zimmer, one of Buonaparte's demi-solde, who, pressing through the crowd, elected himself (revolutions have their selfelections as well as corporations)-Chief of the staff' to the General, and made his arrangements and distributed his orders with the activity and system of an experienced soldier. In the meanwhile, the crowd assembled in the Place de Grève, seeing no one at the windows-at which the feu de joie and occasional bursts of similar enthusiasm had rendered the Government rather shy of appearing-became impatient to see their General, and he was obliged to leave his administrative labours, to show himself at the windows; and never was elected of the people received with more enthusiastic acclamations.' Dubourg must have thought himself Napoleon, and Bonnellier would not have changed places with Talleyrand.

The last faint, scattered shots now announced the final retreat of the royalist troops; and then, says Bonnellier, crowds of the 'men of to-morrow' pressed forward to the Hôtel de Ville, to share, if not to monopolise, the spoils which had been won by the men of to-day." Amongst others, came an officer from Lafayette, to announce to General Dubourg that another provisional government had been formed, that Lafayette had assumed the chief command-and had sent to apprise the provisional General that he would forthwith come to instal himself in the Hôtel de Ville, and to offer, as the price of Dubourg's abdication, the command of a legion of the National Guard. If Dubourg had had spirit to continue to play the part of Napoleon, God knows what might have followed this proposition; but he seems to have been a mere puppet, and he answered modestly— 'Sir,-No one else would head the people, and I did so. The child of liberty, I am obedient to my mother. You may return and tell General Lafayette that, as soon as he presents himself, I will resign into his hands my command and the Hôtel de Ville.'

This, as we shall see presently, made an end of poor Dubourg: not so of Bonnellier. We really admire the impudent presence of mind of the fellow, which would have fitted him, beyond any one we have ever read of, for a Scapin at the Théâtre Français, or for a minister at the Palais Royal.

The new commission of government, consisting of Messrs. Périer, Lafitte, Lobau, Puyraveau, and Schonen, now arrived, preceded by their general, Lafayette. Bonnellier remained alone with

Dubourg

Dubourg to receive the new authorities. Dubourg at once resigned his temporary authority into their hands. Bonnellier was far from imitating his example. He addressed them, and said that he had entered the Hôtel de Ville at the head of the people; that he had already obtained extensive information and collected valuable notes, which, if they thought fit to accept his services, he would frankly communicate to them, and would zealously serve them to the best of his ability. They were evidently taken by surprise at such cool assurance. At last Lafayette answered Your patriotism brought you hither; be pleased to remain.'

Sit down,' said the members of the commission;

your work.'

go on with

Poor Dubourg-now become nobody-was turned out of the room: sentinels were placed at the door, to ensure the privacy of the Executive; and Bonnellier exclaims, in an agony of delight, Thank God, France has a Government!' adding, we have no doubt, in his own mind, and I am its Secretary.' But his triumph did not end here. It was immediately observed that the presence of the military commander in the Executive Council was unconstitutional, and Lafayette was sent after Dubourg; but he installed himself and his staff (with Colonel Zimmer-who, like Bonnellier, was resolved not to be laid aside-at its head) in an adjoining room; and Bonnellier remained alone with his Provisional Government. We believe, in the annals of accident, there is nothing to equal those two hours of this man's life, which found him one of a mob on the Place de la Bourse, and left him -the survivor of his colleagues-the admitted secretary of the

supreme power.

But he had still another trial. Lafitte declined, on account of a sore leg, and other prudential considerations, to continue a member of the commission. The active and clever lawyer, Mauguin, was named in his stead. Hitherto, the second Executive had done nothing but prate and gossip; Mauguin gave a new life to their deliberations. What has been done?' he asked, on taking his seat. Nothing,' said General Lobau. Nothing!' exclaimed Mauguin; and it is three o'clock! Have you even a secretary?' Je me nommai'-I am the man, says the imperturbable Bonnellier. Very well,' says Mauguin; sit down, and write from my dictation a circular to the twelve municipalities of Paris.

The Provisional Government——’

6

'Halt there!' cries General Lobau-who all along showed a great indisposition to revolutionary expedients-'I will not sign that. Why not, General ? Because we are not a provisional government. We have the powers of one.'-' I doubt it; but, at all events, we have not the title.' What matter?' replied Mau

guin; it will give authority to our proceedings. I won't sign,' returned Lobau doggedly; and they were obliged to restrict themselves to the title of Municipal Commission. But Bonnellier, who had thrust himself on Dubourg, and imposed on Lafayette, and juggled the original commission, found he could not manage the impetuous yet discriminating ardour of Mauguin. In one of Bonnellier's drafts, which was sent into the outer room to be copied and dispatched, the Honourable M. Baude (who, our readers will recollect, was spontaneously directing a host of scribes') detected some error in form. Correct it, then,' said Mauguin,' and countersign it yourself. This was the first blow to Bonnellier's secretaryship. Another soon followed. Gentlemen,' said Mauguin to his colleagues, M. Lafitte has expressly desired me to invite you to appoint M. Odillon Barrot your secretary.' This,' observes Bonnellier, was arranged beforehand with that young and illustrious advocate.' Be it so,' said another member; 'let M. Odillon Barrot be our secretary, with M. Bonnellier as his colleague.'

6

Even here, Bonnellier's presence of mind did not forsake him. Whether he imagined that he should conciliate Mauguin by appearing to favour Baude, whom Mauguin had just distinguished, or whether he thought that, with two such great men as nominal secretaries, he might be able to play them off against each other, and so retain the effective duties, he does not say; but he now suggested that M. Baude had been all the morning employed spontaneously in the public service, and that it would be unfair to pass him over. On this observation, Baude's name was added to that of Odillon Barrot, and Bonnellier remained as their assistant.

Nothing can be more dramatic-more comic, we should say― than the account Bonnellier now gives of the proceedings of this Commission, and of the various visits which they received from all the men of to-morrow,' who, now that the game was obviously up with Charles the Tenth, were hastening to faire valoir leurs petits intérêts with the new government. For one instance we must

find room.

Early in the following morning, when M. Odillon Barrot and I were alone in the council-chamber, M. Alexandre De Laborde entered and said, "I am Prefect of the Seine-these gentlemen have promised me." "I know nothing about it," said M. Odillon Barrot. "I declare to you," replied De Laborde," that they have promised it to me, and I hope you will be so obliging as to draw up an order which may enable me to take possession of the office and apartments in the Hôtel de Ville." Do you, by chance," answered Barrot, "take us for your clerks?" Nothing was done publicly in this matter all day; but M. De Laborde was busy at work with the individual members of the commission, and at seven o'clock in the evening Bonnellier received

orders

orders to make out his appointment. "But," added Mauguin, to the new préfet," you cannot take possession till to-morrow." "I beg your pardon," said De Laborde, "I have had my bed brought into the next room.' "What, already?"-" Yes, I have ordered my servants to bring all that is necessary, and so I will go to bed, for I am suffering dreadfully from a contusion in the leg, which I got in climbing over a barricade."'-p. 82, &c.

And so he left the Council Chamber, and after having accepted a visit of congratulation from all the heads of his new department, the adhesive prefect immediately took possession of his official bed, hoping that, after such an act of livery and seisin, he could run no risk of being displaced.

Our readers will no doubt appreciate M. Odillon Barrot's cold reception of M. De Laborde, and will sympathize in the disappointment of the latter, when they learn that-notwithstanding the old adage about the legal efficacy of possession and M. De Laborde's contusion in scaling a barricade-Louis Philippe in a few days after was pleased to constitute the said M. Ödillon Barrot, Prefect of the Seine! Half the book is employed in similar anecdotes, all proving that in France-as, we suspect, all over the reformed world-le patriotisme le plus pur is evinced by a very hungry attention to one's own personal interests.

This work, like every other authentic account of the July revolution, is a practical commentary on this great text of egotism; and we heartily wish our limits allowed us to exhibit the whole extent of the miserable meanness of every man (with the almost single exception of M. Casimir Périer) who appeared upon that wide scene of perfidy and plunder-but we must proceed-and we arrive at the person who certainly had the greatest share of the plunder, but, we believe, the least share of the perfidy-Louis Philippe. We have often stated our opinion of his conduct in this affair-our conviction that he encouraged opposition but not revolution-that he rather wished to be the honoured and flattered head of a popular party, than the chief of a sedition-and that, at last, he consented rather than desired to usurp the crown. To that opinion we still adhere, though M. Bonnellier publishes-with some very malicious forms of deference-a letter, written in the Château de Neuilly, at three-quarters past three on the morning of the 30th of July,' of which he possesses, he tells us, the original, and which, in M. Bonnellier's opinion, evidently shows that the Duke of Orleans was no stranger to the events which were going forward, and was even ready to lend himself to the gentle violence which should drag him to the throne. This letter is as follows:

The Duke of Orleans is with his whole family at Neuilly. Close to him at Puteaux are the King's troops; and an order from the • Court

'Court might in a moment seize his person, and deprive the nation of his powerful guarantee of its future safety. It is proposed (on propose) that the constituted authorities, adequately accompanied, should proceed to Neuilly and offer him the Crown. If he make objections on the score of delicacy, or of family considerations, he must be told that 'his presence at Paris is necessary to the tranquillity of Paris and of France, and that they (on) are obliged to put him in a place of safety. This plan may be safely acted on-its entire success may be confidently ' relied on; and, moreover, it is positively certain, that the Duke of 'Orleans will not be reluctant to associate himself with the wishes of the people.'-p. 104.

This letter-even though it should have been written by General Athalin, or his wife Her Royal Highness the Princess Adelaidewould not alter our opinion. At three-quarters after three on the morning of the 30th, the cause of the whole Bourbon family, was, by the faults of the ministry and Marshal Marmont, irrevocably lost, if the Duke of Orleans had not consented to take up the sceptre which his well-meaning, but duped and silly cousins had dropped from their trembling hands. A chivalrous gentleman in the position of the Duke of Orleans, as we have before said, would probably have joined the unfortunate head of his race early in the affair, and might have saved him; but the Duke of Orleans was only a bold and prudent man, and he contented himself with preserving the crown to the Bourbon family-in his own person.

Accordingly on the 31st, the Duke of Orleans-proposed by that bankrupt intriguer Lafitte, and accepted by that incapable dotard Lafayette-arrived at the Hôtel de Ville to assume the regency of the kingdom. It was a bold step; for, assuredly, except Lafitte and his hirelings, he had no real party in the undisciplined assembly which he faced. A municipal address pledging him to certain vague principles of liberalism was read to him, which he, in a few still vaguer words, appeared to adopt; while the mystified and perplexed crowd looked on with mute astonishment. It was then that, for the last time, the voice of DUBOURG was heard a clear, sonorous voice, with much force and peculiarity of intonation

'You have made those engagements. Take care that you keep them. If you forget them, the people is there, on the Grève' [the usual place, be it remembered, of execution], and knows how to make you recollect them.'—p. 113.

This was an awful moment-the crowd was clearly with Dubourg, and it wanted only the smallest accident to have produced a republican explosion. But Louis Philippe, strong in his birth, his position, and, we will add, in his personal courage and ability, was an over-match for the poor fictitious General in the secondhand uniform, and he replied with a loud and confident voice

• Sir,