THE LATE INSURRECTION IN PARIS. (From the Times, June 28 )

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 255, 8 November 1848, Page 3

THE LATE INSURRECTION IN PARIS. (From the Times, June 28 )

The battle which has raged tor four entire days in the capital of France is at mi end. The insurgents, expelled by the continual discharges of aitillery iiom theii strong positio s, and ■•iiiTounded by enormous numbeis ot troops and at mod citizen^ irom the town and the icurlilionnn^ di'iiaittnenls, have been dnvivi and dispersed beyond the walls ot I'ari-., thousands have })i.ribhed on the barricades and in the houses winch crumbled under the cannon of the Republic n geneials; on both sides the combat was earned on with lnrious braveiy ; the city is literally encumbered with the d)in<r and the dead ; so tcrnbe a tighl, so v.ist a massic o, rever occuired before even in the annals of civil wai fare or ot Parisian revolutions. 'I he four months which have elapsed since the i evolution of Februaiy must evidently have been spent by the levolutioiiviry paity m tlie active preparation lor a more decisive conflict. The arms which have been dihcuveied in such immense i|uantities, and used with s-uch deadly ellect, weie undoubtedly placed in the hands of the mob by the convulsion winch overtluew tin* late dynasty, and by the guilty connivance of those who allied themselves ou that occasion with the p«uty they

have combated and crushed upon tin's. Yet, clearly looking at this catastrophe, which the necessities and the desperation of the labour! 'ig classes leudered me* vitable, and which their flagitious leadcis and visionary counsellors intended to turn to their own purposes the late Executive Government dd from first to last abso* lutely nothing to provide against the frightful crisis. Some of its members sought to charm that fierce and implacable power ot the it olj which is more dea*' and malignant than the adder ; others had sold themselves to a party they d:i led nether to lepress nor to avow, and were betiayiim by thai inpitness tin- nation they affectea to rule. The time, however, for these investigations is not yet come, and by cnmtno'i consent no specific political character has vet been attached to this gieat rebellion, which must hereafter pa>vc as fatal to its authois as it has aheudy been to Us par isans and its victims. For the present we shall confine onrsches to an attempt to give some connected vewofthe natuieol" the contest which had .ill the icaulaiity of pcifect null* U'V combination. The city ot Paris stands, as our ieadeis are well aware, in the va'ley of the nver Seine, in such wise that whilst iht most central part of the city occupies the 1 isl.uuU and the strand of the livtr, the streets which dneisre at right angles from this point use by a somowl'it rapid -scent to the high ground on each side of tl.c valley. Tlv centie ol the insunection was established on the low groPiid by the river : its wings restcci on those opposite h i' r hts ; the Hotel dc Ville was 1 s mo=t ad\..Med ]iost in fiont, but all the nanow <( ects and the qiia\s lioni that building 1 to the Faaboai" Rt Anlo.ue vvv/in the 11,I 1 , nuls ol Vit insurgents. 'I lie atl.c " \' ,u lai i icl oi« upon this point, by Goncral Duvivier, b.it sirli vvie tbe juvpa.atsons ot res. stance made, tlu'l auot'iin > to the vnlUn stale-, ment of the Ahiyor ot Paiis In the Isationrl Asscinb!}, " the whole distiict was comerl"*' info a vast Joitioss, which could only be 1 educed stono by stone." The streets were barricaded ; the windows were lined with matti esses, fiom behind which a mmderous fue pouted down upon the troops ; and a pathway of internal communication had Ik on opened horn house to house, which supplied ammunition or means of escape to the besieex'd. The proiricss ol th 1 foices on this point was accordingly veiy slou ; a:td it uasm tlu> i car of this position that the uual stand oi the insunection was made on Monday altertioon. But the operations were carried on v/ith equal skill and courage at the two wings, for that term may strictly bo applied to the potion-, which the insurrections had assumed. On th- left bank ot the .Seine the left wing extended to tho I'a.ithcon by the steep and narrow line ot the R>• fit J >«)n« s, which was completely barricaded and even ioitined with cannon. The attack on this position alone cost fifteen houts bard and uninteirupte I fighting; yet it was the first which was reconquered by the tioops. The attack on th'j right wng, which extended to theClos St. Lazaie, was conducted by General Luinoncicrc, who gradually forced his way, on tlje third day, to the hairieis, mid there effected his junction with the central division of General DuviMcr. It may be interred from the regular distribution of the lusuneotionaiy foice-. that their plan was to exhaust the loops by a fruitless attack on the banicades, and then to assume offensive operations by an a ivance of the two wings upon the National Assembly and the west end of Pans, so as to place the Government between two fires, and reduce it to inevitible destruction. The extent of organization which the execution uf such apian, extending over a line several miles in length, and maintained neatly four days, discloses, i-> perfectly inconcicvable. Iv. cry species of aitifice was employed to convey ammunition The pails of the milkwo'iicn, the couches of tue wounded, and even the coiiuis of the dead, were found filled with gunpowder and c u touches. Laige sums nf money in gold and notes \> civ discovered on the per sons of men appaienlly in cAticmc povi'ity and of young children. '-Hie women ot Paris too\ a mosi. active pait in the simple. They conveyed orders and signals through the lio'ue t tire. They c-iried otr the wounded. Some of them perished on the barricades, or fired trom the houses on the so'diers, whilst some aic even reported to have indicted the most ledned barbarities upon their wi etched le ! low-cituen& who had fallen prisoners into theii hands. None wcie spared by the chances or the undiscrimmatina: fury of this general slaughter. The Archbishop of Pai is, himself, who in the sublime cxetcisc of the mo^t awful duties of a Christian priest '•ought to briny: b .ck that outrageous multitude t> mason and poace, mu basely shot in the back fiom a banicadu ; and Gener 1 Negner, who had survived the numctous campaigns of Africa, <c 1 in a Hi c manner at a pailey with iljc savages of the Faubourg St Antoine, Stiiing* an 4 tmi» We confusion of the sttonccesl passions and emotions of human nature!. An in liHen'ncc to life and a henzy of excitement now atising to herois'ii, now sinking to ferocity and crime! An utter dissolution of social order and a dcspi rate resistance to every species of authori y, a huriy-bury ot wild desiies, impudent frauds, fi antic delusions, sanguinary passions, imperious and insatiible wants — the opening of all the phials of wi.'uh— the saturnalia- of a lawles-, foodless, Godless, multitude ! So v ast and bomb c a desolation, wrought in the heait ot a city by the bauds of her own citizens, the woiid has not witnessed in the whole survey of hisfonc memory, and the aims of a s ranger and an enemy wjuld have been devoted to eternal infamy if they had inflicted =uch an awful chastisement on the great city of Pans. None but herself could punish her iniquities, oi milict her doom. The battle, then, is over. Bm what remains or what is accomplished ? Say, rather, what, docs not re nain to be done? The fiist act ot the Assembly, alter the nomination ot Genet al C<'i\aignac, was to deciee the penalty of tr.inspoilation against all those wh.) may l>e taken with arms in their hands, and no doubt means must ue found to clear the capital ot laige niunt'eis— namely, their leadeis, who m.iy have means to escape, upon the adjacent count lies, where their revo u.ionury schemes will natui all) be viewed with the utmost suspicion. But the vait majority of the late msur ents must of couise lemain, and remain uupunisucd, in Paris. Quid mnltis peculiar iiutlum at, And although atthis moment the danger ol the slruggh' has a: rested all discussion, it is not to be forgotten that this wry cause which lias Mitfeied so bloody a defeat in the streets oi Paris is lvpieacnt"! by a certuu put. in the Assembly. IU political po^er is i>ot extinct-to-morrow it will be felt a am. For although we have applied the term "militiy dictator" to Gone al Cavaigiicic, that c\pie«ion relafs only to his u> litary duties'. The Assembly, distracted rss its by open and seciet factions, and 'by e.ory '•jccios ot ilam.mr amounting to all but peisonal v olence, is tLill the only nnstiess of Fiance. X-, (jowcr is abso'uU- and undivided. Geiu'ial Cavaignac is at pi cent nieicly the delegate of this au'Jio lty. Ihe Go\ eminent of the Kepublic is, thcicfoif, -"till in the hamis of a tumultuotib and ineso uU bo'ly. 'log vc it the loicc of ;i single will and an individual mind, the diotator* shi]) must bet-oine ab.ohitc. Ut, m the nn-seut state of l ranee, we cannot aniinpati- that an> such (omi pletc and undivided power will ho erected. No in in has yvt shown his capacity to vwe'd it, and tlie A*> senibly is itself the only oliji'tt ot the public toiiiu dence. The clloits ol lis meinbets in ih.s divadtul emi'igcncy have been highly mei.toro is, hut \i\ such tnncb a body of 000 men can m teahty do noihing. Tiieexcici^e ot* power under such (ncii.iistaiite^ tequires the utmost c >nccntiat oa ; and anud>t Hie q oomy and portcntioua signs winch encompass me French Republic, nun 1 : l. innio alarming t.uin Uie absence of any dehni c and piactical ionn of the supteme authoiity. That want even tue proposed constitii:ion by no means supplies, tor according to its ptovisions the Piesulent would Decoiue tlie mere inslriiiiieut or deleg.ite of a jKMinani'iit Assembly of 750 niembeis; and fmtiier revolutions must, theicloie, be ellectul beloio an ludein-udoiil Government and an oiigmil luthontv can be v' established, by which atoao fic-o rawiges ol anatchy cau be stijed.