THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [From the Spectator, December 13.] FRENCH PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 704, 1 May 1852, Page 4

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [From the Spectator, December 13.] FRENCH PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.

Many private letters from Paris have reached us this week. Much of their contents is the minute confirmation, on testimony the value of which we know personally, of the general narratives given to the public by the stated correspondents of the daily journals; but some of them assert new facts, or tell facts vaguely known in a more striking way. We present extracts from the interesting mass. First, some authentic details illustrating the conduct of the troops :—: — "On Thursday, December 4, a column commanded by General Caurobert, advanced along' the Boulevards. As it passed along from the Rue Laffitte to the Gate of St. Denis, some musket-shots, but very few, were fired from some of the houses. Thostf shots became the signal for a genera! massacre. The troops fired upon every body ; a great number of persons were killed. Two persons were killed in the Cercle dv Commerce, Rue Lepelletier. An officer and some soldiers rushed into this Cercle — the officer himself being visibly drunk. They wanted to search every one. General Lafontaine exerted himself generously, and at last with success, to deter (hem. But when the cfficers gave orders to retire, one ol the soldiers was heard to say, 'Don't mind the captain, he is drunk. 1 Another soldier said, •We are to go away, then, without killing anybody V "While passing opposite to the Rue Vivienne, the soldiers fired several times on the passers-by; who were for the most part persons belonging to the Bourse, coming from their business. These unhappy men took refuge, as well as they could, behind doorways ; whenever they showed themselves, and tried to get away, the soldiers fired upon them again. " Two young men, between twenty and twen-ty-fire years of age, had been to visit a female iriend ; from whom the following statement is derived : — After quitting her house, they reached the Boulevard at the moment when the soldiers were about to flre. Their first impulse was to rush towards the bell of a neighbouring housedoor ; but aa five other persons followed their example, the porter refused to open the door. All the seven threw themselves on the ground : the younger of these two men lay under his elder brother. The soldiers fired ; and out of these seven persons, two only arose from the ground ; one of these was the younger of the two brothers — the other, a woman. The elder brother, wounded by a ball, and having one of his arteries torn, lay bleeHng and in agony. His younger brother threw himself on the body and clasped it in a distraction of sorrow. When the soldiers came up, in their onward inarch, he implored them to leave him near his dying brother. But they drove him away with the butt-ends of their muskets, saying, 'Get away with you ! don't you see that he has only two minutes to live V "Thirty-one dead bodies were seen in the Cite Bergere. Of these there was only one in a blouse. "It is certain the soldiers fired into many houses, from whence no shots had- issued. As they marched forth from the Place de Carrousel, several officers exclaimed aloud, 'Carte-blanche !' "As the soldiers passed by the Rue Richelieu, a young man standing there cried 'Vive la Republique!' An officer, in marching by, fired bis pistol at him, quite close but missed him. The officer then seized his sword and made a cut at him ; but as he had marched forward a step or two, the sword fell upon another person, and grievously wounded him. '• In the Rue Grange aux Belles, the residents heard during the night scattered shots going. On the next morning the sergeant of the j ost boasted to a fruit-woman near,- that they 'had killed during the night thirty-two going back to their homes. ' ' " Severe penalties have been pronounced against all soldiers seen conversing with citizens." The following statement respecting the slaughter on the Boulevard, Montmartre — -most interesting from the individuality of its main story — is given in a letter by a British officer to his brother in London, which has been placed at our disppsal :-r-, "Paris, 6th Dec. — Lsit down to give you some account of myself, 1 lest you should think I have got- into the' way of' a tetray bullet.' You will, of course, see a good deal about the late emeute in the London papers, but I suspect there will not be much ofuhe truth in them ; bnemuat

be in Paris to realise the state of tbis unfortunate city. Of course the' military were completely successful ; it could not have beeu otherwise against a half- armed and half-organized people. But ft more cruel, barbarous,, and inhuman slaughter, I suppose was never committed. I do not allude to the taking of the barricades, but to the massacre on the Boulevards, of which there U no mention in the Parisian papers. I had a fortunate escape myself. At ahout three o'clock I was in the Boulevard dcs Italient, and saw an immense force, I should think between ten and fifteen thousand men, passing up the Boulevards. 1 accompanied them as far as the Rue Vivienne, to see if [ I could find my American friend A., whom I think 1 mentioned in my last letter. I did not know at the time that the troops were advancing to attack a barricade at the Porte St. Denis. Not being able to find my friend, I returned up the Rue Vivienne, intending to go again on the Boulevards. When 1 got to the top of the street I found a cordon of soldiers across it, who would not allow any one to come within fifty yards of them. Just about tbis time (half-past three o'clock), the firing recommenced in the Boulevards Montmartre and Poissonniere ; arid the sentries at the top of the Rue Vivienne fired deliberately down the street at us. The rush was tremendous ; but I got clear round a corner, and departed for my hotel as soon as possible. I went out again nfterwaids, and went to the bottom of the Boulevards hear the Rue da Helder, to watch the firing. The regiments of the line fired at the windows of ».jbe Boulevards for several hours, but I saw no fire returned from the windows. I then went home to dinner. A. had not arrived ; and we were hoping that nothing had happened to him, when a woman rushed in, pale and trembling, and asked for me. She had brought poor A.'s card ; he was lying wounded in a porter's lodge in the Boulevard Montmartre. Of course I started immediately for the spot. I had much difficulty in getting there, as the streets were all occupied by soldiers ; but the officers were generally civil. When I got to the place, tbe boulevard was a ghastly sight. There were no wounded, but tbe dead were lying in dozens, most of them just as they fell ; and the pavements were slippery with blood. They were almost all bourgeois^ and uot ouvriers. Two or three women were arranging some of the corpses, and placing candles at their heads that their friends might recognise them. Tbe soldiers were standing at eate in the centre of the street, very quiet, but perfectly unconcerned ; there was not a living man to be seen except them. I found poor A. in good spiiits, but badly wounded. He described the whole thin g as a wanton massacre. He was walking along the boulevards in tbe same direction as tbe troops, and when he heard the firing commence at tbe Porte St. Denis, he turned back, thinking it was no place for him. Almost at that instant, the whole of the troops in tbe Boulevards Montmartre and Poissonniere fired at the windows, and at tbe people walking in the streets, who were without arms and making no resistance. There were crowds of people at tbe windows ; but few werehurt, as they had time to throw themselves back when they saw the muskets go up. But for thepromenaders in the street there was no escape. The firs i bullet struck A. on tbe left hand, knocking off the forefinger; he then went down on one knee, and held up the other hand, hoping they would spare him. Another bullet struck him in the centre of the left shin, smashing the larger bone ; and a dead man fell heavily across him. As he lay on the ground, he taw one or two officers endeavouring to make the men fire at the windows ; but some continued to fire at those on the ground. He managed to crawl into a porter's lodge where the gate was open, and the women, assisted him. He described it as a perfect storm of balls. Another bullet struck so close to him' on tbe wall, that it spattered and cut bis face like small shot. As he lay in the lodge, the women bad to leave him, and get to a safer place, as thebullets were coming iv there. Tbe firing waa kept up almost without ceasing for two or three hours, although there was no resistance whatever* I never saw such wanton destruction - r the frontsof tbe houses were perfectly riddled with shot. I went out to endeavour to get assistance ; but the officers resolutely, though politely, declined to afford any. I asked one captain, in the name of common humanity, to let me have three men to carry A. He said, ' Look round you, my dear sir ; do you think we have got hutranity enough for all these?' I said, 'They are dead,, and do not want it ; ' but be shrugged his shoulders, and said ' Tant mieux.' I think if I bad. had sufficient command of language 1 should have lost my temper. Xat length got an ambulance and three workmen, and we carried him down to the Rue St Honoi6 on our shouldersHe suffered dreadfully ; and you can imagine, what a hqrrible job it is to carry a badly woun-. ded man up a French staircase. It was nearly ten o'clock before we got him home. I then had to go out again as far as the Rue MontImartre, in order to get surgeons, bandages, &c, I was often challenged, but. got all I wanted , without being fired at."" I "It is useless to read the Parisian papers, asthey are a mass of lies. There are ' only three or four tbat are not - suppressed. The; wretched people are harassed in every possible way. Tbe most arbitrary edicts appear everywhere on tbe walls. I am told on good authority thaxfqrtyfive were shot yesterday on the Champ de Mars. It is impossible tbat tbis state of things canlast ; you cannot keep cannon and lancers in the street for ever. I have not been* in tbe Boule* yards to-day ; yesterday they were one immense camp. It isi pot known how many people were killed on Thursday, and the papers treatthe subject very, lightly. One of the surgeons .told me there could not have been less than five hundred. The voldiers.on the Boulevard Montmartre told me there were- sixty people killed there. It iscruel and barbarous tyranny;, and I think if it were not on A.'s account, I- should Irave this place, as tbe sight of all tbis brutality is painful to me. I hope the. English papers will get the true view of tbe case soon. I have not seen any that know "anything about tbe popular feeling. If I were led by the' arguments of those immediately about me, I should be a Nipoleonist ; but 1 cannot help feeling that tbe mass of -all classes are furious and indignant."