FURTHER FACTS OF THE COUP D’ETAT.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 709, 19 May 1852, Page 4

FURTHER FACTS OF THE COUP D’ETAT.

[From the Weekly News, December 27.]

M. Granier de Cassagnac has published a narrative of the conspiracy and its execution, which may probably be received for an approximation to the actual truth as near as we are.likely to obtain. Of the motives which originally induced the Government to misrepresent the circumstances of the transaction, many are now past, and the same security which suggested the release of the Parliamentary captives will now permit a genuine his.tory ; of their capture. A.more, curio.tis,document has seldom been given ;to the world. M. de Cassagnac complacently asserts the dignity of “ this immense act” by declaring, that it infinitely surpassed the I.Bth Brumaire “in difficulty, cleverness and grandeur.” Fourteen days, he tells ns, were devote,d to the .preparations for an act which Frenchmen.should,regard with admiral lion. The. popnlacei of Paris, it was’thought, were against the President, the army would obey its Generals, -the Generals were part of the Assembly, and the Assembly was sworn to enmity. What prospect was there that the President could dissolve the Assembly, arrest the Generals, dispose of . the army, and . crush the population ? Some such prospect however, four conspirators contrived to discern—the President, M. deMorny, General St. Arnaud, and M. de Maupas: the latter answered for such police agency as might be required, the General for the military operations, and M. de Morny for the management of the Interior. As soon as the “ official acts” had been determined—-that is to say, as soon as it had been decided what intentions Louis Napoleon should progress—four conditions presented themselves as indispensably requiring fulfilment: — resistance was to be forestalled by the arrest of “culpable or dangerous” persons; the troops were to be stationed for action ; the House of Assembly was to be occupied; and the people were to be informed by proclamation of their new position. Moreover, as the execution of any one of these measures separately would infallibly give (he alarm and prevent the execution of the rest, it became uecessary to provide for simultaneous action on all four points. With this view the morning of the 2nd was fixed for the enterprise, and it was concerted that a quarter-past six should be the hour. The projected arrests were seventyeight in number, including eighteen representatives and “ sixty chiefs of barricades.” This was the measure involving the greatest difficulty as well as the greatest danger* for though troops could be put in motion at a given moment, and placards affixed to the walls by easy process, it was hazardous to calculate on. success in upwards of seventy distinct operations,' each of which was exposed to unavoidable miscarriage. M. de Maupas, however, was equal to his : task, and while his accomplices were attending to their several departments, he made arrangments in the following manner for capturing six African generals and sixty, “ men of action” in their dens. Under pretext of watching, an influx of refugees, he mustered 800 policemen at the Prefecture the night before, and on various pretences distributed a number of carriages in waiting at different spots in the neighbourhood, so that no attention might be called, to the circumstance. At halfpast three in the morning he sent for what we should call the sergeants and inspectors of the force, and, with.out giy.ing them any opportunity of conferring with each .other, he. communicated hi.s intentions and requirements. One and. all, we are told, undertook without hesitation the execution of his particular task. The arrests, according to the plan, were to he effected by a quarter-past six, and so marvellous was'.the precisipu of the movement, that though ten minutes only wpre a]iowed; for .each .operation, the entire measure \yas complete at the appointed time, It ist pp, longer pretended that the distinguished ; captives wer;e arrested in treasonable conclave; at ] the.hou§q' pf Tfhiers/ That was | soundly jeposipg behipd “ scarlet damask cur-, i tairis, linedwjih yhi|e ( rqu slir),’’.and with “a white cotton njghtfap over his eyes.” Every ; Geperul vvas fyund; a|o,ne* qnd in bed, nor d\d any offer any resi|tsqc q, general alone affronted his visitors by Eoalipipusly desiring his servant tp lpph after thej spoons; a few threats, hut; Cbapgwnier, ; against whose fprtnidable opposition q/force of fifteen chosen agents, thirty Republican guards, &pd a picket often troopers bad beeu provided, seemed entirely “ master of the, situation” before he had:left his own door, M, Thiers, on comprehending his position, first attempted to eptanglethecornmissary in an .argument,' and next hypothetically ; suggested that he might. be induced, to bloy? out his visitor’s brains. To the Utter intimatiop the commissary replied, thpt “ he cQuld .not suspect M. .Thiers, of such an act,”. but he prudently de? clined any e.ncounteri in .the shape of debate.rrr: “ His courage completely abandoned- him white in prison, and lie showed, no more firmness ; thari M.' G.reppo, 1 who fut - saisi d’im derangements auquel il ddt. satisfaire,. ,;M. Thiers, was afterwards taken provisionally! back .to bis own house by a fresh decision, after which he was taken, to. the.bridge,.of: Kehl, bn the right: .bank of the.

.Rhine. At,the.moment of leaving his.liome,:M. Tkiers wept abundantly, and appeared dreadfully cast down. General Bedeau appeared thunderstruck : —“ Arrest me!” he cried. “Why such an act is a violation of the Constituiion. lam Yice of the Assembly. You cannot arrest roe, since you do not find me \n-flagrante delicto. The commissary replied that he had no remarks to make on the .warrant entrusted io him, but to execute it, and if the General intended to risk bis life, he (the commissary) was fully determined to r sacrifice his own to perform his duty. If the G'eneral did hot comply .quietly, force would be employed. -’ He then ordered the General to get up which he did.. The General took as much time as possible to dress,.and when at last .be had finished, he burst out into a violent passion. *I am determined,’ he said, * not to stir- from here. If you dare to lay hands on me, the Vice-President of the Assembly, you do .it at vour peril!’ The commissary replied, ‘ Do you admit that I have performed my disagreeable duty with’all the consideration possible.’ ‘Yes,’ said the General. ; ‘ln that case,’ said the.commisr sary, ‘ I will use force.’ The General made the utmost resistance, crying out, ‘ Treason! treason! I am;the -.Vice-President of the Assembly, and person's arrest.'me !’ He was; however, forced to enter thecarriage, and the de ville followed him. Whence. arrived at the prison Mezas, lie addressed a body of Republican guards on duty there, but.'they.paid no attention to what he said. Inside General Bedeau found Generals Leffo, Changarnier, and Cavaignac, the last of whom he embraced.' Colonel ,Charras, : who-lived at No. 14, Rue du Faubourg St. HonorS, at first refused to open, but afterwards, when he found .that measures were being taken, to break, open the door, be complied. .When the commissary showed him his. warrant, M. Charras said* ‘ lit does not surprise me. I expected It two days since, and could have escaped blit that I was unwilling to-quit, ray post. I had even.charged my pistols, but finding that nothing had occurred, I drew the charge. Had you. come the day I . peeled you, I would have blown out your brains.’ He got into the carriage without resistance, and on the way only asked ‘Are you taking me to shoot .me?’ The commissary replied in the negative, and said that their destination was the prison of Mezas. When M. Charras arrived there, he refused to specify his civil state, and insisted that ‘ representative of the people’ be affixed to his name.”

This brochure authentigue des Avenemens de Decembre, 1851, has been met by a large sale and a larger share of indignation. The minute details into which the writer enters, are even more repulsive to. right minded people than his extravagant flattery of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, bis decrees and proclamations, and of the glorious triumphs of his Generals on the Boulevards and the banlieue. It was not enough to arrest and imprison these distinguished individuals like common malefactors, but the privacy of their homes, already invaded by the commissaries of police, must be laid bare to the world in a pamphlet. Mi de Cassagnacdescribesstaircases,doors, chambers, candlesticks, beds, and. bed-furniture, &c., the toilette of the prisoners, how slowly or how quickly they put on their clothes when called upon to surrender, and twenty other matters wholly impertinent tq the subject in hand, with the investigating closeness of De Balzac in one of his romances. He dwells upon the anger, protestatiqns, and astonishment of these unsuspecting victims of the “ coup d'4tat' y with the chuckling satisfaction of one who recounts the perils of a tiger hunt, and .the ineffectual resistance of the savage beast when brought, to a stand by his assailants.

The repairs of the Boulevards and elsewhere have been going on rapidly, and the vestiges of the deeds enacted on the 4th of December are gradually disappearing. Even M. Billecoq, the Marchand de Chales, whose house, in the Boulevard Poissonniere, was reduced nearly to ruins; has advertised the re-opening of his establishment.

A writer in the Household Words, who was in Paris at the time of the Revolution, corroborates all that has been stated of the infamous arid brutal couiluct of the soldiery :-r-“ With the merits; or demerits of • the. struggle,” says this writer, “ I have nothing to do. But 1 saw the horrible ferocity and. brutality of this ruthless soldiery. I saw them bursting into shops, to search for arms or fugitives ; dragging the inmates forth, like sheep; from a slaughter-house, smashing the furniture and windows. I saw them, when making, a passage for a convoy of prisoners, or a waggon full of wounded, strike wantonly at the bystanders* with the butt-ends of their muskets, iarid thrust at them with theiF bayonets. I might have seen more; but my exploring inclination was rapidly subdued .by a gigantic Lancer at the corner of the Rue Richelieu, who seeing roe stand still for a moment, stooped' from his horse, and putting his pistol to my head (right between the eyes) told me to * traverser T As I believe,d.he would infallibly have blown my brains out in another minute, 1 turned and fled. So much for what 1 saw. I-know, as far as a man can know," from trustworthy persons, frpna eye-witnesses,.from patent and notorious report,' that the military, who are now; the sole aud supreme masters of that unhappy city and country, have been perpetrating most frightful barbarities since the riots were over. I know that from the Thursday I arrived to the Thursday I left Paris, they were daily shooting their prisoners in coid blood; that a man, caught on the Pont Neuf, drunk with the gunpowder brandy of the cabarets, apd shouting some balderdash about the Rtpublique democratique et sociale, was dragged into the Prefecture ot Police, arid, some soldier’s cartridges haying been found in his pocket, was Jed into the court-yard, arid, there and then, untried, un-' shriven. unannealedshot ! I know that in the Champ de Mars one hundred and fifty.-six men were executed ; and, I heard one horrible .story, so horrible that I can scarcely-credit it, that a batch of prisoners were tied together .with .ropes, like a fagot of wood ; and that the struggling mass was Bred into until not a limb moved, nor a groan was uttered. I knpw, and my. informant, was a clerk in the office of the Ministry of War* that the official return of insurgents,Rifled, wa£ two thousand apd seyeOj and of spldiers fifteen. Rather ijOng odds., ; ;