Narrative of the French Revolution of 1848 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1848 Excerpt: ... NARRATIVE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. The Revolution accomplished in Paris on the 24th of February, 1848, is without a parallel in history. The immediate spectators of the wondrous event declare, that when all was over they felt like men waking out of a dream, --so quick and sweeping had been the changes effected; so disproportioned the apparent means to the end; so sudden the bursting of the storm, so rapid and entire its subsidence; so utterly transcending all human experience the whole manner, course, and issue of the movement. It was with the same feeling of stupefaction we received the news in England. Narrowly as we had watched of late the conduct and disposition of the French government and people, and thoroughly convinced as we were that Louis Philippe had sealed the perdition of his own dynasty, yet was there not one amongst us who looked for the fulfilment of that inevitable doom in such wise or so soon. Even now, though we have recovered from the first stupor of surprise, the event seems to us almost preternatural; and so must it continue to seem, until it ceases to be what it now is--the solitary example of a new order of facts. This Revolution, at once the most bloodless and the most complete of modern times, was the spontaneous, unpremeditated act of the unarmed people of Paris. No long-matured and widely-ramified conspiracy preceded the outbreak, as in 1830; no delegated agents of the middle classes in secret goaded, restrained, and, when the moment was come, let loose the fiery passions of the multitude; no leaders in fine cloth organised the rude strength of the men in blouses, put weapons in their hands, and shewed them where to strike, and how. Alone the people did it all. And never was so much work done, and well d..