Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 71, No. 436, February 1852Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 71, No. 436, February 1852
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
The first successful stand against the deluge of revolution was made
in Great Britain; and there it was withstood, not by the bayonets
of the soldiers, but by the batons of the citizens. The 10th April
was the Waterloo of chartist rebellion in England; a memorable proof
that the institutions and traditionary influences of a free people,
suited to their wants, and in harmony with their dispositions, can,
in such felicitous circumstances, oppose a more successful barrier
to social dangers than the most powerful military force at the
command of a despotic chief. Rebellion, as usual when England is in
distress, broke out in Ireland; but it terminated in ridicule, and
revealed at once the ingratitude and impotence of the Celtic race
in the Emerald isle. But a far more serious and bloody conflict
awaited the cause of order in the streets of Paris; and society
there narrowly escaped the restoration of the reign of terror and
the government of Robespierre. As usual in civil convulsions, the
leaders of the first successful revolt soon became insupportable to
their infuriated followers; a second 10th August followed, and that
much more quickly than on the first occasion--a second dethronement
of the Bourbons; but it was met by very different opponents.
Cavaignac and the army were not so easily beat down as Louis,
deserted by all the world but his faithful Swiss Guards. The contest
was long, and bloody, and, for a time, it seemed more than doubtful
to which side victory would incline; but at length the cause of
order prevailed. The authority of the Assembly, however, was not
established till above a hundred barricades had been carried at the
point of the bayonet, several thousands of the insurgents slain, and
eleven thousand sentenced to transportation by the courts-martial of
the victorious soldiers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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