not entered Paris until the night of the 30th, had, therefore, no sort of right either to the decoration or to the medal. This decision was immediately transmitted to the messenger, who transmitted it instantly to his august principal. Now, we never doubted that our refusal was the cause of the decree of 30 April. I believe I have also mentioned that a protest was made by us against the colour of the ribbon, the subscription and the oath. Two days before the banquet at the _Vendanges de Bourgogne_, a general assembly had taken place in the hall of the _Grande-Chaumière_ in the _passage du Saumon._ The total number of the decorated amounted to fifteen hundred and twenty-eight. Four hundred belonged to the _départements_, the remainder to Paris. Notices having been sent to each at his own house, all those decorated were prompt in answering the appeal; there were nearly a thousand of us gathered together. We proceeded to form a board. The president was elected by acclamation. He was one of the old conquerors of the Bastille, aged between seventy and seventy-five,---who wore next the decoration of 14 July 1789 the Cross of 29 July 1830. M. de Talleyrand was right in his dictum that nothing is more dangerous than enthusiasm; we learnt afterwards that the man we made president by acclamation was an old blackguard who had been before the assizes for violating a young girl. Then we proceeded to the voting. The board was to be composed of fourteen members, one for each arrondissement; the thirteenth and fourteenth arrondissements represented the outlying dependencies. By a most wonderful chance, I have discovered the list of members of that board close to my hand; here it is-- "_First arrondissement_, Lamoure; _second_, Étienne Arago; _third_, Trélat; _fourth_, Moussette; _fifth_, Higonnet; _sixth_, Bastide; _seventh_, Garnier--Pagès; _eighth_, Villeret; _ninth_, Gréau; _tenth_, Godefroy Cavaignac; _eleventh_, Raspail; _twelfth_, Bavoux; _thirteenth_, Geibel; _fourteenth_, Alexandre Dumas." The names of the fourteen members were given out and applauded; then we proceeded with the discussion. The meeting was first informed of the situation; next, different questions were put upon which the meeting was asked to deliberate. All these queries were put to the vote, for and against, and decided accordingly. The following minutes of the meeting were immediately dispatched to the three papers, the _Temps_, the _Courrier_ and the _National._ "No oath, inasmuch as the law respecting national awards had not prescribed any such oath. "No superscription of _Donnée par le roi_; the Cross of July is a national award, not a royal. "All those decorated for the events of July pledge themselves to wear that cross, holding themselves authorised to do so by the insertion of their names upon the list of national awards issued by the committee.