"The king cannot be head of an order of which he is not even chevalier. "Even were the king a chevalier of July, and he is not, his son, when he comes to the throne, would not inherit that decoration. "Further, there is no identity whatever between his position with regard to the decoration of July and his position with regard to the Légion d'Honneur and other orders which are inherited with the kingdom. "The right won at the place de Grève, at the Louvre and at the Caserne de Babylon is anterior to all other rights: it is not possible, without falling into absurdity, to imagine a decoration to have been given by a king who did not exist at that time, and for whose person, we publicly confess we should not have fought for then. "With regard to the ribbon, as its change of colour does not change any principle, the ribbon suggested by the Government may be adopted." This last clause roused a long and heated discussion. In my opinion, the colour of the ribbon was a matter of indifference; moreover, to cede one point showed that we had not previously made up our minds to reject everything. I gained a hearing, and won the majority of the meeting over to my opinion. As soon as this point had been settled by vote. I drew from my pocket three or four yards of blue ribbon edged with red, with which I had provided myself in advance, and I decorated the board and those members of the order who were nearest me. Among them was Charras. I did not see him again after that for twenty-two years--and then he was in exile. Hardly was it noticed that a score of members were decorated, before everybody wished to be in the same case. We sent out for fifty yards of ribbon, and the thousand spectators left the _passage du Saumon_ wearing the ribbon of July in their buttonholes. This meeting of 7 May made a great stir in Paris. The _Moniteur_ busied itself with lying as usual. It announced that the resolutions had not been unanimously passed, and that many of those decorated had protested there and then. On the contrary, no protests of any kind had been raised. This was the only note which reached the board-- "I ask that all protests against all or part of the decree relative to the distribution of the Cross of July shall be decided by those who are interested in the matter, and that no general measure shall be adopted and imposed on everyone; each of us ought to rest perfectly free to protest or not as he likes. HUET" This note was read aloud and stopped with hootings. We sent the following contradiction to the _Moniteur_ signed by our fourteen names-- "_To the Editor of the Moniteur Universal_