The feudal edifice and the industrial--The workmen of Lyons--M. Bouvier-Dumolard--General Roguet--Discussion and signing of the tariff regulating the price of the workmanship of fabrics--The makers refuse to submit to it--_Artificial prices_ for silk-workers--Insurrection of Lyons--Eighteen millions on the civil list--Timon's calculations--An unlucky saying of M. de Montalivet During this time three political events of the gravest importance took place: Lyons broke into insurrection ; the civil list was debated; the Chamber passed the law abolishing the heredity of the peerage. We will pass these three events in review as rapidly as possible, but we owe it to the scheme of these Memoirs to make a note of the principal details. It must be clear that every time the country has been in trouble we have listened to its cry. Let us begin with Lyons. Everybody knows Lyons, a poor, dirty town with a canopy of smoke and a jumble of wealth and misery, where people dare not drive through the streets in carriages, not for fear of running over the passengers but for fear of being insulted; where for forty thousand unfortunate human beings the twenty-four hours of the day contain eighteen hours of work, noise and agony. You remember Hugo's beautiful comparison in the fourth act of _Hernani_-- "Un édifice avec deux hommes au sommet, Deux chefs élus auxquels tout roi-né se soumet. . . . . . Être ce qui commence, Seul, debout au plus haut de la spirale immense, D'une foule d'États l'un sur l'autre étagés Être la clef de voûte, et voir sous soi rangés Les rois, et sur leurs fronts essuyer ses sandales, Voir, au-dessous des rois, les maisons féodales, Margraves, cardinaux, doges, ducs à fleurons; Puis évêques, abbés, chefs de clans, hauts barons; Puis clercs et soldats; puis, loin du faite où nous sommes, Dans l'ombre, tout au fond de l'abîme, les hommes."