convey the message to Louis Philippe. The troops were meanwhile waiting with impatience for an answer, designing, in case of their request being refused, to march upon the Tuilleries.

At the meeting of the chamber, M. Guizot announced that his cabinet had been dissolved, and that Louis Philippe had sent for Count Molé in order to form a new ministry. In a moment after this news was made known to the people, who received it with the wildest bursts of enthusiasm. In less than half an hour it was spread throughout Paris. Hostilities ceased, the populace were in the highest state of exultation, victory inspired good humour in all, and all hoped for a speedy return of tranquillity. But the fair prospect was soon to be destroyed. At ten o'clock in the evening, large bodies of insurgents passed through the street hooting Guizot, and persuading the people to illuminate. Encouraged by their success, they made a formal proposition to the guard to illuminate Guizot's house. While the parley was going on-the street excessively crowded not only with insurgents, but a vast number of respectable persons drawn there by curiosity-the whole line of troops suddenly fired. Fifty-two victims fell dead or wounded. At first the people fled in consternation, but this feeling soon gave way to a thirst for vengeance. Then burst on the night air those terrible cries, "To arms!" "Down.with Louis Philippe ;""Barricades! barricades!" The pent up floods of that wrathful deluge, which had so long threatened the kingdom, now burst forth to overwhelm all opposition. The dead bodies were drawn away on a cart, surrounded by hundreds, who, while uncovering the ghastly wounds, shed tears of grief and rage. Breathings deep but terrible, like the lashing sea before a tempest, rose from the excited crowd. The star of the Bourbon dynasty had set.

Amid the general uproar, M. de Courtais, an opposition deputy, hurried to inquire the cause of the firing. He found the colonel of the offending regiment greatly concerned at what had taken place. He stated that when the crowd arrived, a musket, which (as he erroneously supposed) went off by chance, broke the leg of his lieutenant-colonel's horse. The officer commanding the detachment supposed it to be the commencement of an attack, and with a culpable irreflection commanded his men to fire. He was in consequence

sent to prison. It was afterwards found that the shot fired at the troops was no chance one. It was discharged by Lagrange, the condemned Lyons conspirator of 1832, who according to his own confession, on finding that affairs were likely to take a favourable turn for royalty, determined on a desperate step in order to rouse the passions of the multitude. A few minutes afterwards another murderous volley was discharged on the crowd in the Rue de la Paix, which still further increased the popular indignation. Returning to the barricades, they worked all night with such assiduity, that on the following morning there was not a single leading street in the capital without a fortress. Carriages, designed for the military, were stopped, emptied of their ammunition, and broken up for forts. All night the drums of the national guard called the soldiers to their posts. The defences of the municipal guards were attacked and taken, and every thing, even bags of money, committed to the flames. Many of the guards were driven away without clothing, others escaped only by changing their dress, while some were killed or burned to death. At every house the

people demanded arms, which were freely given by the citizens.

Meanwhile the attempt to form a ministry under Molé failed, and late at night the king sent for M. Thiers, that he might organize a cabinet. Before attempting to do so he demanded that M. Odilon Barrot should be one of his colleagues. To this the king acceded, and Thiers proceeded to name his ministers.

Such was the state of Paris on Thursday morning. At every successive hour the situation of the government grew more critical. News arrived each moment at the Tuilleries that the national guard were fraternizing with the populace, and the regiments of the line with the national guard. The whole population was arming, and before noon the military power had passed from the government. At eleven o'clock proclamation of the new cabinet was posted at the corners. The papers were instantly torn down; and at the same moment the dense mass moved rapidly for the Tuilleries and the Palace Royal. By twelve o'clock the whole of that quarter of the town was invested. In vain the new ministry had gone among the people and exerted all their personal influence to allay their fury. They were coldly received, and could effect nothing except to place themselves

in danger. Before one o'clock a second proclamation was posted, declaring that the king had abdicated in favour of the Count de Paris, with the duchess of Orleans as regent. It proclaimed "a general amnesty, dissolution of the chamber, appeal to the country."

But it was too late. Neither the dynasty nor its palace could be saved by so tardy a concession. Red flags were here and there hoisted among the mob, with the word republic rudely traced upon them. The ominous cry began to swell, "To the gallows with Louis Philippe !" At half past twelve, the attack on the Palace Royal commenced, and for an hour the firing upon it was excessive. It was carried by storm, and at the same time the Tuilleries surrencered without resistance. As the people entered on one side, Louis Philippe with his family escaped on the other. The national guard marched in with their muskets shouldered, the muzzle downwards, followed by thousands of the people. A general ransack of the royal apartments commenced; conducted with a strange mixture of order, enthusiasm, and inconsistency. While the worth of millions was destroyed with patriotic indifference, no one was allowed to appropriate to himself the least article, even though, from its nature, it could never revive the remembrance of royalty. One unfortunate man attempted to steal a silver spoon. Those who had just been smashing the furniture of the palace, compelled him to kneel, and after declaring that they thus served robbers, shot him dead. At the same moment the covering of the throne was being torn into shreds, and distributed among the mob. The throne itself was first broken to pieces, and then burned. All the king's private property was ruthlessly demolished, his carriages at the Chateau d'Eu were burned, many treasures of art in both palaces destroyed, and repeated attempts made to fire the Tuilleries. The money found there was carefully preserved, and subsequently restored to its true owners, while private property other than that of royalty was commendably respected. The king's papers, together with most of the documents of state, were thrown into the fire.

In the chamber of deputies, the scene on Thursday was most extraordinary. It was not an inapt repetition of what occurred in the constitutional assembly, on the 10th of August, 1792, and of the decisive blow struck by Buonaparte on the 18th Brumaire, when with his grenadiers he