Paris has this evening, the 21st of March, an air of extraordinary
contentment; it has belief in the deputies and the _maires_, it has
trust even, in the National Assembly. People talk of the manifestation
of the Friends of Order and approve of it. A foreigner, a Russian,
Monsieur A—— J——, who has inhabited Paris for ten years, and is
consequently Parisian, has given me the following information, of which
I took hasty note:—
“At half-past one o’clock to-day a group, of which I made one, was
formed in the place of the New Opera-house. We numbered scarcely twenty
persons, and we had a flag on which was inscribed, ‘Meeting of the
Friends of Order.’ This flag was carried by a soldier of the line, an
employé, it is said, of the house of Siraudin, the great confectioners.
We marched along the boulevards as far as the Rue de Richelieu; windows
were opened as we passed, and the people cried, ‘_Vive l’Ordre! Vive
l’Assemblée Nationale! A bas la Commune!_’ Few as we were at starting
our numbers soon grew to three hundred, to five hundred, to a thousand.
Our troop followed the Rue de Richelieu, increasing as it went. At the
Place de la Bourse a captain at the head of his National Guards tried
to stop us. We continued our course, the company saluted our flag as,
we passed, and the drums beat to arms. After having traversed, still
increasing in numbers, the streets which surround the Bourse, we
returned to the boulevards, where the most lively enthusiasm burst out
around us. We halted opposite the Rue Drouot. The _mairie_ of the Ninth
Arrondissement was occupied by a battalion attached to the Central
Committee—the 229th, I believe. Although there was some danger of a
collision, we made our way into the street, resolved to do our duty,
which was to protest against the interference with order and the
disregard for established laws; but no resistance was opposed to us.
The National Guards came out in front of the door of the _mairie_ and
presented arms to us, and we were about to continue our way, when some
one remarked that our flag, on which, as I have already said, were the
woods ‘Meeting of the Friends of Order,’ might expose us to the danger
of being taken for ‘_réactionnaires_,’ and that we ought to add the
words ‘_Vive la République!_’ Those who headed the manifestation came
to a halt, and a few of them went into a café, and there wrote the
words on the flag with chalk. We then resumed our march, following the
widest and most frequented paths, and were received with acclamations
everywhere. A quarter of an hour later we arrived at the Rue de la Paix
and were marching towards the Place Vendôme, where the battalions of
the Committee were collected in masses, and where, as is well known,
the staff of the National Guard had its head-quarters. There, as in the
Rue Drouot, the drums were beaten and arms presented to us; more than
that, an officer came and informed the leaders of the manifestation
that a delegate of the Central Committee begged them to proceed to the
staff quarters. At this moment I was carrying the flag. We advanced in
silence. When we arrived beneath the balcony, surrounded by National
Guards, whose attitude was generally peaceful; there appeared on the
balcony a rather young man, without uniform, but wearing a red scarf,
and surrounded by several superior officers; he came forward and
said—‘Citizens, in the name of the Central Committee....’ when he was
interrupted by a storm of hisses and by cries of ‘_Vive l’Ordre! Vive
l’Assemblée Nationale! Vive la République!_’ In spite of these daring
interruptions we were not subjected to any violence, nor even to any
threats, and without troubling ourselves any more about the delegate,
we marched round the column, and having regained the boulevards
proceeded towards the Place de la Concorde. There, some one proposed
that we should visit Admiral Saisset, who lived in the Rue Pauquet, in
the quarter of the Champs Elysées, when a grave looking man with grey
hair said that Admiral Saisset was at Versailles. ‘But,’ he added,
‘there are several admirals amongst you.’ He gave his own name, it was
Admiral de Chaillé. From that moment he headed the manifestation, which
passed over the Pont de la Concorde to the Faubourg St. Germain.
Constantly received with acclamations, and increasing in numbers, we
paraded successively all the streets of the quarter, and each time that
we passed before a guard-house the men presented arms. On the Place St.
Sulpice a battalion drew up to allow us to pass. We afterwards went
along the Boulevard St. Michel and the Boulevard de Strasbourg. During
this part of our course we were joined by a large group, preceded by a
tricolor flag with the inscription, ‘_Vive l’Assemblée Nationale!_’
From this time the two flags floated side by side at the head of the
augmented procession. As we were about to turn into the Boulevard
Bonne-Nouvelle, a man dressed in a paletot and wearing a grey felt hat,
threw himself upon me as I was carrying the standard of the Friends of
Order, but a negro, dressed in the uniform of the National Guard, who
marched beside me, kept the man off, who thereupon turned against the
person that carried the other flag, wrested it from him, and with
extraordinary strength broke the staff, which was a strong one, over
his knee. This incident caused some confusion; the man was seized and
carried off, and I fear he was rather maltreated. We then made our way
back to the boulevards. At our appearance the enthusiasm of the
passers-by was immense; and certainly, without exaggeration, we
numbered between three and four thousand persons by the time we got
back to the front of the New Opera-house, where we were to separate. A
Zouave climbed up a tree in front of the Grand Hôtel, and fixed our
flag on the highest branch. It was arranged that we should meet on the
following day, in uniform but without arms, at the same place.”
This account differs a little from those given in the newspapers, but I
have the best reason to believe it absolutely true.
What will be the effect of this manifestation? Will those who desire
“Order through Liberty and in Liberty” succeed in meeting in
sufficiently large numbers to bring to reason, without having recourse
to force, the numerous partizans of the Commune? Whatever may happen,
this manifestation proves that Paris has no intention of being disposed
of without her own consent. In connection with the action of the
deputies in the National Assembly, it cannot have been ineffective in
aiding the coming pacification.
Many hopeful promises of concord and quiet circulate this evening
amongst the less violent groups.