Note 288 — BOOK XV[263]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
I give below the text of the two proclamations issued by the Duc d'Orléans and the Chamber of Deputies respectively:
"Inhabitants of Paris!
"The Deputies of France at this moment assembled in Paris have expressed to me the desire that I should repair to this capital to exercise the functions of Lieutenant-general of the Kingdom.
"I have not hesitated to come and share your dangers, to place myself in the midst of your heroic population, and to exert all my efforts to preserve you from the calamities of civil war and anarchy.
"On returning to the City of Paris, I wear with pride those glorious colours which you have resumed and which I myself long wore.
"The Chambers are going to assemble; they will consider of the means of securing the reign of the laws and the maintenance of the rights of the nation.
"The Charter will henceforward be a reality.
"Louis-Philippe d'Orléans."
"Frenchmen!
"France is free. Absolute power raised its standard: the heroic population of Paris has overthrown it. Paris, attacked, has made the sacred cause triumph, by means which had triumphed in vain in the elections. A power which usurped our rights and disturbed our repose threatened at once both liberty and order. We return to the possession of order and liberty. There is no more fear for acquired rights, no further barrier between us and the rights which we still require. A government which may, without delay, secure to us these advantages is now the first want of our country. Frenchmen, those of your Deputies who are already in Paris have assembled and, till the Chambers can regularly intervene, they have invited a Frenchman who has never fought but for France—the Duc d'Orléans—to exercise the functions of Lieutenant-general of the Kingdom. This is, in their opinion, the surest means promptly to accomplish, by peace, the success of the most legitimate defense.
"The Duc d'Orléans is devoted to the national and constitutional cause. He has always defended its interests and professed its principles. He will respect our rights, for he will derive his own from us. We shall secure to ourselves, by laws, all the guarantees necessary to strong and durable liberty:
"The re-establishment of the National Guard, with the intervention of the National Guards in the choice of their officers;
"The intervention of the citizens in the formation of the departmental and municipal administrations;
"The jury for the transgressions of the press; the legally organized responsibility of the ministers and of the secondary agents of the administration;
"The situation and rank of the military legally secured; and
"The re-election of deputies in the place of those appointed to public offices. Such guarantees will, at length, give to our institutions, in concert with the head of the state, the developments of which they have need.
"Frenchmen, the Duc d'Orléans himself has already spoken, and his language is that which is suitable to a free country:
"'The Chambers,' he says, 'are going to assemble; they will consider of means to insure the reign of the laws, and the maintenance of the rights of the nation.
"'The Charter will henceforward be a reality.'"—T.