HISTORY 
were preceded by a pike, surmount- 
ed with a woollen bonnet ; upon 
the middle of the pike was a label 
with the words ‘* Deposition of 
the King.” No answer was given, 
or resolution formed on the pre- 
ceding petitions; but the petition- 
ers from the Champ de Mars were 
informed that the Assembly would 
take their demand into consider- 
ation. 
| As affairs now assumed a very 
serious aspect, a council of state 
was held, and a proclamation was 
addressed by the King to the nation, 
The King, after animadverting on 
the mutual diffidence which a few 
factious and seditious men wished 
to excite between the nation and 
its sovereign, proceeded thus :— 
“Foreign armies menace you.— 
Frenchmen, it is for you to daunt 
them by your countenance, and 
especially by your union. They 
insult your independence ;—renew 
with the King your oath to defend 
it. Frenchmen, can your King be 
responsible for the language which 
your enemies hold? Can it be in 
their power to break the bands 
which subsist between you and him? 
and by manifestos, more dreadful 
perhaps than their arms, can they 
scatter division among us when they 
cannot inspire terror?” —Had senti- 
ments and arguments so just been 
transmitted to the departments with 
the authority and approbation of 
the Assembly, they could scarcely 
have failed of making an impres- 
sion favourable to his Majesty. 
the moment they departed 
from the usual custom of ordering 
the royal communications to be 
iblished, and that too on the al- 
d ground of deceit and false- 
hood, his cause was prejudged in 
the minds of all who reposed any 
OF EUROPE. 
[35 
confidence in the representatives of 
the nation ; and he may be said in- 
deed to have been in a great mea- 
sure precluded from the liberty of 
the press. 
On the 9th of August, the day 
appointed for the question, of 
the deposition of the King, bodies 
of armed men sorrounded the hall 
of the. Assembly, and insulted, 
menaced, and assaulted the memb- 
ers who had voted in favour of La 
Fayette. As the confederates, and 
particularly the Marseillois, were 
known to be the great instigators 
of confusion and outrage, a motion 
was with the most perfect propriety 
made by M. Vaublanc for their 
removal from Paris: but this mo- 
tion, though pressed warmly by him 
and others, was rejected. Many 
of the members going and coming 
to the hall of the Assembly were in 
danger of assassination, At mid- 
night the tocsin sounded in every 
quarter ; the cannon of alarm was 
fired; and at two o’clock the As- 
sembly, under the present alarm, 
declared itself permanent. 
An insurrection on this very day 
had been predicted for several 
weeks, and was universally expect- 
ed. The open and undisguised 
preparation for this was announced 
by M. Rhaederer, procureur syndic 
for the department of ‘Paris. Pe- 
tion being summoned, declared at 
the bar of the Assembly that the 
people were very discontented and 
mutinously disposed ; ‘but although 
the firing of the cannon and the 
sounding of the bell of alarm had 
been both announced, the Mayor, 
who had the whole national guards 
at hiscommand, and the cannon of 
alarm, as well as the tocsin in‘his 
power, spoke as if he could not 
find any means to prevent what he 
[D] 2 pretended 
