ADDRESSES THE KING. 181 
“T bring to your Majesty the keys of your good city | 
of Paris. They are the same that were presented to 
Henry IV. He had reconquered his people, here the 
people have reconquered their king.” 
The antithesis: “ he had reconquered his people, here 
the people have reconquered their king,” was universally 
applauded. But since then, it has been criticized with 
bitterness and violence. ‘The enemies of the Revolution 
have striven to discover in it an intention of committing 
an outrage, to which the character of Bailly, and still 
more so the first glance at an examination of the rest of 
his discourse, give a flat contradiction. I will acknowl- 
edge, Gentlemen, I think that I have even a right to de- 
cline the epithet of “ unfortunate,” which one of our most 
respectable colleagues in the French Academy has pro- 
nounced relative to this celebrated phrase, while doing 
justice at the same time to the sentiments of the author. 
The poison contained in the few words that I have quoted, 
was very inoffensive, since more than a year passed with- 
out any courtier, though furnished like a microscope with 
all the monarchical susceptibilities, beginning to suspect 
. its existence. 
The Mayor of Paris was at the Hotel de Ville in the 
midst of those same Parisian citizens who inspired him, 
a few months before, with the mortifying reflection already 
quoted: “I remarked in the Assembly of Electors a dis- 
like to literary people and Academicians.” The feeling 
did not appear to be changed. 
The political movement in 1789, had been preceded 
by two very serious physical perturbations which had 
great influence on the march of events. Every one is 
aware, that the excessively rigorous winter of 1788-89 
was the cause of severe sufferings to the people. But it 
