ADDRESSES THE KING. 181 



" I 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- 

 eclo-e, Gentlemen, I think that I have even a right to de- 



O f * o 



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 



