serious has ever been written against the promoters of the
sanguinary violences on the 17th of July.

The blame that has been thrown on the events of the Champ de Mars has
not been confined solely to the fact of proclaiming martial law; the
repressive measures that followed that proclamation have been criticized
with equal bitterness.

The municipal administration was especially reproached for having
hoisted a red flag much too small; a flag that was called in the
Tribunal _a pocket flag_; for not having placed this flag at the head
of the column, as the law commands, but in such a position, that the
public on whom the column was advancing could not see it; for having
made the armed force enter the Champ de Mars, by all the gates on the
side towards the town, a manoeuvre that seemed rather intended to
surround the multitude, than to disperse it; for having ordered the
National Guard to load their arms, even on the Place de Greve; for
having made the guard fire before the three required summonses were
made, and fire upon the people around the altar, whilst the stones and
the pistol shot, which were assigned as the motive for the sanguinary
order, came from the steps and benches; for allowing some people who
were endeavouring to escape on the side towards l'Ecole Militaire, and
others who had actually jumped into the Seine, to be pursued, shot, and
bayonetted.

It results clearly from one of Bailly's publications, from his answers
to the questions put to him by the President of the Revolutionary
Tribunal, from the writings of the day:

That the Mayor of Paris gave no order for the troops to be collected on
the 17th of July; that he had had no conference on that day with the
military authority; that if any arrangements, culpable and contrary to
law were adopted, as to the situation of the cavalry, of the red flag,
and of the Municipal Body, in the column marching on the Champ de Mars,
they could not without injustice be imputed to him; that Bailly was not
aware of the National Guard having loaded their muskets with ball before
quitting the square of the Hotel de Ville; that he was not aware even of
the existence of the red flag, with whose small dimensions he had been
so severely reproached; that the National Guard fired without his
order; that he made every effort to stop the firing, to stop the
pursuit, and make the soldiers resume their ranks; that he congratulated
the troops of the line, who under the command of H