head of the Army and of the Parisian
National Guard, and only lay in wait to be summoned, together with the
Army. The Bonapartist press did not even dare to question the right of
the National Assembly to issue a direct requisition for troops;--a legal
scruple, that, under the given circumstances, did not promise success.
That the Army would have obeyed the orders of the National Assembly is
probable, when it is considered that Bonaparte had to look eight days
all over Paris to find two generals--Baraguay d'Hilliers and St.
Jean d'Angley--who declared themselves ready to countersign the order
cashiering Changamier. That, however, the party of Order would have
found in its own ranks and in the parliament the requisite vote for such
a decision is more than doubtful, when it is considered that, eight days
later, 286 votes pulled away from it, and that, as late as December,
1851, at the last decisive hour, the Mountain rejected a similar
proposition. Nevertheless, the burgraves might still have succeeded
in driving the mass of their party to an act of heroism, consisting in
feeling safe behind a forest of bayonets, and in accepting the services
of the Army, which found itself deserted in its camp. Instead of this,
the Messieurs Burgraves betook themselves to the Elysee on the evening
of January 6, with the view of inducing Bonaparte, by means of politic
words and considerations, to drop the removal of Changarnier. Him whom
we must convince we recognize as the master of the situation. Bonaparte,
made to feel secure by this step, appoints on January 12 a new Ministry,
in which the leaders of the old, Fould and Baroche, are retained. St
Jean d'Angley becomes Minister of War; the "Moniteur" announces the
decree cashiering Changarnier; his command is divided up between
Baraguay d'Hilliers, who receives the First Division, and Perrot, who is
placed over the National Guard. The "Bulwark of Society" is turned down;
and, although no dog barks over the event, in the Bourses the stock
quotations rise.

By repelling the Army, that, in Changarnier's person, put itself at its
disposal, and thus irrevocably stood up against the President, the party
of Order declares that the bourgeoisie has lost its vocation to reign.
Already there was no parliamentary Ministry. By losing, furthermore, the
handle to the Army and to the National Guard, what instrument of force
was there left to the National Assembly in order to maintain both the
usurped po