Descriptive portraiture of Europe in storm and calm; twenty years' experiences and reminiscences of an American journalist, sketches and records of noted events, celebrated persons and places, (14595849259)

Identifier: descriptiveport00king (find matches)
Title: Descriptive portraiture of Europe in storm and calm; twenty years' experiences and reminiscences of an American journalist, sketches and records of noted events, celebrated persons and places, national and international affairs in France, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Roumania, Turkey-in-Europe, Switzerland and Italy
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: King, Edward, 1848-1896
Subjects:
Publisher: Springfield, Mass., C.A. Nichols
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto



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thing which ren-dered the insurrection of 1871 so easy.It had created the National Guard Mo- EUROPE IN STORM AND CALM. 227 Me, which was about five hundred andfifty thousand strong, divided into bat-talions, companies, and batteries. Thisforce was created by Napoleon III. onthe proposition of Marshal Niel, who was then Minister of War, and in virtue V the capital. There were comprised with-in the limits of this organization allclasses of society, — the rich sho()-keeperand professional men of the Rue de-la Paix and the Opera Quarter, the houseowners and the retired merchants of the
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THE IMPERIAL POLICE PROTECTED BY THE REPUBLICAN GUARD. of a law voted by the Corps L^gislatifon the 1st of February, 1868. Themaximum effective of each battalion ofthis National Guard was two thousandmen, forming eight companies of twohundred and fifty men each, at the timeof the downfall of the Empire ; and fornearly the whole of the period of thesiege of Paris and the Commune, almosttliree hundred thousand men of this Na-tional Guard were within the walls of Place Vcnddme and the Champs P^lj-sees,as well as the half-educated and am-bitious artisans of Belleville and LaYillette. These elements, hostile to eachother,—the same elements, which by theirinharmonious clashing in previous periodsof trouble had caused bloodshed andtemporary anarchy, — were to be coopedup in a besieged city for long months,their really splendid forces never to beutilized against the enemy because their 228 EUROPE IX STORM AND CALM. commander feared tliat if they won abattle against tlie Germans they would