Parisians!1
Charles X has torn up the Charter, overturned laws, destroyed all liberties. Gone are the printing presses! Gone are the newspapers! Gone are the books! Gone is the Chamber! The ancien régime has been re-established; France, bound hand and foot, has been delivered to the nobles and priests.
To arms, citizens! To arms, for the defence of our country [la patrie], our honour, our existence! Do we consent to becoming a herd of slaves under the lash of the Jesuits? No, no! Sooner death.
It is not the people who will perish but the scoundrels who seek to enslave them. Arise! Arise! Let us crush these infamous villains. Let punishment fall upon their assault like a thunderbolt.
Article 1 – All citizens from 16 to 50 years of age are called upon for the defence of the country and of freedom.
Article 2 – Men between 16 and 30 years of age, armed or unarmed, are to go to the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville where they will be organised into battalions.
Article 3 – Men between 30 and 50 years of age are to remain in their neighbourhoods in order to prepare resistance there.
Article 4 – Barricades are to be constructed every 50 meters on all streets. The streets are to be dug up and, on the primary routes, the cobblestones are to be taken to the upper floors in order to be thrown down on Charles X’s troops.
Article 5 – Veteran officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers are called to the Hôtel de Ville in order to train the corps of the popular battalions.
Article 6 – Commissions are to be established for: 1) provisioning; 2) armament; 3) supplying ammunition. Citizens capable of taking part in these commissions are asked to report to the Hôtel de Ville.
Article 7 – The people are to seize firearms, as well as gunpowder and bullets, from the gunsmiths. The state will reimburse them for the cost of these objects along with a 25% premium for the risks involved.
- Source: MF, 54-55, based on the manuscript in MSS 9590(2), f. 460. As Decaux and Le Nuz note, it is likely that this proclamation, written during the street battles of the Trois Glorieuses, was never printed or disseminated (Decaux, L’Insurgé, 97; MF, 53). It is Blanqui’s first known text. ↩