What! to obtain blockade forts from the Parisians, it has sufficed to prejudice them against bombardment forts! And they thought to outwit the government! Oh, the sovereignty of the people!...
"Damn it! M.Thiers, who is wiser than you, says that it would be absurd to suppose a government making war upon citizens, and maintaining itself by force and in spite of the will of the people.

That would be absurd!" Perhaps so: such a thing has happened more than once, and may happen again.

Besides, when despotism is strong, it appears almost legitimate.
However that may be, they lied in 1833, and they lie again in 1841,--those who threaten us with the bomb-shell.

And then, if M.Thiers is so well assured of the intentions of the government, why does he not wish the forts to be built before the circuit is extended?
Why this air of suspicion of the government, unless an intrigue has been planned between the government and M.Thiers?
"Damn it! we do not wish to be again invaded.

If Paris had been fortified in 1815, Napoleon would not have been conquered!" But I tell you that Napoleon was not conquered, but sold; and that if, in 1815, Paris had had fortifications, it would have been with them as with the thirty thousand men of Grouchy, who were misled during the battle.