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 tioners. 29-i ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 en A.P. not for the honest pride of its officers and men, it 1_ would be possible for an army to be put. In the All0 f d, course of an insurrection in such a city as Paris, eni]iluyi!icnt J ' ftsexe°cu S - numbers of prisoners might be seized either by the immense police force which would probably be hard at its work, or by troops who might shrink from the hatefulness of refusing quarter to men without arms in their hands ; and the pris- oners thus taken, being consigned to the ordinary jails, would be in the custody of the civil power. The Government, regretting that many of the prisoners should have been taken alive, might perhaps desire to put them to death, but might be of opinion that it would be impolitic to kill them by the hand of the civil power. In this strait, if it were not for the obstacle likely to be interposed by the honour and just pride of a war- like profession, platoons of foot-soldiers might be used — not to defend — not to attack — not to fight, but to relieve the civilians from one of the duties which they are accustomed to deem most vile, b} r performing for them the office of the executioner ; and these platoons might even be ordered to help the Government to hide the deed by doing their work in the dead hours of the night. Is it true that, with the sanction of the Home Office and of the Prefecture of Police, and under the orders of Prince Louis Bonaparte, St Arnaud, Magnan, Morn}', and Maupas, a midnight work of this last kind was done by the army of Paris ? To men not living iu the French capital, it