Rare American Announcement of the July Revolution
Revolution in France! [drop title].
[Boston]: Office of the Daily Commercial Gazette, n.d. [August, 1830].
Price: $800.00
About the item
Printed broadside, one page in 4 columns. 1 vols. Folio (22 x 11 inches; 56.5 x 28.6 cm). Rare American Announcement of the July Revolution. Some minor waterstaining, but overall a very good copy of an impressive document, docketed on the verso by an early owner, giving details of the history of the imprint and its receipt in Boston.
Item #234831
This Boston broadside, published by the [Boston] Daily Commercial Gazette, contains extracts from the London papers detailing the July 1830 Revolution in France that overthrew Charles X. It is presumably one of the earliest American reports of the overthrow of the Bourbons.
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution, was a revolt by the middle class against Bourbon King Charles X which forced him out of office and replaced him with the Orleanist King Louis-Philippe. It is best known to many Americans through the climax of Victor Hugo's landmark novel, Les Miserables, and its adaptation as a long-running Broadway play. We didn't notice any quotes from Jean Valjean or Marius in this historic broadside but the content is, nonetheless, absolutely fascinating. To quote, in part:
"It was evident from the complexion of the foreign advices that a crisis was near at hand in France. Still we had no idea that the gathering tempest was so soon to break upon us. But the explosion has fallen upon the startled ear quick as the thunder-crash follows the blaze of the lightning. Another agony has begun. The streets of the French capital have again been deluged with blood. Charles X has ceased to reign. The haughty Bourbons are again our fugitives. LAFAYETTE - almost OUR OWN Lafayette - is again at the head of the National Army. And France reposes once more in the arms of her legitimate sovereigns the PEOPLE."
