3-047-100 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Members of the French National Assembly returning from Paris to Versailles, 1872. 'The anxiety which has prevailed, during the last fortnight, about the result of the severe Parliamentary struggle between M. Thiers and the Conservative party in the National Assembly...gives a strong interest to the scene presented in our Illustration - namely...the arrival of a number of the members of the Assembly at the St. Lazare railway terminus...In the crowd of honourable members...who are met, as usual, by a mob of lounging political gossips or cringing place-seekers, the foremost figure is that of General Changarnier, a leading partisan of the "Right" or reactionary side. He is distinguished by the military primness and smartness of his attire, his strapped trousers, moustache, brown wig, and gold-headed cane. The young man, having the overcoat thrown over his left arm, who accosts Changarnier with an almost servile bow, is certainly an expectant of promotion in the civil or military service. Following the old General comes the Duc d'Audiffret Pasquier, one of the ablest debaters in the Assembly...The Royal Princes, the Comte de Paris and the Duc d'Aumale, who might have been at the head of the French nation, are mingled with the rest of the crowd'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.