A second mass demonstration of workers in…

A second mass demonstration of workers in Paris on April 16 fails to take power.

The ateliers nationaux satisfy no one: for the radicals they are a mere caricature of social reform, whereas for the moderates they are a wasteful and dangerous experiment that attracts thousands of unemployed to Paris from every corner of France.

Financial problems plague the government, which seeks a solution by imposing a special 45-centime surtax on each franc of direct property taxes; this burden weighs most heavily on the peasantry and is bitterly resented in the countryside.

To regain control of the government, the right wing arranges for elections, brings troops into Paris, and attempts to win over the National Guard to the “cause of order”.

The radicals, fearing that universal suffrage under these conditions might produce unpleasant results, vainly urged postponement of the elections until the new voters could be “educated” as to the virtues of a social republic.

On the 23rd, elections to the National Assembly are held, and the returns confirmed the radicals' fears.

The election strengthen the moderate bourgeois republicans, giving them 500 seats, as against 80 for Louis Blanc's left wing, comprising radicals and socialists.

Legitimists (pro-Bourbon) receive around 100 seats, Orléanists about 200.

Adolphe Thiers, who had held several ministerial positions under the Orléanist monarchy, returns to the Assembly as a representative for Seine Inferieure.

The popular Lamartine is elected to the National Assembly by ten départements.

The bourgeoisie, represented by the right-wing parties, think they have elected in Lamartine a clever manipulator who can placate the proletariat, while military forces capable of establishing order, such as they conceive of it, are being reconstituted.

The bourgeoisie is enraged to discover, however, that Lamartine is, indeed, as he had proclaimed himself to be, the spokesman of the working class.

The decree of April 27, 1848 abolishes slavery in French colonies.