ABSTRACT
The February Days constituted, to a substantial extent, an insurrection of the Paris working class and of elements of the Paris petty bourgeoisie. Crucial roles were also played by the Paris National Guard and by Paris university students. Apart from the relatively weak Municipal Guard and the Paris military garrison, in Paris the defence of the government and ultimately of the regime itself depended upon the part-time militia known as the National Guard. The Paris National Guard was organised into twelve legions, one for each of the arrondissements of Paris, together with one cavalry legion. Each infantry legion tended to reflect the predominant political attitudes of its arrondissement. Thus the First, Tenth and Eleventh Legions, and the Cavalry Legion, mainly recruited from wealthy Parisians, tended to be conservative, whereas the Third, Eighth and Twelfth Legions, from working-class arrondissements, tended to be quite radical, the remaining legions having less pronounced political loyalties. Many guardsmen did not qualify to vote in parliamentary elections and had come to support an extension of the parliamentary franchise and the reform banquet campaign. Indeed, a group of radical Paris National Guard officers had provided the original initiative for the twelfth arrondissement banquet. Guard officers and many guardsmen had planned to participate in the reform banquet and demonstration, wearing their uniforms. The cancellation of the banquet and demonstration left many guardsmen feeling angry, betrayed and in no mood to defend the Guizot government or even the regime of LouisPhilippe.
