THE CHAMPS-DE-MARS FEDERATION

THE CHAMPS-DE-MARS FEDERATION, a grand féte celebrated in the Champs-de-Mars, Paris, on July 14, 1790, the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, at which deputies from the newly instituted departments assisted to the number of 80,000, as well as deputies from other nations, "Swedes, Spaniards, Polacks, Turks, Chaldeans, Greeks, and dwellers in Mesopotamia," representatives of the human race, "with three hundred drummers, twelve hundred wind-musicians, and artillery planted on height after height to boom the tidings all over France, the highest recorded triumph of the Thespian art." Louis XVI. too assisted at the ceremony, and took solemn oath to the constitution just established in the interest of mankind. See Carlyle's "French Revolution."