Paris in the 18th century the Marquis de Lafayette organized a "Garde nationale" to defend the city against the army. On 14 July, a mob seized the arsenal at the Invalides, acquiring thousands of guns, and stormed the Bastille, a symbol of royal authority, a prison which at the time held only seven prisoners, and was defended by eighty invalid soldiers, reinforced by thirty-six Swiss guards. About forty Revolutionaries were killed in the fighting. The governor of the Bastille, the Marquis de Launay, surrendered and then was killed, and his head put on the end of a pike and carried around Paris. The Provost of
Paris in the 18th century an offense to public morality and urged that they be moved from the center of the city, but they were popular and remained. In 1783, the police finally restricted bathing in the river during the day, but bathing at night was still allowed. The first daily newspaper in the city, the "Journal de Paris", began publication on 1 January 1777. It was four pages long, printed on small sheets of paper, and focused on local news, and what was allowed by the royal censors. The press did not emerge as a force in Parisian life until 1789 and the Revolution,