the republicans were led by secret societies formed of the most determined and ferocious members of their movement. these groups planned to provoke riots similar to those that had led to the 1830 july revolution against the ministers of charles x. the "" was one of the most instrumental. it was organized like an army, divided into sections of twenty members each (to evade the law that forbade the association of more than twenty persons), with a president and vice president for each section.