THE CONTINENTAL REVOLUTIONS.
Although not strictly forming a portion of the history of England, it would be impossible to relate the events in which the interests of England were involved, without some extended reference to the mighty moral earthquakes of continental Europe. France was the centre of these terrible upheavings of human passion and power. Her government, under the base king Louis Philippe, whom the revolution of 1830 had placed upon the throne, was the most corrupt which France had ever known. Tyranny infinitely more oppressive than that which he was permitted to wield had often cursed France, but never before were such efforts made as by him to corrupt the whole people. The unprincipled conduct of every department of the government directed by Guizot, the treacherous and subservient tool of his bad master, utterly disgusted all honourable men; and even those who were willing to sell themselves and their country, despised and hated the purchasers. Even the correct manners of Louis Philippe’s court, and the strict domestic morality observed there, at last increased the public indignation and contempt, for it left the universal impression that he was a cold and heartless hypocrite. During 1847 a desire for electoral reform, which had existed for many years among the more thoughtful politicians of France, became more thoroughly developed among most classes of citizens, and agitations to accomplish this object were set on foot. The tyrant king opposed this feeling and these movements, at first by corrupt means, and, ultimately, by the hands of his unscrupulous minister, he resorted to coercion. Public meetings were suppressed, and the liberty of the press was invaded. The insulted citizens of Paris rose in arms, barricades were erected, and the king, as cowardly as he was corrupt, had not the manhood to stand by his own measures, but fled, with craven spirit, to take refuge in the country whose queen and people he had betrayed. Under the common English name of Smith this proud prince found means of escaping from the country he had deceived, pillaged, and oppressed, and which allowed him to pass away without pursuit, and without malediction, because of its own magnanimity and the contempt with which it regarded him. Louis Philippe found a home in England, at first at Claremont, and then in Abingdon House, Kensington, where he lived for some time in apparently tranquil enjoyment, the delightful and salubrious vicinity affording to his family means of retired and pleasurable recreation.
The expulsion of the nefarious old man, who had for eighteen years ruled France on a system of false pretences, was followed by the appointment of a provisional government, consisting of Dupont (de l’Eure), Lamartine, Arago, Marie, Armand Marrast, Garnier Pages, Albert, Ledru Rollin, Ferdinand Flocon, Louis Blanc, Cremieux. No sooner was the provisional government appointed, than it was discovered that harmony among its members was impossible. The republican party was divided into two great sections—the old republicans and the “reds.” The former, like those of the United States of America, contended for self-government and equal political rights, for civil and religious liberty. The latter declared for what they called “a republic, democratic, and social,” and their aim was to establish socialism by subverting all rights, civil and religious, fusing all interests in a communal equality, no longer being subject to individual claims. The unknown of Paris were ignorant, and many of them suffered much from low wages and irregular employment; these madly grasped at a theory which promised to them a maintenance at the public expense. The state ought, in their opinion, to provide them with wages sufficient for their support, they being themselves the judges of the requisite amount, and the state should find employment, if it could, for those who were so requited, the amount of labour to be rendered was also to be decided by the workers. The theory was substantially that which prevailed among the English Chartists. The whole subject of this division of feeling and opinion in the provisional government and in the nation, with the practical results, was thus clearly set forth by a writer of that day:—“In this conflict of opinion upon the question of labour, or of communism, is the resumé of all the great events that have taken place in France since the declaration of the republic on the 24th of February last. This key unlocks them all, and the efforts of this principle to establish itself, and to overthrow its opponents, explain events otherwise inexplicable, and show us in the clearest possible manner what are and what are not the great opposing forces that have since been at feud. All other forces in France have been as nothing compared with these two. The friends of monarchy, whether of the Orleans or the old Bourbon dynasty, and the friends of Napoleon, have, it is true, endeavoured to make themselves heard; but their voices have been mere whispers in comparison with the shouts and hubbub of the communists and anti-communists—of the tricolor republicans and the republicans of the drapeau rouge. Without this clue to the character of the revolution, the remark of Milton that the wars of the Saxon heptarchy were as unintelligible as those of kites in a neighbouring wood, would apply to the proceedings of the Parisians. Almost each day, after the 24th of February, brought tidings of change in all the relations betwixt man and man. There was fighting one day, embracing the next; every rotation of the hand brought to view a wonderful and unexpected change of figures in the political kaleidoscope. Day after day, in endless succession, there were mouthings of tumid, florid, and often unintelligible speeches, and of still more unintelligible and mysterious theories for the regeneration of mankind. Every speech and newspaper article breathed only peace and goodwill towards all men, yet almost every ordinance of the government was directed towards the organisation of armed men. There were assemblings of the people, reviews, marchings, and counter-marchings, hasty summonings at all hours, the beating of the rappel, and the sounding of the tocsin, in the dead of night and the early dawn. The ‘Marseillaise Hymn’ and the ‘Mourir pour la Patrie,’ were sung in every street, court, and alley, and were heard on the pillow of every recumbent citizen. Journalism became a power of tremendous magnitude and extent. People read leading articles by torchlight, and shouted out to the moon apostrophes to liberty, ay, ‘liberty, equality, fraternity.’ These three talismanic words, too often devoid of meaning in the apprehension of those who shouted them with a fervour sufficient to split the ears of the groundlings. Liberty? every man doing what he deemed best, seemed to be the interpretation of the mob. Equality? every man trying to get above every other man, seemed its natural consequences. Fraternity? every man knocking down every other man who happened to be of a different way of thinking from himself, was the manner in which the men of the faubourgs seemed to construe it. Such seemed to be the epitome of the French revolution; but it was not so. There was order amid disorder; two principles were at work; and the revolution—so frivolous in its details, so momentous in its results; exhibiting so much talent and energy, so much vanity and folly, so much honesty and treachery, such kind feelings and such malignant passions, such planting of trees and cutting of throats, such recommendations of order, such instances of disorder, so much wisdom producing so much folly, so much goodness mingled with so much wickedness, so much gravity combined with so much levity, such long speeches and such brief epigrams—was quite explainable wherever the mind was able to grasp it as a whole, and see the operation of the two great and all pervading principles which we have mentioned.”
The party of the communists in the provisional government comprised three members—Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, and Albert. This number, being small in proportion to the whole, offended the socialists; but Lamartine and Arago possessed such influence with the three “reds,” that they were for a time induced to co-operate with the rest for the general good, and in a system of rational government. To those two great men France was deeply indebted; their appearance was at times sufficient to still a tumult.
The three communist members of the government gradually became more exacting, and at last the influence of the philosophical republicans and statesmen, who were associated with them, failed to keep within bounds the communist sympathies of these hot-headed and imprudent men. In an evil hour, Lamartine and some of his colleagues, who, like him, had just notions of state affairs, and correct views of political economy, conceded to Ledru Roll in and his brothers of the drapeau rouge a certain organisation for the employment of labour. From that hour the doom of the new republic was sealed—it was the beginning of the end. Men of property and sagacity stood aloof. M. Goodcheaux resigned, and many official persons of eminent knowledge and experience followed his example. Meanwhile Paris was kept in continual apprehension by popular demonstrations, and commercial failures shook the public credit. The working population became more and more dissatisfied, and menaced public order and the existence of all rational government.
The provisional government called a constituent assembly, and the representatives of the people were to assemble in Paris on a certain day in April, but the assemblage was afterwards deferred to the 4th of May. Ledru Rollin addressed a circular to the prefects and other departmental and commercial authorities, urging upon them the support of republican candidates at the elections. This measure Ledru Rollin and some of his colleagues justified on the ground that there were already parties whose reactionary efforts might be successful in returning Orleanist, Buonapartist, or ultramontane representatives, who might form a majority in the assembly, or, at all events, a minority large enough to embarrass the republic. By republican members, however, Rollin and Louis Blanc meant socialists, and this effort on their part to influence by official means the returns of the constituent assembly, destroyed all confidence in their justice, impartiality, and toleration. Rollin defended the measures he had adopted in terms, if possible, more imprudent than the measures themselves, and Albert and Blanc went still further in their indiscreet words, as well as excited zeal. The result was that moderate men not only lost confidence in them personally, but became apprehensive of the designs and tendency of their party, and the elections were much less favourable to the views and wishes of the “reds” than would otherwise have been the case. While Ledru Rollin and his communist colleagues in office were mismanaging everything connected with home interests, Lamartine was conducting the foreign affairs of France with surpassing judgment. At first all European governments saw the proclamation of a French republic with awe, and their thoughts were only how most effectually to arm and combine against French republic propagandism. Lamartine soothed this alarm. He addressed a diplomatic circular to all the agents of France through Europe, expounding the principles upon which the French republic was founded. His policy might be summed up in a single sentence of this manifesto,—“The republic is the will of a great people; it derives its title from itself. Its policy is peace.”
The government adopted the plan of large workshops, and workmen were employed at the rate of a million and a half sterling a year. Louis Blanc admitted that unless the work produced should prove remunerative in the market, it would be impossible for the government to continue so enormous an outlay. The operatives, perceiving the hesitation of the government, prepared to carry their communistic views into operation themselves, without having the trouble of using the provisional government for their execution.
On the appointed day the assembly met, and the republic was proclaimed. The real feelings and opinions of the assembly were soon seen; they were elicited by the ministerial reports. The following description of the scene presented on the occasion is quoted from the contemporary press:—
“All the preliminaries having been gone through, powers verified, a president (M. Bûchez) and vice-presidents, secretaries, &c., appointed, the members of the government proceed to lay before the assembly an account of their ministries since the establishment of the republic.
“On Saturday, May 6, the president announced that the citizen minister, Lamartine, was about to make a communication from the government, when that gentleman ascended the tribune, and proceeded to read a document, which purported to be a report of the acts of the provisional government in their ensemble—the restoration of order, organisation of the national guard, mobile garde, the army, &c.—enumerating what had been done in the midst of two months of a crisis during which not a drop of blood had been shed. Many portions of this report were much applauded, and at the close there was great enthusiasm.
“He was succeeded by Ledru Rollin, the minister of the interior, who read a report of the acts of his administration, which he read with great vehemence, but without exciting applause, except of a very partial kind from a small minority.
“The minister of justice (M. Crémieux) next ascended the tribune, and proceeded to read a report of his official acts, in which he recounted all the ameliorations applied to the administration of justice, the abolition of capital punishment for capital offences, abolition of the pillory, &c.
“The next member of the government who ascended the tribune was M. Louis Blanc, who excited a smile by his first act, which was to stoop and arrange a tabouret, or footstool, on which to raise himself high enough to be seen. The voice that came from this small form was firm, clear, and loud; and he, instead of reading, delivered an extempore oration in favour of his Organisation du Travail, to which he said the government stood committed by its promises to the people assembled before the Hôtel de Ville the day after the revolution. The assembly received his oration with a coldness which augured ill.
“M. Carnot, the minister of public instruction, was afterwards heard, and was succeeded by M. Bethmont, the minister of commerce, who deposited on the table the exposé of the state of his department. M. Gamier Pages, minister of finance, concluded his report on the financial condition of the country.
“M. Arago, the minister of war and marine, and M. Marie, the minister of public works, next presented the situation of their departments; and were succeeded by M. Lamartine, minister for foreign affairs, who took a short review of the aspect of affairs throughout Europe. The general tone of his remarks was pacific, and in accordance with the principles of his address some time before to the diplomatic agents of France.
“In the course of the sitting a note from Béranger, the poet, resigning his seat for Paris, was read; but the assembly unanimously refused to accept the resignation.
“A stormy discussion then arose on the motion of M. Domes, offering the thanks of the assembly to the provisional government for their conduct in the administration of affairs, and nominating a committee of five to act as a government ad interim, until the permanent government of the country had been constituted. Subsequently, after fearful uproar, the motion was modified by the withdrawal of the latter part of it, and the assembly voted that the provisional government had deserved well of the country. The vote was almost unanimous, M. Barbes, M. Durrien, and another rising alone against it.
“On Tuesday, at eleven o’clock, M. Bûchez, the president, took the chair.
“Some apprehensions were entertained that the result of this sitting would occasion disturbances. The workmen met in several quarters of Paris, and in the wood of Boulogne, and were understood to have declared that if M. Ledru Rollin was excluded from the government, they would take arms. Extraordinary precautions had accordingly been adopted around the hall. A large force was stationed in the adjoining garden, and invitations had been sent to the national guards to hold themselves in readiness to march at the first signal.
“On the following Wednesday, the appointment of an executive committee, in lieu of the provisional government, was announced. The result of the ballot was—
Arago....................................... 725 Gamier Pages................................ 715 Marie ..................................... 702 Lamartine .................................. 643 Ledru Rollin..........,..................... 598
“Those five members having obtained the required majority, were proclaimed members of the executive committee. M. Louis Blanc, M. Albert, and M. Flocon were entirely excluded—a fact which the peuple and the ‘communists’ cherished in vindictive remembrance. M. Ledru Rollin, whose violence had alarmed the majority, though not excluded, was at the bottom of the list; and M. de Lamartine, who had lent his high name and great popularity to support M. Ledru Rollin, was placed next lowest—all of them being most significant facts to show the spirit of the assembly, and the probable policy to be hereafter expected from it.”
The discontent of the ouvriers gathered strength, and on the 15th of May they rose in insurrection. After much severe fighting the insurgents were defeated, the loyalty of the troops, national guards, and garde mobile to the republic sustaining the cause of order. The garde mobile had been organised from the very lowest classes in Paris— classes below the workmen—and was composed of mere youths, who distinguished themselves beyond all other forces by their heroic courage throughout that eventful day. The result to the leaders of the socialists was that many of them, such as Albert, Barbes, Blanqui, Raspail, and Sobrier were consigned to prison. Louis Blanc had a very narrow escape of being numbered among them.
The suppression of the clubs and of the atteliers nationaux, followed this success on the part of the government, but still more exasperated the workmen. In this condition of affairs Prince Louis Napoleon was elected for Paris, as representative in the room of one of the double returns made in the general election. He was also elected for three departmental vacancies, caused also by double returns in the general election. It at once became the fashion to laud the prince. All parties, except the “republicans pure and simple,” seemed to think that Napoleonism offered a refuge from anarchy. The “reds” favoured him from hatred to the party of the executive committee, or rather the majority of that party; but in reality no faction hated Louis Napoleon at heart so much as they. At all events, his name became a rallying word for nearly all the lovers of order, who were not believers in the theory of philosophical republicanism. The most ominous thing connected with these demonstrations was the appearance of a journal entitled Le Napoléonien. Placards also appeared with the words “Louis Napoleon! Vive l’Empereur! A bas la République!” and crowds, shouting the name of Buonaparte, collected in various parts of Paris, the générale and the rappel were beaten, troops assembled, and the guards, sédentaires and mobile, were frequently assembled to protect the government and the representatives. Shots were fired, some lives were lost, and the panic became general throughout Paris. Lamartine took advantage of this, and proposed to the assembly that the laws of 1816 and 1832 should be enforced, forbidding the entrance of any of the Buonaparte family into France. This motion was received by the assembly with loud shouts of “Vive la République!” Many who joined in that shout would have shouted still more cordially for Louis Philippe or the representative of the older branch of the Bourbon family. The cry of the republic answered their present purpose of committing the executive committee to imprudent measures, and of excluding the Buonapartists, who were regarded as more formidable rivals to the Bourbons than the republicans, old or new. The assembly was not able to carry out its own resolution; after coquetting with public opinion and persisting for a time, the exclusion of the Buonapartes was given up as impracticable; and the prince, again elected for Corsica and other electoral districts, took his place in the legislative assembly, accepted the oaths to the republic, and before the year expired was president. Before that was accomplished France was doomed to undergo fresh trials, and Paris to witness still more sanguinary scenes.
The question of labour-regulation continued, under every improvement and modification that was devised, to embarrass the government; and it was at last resolved to remove from Paris great numbers of the workmen to distant parts of the country, to be engaged there on various public works. This the men determined to resist, and to subvert a government which dared to suggest such a measure. The government was, however, forced to adopt at once some plan to rid itself of the peril and imminent ruin of the atteliers. In the National Assembly, Victor Hugo, M. Léon Faucher, and others, denounced the connivance of the executive committee with a state of things that must speedily destroy France. The number of workmen then engaged in the government workshops of Paris was one hundred and twenty thousand. On the night of the 22nd of June, cries of “Down with the Assembly!” were raised by the ouvriers in the streets. In the morning, signs of disturbance were indicated in many quarters. In the course of a few hours the workmen began to erect barricades. Fighting began between the national guards and the constructors of the barricades at the Porte Saint-Denis. Throughout the day barricades were demolished by the national guards and gardes mobiles, but only after fierce and deadly conflict. During the night of the 23rd new barricades were raised as if by magic, and on the morning of the 24th, a system of ingenious and powerful defences existed through a large extent of Paris, behind which and commanding which, from the windows and house-tops, well-armed and determined men were placed. Happily the government consigned to General Cavaignac, minister of war, all the functions of a dictator. He was ably seconded by General Lamoricière, and other officers of rank, several of whom sealed their fidelity in death. During the 24th, terrible battle raged in the streets of Paris, but the troops and civic soldiery stormed the barricades and conquered. Mortars were used, from which showers of shells were discharged, which bursting behind the barricades shattered these defences, ponderous although they were, scattering them, and the bodies of the brave men who defended them to the last. Shells also were thrown into the houses, whence a fire was kept up upon the military in the streets: many of these houses were torn to pieces, burying the defenders in their ruins. In some streets the troops had to cut their way from house to house, the sappers knocking down the party-walls: the contest in these directions resembled that at Saragossa, where, amidst crumbling walls and blazing roofs, men fought foot to foot, in the agonies of valour, fanaticism, and despair. Throughout the 25th and 26th the conflict raged, but was terminated on the evening of that day. Twenty thousand men were killed or wounded. General Cavaignac was elected by the assembly president of the council. The gallant general conducted his administration with justice and wisdom.
During the month of June, a committee appointed by the assembly was engaged in drawing up a constitution; they presented a report to the following effect:—They proposed that there should be a president elected by universal suffrage for a period of four years; he was to be a French citizen, not less than thirty years of age. The legislature to consist of one chamber; that chamber to consist of seven hundred and thirty members. The ministers to be appointed and dismissed at the pleasure of the president. A council of state to be appointed out of the assembly, forty in number, and chosen by the assembly itself; that body to draw up the projects of law which the government might think fit to bring in. The punishment of death for political offences was interdicted. Slavery to be abolished in all French colonies. The press to be free. All religions to be allowed, and their ministers to be paid by the state. Public instruction to be free, subject to the superintendence of the state. Substitutes for the army and navy to be disallowed. The national debt to be deemed sacred. Property inviolable. Algeria, and all other French colonies, to be integral parts of the French soil, but to be governed by laws peculiar to themselves. Trials to be public, and the office of judge to be permanent.
This project of constitution was accepted as a base for further consideration. Subsequently it was modified, but not in any way essentially to alter its principles. The resolution regarding colonial slavery roused the whole colonial interest of France against the republic. That which forbid substitutes for the army and navy created wide-spread dissatisfaction. The former of these provisions of the constitution was so just and humane, that it deserved to be carried out at any cost; the other was impolitic, as it deprived large numbers who would not serve in the army or navy of the opportunity of avoiding that service, if they fell under the ballot, by nominating a substitute willing to serve if remunerated.
The question of the adoption of the constitution was finally put on the 4th of November, and carried, thirty voices being dissident. In the evening of the same day, one hundred and one cannon shots announced to Paris and its environs that the work of preparing the constitution had been completed. The public made no manifestation of feeling. Only the old republican party valued so free a constitution. The ouvriers cared not for it, nor for anything short of socialism. The Absolutists hated liberty in every form. The Buonapartists regarded it as an instrument that might be made available for reconstituting the empire. The Orleanists received it with more malignant hostility than any other class. They professed the theory of a constitutional monarchy; but the free and just and noble constitution of the republic contrasted so advantageously with the corrupt practices and doctrinaire theories of Louis Philippe and his favourites, that the Orleans party betrayed the most malevolent feelings to the republican leaders, such as Cavaignac and Lamartine, and the uttermost repugnance to the republic itself. Louis Philippe, in England, entertained his friends with garrulous accounts of his own wisdom in all the measures he had adopted, predicting that France, enamoured of the glory of his reign, would repent and return to him again! His queen, equally incapable of appreciating France, dwelt only upon the injury inflicted upon religion by the conduct of the French people in dethroning their king, and making an indiscriminate establishment of all churches a feature of the constitution. Her silence, gravity, and the religious view she took of the event were strangely in contrast to the vanity, levity, and self-gratulation with which the king talked of his temporarily humbled fortunes.
The proclamation of the constitution failed in quieting enemies, restoring public confidence in the state of affairs, or reviving material prosperity, notwithstanding all that so many eloquent orators of the old republican party predicted to that effect. The Presse at this juncture gave a most melancholy account of the sufferings of the poor, and the distress of the commercial classes:—“It will be necessary to feed at the public expense two hundred and sixty-three thousand persons during the present month, two hundred and eighty thousand during the month of December, three hundred thousand during the month of January, three hundred thousand during the month of February, three hundred thousand during the month of March, and two hundred and eighty thousand during the month of April next; and the sum granted by the assembly will not afford each individual more than 12 centimes (1d. and 2/5ths) per day each to exist upon. At the same time the revenue of the city of Paris has fallen off by a sum of 16,000,000 fr. (£640,000), which must be made good by an addition to the assessed taxes of more than 50 per cent.”
The Socialists were not without hope that matters would turn to their account; and although they did not dare to defy the republic in action, they became more resentful in language than ever. They continued to hold meetings, in which opinions at variance with all morality and civil order were expressed, and which would have alarmed every government in Europe, had not recent events been of a character to confine the attention of these governments to domestic affairs. A banquet, under the title of “The Confederation of the People of Europe,” was held, at which eight hundred men, French, Poles, Belgians, Germans, and Italians assembled; the most furious threats to kings, governments, persons of property, and to all persons everywhere not favourable to communistic projects, were uttered. One blasphemous toast will show the animus of the assembly, and of its orators. It was delivered by M. Saint Just:—“To the men strong, courageous, and valiant in the cause of humanity. To those whose names serve as a guide, a support, and an example to the degenerate beings—to all those whom history calls heroes!... To Brutus, to Catiline, to Jesus Christ, to Julian the Apostate, to Attila!... To all the thinkers of the middle age.... To unfortunate thinkers!... To Jean Jacques Rousseau, and his pupil, Maximilian Robespierre!” This enumeration of names was received with a triple salvo of applause, and was encored, with which request M. Saint Just complied. The banquet concluded with the “Marseillaise” and the “Chant du Départ” sung by the entire company.
The great work of electing a president proceeded without interruption or disturbance, and the result was the election of Prince Louis Napoleon by an overwhelming majority. The following, by an eye-witness, is a condensed account of the transactions in the assembly upon the occasion of formally announcing this result. The letter was dated November 20th, and referred to the previous Wednesday, as selected for the ceremony by the executive government, instead of Thursday, which had been publicly announced; the change of the day arising from the apprehension of disturbances consequent upon an attempt which was expected to be made to greet Napoleon as emperor. The prince himself acquiesced in the arrangement, to prevent unnecessary bloodshed:—
“At two o’clock orders were forwarded by the government to the colonels of the 24th regiment of infantry and of two regiments of dragoons to march their corps towards the National Assembly. At three o’clock two battalions of the former, and a battalion of garde mobile, preceded by a detachment of national guards, entered the Garden of the Tuileries, and advanced to the gate of the Place de la Concorde, a general, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, and escorted by a few lancers, taking his station close to the obelisk. In the meantime, the quays adjoining the palace were lined with dragoons. The presence of these troops, which nobody could account for, created much uneasiness, though in some groups a report circulated that the assembly was about to proclaim the president of the republic.
“At half-past three o’clock M. Marrast, president, took the chair. The assembly was extremely numerous, and animated groups were to be seen here and there through the hall. Prince Louis Napoleon was not present at the opening of the sitting, but his cousin, Jerome Buonaparte, occupied his seat. The public galleries were crowded. In one of them we remarked Princess Mathilda, sister of Jerome, and next to her M. Emile de Girardin. Two aides-de-camp appointed in the morning by the prince, M. Edgar Ney, and a son of General Pajol, were also present. No serious discussion could take place in the state of excitement of the assembly, and most of the orders of the day were adjourned. Two applications for leave to prosecute Messrs. Caussidière and Turk, representatives of the people, were rejected.
“The committee charged with examining the electoral returns for the presidency entered the chamber at four o’clock, when the president immediately called to the tribune M. Waldeck Rousseau, the reporter of the committee, who read the report. It stated that seven million three hundred and forty-nine thousand citizens of the republic had voted at the presidential election, and that the votes had been divided in the following proportion over the surface of the country:—
M. Louis Napoloen had obtained ... 5,434,226 suffrages. General Cavaignac ............... 1,448,107 „ M. Ledru-Rollin ................. 370,119 „ M. Raspail........................ 36,900 „ M. Lamartine ................... 17,910 „ General Changamier ............. 4,790 „ Votes lost........................ 12,600 „
Among the latter were many containing unconstitutional denominations, and the committee had besides denounced to the minister of the interior for prosecution a few individuals guilty of acts of violence. At Grenoble, in particular, public tranquillity was slightly disturbed. The committee had, moreover, examined several protests addressed to it against the election of M. Buonaparte. In one of them he was declared ineligible, because he had forfeited his rights as a Frenchman by his naturalisation in Switzerland. The members of the committee however had, by a unanimous decision, passed to the order of the day on that difficulty. By the number of the votes, and the regularity of the operation, M. Louis Napoleon was the real elect of the nation, and the assembly had only to order that the executive power be transferred to his hands. After paying a tribute of praise and gratitude to General Cavaignac, which was ratified by the loud acclamations of the entire assembly, M. Rousseau concluded by calling upon it to proclaim the president, and exclaimed, ‘Have confidence, God protects France.’
“General Cavaignac, having then ascended the tribune, said, ‘I have the honour of informing the National Assembly that the members of the cabinet have just sent me their collective resignation; and I now come forward to surrender the powers with which it had invested me. You will understand, better than I can express, the sentiments of gratitude which the recollection of the confidence placed in me by the assembly, and of its kindness to me, will leave in my heart.’ This short address was received with deafening cries of ‘Vive la République!’
“M. Marrast then rose and said, ‘In the name of the French people! Whereas Citizen Charles Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, born in Paris, possesses all the qualifications of eligibility required by the 44th article of the constitution; whereas the ballot gave him the absolute majority of suffrages for the presidency: by virtue of the powers conferred on the assembly by the 47th and 48th articles of the constitution, I proclaim him President of the French Republic, from this day until the second Sunday of May, 1852, and I now invite him to ascend the tribune and take the oath required by the constitution.’
“M. Louis Napoleon, who was seated near M. Odilon Barrot, then rose and advanced towards the tribune. He was dressed in black; on his left breast was a crachat set with diamonds, and under his coat he wore the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour. Having mounted the tribune, the president read to him the oath of fidelity to the constitution, to which M. Louis Napoleon replied, ‘Je le jure.’ He then asked leave to address a few words to the assembly. The suffrages of the nation and his personal sentiments, he said, commanded his future conduct, and imposed upon him duties which he would fulfil as a man of honour. He would treat as enemies of the country whoever should attempt to subvert the constitution, and between him and the assembly would exist the most perfect harmony of views. He would exert himself to place society on its real basis, and to relieve the sufferings of a people who had borne such generous and intelligent testimony. He would endeavour to restore to the government the moral force of which it stood in need, and to maintain peace and order. He had called around him men distinguished for talent and patriotism, who, notwithstanding the differences of their political origin, would assist him in consolidating the new institutions of the country. He then eulogised the becoming conduct and loyalty of which General Cavaignac had given so many and such signal proofs, and pledged himself strenuously to labour to accomplish the great mission of founding the republic, without recurring to reactionary or Utopian means; and, with the assistance of God, he trusted to achieve useful if not great things.
“This speech was received with unanimous cries of ‘Vive la République!’ and M. Louis Buonaparte, having descended the tribune, went up to the seat of General Cavaignac, and cordially shook him by the hand. The new president was then met by M. Odilon Barrot and his friends of the right, who escorted him out of the hall. In leaving the hall the president was accompanied by a great number of the members of the assembly, and passed between a double line of soldiers and national guards, which extended through the Salle des Pas Perdus to the gate upon the quay facing the Place de la Concorde. There was no manifestation of enthusiasm at this moment. A carriage waited for the president at the gate, in which he left for the palace of the Elysée Bourbon, escorted by a squadron of dragoons and lancers. The cannon of the Invalides were discharged as a salute at the moment. General Changarnier attended on the occasion, and directed the proceedings. It was remarked that, on the occasion of this solemnity, all the enthusiasm of the assembly was shown to General Cavaignac, and the utmost coldness towards Prince Louis.
“M. Marrast next announced that M. Odilon Barrot was charged with the construction of the new cabinet, which would be communicated by a message to the assembly. The house afterwards adjourned.”
Such were the great events in France during the year 1818, events which too nearly affected the connection of England with that country to be given here in less detail.
During the progress of these transactions the relations of Great Britain and France became delicate and critical; but the wisdom of the provisional government on the one hand, and of the British government on the other, prevented any collision. Diplomatic relations were necessarily interrupted for a time by the revolution, and the flight of the king; but her Britannic majesty, in her speech proroguing parliament, expressed her satisfaction that she had been enabled to resume the usual intercourse between the two governments. Several occasions arose when even a slight deviation from international equity on the part of the French provisional government might have involved the two countries in war. In England the Chartists continued the agitations already recorded, and made a grand demonstration, which will be related in another section of this chapter. While they were preparing to put forth this exhibition of strength, a correspondence was kept up by many of their leaders with those of the French Communists, and the excitement of the latter was intense as the hour approached for the grand denouement. Indeed, all classes of the French, except the most intelligent, especially in Paris, regarded a revolution in England as inevitable. They were under the delusion that Fergus O’Connor and his colleagues and followers were, politically speaking, the English people. The following account of this impression was given by a gentleman then resident in Paris:—“Never, during the many years I have resided in Paris, did any event in England excite such universal interest among all classes of the French as the great chartist demonstration has done. For days and days it was a leading topic in the newspapers, and for days the general subject of conversation. Both newspapers and talkers, relying on the big swagger of the Chartists, and the undisguised alarm of the government, confidently expected a stern and terrible straggle, with barricades, and bayonets, and pikes, and deluges of blood, and awful slaughter. To this expectation many added the hope of seeing a complete revolution effected—a revolution which would overthrow throne, aristocracy, and middle class, leaving the people and the republic triumphant. So deeply had this hope taken possession of the more sanguine, that they could not bear to hear the slightest doubt of its realisation expressed.”
Strange as it may seem to English readers, the chartist proceedings in England, and those of the Irish repeal party, had considerable influence not only in sustaining unreasonable expectation among the French workmen, but even on their modes of procedure. It was not until the speeches of O’Connor and other Chartists claiming “the land for the people,” and the articles of Mitchell and others in Ireland demanding for the farmers a right in the soil, were circulated in Paris, that the workmen there began an agitation against rent. This they maintained until the restoration of order restored to the house-owners the means of asserting the rights of property. The following graphic and lively description of the agitation, incited and fostered under such circumstances, is no exaggeration:—“The past week has been the calmest which we have had since the revolution. We have had no forced illuminations, no planting of trees of liberty, no physical-force demonstrations, no great display of any kind; in fact, we have been decidedly dull. But in some parts of the city, our sovereign lord and master, the Mob, has been graciously pleased to afford us a little interesting excitement by bullying the landlords into giving receipts for their rents, without the usual preliminary ceremony of fingering the cash. ‘Base is the slave that pays his rent’ is now the motto of the mob, and his mobship chalks it up along with ‘liberty, equality, fraternity!’ To show, however, that he is really a good fellow at heart, the said mob no sooner swindles (I am afraid it amounts to swindling in English) the landlord out of his rent, than he invests a small portion of the coin in the purchase of a tricolor flag, with which he decorates the landlord’s house. And such is the worthy fellow’s moderation, that even when the landlord has refused to be victimised, the mob has not inflicted summary vengeance on him; he has only stuck a black flag before the offender’s door, or playfully made his effigy dangle by the neck from the nearest lamp-post.”
In Ireland the progress of sedition afforded a much more favourable opportunity for displaying the equity and prudence of the French provisional government. An address was voted to the republic of France by the Young Irelanders, who styled themselves the people of Ireland, although they well knew that millions of Irishmen, numbering among them her most intelligent and influential citizens, repudiated the principles and proceedings of the party. A deputation, consisting of Mr. Smith O’Brien and several other gentlemen, were sent to Paris to express the sympathy and congratulation of the Irish people on the new-born liberty of the citizens of France. It was well understood in England, and much better understood in Ireland, that the deputation were expected to sound the French government as to any hope of assistance in case of a rising in Ireland; and also to stir up the minds of the French people generally to more decided interest for Ireland, and a greater willingness to identify the French republic with Irish hopes and aspirations. On the 3rd of April the young Ireland deputation was received by the provisional government at the Hôtel de Ville, and there presented an address in the spirit of their mission. The following reply was read by Lamartine:—
“Citizens of Ireland,—If we required a fresh proof of the pacific influence of the proclamation of the great democratic principle,—this new Christianity, bursting forth at the opportune moment, and dividing the world, as formerly, into a Pagan and Christian community,—we should assuredly discern this proof of the omnipotent action of an idea, in the visits spontaneously paid in this city to republican France, and the principles which animate her, by the nations, or by fractions of the nations, of Europe.
“We are not astonished to see to-day a deputation from Ireland. Ireland knows how deeply her destinies, her sufferings, and her successive advances in the path of religious liberty, of unity, and of constitutional equality with the other parts of the United Kingdom, have at all times moved the heart of Europe. We said as much, a few days ago, to another deputation of your fellow-citizens. We said as much to all the children of that glorious Isle of Erin, which the natural genius of its inhabitants, and the striking events of its history, render equally symbolical of the poetry and the heroism of the nations of the north. Rest assured, therefore, that you will find in France, under the republic, a response to all the sentiments which you express towards it.
“Tell your fellow-citizens that the name of Ireland is synonymous with the name of liberty courageously defended against privilege—that it is one common name to every French citizen. Tell them that this reciprocity which they invoke—that this hospitality of which they are not oblivious—the republic will be proud to remember and to practise invariably towards the Irish. Tell them, above all, that the French republic is not, and never will be, an aristocratic republic, in which liberty is merely abused as the mask of privilege; but a republic embracing the entire community, and securing to all the same rights and the same benefits. As regards other encouragements, it would be neither expedient for us to hold them out, nor for you to receive them. I have already expressed the same opinion with reference to Germany, Belgium, and Italy; and I repeat it with reference to every nation which is involved in internal disputes—which is either divided against itself or at variance with its government. When there is a difference of race—when nations are aliens in blood—intervention is not allowable. We belong to no party in Ireland or elsewhere, except to that which contends for justice, for liberty, and for the happiness of the Irish people. No other part would be acceptable to us, in the time of peace, in the interests and the passions of foreign nations. France is desirous of reserving herself free for the maintenance of the rights of all.
“We are at peace, and we are desirous of remaining on good terms of equality, not with this or that part of Great Britain, but with Great Britain entire. We believe this peace to be useful and honourable, not only to Great Britain and the French republic, but to the human race. We will not commit an act—we will not utter a word—we will not breathe an insinuation at variance with the principles of the reciprocal inviolability of nations which we have proclaimed, and of which the continent of Europe is already gathering the fruits. The fallen monarchy had treaties and diplomatists. Our diplomatists are nations, our treaties are sympathies. We should be insane were we openly to exchange such a diplomacy for unmeaning and partial alliances with even the most legitimate parties in the countries which surround us. We are not competent either to judge them or to prefer some of them to others; by announcing our partizanship on the one side, we should declare ourselves the enemies of the other. We do not wish to be the enemies of any of your fellow-countrymen. We wish, on the contrary, by a faithful observance of the republican pledges, to remove all the prejudices which may mutually exist between our neighbours and ourselves. This course, however painful it may be, is imposed on us by the law of nations, as well as by our historical remembrances.
“Do you know what it was which most served to irritate France and estrange her from England during the first republic? It was the civil war in a portion of our territory, supported, subsidised, and assisted by Mr. Pitt. It was the encouragement and the arms given to Frenchmen, as heroical as yourselves, but Frenchmen fighting against their fellow-citizens. This was not honourable warfare; it was a royalist propagandism waged with French blood against the republic. This policy is not yet, in spite of all our efforts, entirely effaced from the memory of the nation. Well, this cause of dissension between Great Britain and us, we will never renew by taking any similar course. We accept with gratitude expressions of friendship from the different nationalities included in the British empire. We ardently wish that justice may found and strengthen the friendship of races; that equity may become more and more its basis; but while proclaiming with you, with her (England), and with all, the holy dogma of fraternity, we will perform only acts of brotherhood, in conformity with our principles and our feelings towards the Irish nation.”
At the conclusion of this reply some present exclaimed, “Vive la République!” others “Vive le Gouvernement Provisore!” and a few cried out, “Vive Lamartine!” but the general impression was one of dissatisfaction. Smith O’Brien and his companions retired discomfited. The British government and people received the intelligence of this reply with the greatest satisfaction, and their confidence in the provisional government, and in Lamartine, more especially, was much increased. There was already more reliance upon the friendly policy of the republic than there had been upon the monarchy and the monarchial ministry of Louis Philippe. In Ireland the reply of Lamartine gave satisfaction also to the Protestants, and such of the Roman Catholic citizens as were opposed to the O’Brien movement; but the Young Irelanders, and most of the Old Irelanders, were exasperated, and in their speeches and newspapers denounced Lamartine as the enemy of liberty, the sycophant of England, and the incubus of the French provisional government. It was said that he had married an English lady, and was more English at heart than French—that he would betray the republic to England or to monarchy. Those persons who had been foremost in holding him up as a demi-god, now abused him not only as a traitor, but as weak in purpose, policy, and intellectual grasp. John Mitchell denounced him as the great obstruction to the development of European freedom, which no doubt he was to such freedom as Mitchell advocated—the plunder and tyranny of a modified communism; for while essentially holding that theory, he in some way, not very intelligible to others, repudiated it. Lamartine began his career of power by emancipating the negro race; Mitchell commenced his career as a free exile in America, some years after, by the most violent advocacy of the fetter and the whip for the coloured population of that country. The Nation newspaper, week after week, informed its readers that Lamartine was an idle dreamer, a mere theoretical politician; that his mind was only constituted for the regions of romance; and that his opinion on the affairs of Ireland, England, France, or Europe was worthless. A week or two before the same paper held him up as the very Achilles of freedom, and the hope of Ireland—for it was the habit of both the parties claiming nationality in Ireland, to hope for liberty from the courage and efforts of others rather than from their own. The reply of Lamartine caused as much despondency in Ireland among the seditious, as it inspired confidence among the loyal, and among all the intelligent citizens in Great Britain. Throughout the year the conduct of the French government was internationally just and courteous, and England had no cause for complaint, but every reason to be thankful that Louis Philippe and Guizot had given place to such men as Lamartine and Cavaignac.
The revolution in France was of more importance to England than the revolutions which took place in Italy and Germany—they require, therefore, only a comparatively brief notice.