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.