His previous remarks, when we were speaking about M. Thiers, had sufficiently shown me the gist of his thoughts. He wanted to see Elections held in France by any means whatever, even without an armistice.
I could not accept such a proposition and I refused to understand how a statesman, anxious for the dignity as well as for the material interests of his country could give such advice. Elections in a country invaded by the enemy! Elections under the enemy’s gun-fire! Elections at a time when every citizen was under arms against the invader, elections, in a word, while Prussia was bombarding Paris and advancing her armies! That was an idea which I simply could not grasp. I tried, but in vain, to make him share my perplexity. Moreover, I had encountered the same idea with M. de Beust.
At the time I could not understand it and it revolted me. To-day I can see how the idea arose and held its own simultaneously in the minds of these two eminent statesmen, who held the reins of Government in two countries so different in origin, constitution and tendencies.
The National Defence Government was only, when all was said and done, a de facto Government.
The men who composed it had picked up the Executive when it fell from the Empire’s hands, only for the purpose of not letting it fall into the gutter, and for using it to defend the country against the invaders. These men certainly had the confidence of Europe, and their Government was immediately and gladly recognised by all the Powers; it had been recognised and respected even by the enemy.
But side by side with this de facto Executive there also remained the débris of the fallen Government, which had by no means renounced its past, and still lived in the hope of coming back and again laying hands on the Crown, which though fallen they still thought unbroken.
On the other side there were demagogues, orators and low-class politicians, all that unhealthy ferment which had burst out on the 31st of October and nearly overthrown the National Defence Government.
The latter, it is true, had conquered this first revolt, but the pretensions and aspirations of the party which had caused the rising were not conquered. They were only pushed out of the way and reduced to silence, but they still smouldered in the ashes and no one knew when they might not break out afresh, or whether the Government would again be as fortunate in reducing them to impotence and maintaining its authority.
This is what seriously preoccupied foreign statesmen and inspired them with the idea of creating a “legal representative,” in any manner whatever, by any means and at any price. Above all they wanted to guard against unexpected surprises. Before all and above all they wanted to have an authority to deal with, which was not only a Government de facto but a Government that had been consecrated—even if only apparently—by the votes of the French people, and that could by that token be accepted by all parties and be safe from sudden attacks and ambushes. This is why Lord Granville first asked me to have recourse to the Conseils Généraux of the Empire, and when I showed him the impossibility of such a solution, this is why he suggested that we should simply hold the Elections without any armistice, by carrying them through as quickly as possible.
I should have liked to show him again how unfair and impossible I considered his proposition, but it would have been preaching in the wilderness, and so all I said was: “What would you do in the provinces that are invaded and occupied by the enemy?”