CHAP. 1847. no longer violated, they are bought. Do you think that is an exchange for the better? I think it is decidedly for the worse. For liberty the danger is equally great, if not greater; and by the new system, morality is buried in the same grave as freedom. Can you, then, regard as mere accidents all those disorders, all those scandals, which have carried shame and confusion into the breasts of all honourable men? No, gentlemen! These disorders and scandals are not accidents; they are the necessary and inevitable consequence of the perverse policy which governs us-of that policy which, feeling itself too weak to enslave France, is striving to corrupt it. As long as that system endures, 1 Regnault, iii. 287,288. the scandal will continue and increase. If that is not clear, nothing in this world is so."1 21. martine's speech at Maçon. Sept. 20, 1847. At Maçon, a large crowd assembled to listen to the eloM. de La quent words of M. de Lamartine, who attended a banquet in that city, for which he was deputy. He openly announced the approaching downfall of the Government. " If," said he, "the Government deceives the hopes which the country has placed, in 1830, less in its nature than in its name— if, in the pride of its constitutional elevation, it seeks to isolate itself if it fails to incorporate itself entirely with the spirit and legitimate interests of the masses-if it surrounds itself by an electoral aristocracy instead of the entire people if it distrusts the people organised in the civic militia, and disarms them by degrees as a conquered enemy -if it caresses the military spirit, at once so necessary and so dangerous to civil freedom-if, without attempting openly to violate the rights of the nation, it seeks to corrupt it, and to acquire, under the name of liberty, a despotism so much the more dangerous that it has been purchased under the cloak of freedom-if it has succeeded in making of a nation of citizens a vile band of beggars, who have only inherited liberties purchased by the blood of their fathers to put them up to auction to the highest bidder-if it has caused France to blush for its public functionaries, and has allowed her to descend, as we have seen in a recent XLVII. 1847. trial, in the scale of corruption till it has arrived at its CHAP. tragedies-if it has permitted the nation to be afflicted, humiliated, by the improbity of those in authority-if it has done these things, that royalty will fall, rest assured of that! It will not slip in the blood it has shed, as that of 1789 did, but it will fall into the snare which itself had dug! And after having had the revolution of blood, and the counter-revolution of glory, you will have the 1 Regnault, revolution of public conscience, and that springing from iii. 201, 202. contempt." 1 the Libe back the Socialists. The violence of some of these speeches, which were 22. re-echoed from all the chief manufacturing towns, and some Efforts of of the rural districts of France, excited no small terror in rals to keep the holders of property, who were more aware than the Government of the point to which things were tending, and of the intimate connection between the overthrow of the present Government and the triumph of Socialist and Communist principles. Aware of the danger of such an idea being generally entertained, and of the damp which it would throw over their efforts in favour of reform and ministerial change merely, M. Thiers and the constitutional opposition laboured assiduously to convince the public that this danger was entirely chimerical, and that the Communists were nothing but a trifling unimportant minority, from whom no risk whatever was to be apprehended. Even M. Marrast, destined ere long to be one of the most dangerous leaders of this heated band of enthusiasts, published, on 20th September, the strongest statement as to the Socialists being "an imperceptible band of extravagants, who were content to have, instead of children, numbered mannikins." In truth, however, the danger was far from imaginary; for, though the numbers of the extreme Radicals were very small, and the persons. who attended the banquets put together were only 17,000 in all France, yet they comprehended the most active and dangerous portion of the community, and the one which exercised the most widespread influence over general XLVII. 1847. CHAP. opinion. The effects of their declamations appeared before the end of autumn, in the increased audacity and undisguised revolutionary character of the language used at the banquets. At Orléans, M. Marié openly spoke of a Republic; at Limoges, they preached Communism; at Dijon, the red flag was hoisted; at Lille, M. Ledru-Rollin prophetically announced the overflowing of the Nile," which, in its impetuous course, would sweep away all impurities, and leave in its course the seeds of fertility and new life.” Cassagnac, Thus though the number of those banded together for Regnault, extreme measures was small, they professed doctrines of Regnault, all others the most seductive to the working classes; and the whole question was reduced to this, whether on a crisis they would enroll themselves under the banners of chiefs professing these principles.1 1 i 155, 157; iii. 201,204; Hist. du 25. Already it was evident that a serious division had arisen M. de La- among the Reformers, and that in their united ranks were 23. martine's ulterior views. to be found many who were inclined not to stop short with a change of ministry, or even dynasty, but aimed at an entire subversion and remodelling of society. M. de Lamartine, in particular, who, gifted with splendid genius, and moved by a feeling heart, was utterly ignorant of mankind, and saw everything through the Claude Lorraine atmosphere of his own enthusiastic fancy, cautiously kept aloof from the other reform banquets, and reserved himself for his own at Maçon, when he brought forward, for the first time, the Socialist principles which ere long shook France to its centre when proclaimed from the seat of Government. What," said he, "do we ask of the Government of July as the condition of rendering it a sincere assistance? The dynasty with no other privilege than the throne; the King's inviolability; social fraternity in principles and institutions; a budget commensurate to the liberality which the State should dispense; a minister of public beneficence; a ministry of the people's life-blood. Let the Government enter into these views, and we will XLVII. 1847. support it, whether it is headed by one wearing a crown, CHAP. a tiara, or a hat." At this time, this celebrated author published what has been justly called his " Romance of the History of the Girondists"—a work which contains more truths than is generally supposed, but so enveloped in the colours of imagination that it has already come to pass for fiction. At the time, however, it produced an immense impression, and powerfully contributed to the crisis which Cassagnac, was approaching, by representing Revolutionists in the Journal Le most interesting colours, and making heroes of those whose Bien Pubmain object was to overturn the throne. At the same time, Nov. 4, in the journal published at Maçon, he openly announced martine, his principles in these words: "Are you factious?—go and la Révoluconspire in darkness. Are you Communists ?-come and i. 30. applaud at the banquet at Maçon.”1 i. 158, 161; lic, Maçon, 1847; La Hist. de tion, 1848, 24. agitation in the year. Notwithstanding this powerful assistance, the agitation produced by the banquets seriously declined before the Decline of end of the year 1847. The movement spread, indeed, into the banquet the provinces, and every considerable town in France had the end of its meeting; but there was, with the exception of the capital, and one or two great commercial towns, none of the general enthusiasm which bespeaks a great national movement. Curiosity to hear M. Odillon Barrot, M. de Lamartine, or any other celebrated orator who had long been before the public, was the principal inducement which brought the inhabitants of the rural districts to the banquets. "No one can believe," says Regnault, their secretary, "to what an extent the banquet agitation was fictitious and superficial. To appreciate it, one would require to examine the correspondence of the central committee. There would be seen what difficulties the organisation of the provincial banquets presented. The chief magnet which attracted Regnault, the provincial electors was curiosity to see a distinguished Gouv. deputy. As M. Odillon Barrot was then filling the journals 24; Cassawith his speeches, every provincial town insisted on having 155." him in their turn.2 But he could not be everywhere at 2 Hist. du Prov., gnac, i. 154, XLVII. CHAP. once, and therefore the central committee offered other names of more or less attraction, and measured them out according to the weight and quality of the applicants." 1847. 25. the Cham bers, and King's The Chamber met on the 28th December, and from the Meeting of importance of the questions, both foreign and domestic, which were agitating the public mind, the Royal Speech was looked forward to with great anxiety by all parties. It contained, however, even less than is usually to be met with in such state papers, and touched lightly on the matters likely to excite a discussion in the Chambers. With a faltering voice the King said in the LAST speech he ever addressed to the Chamber: "My relations with all foreign powers inspire the hope that the peace of the world is secured. I hope that the progress of general civilisation may be accomplished everywhere by the consent of the Governments among each other, without altering the pacific relations or internal situation of the people. Civil war has disturbed Switzerland. My Government has come to an understanding with those of England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, to offer to that friendly and neighbouring people a benevolent mediation. Switzerland, I trust, will feel convinced that a respect for the rights of all, and the maintenance of the basis of the Helvetic Confederacy, can alone secure the duration of that happiness and safety which Europe was desirous of securing to her by the existing treaties. In the midst of the agitation which hostile and blind passions have fostered, one conviction has animated and supported me; it is, that we possess in the constitutional monarchy, in the union of the three powers of the State, the most effectual means of surmounting all our difficulties, and of providing for all the moral and material interests of our dear country. Let us firmly maintain, in 1 Moniteur, the spirit of the Charter, the social order, and all its con1847; Ann. ditions. Let us faithfully guarantee, according to the Charter, the public liberties and their developments.1 Then shall we transmit uninjured to generations yet to come the Dec. 29, Hist. xxxi. 2, 3. |