?iY' A I '$I - -- - - - "a3Jlrc.,cc-._-I --- -.-T-r -*i-EZI-yL-iur- ~-. —I -J - - - - - - -. ~ &i JOURNALS NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISW0OODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET -u p r ~e..~:.: -.. - - -~ ~. 47~~4 / ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ / /~ * '.,. *. ~ -:g, JOURNALS KEPT IN FRANCE AND ITALY FROM I848 TO I852 W'1ITH A SKETCH OF THE REVOLUTION OF I848 BY THE LATE NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR Master in Chancery, Professor of Political Economy, Membre Correspondant de l'Institut de France, &c.; Author of 'A Treatise on Political Economy,' 'Biographical Sketches,' 'Essays on Fiction,' 'Historical and Philosophical Essays,' ' Yournal kept in Turkey and Greece,' ' ournals kept in Ireland,' &c. EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER M. C. M. SIMPSON IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON (IENRY S. KING AND CO., 65 CORNHILL 1871 (All rights reserved) PREF ACE. BEFORE the year 1848, Mr. Senior had spent very little time in France. His autumnal wanderings had generally been confined to Germany and Switzerland. It was not until September, I847, that he for the first time crossed the Alps, visited Turin, Genoa, and Venice, and on his return spent a fortnight in Paris. In the following February the Monarchy, which had appeared in the preceding autumn to be peacefully established, fell with a sudden shock which was felt throughout Europe. In Mr. Senior, whose life was chiefly spent among politicians, and whose favourite stufdy was politics, the events which were passing on the Continent awakened the keenest interest. Many of the distinguished exiles, who, in spite of their misfortunes, made London society at that time so brilliant, were Mr. Senior's personal friends, and in his hc use they always found a warm welcome. vi Preface In the Whitsuntide Vacation of the year I848 -as soon as it was possible for him to leave his duties as Master in Chancery-Mr. Senior hastened to visit the scene of the great drama which was being acted in Paris. He came in for the second act of the Revolution-the attack on the National Assembly-and was so much struck by all that he saw and heard, that, for the first time in his life (with the exception of a short account of a visit to Ireland and Scotland in I819), he kept a journal which was destined to be the first of a series. The writing these journals added considerably to the pleasure which he always had in visiting foreign countries. They are like no other travellers' journals. Besides his fine taste for scenery and for art, he enjoyed the society of people of all conditions and countries in an unusual degree. Before he set out on a tour his practice was to collect letters of introduction from all quarters, besides official ones from the Foreign Office; and wherever he went he was received with kindness and cordiality. During the last fifteen years of his life he was.as much at home in Paris as in London, and some of hiis best friends were French. Most of them were attached Preface. vii to the Dynasty which fell in I848; but he was so much afraid of being exclusively influenced in one direction that he took pains to converse with people of all opinions. He made no secret of the existence of the journals, and in most cases the speakers corrected his report of their conversations. His last journal was written in I863. The present publication extends from May 1848 to January 1852, when the hopes of the Liberal party in France were finally extinguished. It includes a visit to Italy, where he had many friends among the eminent men whose efforts to free their country have at length been crowned with success. Mr. Senior's life in Paris was one of remarkable activity. He rose-as indeed he did all the year round -at half-past 6 or 7, took a light breakfast, wrote for an hour or two, and then usually went to visit some friend whom he was sure to find alone at an early hour. He returned to breakfast with his family at 11 T.iere were almost always three or four friends invited to this second breakfast. The conversation was general and extremely interesting. Before they left visitors used to arrive. Every Saturday he attended the meetings of the Academie des Sciences Morales et viii Preface. Politiques,l of which he was a 'Membre Correspondant,' a distinction which he highly valued. The afternoon was spent in walking and visiting, and though dinner parties are not so frequent in Paris as in London, the kindness of his friends seldom permitted him to dine at the hotel. Most ladies in Paris 'receive' once or twice a week, and he generally spent the remainder of the evening in the salon of one of his friends. Not much time seems to have been left for the journals. His habit was to note down shortly the heads of a conversation immediately after it had taken place, and to extend them at leisure. His memory was so retentive that he was able to do this with remarkable accuracy. He was assisted in acquiring information by his indifference to shining himself. His endeavour was always to draw out the thoughts of others: hence the very little which these pages contain of his own opinions. Now that his voice is no longer heard, and our questions must cemain unanswered, this absence of self-assertion becomes a matter of regret. His intention was to supply the requisite explanation, and to give a sort of digest of tI e 1 One of the five branches of the celebrated Institut de France, established under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu in I633. For an'interesting account of the rise of the Institut, see a little book by Mdme. Mohl, entitled ' Mdme. Recamier, with a sketch of the History of Society in France.' Chapman and Hall, i862. Preface. ix opinions recorded; but his last illness fell on him so suddenly-he passed in the space of a few months from health and strength to death-that the time for revision never came. All that can now be done is to furnish short notices of the different speakers, almost all of whom have already passed away, and to attempt to connect the Journals by a few sentences describing the events which took place in the intervals between his visits to the Continent. The language of the conversations is, in many parts, perhaps, more unstudied than Mr. Senior would have suffered it to remain on committing it to the press; still, what it may lose in dignity it gains in ease and naturalness, and, at any rate, I do not feel justified in altering it. We have lived so rapidly of late, such startling events have followed each other in quick succession, that the Revolution of 1848, in spite of its great importance in it elf, and in its bearing on the present crisis in France, is not clearly remembered by the present generatio i, and many false ideas are current respecting the conduct of its leaders and of Louis-Philippe. A sketch of the events of those memorable four months, taken from an article written by Mr. Senior in X Preface. the 'Edinburgh Review' of January, I850, seems, therefore, an appropriate introduction to the Journals. It can hardly fail to strike the reader that the questions debated in this article are precisely those which are now agitating Europe. Peace, War, Treaties, Republicanism, Socialism, Centralisation, Church Establishment, are in turn touched upon, and the reflections of one who had thought so long and so deeply on these matters must be of interest, and may be of use. Mr. Senior's views on these subjects are not, however, likely to please those who hold extreme opinions, for he was equally opposed to every form of despotism-to the despotism of a mob as well as to that of a tyrant or a sect. Every shade of opinion, however, will be found expressed in the conversations, so that the reader may draw his own conclusions. M. C. M. SIMPSON. KENSINGTON: May 22, I871. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. SKETCH OF TH-E. REVO LU7ION OF 1848. PAGE The Revolution a disguised Socialism.... I The French Government undertakes every sort of Duty.. 2 Place-hunting of the higher Orders..... 3 Mistaken Theory of Government.. ~.. 4 Mischief created by the State undertaking too much... 5 Third class of Revolutionists-the Lovers of Excitement.. 5 Influence of Lamartine's ' Girondins '.... 6 Lamartine's claims as a Poet, Orator, Philosopher, and Statesman. Comparison between him and O'Connell and Mirabeau.. 7 He acquired little ascendancy over the Chamber of Deputies. 8 His half-day of Influence...... 8 Lamartine's Philosophy of Government.... 9 Religious Freedom in France.... 9 Lamartine advocates separation of Church and State.. to Evils of Church Independence..... His Theory that all Men have a right to Share in the Government. II His inconsistencies-such a measure would bring in its train Communism and Socialism..... 12 Narral {e of the Revolution... 13 Lama line proceeds to the Chamber... 14 Scene with the Newspaper Representatives... 15 The Fate of France is placed in his hands... 15 Power of the Daily Press...... 6 Lam,rtine refuses to support the Regency... 17 He I )poses a Republic..... 9 Scer' in the Chamber-entrance of the Duchess of Orleans.. 21 xii Contents of the First Volume. PAGE A Provisional Government suggested. 22 Lamartine is asked to name it....23 Entrance of the Mob and withdrawal of the Duchess.. 24 The Government installed in the Hotel de Ville... 25 Accounts of Cremieux and Chenu..26 Account of Caussidiere..27 Lamartine's view of his own Conduct. 28 Reasons why no form of Government is stable in France. 29 Lamartine believes the majority of the French to be Republican. 29 Reasons for disbelieving this assertion.. 30 Instability of the Republic..31 Violence of the Conflict on February 24 overstated..32 Struggles on the Boulevard planned by the Conspirators, who made a theatrical use of the results..33 The Soldiers had orders not to Resist...33 Humanity of Louis-Philippe... 36 A Night Scene.. 37 The Red Republicans... 38 Consisting of the Terrorists, the Liberated Convicts, and the Communists. x. 40 Socialists not yet included... 41 Formidable numbers of the Rouges.. 42 Contrast between the Red Flag and the Tricolor. 43 Lamartine is saved by a Beggar. 44 Legislation of the Provisional Government... 45 Decrees of February 25 and 26... 47 Decrees of the Liberation of Political Offenders and the Dissolution of the Municipal Guard...... 47 The Government not really a Republic but an Oligarchy 48 Arbitrary nature of its Decrees.. 49 Their inconsistency with a Provisional Government... 50 Four months afterwards Monarchy was re-established in the person f Cavaignac, and afterwards of Louis Napoleon.. 51 Autocratic power of the President...5 Ateliers Nationaux.....52 They lead to Socialism and Communism.. 52 The State cannot engage to find employment. 53 Organisation of the Ateliers... 53 All relief-work is merely nominal. 54 More than one-half of the population applied to the Ateliers55 Apprehension of a Battle with the Ateliers Nationaux 56 Rebellion of June caused by the Droit au Travail..57 Contents of the First Volume. xiii PAGE Subsistence may be safely guaranteed, but not employment. 58 Disastrous effects of encouraging Combinations.. 58 The days of June caused by these measures.. 59 Foreign Policy of Lamartine..60 French desire War for the purpose of Conquest... Warlike principles of Lamartine..62 Manifesto of the 6th of March..62 He considers the Treaties of 1815 no longer binding. 62 Every disadvantageous Peace is extorted by Force. 63 If Treaties are to be disregarded, all Wars must become Wars of Extermination.. 64 His offers of assistance to oppressed Nationalities. 64 His desire to seize Savoy....65 To Increase the Army.. 65 General Responsibility of a Minister. 66 Not applicable to Lamartine....67 Dissensions in the Government....67 Two practical questions divide the Government-the duration of the Government and interference with the Election of an Assembly. 69 Ledru Rollin opposes Lamartine....70 Dangerous Circulars of Ledru Rollin...71 Proclamation of Lamartine.. 71 Debate of the I6th of March... 71 Demonstration of the Rouges....72 Requirements of Blanqui.... 73 The Government proposes a Compromise...73 Lamartine promises not to bring back the Regular Troops. 73 Louis Blanc thanks the Rouges in the name of the Government 74 The Rouges gain strength and influence...75 Lamartine's measures for preserving Peace...76 He attempts to conciliate the Rouges...77 Ledru Rollin postpones the Elections...78 Doubt as' to the conduct of the National Guards.. 79 Threatened Manifestation of the Ultra-Republicans. 79 Blanqui and Ledru Rollin betray the Plans of the Agitators to Lamartihe....80 They concert measures of Resistance.. Lamartine repairs to the Hotel de Ville...8 Changarnier calls out the National Guards..82 They disperse the Insurgents. 82 Return of the Regular Army....83 Meeting of the Assembly.... 83 xiv Contents of the First Volume. PAGE Lamartine's Popularity is at its height... 83 The Presidency is offered to him... 85 His motives for not accepting....86 The Power is vested in the hands of Five Commissioners.. 87 Subsequent events show that Lamartine's Decision was wrong 88 His Influence is lost..... 89 JOURNAL IN 1848. Proposed Republican Fete...... 9 Communist opinions in the country....92 Lord Normanby regrets Lamartine's loss of Influence. 93 Discontent excited by the Postponement of the,Ate.. 93 Faucher's opinion of Lamartine..... 95 Effect of the 'Girondins'... 96 Timidity of the Chamber.....96 Demonstration in favour of Poland... 97 Advance of the Troops..... 98 Fraternisation of the Line and the National Guards ~ ~ 99 They march towards the Hotel de Ville...99 The Assembly for nearly four hours in the hands of the Mob. Ioo Horace Say on the Financial Dangers of the Country.. 02 Dangers of the Droit au Travail.... 03 Scene in the Chamber-explanation of its Conduct on the 15th May. 104 Extraordinary Procrastination.... 105 General fears of Responsibility.... 105 Inferiority of the Assembly to the Assembly of 1789. io6 Beaumont's opinion of Lamartine... I 07 Proposed Constitution..... 107 Objections to the President being made Responsible.. o8 Constitutional Monarchy not understood in France.. 9 France cannot tolerate Defects..... Dull Discussion in the Club of the Atelier. III Arrivabene on Italian Affairs.... 112 Horace Say on the ' Octroi'... I13 Bastiat on excessive Military Expenditure... 114 Michel Chevalier predicts the Days of June...14 Expense of Living in Paris..... 5 M. le Normand's Account of the Attack on the Assembly.. 6 Louis Napoleon is proclaimed President II9 Contents of the First Vohlme. JO URNAL IN MA Y 1849. XV French Expedition to Rome Displeasing to the Republicans Alarming to the friends of Peace Considered as an Arbitrary Act. Debate in the Assembly Violent Scene Arduous duties of Faucher Salary and duties of a Conseiller d'Etat Faucher desires to have more power over the Maires. Rapid Recovery of Prosperity Faucher's sensations in addressing the Assembly The Opposition a majority in the Assembly Apprehensions of the Moderate Party The Cour d'Assises Resignation of Faucher His Defence... Probability of a new Cabinet Peculiarities of a French Trial Beaumont on the Socialist Doctrines PAGE 120 121 121. 121 122 123 125. 126 Nomination of the. 127. 27. 128 129 130 131 * 33 I33 ~.. '33 I35 I35 136 They consider poverty and toil to be the results of Human Institutions...... 137 To be cured by the abolition of Rent, of the National Debt; by throwing all Taxation on the Rich; by supplying workmen with Capital and providing Employment... I37 Some think that the Government should control Mortgages, regulate Wages and Prices, and supply Law gratis.. 38 Foreign Policy of France.... * I39 Disastrous Effects of the Treaty of 1840... * 39 Foreigi Policy of England one of non-intervention... 40 Lord N'ormanby regrets the Resignation of Faucher. 1I4I Probable Results of the Elections..... I4I Lord N'ormanby thinks that the Scenes of the preceding June will be renewed.....42 Faucher agrees with him 1. 42 Danger of the Droit au Travail..... 43 DangfErous Clauses in the Constitution.... I43 Mischievous Resolutions of the Assembly.. I45 They abolish Taxes to the amount of Sixty Millions... 45 xvi Contents of the First Volume. PAGE They refuse to sanction the Union of the Commands of the National Guards and of the Garrison in the hands of Changarnier. 146 Conversation with Abercromby on Italian Affairs... 147 Causes of the Defeat of Novara... 147 Gloomy Expectations of Beaumont.....148 He considers the Republic the only chance of safety..148 Both the Rouge and the Moderate Parties are likely to be warlike. 149 Fortifications of Paris.. 1.50 Danger of giving Votes to the Army.... 150 A Government may make everybody Poor, it cannot make everybody Rich........ 15 I Three means of governing the Uneducated Majority...151 To exclude them from a share in the Suffrage...151 To inspire a blind devotion..... 52 Or to use Military Force..... 52 George Sumner on Hungarian Affairs... 1 I53 Gallina on the State of Piedmont..... 55 Character of Charles Albert...56 Rejection by Piedmont of the Frontier of the Mincio.. 58 Defence of Lord Palmerston...... 159 Safety of Visitors during an Emeute.....I6 Fall in the Funds....... 161 Warlike Debate in the Assembly..... 63 JOURNAL IN JUL Y Charitable Duties of a Minister's Wife.... 65 Lamartine on the Chances of War..... I67 Conversation with Dunoyer.... 69 Causes of the Fall of Charles X......171 Difficulties of Louis-Philippe..... L Hasty Conduct of the Opposition.... 173 Socialism is merely the Paternal System logically carried out 174 Debate in the New Assembly... 75 Hungary had better remain an influential province of Austria. 176 Debate in the Assembly on the Encouragement of Labour. I77 Contents of the First Volume. xvii VISIT TO THE PYRENEES, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, AND OCTOBER, I849. Eaux Bonnes Conversation with a Guide His Experience in the Army His Politics Bear Hunting Deceptive Appearance of Villages Universal Begging Beauty of the Population Rides over the Mountains The Palombiere Dangerous Dogs Condition of the People Conversation with the Maire of La Bassere With a Maker of Millstones Biarritz. Spanish Banditti High Tide in the Bay of Biscay A Spanish Marriage. Praise of Lord Clarendon PAGE 179. 8o.I8. ~. i8o 180 I8I 183. 84 184 185 I86 187 I87. 88 i88 190 IxI I93 '93 1.94 PARIS, OCTOBER, 1849. DcLpondency of Lord Normanby Legitimist Opinions.. Dissensions between the Legitimists and Orleanists Debate in the Chamber on the Recall of the Bourbons ' Proclamation du Conseil Municipal in 1848' Importance of the Possession of the Hotel de Ville ' Conversation with V.. Separation between the Nobles and ' Roturiers' Fraace Intolerant of a Constitutional Monarchy Difficulties of a Parliamentary Government in France Universal Unpopularity of Lamartine Conversation with Dumon. Imminence of Bankruptcy. V. on the French Army.. Haute Cour at Versailles.. VOL. I. a I95 I96 197 I97 200 201. 201 202 * 203. 203 204 204 * 205 * 205. 207 xviii Contents of the First Volume. PAGE Conversation with V... 208 On Paying the Clergy. 208 On the Condition of the Peasantry.... 208 Marshal Bugeaud's Account of the Revolution of 1848.. 210 Letter from Tocqueville......214 Conversation with Faucher.... 215 Gloomy Anticipations......215 France essentially Monarchical.... 216 The Legislative Assembly not bound by the Decrees of its predecessor 216 Depression in Paris.... 218 Folly of the Revolution of 1848.... 218 MAY, I850. Faucher believes in the imminence of an emeute.. 220 Conversation with Lord Normanby....221 On Greek Affairs. 221 On the new Electoral Law.... 221 On the probability of an Emeute. 22I Outline of the new Electoral Law.. 222-225 Dinner of the Political Economists. 225 Conversation with Faucher. 225 On the Electoral Bill -...225 Probability of a prolongation of the President's Power..227 Estimation of Cavaignac..... 228 Conversation with Z...... 228 On Greek Affairs... 228 On the Electoral Bill..... 229 On the probability of a Montagnard Assembly... 230 Conversation with George Summer. 230 Republican Views... 230 Conversation with Beaumont....231 On Greek Affairs.....231 On the mischievous effects of the new Electoral Law..233 Probability of a sanguinary conflict.... 234 Politics of a Rouge Government.... 235 He places Cavaignac high..... 236 Conversation with Viel Castel..... 236 Thieving propensities of Parisian Emeutiers... 236 Dangerous Classes in Paris... 238 Indignation against Lord Palmerston.... 238 Contents of the First Volume. xix PAGE Michel Chevalier on Free Trade.. 239 Parisian Salons...240 Luxury in Paris....... 240 Debate in the Assembly on Controlling the Newspaper Press.241 Dinner at Beaumont's. 242 How the Greek Question arose. 242 Lanjuinais's Character of the President. 244 Beaumont thinks that France should have assisted Piedmont.245 Austria the only Power which gained by the Revolution of 1848 246 Chasm between Gentilhomme and Roturier.... 247 French Marriages generally made for Money... 247 Lahitte's Letter....... 249 Mdme. de Circourt's Reception.. 250 French opinion of Lord Palmerston.....250 Conversation with Sumner......251 His opinion of the Republican Party.... 251 Moderation of their Newspapers... 251 Schaffer's Studio....... 252 Effect of a Republican Government in Lausanne and Geneva. 252 'Difficulty of obtaining Republican Newspapers in Paris.. 253 Article from the ' Ami du Peuple'..... 254 Conversation with Gioberti..... 254 Compact between France and Austria....255 His belief that the Republican Party will triumph in France. 255 Reason why there was no great Piedmontese General. 256 Conversation at Anisson Duperron's..... 256 Dangers of an Assembly elected by Universal Suffrage.. 256 Wish for Peace with England.....256 Conversation with Beaumont.... 257 Recall of Drouyn de l'Huys.....257 Responsibility of the President.... 258 Polish Politics....... 259 Reasons for Polish Insubordination. 260 Russian-Poland the best governed....261 Barbarous feeling of Nationality..... 262 Reactionary Politics. 262 Republican Dangers...... 263 Restoration of Alsace and Lorraine. 263 Lamartine connecting himself with the Reds... 263 Conversation with Dunoyer. 264 No liberty without Free Trade... 264 The Cwmri and the Gaels......265 xx Contents of the First Volume. Prophecies of Gioberti Temporal Power of the Pope at an end Conversation with A.. Belief in Lord Palmerston's Enmity Conversation with De Billing Discussion on Greek Affairs in the Chamber Education of the Middle Classes Our haste in Recognising the Provisional Government Unpopularity of Lord Palmerston and Lord Normanby A Military Despotism probable. Believers in the present Constitution The Measures that Chevalier would propose An Income-tax, a Poor law, Reconstruction of the Army Probable conduct of a Republican Assembly OCTOBER, I850. PAGE. 266. 266. 266. 266. 266. 268. 268. 269. 269. 269. 270. 270. 270 * 271 Conversation with Beaumont Chance of Savoy belonging to France Passion for Territorial Aggrandisement subsiding Suppressing anonymous writing How information is conveyed to the Newspapers Conversation with Faucher.. Events of the last five months described Conversation with Beaumont and Sir J. Stephen Reasons for and against a Poor Law. 272. 272 273 273.274.274.274.276.276 JO URNAL IN ITAL Y TURIN, NOVEMBER. Conversation with Prandi Character of the King. Of the different Ministers Siccardi Law.. Conversation with Sauli. Modern Italian Literature Conversation with Cavour. Sanguine anticipations. Character of Azeglio. Chamber of Deputies. 281. 282. 282. 285. 285. 285. 286 286. 286 287 Contents of the First Volume. xxi PAGE Character of Charles Albert. 288 Conversation with Mdme. Arconati. 289 Conduct of Austrian Government towards the Arconatis.289 Politics of a Venetian Lady.. 290 Austria checks improvement...29I Italian Dialects....... 292 Siccardi Law...292 Conversation with Balbo...... 293 Difficulties of Italian Composition.... 293 Piedmontese Debt.... 294 War demanded by the People..... 295 Declared by the Ministry.. 296 Dinner at the Palace. 296 Conversation with Alfieri...... 297 Agrees that War was unavoidable... 297 Urged on by Gioberti. 298 Public Speaking.. 298 Society in Naples spoilt by Tyranny.... 299 Neapolitan Prisons...... 299 Cavour on German Politics. 300 Sauli on Political Duels..301 Conversation with Massari and Collegno..301 Italy not ripe for a Representative Government..301 Honesty of Charles Albert and Victor Emmanuel.. 302 Dishonesty of King Bomba.. 302 Accusation of Massari...... 303 Disastrous Campaign of I848.... 303 Fatal Reaction.. 304 Corruption of Justice in Naples. 304 Neapolitan Judges...... 305 Popularity of Palmerston.. 306 His Conduct restrained the Demands of Austria.. 307 What those Demands would have been. 307 Probable Conduct of England and France... 307 Splendour of Italian Houses. 308 Collegno on Italian Unity...... 309 Cavour on creation of Romish Sees in England...10 Manzoni's Politics....311 Conversation with Sclopis.. 312 Nobles and Bourgeois. 312 Position of the Learned Professions..312 Marquis Cavour's Opinion of English Conveyancing... 313 xxii Contents of t/e First Volume. PAGE Cordova on the Sicilian Insurrection... 314 Conversation with Alfieri..... 315 Opinion of Schwartzenberg.... 315 Education in Piedmont..... 315 Immigration into Sardinia...... 317 Astonishment at Lord John's Letter....38 Generalship of Chrzanowski......318 Conversation with Collegno...... 319 Piedmontese and Savoyard Military Races... 319 Construction of Sardinian Army... 320 Length of Training to produce Efficiency.. 320 Army of Radetzky......321 Opinion of Chrzanowski.....321 Dinner at Balbo's... 322 Ministry saved by Cavour.... 323 Weariness of Azego...... 323 High spirits of Cavour. 324 Sardinian Navy....... 324 Sauli in opposition...... 325 Arconati's Account of the Debate.... 325 GENOA, NO VEMBER I6. Prince Butera on Sicilian Affairs.... 328 Conversation with Abercromby.....329 His Opinion of the Piedmontese Ministry... 329 Of Alfieri Sostigno..... 329 Convent at Biella..... 329 Opera in Genoa......330 Indignation at the French Expedition to Rome... 330 Austrian Rule preferable to Neapolitan.... 331 Government desired by Sicily.... 332 PISA, NOVEMBER 21. Palaces in Pisa....... 333 Contempt inspired by the Grand Duke.. ~ 333 Conversation with Giorgini. 334 Manzoni forced to return to Milan... 334 Military Ardour of Students..... 334 Contents of the First Volume. xxiii FL ORENCE, NOVEMBER 23. PAGE Conversation with Salvagnoli... 335 The Duke proposes to take the Leader of the Insurrection into the Ministry.... 336 Salvagnol's advice is disregarded... 336 Difficulty of writing Italian.... 337 Duomo of Florence..... 337 Conversation with Serra di Falco.... 337 Denies that he was a Rebel..... 338 Explanation of his Mission to the Duke of Genoa. 338 Conversation with Mdme. Lajatico.... 338 Inconvenience of party spirit... 338 Hatred of the Austrians... 338 Italian Architecture.... 339 Taste of the lower orders.... 339 Ball at the Palace..... 340 Conversation with Buonarotti... 341 Mischief produced by the Republicans... 341 Trial by Jury unsuited to Italians... 341 Conversation with Serra di Falco... 341 His life in Florence......341 Disgust with Politics.... 342 Conversation with Salvagnoli..... 342 Deplorable state of the Tribunals.... 342 Tuscany not prosperous..... 342 Conversation with Galeotto..... 343 Suppression of Newspapers..... 343 Unpopularity of the Government.. 344 Deplorable state of Venice..... 345 Conversation with Sir Frederick Adam and Serristori. 346 State of the Tuscan Army.... 346 Comparison between the Austrian and Prussian Armies. 346 Tuscan Law of Succession.... 347 Noble and Roturier..... 347 Serra di Falco's story of the Dey of Algiers. 348 Madame Ristori...... 348 Italian Bores...... 349 Parlatore on Sicilian vegetation and age of trees.. 349 Phillips and Spence on Italian Art..... 350 xxiv Contents of the First Volume. PAGE Conversation with Serra di Falco... 350 Sicily's hatred of Naples... 350 Treatment of Sicily by the King of Naples.. 351 Reception of Lord William Bentinck by Queen Caroline. 351 Tyranny of Naples the effect of the Congress of Vienna. 35I Epitaph on a Horse...352 JOURNALS KEPT IN FRANCE AND ITALY, I848-I852. -4 — SKETCH OF THE REtVOLUTION OF I848.1 THE THEORY to which we attribute the revolution of 1848 is a disguised Socialism. It is the theory which almost every Frenchman cherishes, as respects himselfthat the government exists for the purpose of making his fortune, and is to be supported only so far as it performs that duty. His great object is, to exchange the labours and risks of a business, or of a profession, or even of a trade, for a public salary. The thousands, or rather tens of thousands, of workmen who deserted employments at which they were earning four or five francs a day, to get thirty sous from the ateliers nationaux, were mere examples of the general feeling. To satisfy this universal desire, every government goes on increasing the extent of its duties, the number of its servants, and the amount From an article on Lamartine's 'Histoire de la Revolution de I848,' written by Mr. Senior in 1849, and published in the Edinburgh Review for January I85o. Now republished with the permission of Messrs. Longman. VOL. I. B 2 Sketch of the Revolztion of 1848. of its expenditure. It has assisted to subject every Frenchman to the slavery of passports-because they give places to -some thousands of officials. It preserves the monopoly of tobacco-because that enables it to give away 30,000 debits de tabac. It takes to itself both religious and secular instruction. It has long taken charge of highways, bridges, and canals, the forwarding of travellers and letters. It has secured the reversion of all the railways, and threatens to take immediate possession of them. It proposes to assume insurance of life and against fire; mining; lighting, paving, and draining towns; and banking. Even with the branches of industry which it still leaves to the public, it interferes by prescribing the modes in which they are to be carried on; and by favouring some by bounties, others by loans or gifts, and others by repelling competitors. For these purposes it pays and feeds 500,000 soldiers and 500,000 civilians! For these purposes the 500 millions of expenditure, which were enough during the Consulate, rose to 800 in the Empire-to 970 under the Restoration-to 1,500 under Louis-Philippe-and tp 1,800 millions under the Republic. M. Dunoyer, from whose ' Revolution du 24 Fevrier' we borrow many of our remarks, thus sums up the influences of this mode of government on the national character: The natural effects of these measures have been, to turn aside more and more public attention from real reforms, and to excite more and more the bad passions of the nation; to feed and to extend, with the rapidity and generality of an epidemic, the taste, already so strong and so diffused, for the pursuit of Universal Place-hunting. 3 government employment and government favours; to pass it on from the Chambers to the electoral colleges, and from thence to every class of citizens; to transform the relations between the governed and the government into one organised system of universal place-hunting; to induce the government to make full use of the innumerable powers of interference which it has accumulated; to trade not merely with its offices, but with its administrative functions; with its right to grant mines, to make, or to allow, or to refuse roads, to authorise the cultivation of wastes or forests, to allow theatres to be opened, and with hundreds of other powers, all more or less stained by injustice or usurpation. The government was tempted to strive to multiply and extend, from day to day, these mischievous powers; and to exercise them with reference only to the importance of the applicants and their means of repayment. And it yielded to the temptation, without compunction or even hesitation. It professed to be indulgent, to know the world, to understand and to humour the weakness of human nature. It may still have wished for ability in its servants; but it is not certain that it was equally anxious for integrity: this was not thought a practical quality. I am not sure that in certain quarters, where cleverness and dexterity were highly prized, it was not the fashion to say that a government could do without the esteem of the people.' We do not of course believe that the great bulk of those who actually made the revolution were actuated by the hope of power or of place. That the majority of the educated revolutionists were thus actuated, we have no doubt. We have no doubt that the editors and writers of the 'National' and the 'Reforme' intended to do precisely what they did-to make themselves the ministers, or functionaries, or proteges, the Thiers', the Rolands, La Revolution du 24 Fevrier, par M. Dunoyer, Conseiller d'Etat, Membre de l'Institut, p. 44. B 2 4 Sketch of the Revolution of I848. or the Mignets of a new form of government. The masses could have no such pretensions. Still they hoped to profit by a revolution; not as individual objects of the favour of the new government, but as partakers of the blessings which the triumph of Socialism was to diffuse. The place-hunting of the higher orders, the socialism of the lower, the intense centralisation of France, the paternal administration of Austria, arise from the same deep-rooted error as to the proper functions of government. All arise from a theory that it is in the power of the State to correct the inequalities of fortune. And the error is a plausible one. Men, whose reasoning faculties are either uncultivated, or perverted by their feelings or their imagination, see the great power of the State, and do not perceive its limits. They see that it disposes of great resources, and do not perceive how easily these resources may be not only exhausted, but dried up. They are struck by the contrast between great superfluity and great indigence, between lives shortened by indolence and lives shortened by toil, by wealth squandered unproductively while cultivable lands lie waste and labourers ask in vain for employment. When excited by such a spectacle, what is more natural than to propose laws, by which the toil which appears to them excessive shall be forbidden, by which the government shall provide the strong with employment and the weak with relief; and obtain the necessary funds, partly from the superfluity of the rich, and partly by taking possession of the productive instruments which their present owners are too idle or too timid to turn to the best advantage? It requires a long The Parties in Opposition. 5 train of reasoning to show that the capital on which the miracles of civilisation depend is the slow and painful creation of the economy and enterprise of the few, and of the industry of the many, and is destroyed, or driven away, or prevented from arising, by any causes which diminish or render insecure the profits of the capitalist, or deaden the activity of the labourer; and that the State, by relieving idleness, improvidence, or misconduct from the 'punishment, and depriving abstinence and foresight of the reward, which have been provided for them by nature, may indeed destroy wealth, but most certainly will aggravate poverty. Besides these, there was a third class of important actors in the revolution-those who took part in it from a mere puerile love of excitement. It is humiliating to be forced to believe that the destinies of France, and, to a considerable extent, those of the whole Continent, have been influenced, and perhaps may be influenced for centuries to come, by a riot got up by a few hundred lads, by way of a lark. But such was the case. Boys of fifteen or sixteen-illustres gamins, as they are seriously called by M. Caussidiere '-took a principal part in the little of real fighting that took place. A spectator of the revolution told us that he saw a boy of eleven years old lurk behind a wall and fire on an officer as he rode by. The man fell, mortally wounded: the child ran away, frightened and crying. Of course it is absurd to suppose that such champions could have been actuated iby the serious motives, by the 'idees morales,' the 'soif M Memoires, vol. i. p. 40. 6 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. de perfectionnement,' or the 'aspiration vers un meilleur ordre de gouvernement,' with which M. de Lamartine endows the heroes of February 24; or even by the desire for power, or place, or patronage, for themselves, or for socialist institutions for their country, which we believe to have been the motives of the adult rioters. Such feelings and such desires do not belong to children, however precocious the Parisian gamin may be. But for two or three years they had been reading and seeing representations of the Great Revolution. Theatres were opened, in which it was acted in pieces that lasted, we believe, for whole weeks. The shops and the stalls along the Quays and the Boulevards, and in the Courts of the Louvre, were covered with portraits of its chiefs, and with prints exhibiting its principal scenes. Thousands of copies of M. de Lamartine's ' Girondins' were sold in cheap forms, in numbers, or by subscription; and probably as many thousands more were lent out to read at a price which the lowest workman could afford. The picturesque vividness with which that remarkable book is written, the dark grandeur with which its sanguinary heroes are invested, the success of every insurrection that is described, the irresistible power which is ascribed to the people, not only familiarised the populace with ideas of revolt and street war, but created in young and ill-regulated minds, thirsting for a new excitement, an intense desire to reproduce such scenes. They wished to see a Ioth of August-so they made one! M. de Lamartine is a poet, an orator, a philosopher, an historian, and a statesman. His statesmanlike quali Position of Lamartine. 7 ties may be collected from the story which we are about to relate. His merits as an historian we considered two years ago,' and we see no reason to alter our verdict. His claims as a poet and an orator cannot be disputed. They are matters not of inference but of fact. The object of a poet is to please-that of an orator to persuade; and the man who obtains eminent success in his art is a great artist. In France, the success of M. de Lamartine's poetry has been rapid and universal; he stands at the head of her living poets. M. de Lamartine's success as an orator has been still more brilliant. The words of no other living speaker have so much affected. the destinies of mankind. His influence has resembled that of Mirabeau and O'Connell united. Both Mirabeau and O'Connell, indeed, preserved their influence much longer; Mirabeau, in fact, kept his till death, O'Connell until extreme age and bodily weakness. M. de Lamartine's is, for the present, suspended. But, while it lasted, it was more decisive, more instantaneous in its effects, and exercised under less advantageous circumstances, than either of theirs. O'Connell could inflame only those who wished to be inflamed. He could govern only those who wished to be governed: he could push them forward only in the way in which they wished to advance. Against a hostile audience he was powerless. ' But M. de Lamartine has preached peace to those who panted for war; moderation to those who desired nothing but extremes; and reason to those who knew only passion. And, armed I No. clxxv. of Edinburgh Review. 8 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. with no force but his own voice, he has convinced the prejudiced, guided the passionate, and subdued the ferocious. Mirabeau entered an assembly which had no ascertained duties, no defined powers, and no fixed purposes. He persuaded that assembly to assume supreme legislative authority, and to exercise that authority by creating a constitution. He showed great courage, great eloquence, and wonderful presence of mind and rapidity of decision; but it cannot be said that he displayed these qualities in the face of any great difficulties. The associates over whom he acquired the mastery were unaccustomed to public life. They were not arrayed in parties, disciplined by mutual confidence, and accustomed to obey recognised leaders. The Assembly was a mob; and, like a mob, submitted at once to the guidance of the boldest, the most decided, and perhaps, we may add, one of the least scrupulous, of its members. M. de Lamartine did not acquire over his colleagues in the Chamber of Deputies any permanent ascendancy. He never frankly attached himself to any party. His opinions, as we shall see hereafter, were inconsistent with the maintenance of the existing institutions of France-perhaps with the permanence of any institutions whatever. And he was opposed to several of the most experienced and most dexterous debaters, and to one or two of the greatest speakers, in Europe. But he enjoyed one half-day of influence such as seldom falls to the lot of man. It was the last morning of the Chamber. When he entered the Palais Bourbon on February 24, it seems to be admitted that on him it depended Lamartine's Philosophy of Government. 9 whether the next event should be the march of the Duchess of Orleans to the Tuileries-or the march of a provisional government to the Hotel de Ville. Whether he acted wisely in selecting the latter alternative, we must not now discuss, as we are not now considering his merits as a statesman; but to have had the power of selecting, and to have selected, for France one of these two events, was an almost unparalleled triumph for an orator. Universal suffrage in politics, and what is called the voluntary system in religion,' are M. de Lamartine's two instruments for the regeneration of mankind. He thought their acquisition worth the certain calamities, and even the uncertain dangers, of a revolution. If France had been in the state of Spain during the Inquisition, or of Ireland under the penal laws, or even of England during the reigns of the Georges-when all but the members of one sect were by law excluded from office and trust, when to deny the doctrine of the Trinity subjected the offender to heavy penalties, and no one could be married without using the rites of the Church of England-a considerable sacrifice, though not the terrible one contemplated by M. de Lamartine, might have been wisely made in order to escape from such a thraldom. But the reliious freedom of France is perfect. A man's faith has nothing to do with his advancement in the world, or with his position in society. LouisPhilippe's last prime minister2 was a Calvinist; the wife selected for the heir of his throne was a Lutheran.3 Among the members of the Provisional Government was I Vol. i. pp. 75-81. 2 M. Guizot. 3 The late Duchesse d'Orleans. Io Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. a Jew.1 The ministers of all religions are salaried; and as nineteen-twentieths of the French were Roman Catholics, the Roman Catholic clergy of course receive the principal share of the ecclesiastical budget, and have the use of the public ecclesiastical buildings. The change for which M. de Lamartine is willing to pay a revolution is the suppression of this salary. He must believe that a clergy dependent altogether on their flocks for their support would teach a purer doctrine, enforce a sounder morality, and give more useful advice than the present curds, who are almost completely maintained at the public expense. He must suppose that when their subsistence depends solely on the favour of their hearers they will utter more boldly unpalatable truths; and that they will be more active in correcting the prejudices and reproving the faults of their congregations, though they know that by doing so they may incur dismissal or impoverishment. He must shut his eyes to the profitable superstitions and, we fear we must add, to the profitable immoralities which it must be the interest of a clergy living from the dues and the offerings of the uneducated classes to tolerate, and even to promote, And he must forget what are likely to be the political notions of a priesthood sprung from the lower classes-attached by blood, by sympathy, and indeed by social intercourse, to those who must appear to themselves to have drawn the blanks of the social lottery-and excluded by the restrictions of their profession from the moral discipline 1 Cremieux. He was Minister of Justice during the Prussian siege of Paris under the Government of National Defence, and one of the Delegates at Tours and Bordeaux last March. -ED. Lamartine's Political Creed. II which other men receive from the struggles of active life and the endearments of domestic life. We have had some experience of the working of the voluntary system in a Roman Catholic country-in connexion, to be sure, with a Protestant establishment. We know what is the sort of religion, the sort of morality, and the sort of political feelings which have been its consequences among the priests and among the people; and we earnestly hope that France may escape this enormous addition to her other sources of error and disturbance. M. de Lamartine's other great measure, for which he was ready to offer his life, and in fact did offer it a hundred times, was 'the obtaining by the masses political rights, as a means of their obtaining justice; that is to say, equality among all classes in position, in knowledge, and in welfare. Institutions which should give to the whole body of citizens a perfectly equal personal share in the government, and thence in the moral and material advantages of society. [Lois et formes de gouvernement qui donnent a l'universalit6 des citoyens la part la plus egale d'inteivention personnelle dans le gouvernement, et par la bient6t dans les benefices moraux et materiels de la societe.]' These opinions are not taken from the commonplaces of political philosophy. The received doctrine up to this time has been, that men ought to obtain political power by means of knowledge, morality, and property; not knowledge, morality, and property by means of political power. The novelty, however, of opinions is no absolute objection to their soundness; their incon 12 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. sistency is. And M. de Lamartine's creed contains doctrines which we find it impossible to reconcile. Communism fills him with horror, Socialism with pity. The possessors of property are to keep it; they are to transmit it to their children. The landlord and the tenant, the capitalist and the labourer, the lender and the borrower, are to make their own bargains. To take from one man in order to give to another appears to him not progress, but robbery, ruinous to both parties. But, upon these terms, how does he propose 'appeler a la propriete l'universalite des citoyens?' We can quite understand how the masses, once admitted to 'a perfectly equal personal share in the government of a country,' would produce in that country a 'niveau de lumiere et de bien-etre;' but what we cannot understand is, how are they to do this, except by means which raise M. de Lamartine's horror or pity-by Communism or by Socialism-by destroying all property, or by taking from one in order to give to another. Before he pities the schemes of Socialism, M. de Lamartine ought to unfold his own. He should tell us by what means he proposes to correct the inequalities of fortune, originally produced by differences in talent, differences in economy, differences in industry, and differences in good luck, and aggravated by gift, by marriage, and by inheritance: and, if he cannot correct these inequalities, what becomes of the justice which he promises? What becomes of his ' egalite de lumiere et de bien-etre'? We do not believe that any organic changes whatever are worth the evils and the risks of an insurrectionary The 24th of February. I3 revolution; at least, to the generation that makes it. But, if there were any motive that could induce us to encounter these evils and to incur those risks, it would be the prospect of escaping from M. de Lamartine's favourite institutions-&'niversal suffrage in politics and the voluntary system"i i religion. Had Louis-Philippe. shown any intention to adopt these institutions, M, de Lamartine tells us that he would have supported the monarchy. But none was shown; and he therefore saw -without regret the approach of the only means by which they could be introduceda revolution. We now proceed to the narrative itself. On the evening of February 23, 1848, Lamartine had gone to bed, convinced that the riot was over for the night, and that the announcement of a new ministry would prevent its recurrence the next morning. And these anticipations were reasonable. No one could have expected, or even have taken into his calculations as possible, the follies committed by the government on the morning of the 24th. No one could have supposed it possible that, at seven o'clock that morning, the new ministry would have required Marshal Bugeaud, the commander of the garrison of Paris, to recall his troops, which had penetrated without interruption to the heart of the insurrection, and were in possession of the principal barricades; or that an hour or two later, just as the insurrection was recommencing, Marshal Gerard would have been substituted for Bugeaud; or that, when the rioters attacked the posts of the Gardes Municipaux, 14 Skelch of the Revolution of 1848. in the Place de la Concorde, and began to break intc the Palais Royal, the troops would have been forbidden to resist them. Quos Deus vultperdere prizs dementat. At half-past ten in the morning of the 24th Lamartine was still at home. He did not intend to go to the Palais Bourbon, merely to hear the names of the new ministers announced. But he was now told that it was thought possible that the rioters might attack the Chamber, and, if there were any danger, it was his duty to be present. 'Yesterday,' he said, as he went out, alluding to the events of I792, 'was a 20th of June. It forebodes a Ioth of August. A king who capitulates with an insurrection is no longer king. The Ioth of August will come; but it is still distant.' As he passed through the gateway leading to the Chamber, two generals, on horseback, met. 'What news?' said one. 'Nothing of importance,' answered the other, who was General Perrot, commanding the cavalry occupying the Place de la Concorde: 'the crowd is not numerous, and scatters at the least movement of my squadrons; and the best troops in Europe could not force this bridge.' The order prohibiting resistance was not then generally known; and Lamartine entered the Palais Bourbon convinced that he had been brought there by a false alarm. We now come to perhaps the most remarkable revelation in the whole work. In the vestibule he found seven or eight persons waiting for him. Who they were we are not told-or what they were, except that they belonged to the newspaper press. Even the names of the papers with which they were connected are not ex Scene with the Newspaper Representalives. 15 pressly stated-though the 'National' and the 'Reforme' are indicated. They demanded a secret conference. Lamartine took them into a distant apartment; the door was locked, and one of them thus addressed him in the name of the whole:We are republicans, and we continue republicans; but we can postpone the Republic if France is not yet ripe for it, if she would not yield to it without resistance, if there be more danger in launching her at once into the fulness of her destined institutions than in holding her on their brink. These are our doubts: resolve them. The people calls on you-it trusts you -what you say will be re-echoed-what you will, will be done. The reign of Louis-Philippe is over. But might a temporary sovereignty, in the name of a child, in the hands of a woman, guided by a popular minister appointed by the people and esteemed by the republicans-might such a phantom of monarchy suspend the crisis, and prepare the nation for the Republic 1 Will you be that minister? Will you be the guardian of our dying royalty and of our infant liberty, by governing the child, the woman, and'the people? In our persons the republican party gives itself up to you: we formally engage to bear you to power, by the irresistible impulse of the revolution which you hear roaring without. We will keep you there, by our votes, by our journals, by our secret societies, and by our disciplined forces in the deepest strata of society. Your cause shall be ours. France and Europe will believe you to be the minister of the Regent: we shall know that you are the minister of the Republic.1 Lamartine does not appear to have been surprised at the proposal. He does not appear to have doubted the Vol. i. p. I6I. 6 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. power of seven or eight journalists to dethrone a king, create a regent, and appoint a minister! And he was right. The ' National' and the 'Reforme,' whose representatives stood before him, did more than all this, a couple of hours after. The scene reminds one of Tacitus's description of the revolution which deposed Galba. The only difference is the substitution of the modern force, the press, for the Roman force, the army. Suscepere duo manipulares imperium Populi Romani transferendum-et transtulerunt. He asked, however, time for reflection; not a day or an hour-such periods are not given in revolutions-but five minutes. And for five or six minutes he reflected, leaning his elbows on the table, and covering his eyes with his hands. At length he raised his head, and thus addressed them:Gentlemen, you are devoted republicans [republicains a tout prix]-I am not. I look indeed, as you do, on republican government-that is to say, on the government of the people by their own reason and their own will-as the only purpose of civilisation; as the only means by which great general truths can become laws. Other governments are guardianships, admissions by the people that they are still minors-imperfections in the eyes of a philosopher, disgraces in the eyes of an historian. But I have no impatient or fanatical desire for any given form. All that I require is a progressive government-a government neither preceding nor lagging behind the advancing column of the people, but keeping pace with the desires and instincts of its time. I am not, like you, a thoroughgoing republican; but I am a statesman; and as a statesman I think Address to the Yournalists. 17 it my duty to refuse my aid in retarding the birth of the Republic. As a statesman I declare that I will not pull down the throne, but if it fall I will not lift it: I will be a party to no revolution but a complete, that is to say, a republican, revolution.' 'Here,' says Lamartine, 'there was a moment of silence. His audience looked astonished, stupefied, and somewhat incredulous.' He continued:'I will tell you my reasons. A great crisis requires a great force. If the king be deposed to-day, it will be the beginning of one of the. greatest crises which a people has ever gone through in its progress towards a settled government. A reign of eighteen years, by a single man representing a single class, has accumulated behind it a mass of revolutionary ideas, impatience, resentment, and hatred, which it will be impossible for any new monarchy to satisfy. The undefined reform which triumphs to-day in the streets cannot assume an outline, canhot submit to limits, without throwing into instant opposition all the classes who will be excluded from power. Republicans, Legitimists, Socialists, Communists, and Terrorists, however opposed in their ulterior objects, will fling together their violence to overthrow the feeble barrier of a transition government. The peers share the odiousness of the Court. The press has rendered the deputies unpopular, and corruption has made,them despicable. Their present constituents are an imperceptible minority. The army has lost its spirit, and doubts whether firing on the citizens would not be parricide. The National Guards will go with the opposition. The old respect for the king has been destroyed by his obstinacy and by his failures. With what elements of force will you surround the throne on which you put your child? Reform? It is merely a flag used to conceal the Republic. Universal suffrage? It is a mystery: with a breath it will blow away your fragment of a monarchy, your shadows of ministers, your phantom of an opposition. Its second word may be monarchy or empire-its first will be VOL. I. C 18 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. Republic. You are merely preparing for it a royal prey. Whi are to be the friends of the regency? The great proprietors Their hearts are with Henry V. The middle classes? The think only of themselves and of their profits-a disturber minority to be followed by a reign of chronic sedition woul< ruin them-they will demand the stability of a republic. Th people? It is in arms, it is victorious, it is triumphant: th doctrines with which it has been fed for fifteen years drive i on to destroy not merely royalty, but authority. ' The regency would be a new Fronde, with the addition c democracy, socialism, and communism. Society defended onl by a small minority and by a quasi-royalty, neither monarchica nor republican, will be battered from its crest to its foundatior This evening the people may be pacified by a regency-tc morrow they will come to snatch something else: every assau] will tear away some limb from the Constitution. Your sue cessors will be more violent than you. They will find left b you just enough royalty to irritate without restraining. You 20th of June will certainly have a Ioth of August-perhaps 2nd of September. One day the feeble sovereign will be re quired to erect the scaffold-another to draw the sword. An refusal will occasion violence-the people will taste bloodwoe be to them if they acquire a thirst for it! You will hav a civil war of hunger against property; the horrors of r79 -with socialism added to them. In endeavouring to prevent woman and a child from sliding down the inclined plane of tranquil dethronement, you will open an abyss of anarchy an, blood, in which the rights of property, the ties of family, th whole civilisation of France, will perish.' ' The audience,' says Lamartine,' seemed moved.' S he continued:' As to myself, I see clearly the succession of catastrophe which I should prepare for my country, if I were to attempt t stop the avalanche of the revolution on a slope where ever Address to the yournalists. 19 moment that it stays will add to the weight of its mass and to the ruin of its fall. One power only can avert the dangers of a revolution in such a social condition as ours-it is the power of the people itself; it is the suffrage, the will, the reason, the interest, the hands, and the weapons of all-it is the Republic. 'Yes, it is the Republic which alone can save you from anarchy, from civil war, from foreign war, from confiscation, from the scaffold, from the overthrow of society from within, and from invasion from without. It is an heroic remedy; but, in such times as these, the only effectual policy is a policy as bold, almost as violent, as the crisis itself. Give to the people the Republic to-morrow, and call it by its name, and you change its anger into joy, and its fury into enthusiasm. All who cherish in their hearts republican feelings-all whose imaginations dwell upon republican visions-all who regretall who hope-all who reason and all who meditate in France -all the secret societies-all the active and all the speculative republicans-the people, the demagogues, the young men, the students, the journalists, the men of action and the men of thought-all will utter only one cry, will crowd round only one standard-at first in confusion, afterwards in disciplined orderto protect society by the government of all its members. Such 1 power may be disturbed, but cannot be deposed, for its base is the nation. It is the only force which can protect itselfthe only force that can moderate itself-the only power that can bring the voice, the hands, the reason, the will, and the arms of all, to protect, on the one hand, the nation from servitude, and, on the other hand, property, morality, the relations of kindred and society, from the deluge which is washing away the foundations of the throne. 'If anarchy can be subdued, it is by the Republic. If communism can be conquered, it is by the Republic. If the revolution can be guided, it is by the Republic. If blood can be spared, it is by the Republic. Therefore, as a rational and conscientious statesman, free from all illusion and fanaticism, I C2 20 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. declare, before God and before you, that, if this day is big with a revolution, I will not conspire for a half revolution. I will conspire, indeed, for none; but I will accept only a complete one-a Republic. ' But,' he added, rising from the table, 'I still hope that God will spare my country this trial. I accept revolutions; I do not make them. To assume such a responsibility, a man must be a villain, a madman, or a god.' ' Lamartine is right,' said one of the auditors; 'he has more faith in our own ideas than we have.' 'We are convinced,' they all cried. ' Let us separate; do what, under the inspiration of events, you think best.' We have extracted this conversation at full length, partly because it is a fair specimen of M. de Lamartine's eloquence, and partly from its great historical interest. Without naming them, it points out the real authors of the revolution. It tells us when and on what motives their determination to substitute an organic for a dynastic revolution was formed, and who was the instigator of that determination. After having related this interview, and the events of the next two hour' M. de Lamartine vainly disclaims the responsibility of the revolution. We do not believe him to be a villainor a god. But if we were members of a tribunal before which he was tried for conspiracy to overthrow monarchy in France, we should not hesitate to say, 'Guilty, upon our honour.' Let us shortly run over the events as they are told by him. We have seen that at about eleven o'clock a deputation from the Republican conspirators, including representatives of the' National' and the 'Reforme,' proposed to him to substitute for Louis-Philippe the Comte de Lamartine in the Chamber. 21 Paris as king, and the Duchess of Orleans as regent, and to place him over them as minister; that he objected to their scheme that such an arrangement would not last, and declared himself in favour of a republic, based on universal suffrage; that they expressed their conviction, and separated, agreed apparently on the course of action to be pursued. Lamartine entered the Chamber, and sat apart, without exchanging a word with any of his colleagues. For the first hour nothing took place. From time to time a discharge of musketry shook the windows. Some of the deputies went out in quest of information; others got on the platform over the portico, and looked on at the unintelligible movements of the troops and the people in the Place de la Concorde. Suddenly the large door of the Chamber opened, and the Duchess of Orleans, leading her sons, and accompanied by the Duc de Nemours, entered. M. Dupin announced from the tribune that Louis-Philippe had abdicated and transmitted the crown to the Comte de Paris, with the Duchess as regent. This was not strictly true; Louis-Philippe had not indicated the Duchess, but the Duc de Nemours, as regent; as, indeed, had been settled by a law. But as the Duc de Nemours obviously yielded his pretensions to those of the Duchess, this irregularity might easily have been got over.' I After the text of these pages had been printed, we received, from a man* of the highest political eminence in France, a letter, from which we extract the following passage:-'The Duchess of Orleans and * M. de Tocqueville.-ED. 22 Sketcht of t,e Revooluion of 1848. This, however, was not the intention of the conspirators. First rose M. Marie, and after remarking the illegality of the proposed regency, suggested the usual revolutionary expedient-a Provisional Government. He was followed by Cremieux, who proposed that it should consist of five members, to be named by the Chamber. LarocheJacquelin, with the usual perverseness of the Legitimists, then aimed a blow at the only remaining authority-the Chamber. 'You are no longer,' he cried, 'a Chamber-you are nothing.' A body of rioters now rushed into the hall, but stood silent, rather as spectators than as actors. M. Marrast, the editor of the 'National,' who was in the gallery appropriated to the 'Journalists,' watching the progress of the revolution, went out to her sons had just entered, and were at the foot of the tribune. An unauthorised mob had penetrated into some of the public galleries. It was unarmed, turbulent, and factious; but showed no disposition to outrage, or even to menace. The Assembly was deeply agitated, but it was impossible to say in what direction. It resembled the sea in the first minutes of a storm, while the wind is perpetually shifting. Tired of this fruitless tumult, I left my seat at the top of the left centre, and made my way to Lamartine, who was at his usual place at the extreme right. He was standing, overlooking, from his height and his position, the whole scene, his countenance unmoved and inscrutable. I laid my hand on his arm, and whispered, "Lamartine, you see that the question now is not reform, but revolution. In half an hour, perhaps, our powers of control, or even of nterference, will be over." He made a sign of assent. I continued: " Your voice alone can master this tumult; your position, unconnected with any party, inspires confidence: ascend the tribune, or we are lost." His eyes were fixed on the group formed by the Duchess and her sons. He did not turn them towards me, but pointing to the tribune said, "' While that woman and that child are there, I am silent." These words showed me that his mind was made up-and very differently from my expectations. I returned to my place without replying.' This anecdote confirms M. de Lamartine's representation, both as to the importance attached to his decision, and as to the early period in the debate when it was made. Lamartine names the Provisional Government. 23 bring in a bolder mob; and Ledru Rollin occupied the time, at first, by declaiming against the proposed regency, and then, at the suggestion of M. Berryer, the other head of the Legitimist party, by proposing a Provisional Government and a Convention. There was now a cry for Lamartine; and he mounted the tribune, feeling, as he says, that his voice was to be decisive. We have seen that his conduct was pre-arranged. 'The people requires,' he said, 'a government national, popular, and irremovable. Where is its base to be found among the floating timbers of this shipwreck, in this tempest which has swept us all before it, among these breakers, where wave after wave swells the tide that has overwhelmed us? Where is it to be found?-Only by going down to the bottom of the people and of the country; by extracting from our national rights the great mystery of the sovereignty of all-the source of all order, of all liberty, and of all truth. In the name of the blood which is flowing, in the name of peace, in the name of the people exhausted by its glorious work of three days, I demand a Provisional Government.' 'Here,' he tells us, 'the whole Chamber resounded with acclamations.' 'A government,' he continued, which shall predetermine nothing on the subjects which now inflame our resentment, our anger, or our desires; or as to the nature of the definitive government which the nation, when it has had an opportunity of expressing its will, may think fit to adopt.' 'Here,' he adds, 'a thousand voices applauded this reserve of the rights of the nation. "Name them, name the members of the Provisional Government!" they cried.' 24 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. ' The first duty,' he continued, 'of this government will be to put an end to the contest which is now raging; the second to call together the whole electoral body-and by the whole body, I mean all who are citizens because they are men-because they are beings endowed with an intellect and a will.' Here he was stopped by the irruption of a fresh body of about three hundred rioters-those whom M. Marrast had gone to fetch. They came fresh from the sack of the Tuileries. The Duchess, with her children, and the Duc de Nemours then fled. M. Sauzet, the President, disappeared. Lamartine remained in the tribune, and desired Dupont de l'Eure to take the vacant chair, which rises immediately above the tribune. Lamartine was called upon to name the Provisional Government. He says that he refused. But, as far as we can understand his very obscure statement, he also says that he complied. His words are, ' I se borne a souffler tout bas aux scrutateurs les noms qui se presentent le plus naturellement a son esprit.' The scrutateurs handed these names up to Dupont de 1'Eure, who proclaimed them to the mob. They were, according to our author, Marie, Lamartine, Ledru Rollin, Cremieux, Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, and Garnier Pages. The four first, it will be observed, had prepared the way for their own appointment, by proposing in the debate a Provisional Government, and Dupont de l'Eure by aiding as president. Scarcely had this list been proclaimed and assented to than the mob began to wish to alter it. Lamartine therefore, with some of his new colleagues, hurried away from the scene of election, which might soon have been The Government installed in the 116tel de Ville. 2 5 turned into one of dismission, to instal themselves at once as a government, in the Hotel de Ville. It is to be observed that the 'Moniteur,' whose account of these proceedings M. de Lamartine generally follows, ascribes the nomination of Garnier Pages to Ledru Rollin. It states, also, that after the first six names had been proclaimed, Lamartine and Dupont de l'Eure left the Chamber to seize the H6tel de Ville, and that Ledru Rollin then read over again the list, adding the name of Garnier Pages. In the meantime an event had occurred which M. de Lamartine passes over in silence, though its influence on subsequent events was important, and has not ceased even yet. It is best told in the evidence appended to the Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the events of May and June 1848. M. de Lamartine describes the manner in which M. Flottard introduced him and his colleagues into a small room in the H6tel de Ville, which was their abode during the first twenty-four hours of their reign. From his story we are led to infer that they found it empty; and that the subsequent addition of Marrast, Flocon, Louis Blanc, and Albert to the Provisional Government was a voluntary act of the seven who had been nominated in the Chamber of Deputies. But neither of these statements appears to be strictly true. M. Cremieux, who was one of the seven, thus relates the state of things at the H6tel de Ville:'When we reached the Hotel de Ville, to take possession of the government, we found, in the little room in which we 26 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. passed the night of the 24th and 25th of February, Messrs. Marrast, Flocon, Louis Blanc, and Albert, who had got there before us. "Who are you?" we asked. "Members of the Provisional Government," they answered. "By whom appointed " we enquired. I think that they answered, "By the Democratic Society." If we ourselves had been asked who appointed us, we might have answered that we were appointed in the Chamber of Deputies, but certainly not by the Chamber. Our only origin was a popular acclamation, and they claimed the same title. So we took them as secretaries, and afterwards as colleagues.' Even this is scarcely correct. It is only in the 'Moniteur' of February 25 that they are termed secretaries. In that of the 26th, and in all subsequent numbers, they appear as members of the government. In the 'Bulletin des Lois' they are never called secretaries, but a slight blank separates their names from those of the others for the first two days. On the third it disappears, and they are confounded with the others. In the 'Moniteur' of! February 27 (the third day of the existence of the Provisional Government), its members are arranged thus:MM. Arago, Dupont de l'Eure, Albert (ouvrirr), F. Marrast, F. Flocon, Lamartine, Marie, L. Blanc, Cremieux, Ledru Rollin, Garnier Pages. Some further light as to the nomination of the Pro. visional Government is thrown by the evidence of Adolphe Chenu: 'I was,' he says, 'one of the twelve persons who, in the bureau of the " Reforme," on February 24, after the capture of the Tuileries, created the Provisional Government-at least that I Rapport, vol. i. p. 266. Formation of the Provisional Government. 27 part of it which was not left to be created by the " National." At this meeting, with the assistance of some persons whom I added to it, we appointed Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, Flocon, Albert, and, I rather think, Francis Arago, though I am not sure whether he may not have been appointed by the other meeting [that of the "' National "]. We then appointed Etienne Arago Director of the Post Office. Sobrier asked to be Prefect of Police; Caussidiere was generally preferred: ultimately we appointed both. I went and installed E. Arago at the Post Office, and then conducted Caussidiere and Sobrier to the Prefecture of Police.' A consistent account is given by Caussidiere:'After leaving the Tuileries I went to the bureau of the " Rforme," where a body of insurgents were naming a government. When the citizens so appointed were gone to the Hotel de Ville, to install themselves, two important places remained to be filled up-the Post Office and the Police. The Post Office was given to E. Arago. I proposed Baune for the Police; he refused. Flocon and Baune then proposed me, jointly with Sobrier. I refused at first, but was persuaded to accept.' 2 Another extract from Caussidiere gives a glimpse of the early relations to one another of the members of the Provisional Government. On February 26, forty-eight hours after the revolution, he visited them as Prefet de police:/ 'I found them,' he says, 'sitting round a large table. They were absolutely buried in mountains of torn paper, which filled the room up to one's middle. I stood in a window and looked on. They were at work on the draft of a decree, which was soon torn up and added to the heaps at their feet. The war I Rapport, vol. i. p. 87. 2 Memoires de Caussidiare, vol. i. p. 63. 28 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. between the moderate and democratic portions of the Provisional Government was raging. The most violent seemed to me to be Flocon and Garnier Pages-the former for energy, the latter for delay. In a short time Albert came up to me. " We are not getting on," he said; "I am out of my place here; I am very much inclined to resign."' All this is not very consistent with M. de Lamartine's account of his having himself created the Provisional Government-by whispering to certain persons whom he calls scrutateurs the names that most readily occurred to him. The truth we believe to be, that, besides the preparatory meeting in the bureau of the ' Reforme,' there was also one either in the bureau of the 'National,' or, if held elsewhere, composed of the writers in that journal; and that at that meeting some, at least, of the names afterwards proclaimed in the Chamber were decided on. With respect to the propriety of M. de Lamartine's conduct on that eventful morning we feel little doubt. If we implicitly admit his premisses, indeed, he acted wisely as well as boldly. His premisses are, that the Regency could not maintain itself, and that the only stable government was a Republic based on universal suffrage. Now we have already stated our belief, that until the people of France have corrected their present errors as to the proper, or rather as to the practicable, duties of government-while they persist in thinking that its great business is to provide places and salaries for professional men, privileges and monopolies for mer AIemnoires de Caussidiere, vol. i. p. 90. Average Duration of Forms of Government. 29 chants and tradesmen, and wages and employment for the labouring classes-no stable government is possible. Every successive dynasty or assembly may fret its hour upon the stage; but it will be overturned by its disappointed friends and by its hungry enemies. But if the claims of the Duchess of Orleans and of the Count of Paris had been as adroitly supported as those of her predecessor were-if she had been a Louis-Philippe, or had had a La Fayette, a Lafitte, and a Casimir Perrier as her seconds —we see no reason for doubting that she and her son might have enjoyed an average period of power. During the fifty-six years between 1792 and 1848 six sovereignties occupied the throne or the chair-that of the Convention, of the Directory, of the Consulate, of the Empire, of the Restoration, and of 1830-giving an average of about nine years to each. And we see no sufficient ground for doubting that the seventh might have had its nine years also. Lamartine endeavours to persuade his readers, and seems to have persuaded himself, that in the beginning of 1848 an overwhelming majority of the French were republicans. Tout ce qui a le sentiment republicain dans le cceur (he says, speaking in February 1848), tout ce qui a le reve de la republique dans l'imagination, tout ce qui regrette, tout ce qui aspire, tout ce qui raisonne, tout ce qui reve en France, republicains des societes secretes, republicains militants, republicains speculatifs, peuple, tribuns, jeunesse, ecoles, journalistes, hommes de main, hommes de pensee, ne poussent qu'un cri. This we utterly disbelieve. 30 Ske/tc of /te Revolution of 1848. Emile Thomas, who had good means of judging, tells us that even on the evening of February 24, 1848, there were not in Paris Io,ooo avowed republicans.' We ourselves have spent a considerable portion of the last two years in France. We have mixed with persons of every class, in the provinces as well as in Paris, and, with the exception of a few socialists, we never met with a theoretic republican-that is to say, with anyone who wished for that form of government, or even approved of it, or who did not consider the revolution of 1848 as a bitter misfortune. The dcoles, perhaps, the undisciplined youth of the Polytechnic, and a few dreamers like Lamartine, were honest republicans. A much greater number of ambitious demagogues, like Ledru Rollin, and of conspirators, like Caussidiere and Barbes, and the general body of journalists, who live by excitement, were dishonest republicans. Others, again, who usurped that title, were anarchists, who desired not the government of all, but the government of none. The rest were communists and socialists, whose object, to which they gave the name of a republic, was a class of institutions to which M. de Lamartine is quite as much opposed as Guizot or Louis-Philippe could be. In fact, M. de Lamartine himself, in a subsequent part of this work, confesses that he was mistaken. He tells us that it was the unpopularity of republican institutions that decided him, at the meeting of the Assembly, to remain united to his ultra-republican associates. 'Republican feelings,' he then said to his friends, 'are weak in France. Hizstoire des Ateliers nationaux, p. 14. Instability of the Republic. 3I They are chiefly represented by men who excite horror or terror. The Republic itself was a surprise, to which the prudence of the Parisians (sagesse) and our moderation enabled us to give a miraculous success. But such impressions are brief. As soon as the majority of the people, which, in an enthusiasm of terror, threw itself into the hands of a moderate Republic, shall have recovered its presence of mind, it will accuse those who have saved it, and turn on the republicans.'" The passage which we have quoted from the first volume shows what were Lamartine's opinions on February 24; that which we now give from the second, the utter change which had taken place in them by May 4. He writes, however, as if he were perfectly unconscious of inconsistency. M. de Lamartine's other motive, the stability of a republic, all the subsequent events have shown to be erroneous. His 'force supreme, qui peut avoir ses agitations, jamais ses detronements ou ses ecroulements,' his 'gouvernement qui porte sur le fond meme de la nation,' his '6tablissement stable, national, populaire, inebranlable enfin,' has been the most unstable of all the governments which have succeeded its republican predecessor-the Convention. Within two days after its formation it was on the brink of ruin under an attack from the Terrorists. Three weeks later, on March 17, it was saved from destruction merely by the vacillation of its enemies.. A few weeks afterwards, on April 15, Lamartine burnt his papers, and tells us that when he went to ] Vol. ii. p. 405. 32 Sketch of the Revoluzion of 1848. bed he did not expect to survive the insurrection of the next day. Again in a few weeks, on May 15, there were some hours when a new revolution was triumphant. A month later, a civil war of four days ended in a dictatorship. General Cavaignac had the moderation to resign his power after a reign of six months; but during those six months the ' etablissemnent inebranlable' was not merely shaken but prostrate. So little confidence is there in its present stability, that it was with great difficulty that the Assembly could be persuaded last August to adjourn for six weeks. It was seriously feared that a coup d'etat would prevent its ever meeting again. Lamartine's theory is founded on the most dangerous of all political arguments-a metaphor. A building is firm in proportion to the depth of the stratum on which its foundations rest. A government resting on universal suffrage may, metaphorically, be said to rest on the deepest stratum of society. But that depth confers no firmness. If we, too, might venture to be metaphorical, we should say that the lowest stratum of society is a quicksand. We cannot quit M. de. Lamartine's history of the events which preceded the appointment of the Provisional Government without remarking that it is calculated (though, perhaps, that is too strong a word) to give an erroneous impression as to the violence of the conflict. He admits, indeed (p. 67), that no blood flowed on the first day; nor does he describe any actual fighting as taking place on the second. He says, indeed, that the barricades were abandoned as soon as they were raised. The only sanguinary event of this day was the single discharge on the Boulevard des The Battle of t/he Revolution of I848. 33 Capucins.' During the night of the 23rd the riot swelled into an insurrection -partly in consequence of the feebleness of the previous day's resistance, partly in consequence of the arrival in Paris of large bodies of Socialists, and Communists, and released convicts, who had been summoned from the large provincial towns, but, above all, in consequence of the slaughter at the Boulevard des Capucins, and the use made of it by the conspirators who had planned it. 'The bodies,' says Lamartine, 'were grouped upon the tombereaux, their arms hanging over the sides of the carriages, the wounds displayed, the blood streaming over the wheels, and dragged by torchlight through the streets.'2 On the morning of the 24th a considerable body of insurgents, probably from o,0ooo to I5,ooo, had assembled. A larger body of soldiers was arrayed, apparently to withstand them. But it was a mere appearance. They had received orders to make no resistance. A body of rioters attacked the corps de garde of the Gardes Municipaux in the Champs Elysees. They were murdered at their posts, or in the arcades of the H6tel de la Marine, in the presence of battalions of infantry and The Quarterly Review of June I849, No. 169, p. 283, states that the shot from the mob which provoked this discharge was fired by Lagrange. That it was fired intentionally, and to produce the result which followed, there can, we think, be no rational doubt. The circumstance mentioned by Lamartine, that tombereaux, ready harnessed, were in waiting to receive the dead, and exhibit them in all the streets of Paris, is alone a sufficient proof. But what is the evidence, except indeed the character of the man, fixing it on Lagrange? 2 Vol. i. p. 99. VOL. I. D 34 Sketch of the Revolution of I848. squadrons of cavalry, who were prevented, says Lamartine, by their orders, from rescuing them.1 The principal column marched on the Tuileries, sacking the Palais Royal on its way. A battalion of infantry abandoning, in obedience to the general order, the defence of the Palais Royal, took refuge in the Chateau d'Eau, immediately opposite to the gate. It was set fire to, and the wounded and prisoners whom it contained perished in the flames. 'All this passed,' says M. de Lamartine, 'within a few steps of numerous bodies of troops, who stood motionless, petrified with astonishment, under the command of chiefs whom the king and his new minister forbade to fight.' 2 By the time this column had reached the Tuileries the royal family had fled; the troops were in retreat, and it entered the palace without resistance. From thence it proceeded, equally unresisted, to the Chamber of Deputies, and scattered the representatives as easily as it had frightened away the monarch. This was the battle of the Revolution of 1848. Si pugna est ubi tu pulsas, ego vapulo tantum. But a cursory reader of Lamartine, or even an attentive one, unless his attention were particularly called to the question, would suppose that the Revolution of 1848 was, like that of 1830, the result of three days' hard fighting. He repeats, without comment, Ledru Rollin's enormous falsehood that 3,000 men had fallen.3 He Vol. i. p. 140. 2 Ibid. p. 142. 3 P. 200. The total loss of the Gardes Municipaux, who bore the brunt of the action, was nine men killed and five who died of their wounds.Dunoyer, La Revolution du 24 Fevrier, p. IO. False Accusation of Louis-Philzip e. 35 speaks of the mob which entered the Chamber as 'inflamed by a battle of three days.' The weapons through which he penetrated to reach the Hotel de Ville were brandished by arms 'sanglants, tremblants encore de la fievre de trois jours de combat.'2 The road to it is described as covered with the dead bodies of men and horses, and constantly crossed by litters carrying the wounded and the dead.3 All who come from the streets have their arms red with blood, and their faces blackened with powder. There is a sort of military halo of smoke and fire over all his pictures, which is not justified by the real events. Connected with this subject is one which we approach with great pain. M. de Lamartine tells us that the first proclamation of the Provisional Government was written by himself. It begins thus: 'A retrograde and oligarchical government has been overthrown by the heroism of the people of Paris. This government has fled, leaving behind it a trace of blood, which prohibits its return.. The blood of the people has flowed as it did in July (I830)-but this time a generous people shall not be deceived.'4 We are not going to blame very severely the coupling the revolution of 1830 and that of 1848; though the one was an aggression on the part of the crown, the other on the part of the people-though Charles X. fell for I P. 211. 2 P. 232. 3 P. 230. 4 We translate the official document, which differs a little from M. de Lamartine's -version. D 2 36 Sketch of t/e Revolution of 1848. endeavouring to break the law, and Louis-Philippe for having endeavoured to maintain it. Such misrepresentations are usual among great orators. But what we do blame is the wicked calumny cast on Louis-Philippe of having left behind him a trace of blood. We presume that M. de Lamartine does not hold Louis-Philippe responsible for the accident on the Boulevard des Capucins; and the blood that was shed elsewhere, little as it was, was nearly all of it the blood of his own servants. As well might the deaths of those who fell on August io be imputed to Louis XVI. as the deaths of those who fell on February 24 to Louis-Philippe. It was precisely to their determination not to shed blood, precisely to their refusal to use their means of self-defence, that Louis XVI. sacrificed his life and Louis-Philippe his crown. And so will fall every government in Paris that suffers itself to be attacked with impunity. If Louis Philippe had acted in 1848 as he did in 1832 and 1834, the e aeute of February 24 would by this time have been forgotten. We have often lamented that a man like M. de Lamartine should have signed a paper containing a false and cruel accusation of a fallen man. We should not have believed on any evidence but his own that he had written it. The picture of the first day of the Provisional Government is wonderfully vivid. It places in the brightest light the courage, self-devotion, and eloquence of M. de Lamartine. We are not inclined, however, to make any extracts from it. The constant representation of mental and bodily struggle becomes at length fatiguing even to A Night Scene. 37 the reader. We prefer the repose of a night scene3 and we will give it in the original:Lamartine sortit L minuit de l'Hotel de Ville. La nuit etait orageuse et sombre. Le vent pluvieux chassait les nuees basses dans le ciel, les fumees rampantes des lampions allumes sur la crete des barricades, et faisait gemir sur les toits les girouettes et les bouches de fer des cheminees. A l'entree de toutes les rues des factionnaires volontaires du peuple veillaient, le fusil charge a la main, sans autre consigne que leur zele. De distance en distance on trouvait de grands feux allumes, autour desquels bivouaquaient sur un peu de paille des groupes de combattants endormis. De temps en temps seulement on entendait de rares detonations, et des balles sifflaient de loin en loin dans l'air. C'etaient des postes de combattants, qui tiraient au hasard, pour avertir les troupes, dont on ignorait les dispositions, que l'armee du peuple etait debout. Apres avoir change ses vetements, mis en lambeaux par les tumultes de ia journee, et pris deux ou trois heures de sommeil, il repartit a pied a quatre heures du matin, pour l'Hotel de Ville. Les heures tardives de la nuit avaient assoupi plus completement la ville. Les feux s'eteignaient sur les barricades. Les factionnaires du peuple dormaient-le coude appuye sur la bouche de canon de leurs fusils. On entendait une certaine rumeur sourde sortant des rues profondes et noires qui entourent la Place de Greve; des groupes de quatre ou cinq hommes armes traversaient aN et la le quai, les rues, les places, d'un pas precipite. Ils s'entretenaient a voix basse en marchant, comme des conjures. Ces hommes etaient en general autrement vetus que le reste du peuple. Des redingotes de couleur sombre, des casquettes de drap noir a passe-poil rouge, des pantalons et des bottes d'une certaine el6gance, des barbes touffues sur le menton et sur les levres, soigneusement coupees et peignees, des mains delicates et blanches, plus faites pour tenir la plume que 38 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. l'outil, des regards intelligents mais soupConneux et ardents comme le complot, attestaient que ces hornmes n'appartenaient pas, par leurs travaux du moins, aux classes proletaires,-mais qu'ils en etaient les meneurs, les agitateurs et les chefs. Lamartine put apercevoir, a la lueur des feux de bivouac, qu'ils portaient des rzibans rougzes a leur boutonniere et des cocardes rouges a leur chapeau. I1 crut que c'etait un simple signe de ralliement, arbore pour se reconnaitre entre eux, pendant les jours de combat qui venaient de s'ecouler. 11 entra sans soupcon a l'IIttel de Ville, et releva son collegue Marie, qui alla a son tour voir et rassurer les siens. Le calme, le silence, et le sommeil regnaient a cette heure dans toutes les parties de ce vaste edifice, si tumultueux quelques heures avant. Lamartine reprit son poste dans lenceinte, un peu elargie, h moitie evacuee et mieux protegee du gouvernement provisoire. I1 y attendit, en redigeant des ordres et en preparant des decrets, la renaissance du jour et le retour de quelques-uns de ses collegues.1 The appearance of the small bodies of men distinguished by red symbols, whom M. de Lamartine so well describes, was an event of great importance. It marked the formation, out of several elements, of a party which has menaced from that day the institutions which the Provisional Government and the Constituent Assembly have endeavoured to give to France-has four or five times been on the point of overthrowing them-has once occasioned them to be suspended for six monthsand is destined, we believe, ultimately to destroy them; not indeed by substituting its own schemes, but by frightening the higher classes into some form in which Vol. i. p. 320. Re]1 Republicans. 39 the monarchical element shall be even more preponderant than it now is-we mean, of course, the Terrorist party-the Red Republicans. M. de Lamartine gives two somewhat different descriptions of the class who constituted the leaders and the nucleus of the ultra-revolutionary party. He first describes it as consisting of those to whom the object of a revolution is the madness of the revolution itself-of men with no desires of progress, no visions of political improvement, free from the chimeras of those who think that the social edifice can be reconstructed without burying a generation under its ruins, and from the theories of those who look on governments as the instruments of public welfare. 'Such men,' he says, 'without faith, and without principle, but full of passions and of violence, wish for a state of society as violent as themselves. Their theory of government is a prolonged revolution; without morality, without law, without peace, and without end.'' He subsequently describes the Terrorists as the produce of the revolutionary literature which flourished during the Restoration and under Louis-Philippe; which repeated in cold blood the ferocities of Danton and the maxims of St.-Just, which looked with pity on all who scrupled to attribute to the public men of a revolution a right to proscribe and destroy their enemies and their rivals, and reversed the ordinary judgment of history, by heaping honour on the destroyers and contempt on the victims. In the nomenclature of this literature, the Vol. i. p. 326. 40 Sketch of zthe Revoluzion of 1848. Republic meant the violent triumph of a party over the nation-the substitution of tyranny from below for tyranny from above, its arbitrary will for law, anger for justice, and the scaffold for government.' The believers in this creed (he says) were generally young men, blanched in the shade of secret societies, their minds poisoned from infancy by the classics of the Reign of Terror, accustomed to deify Danton for his audacity in murder, and St.Just for his insensibility, ascribing grandeur to crimes that were merely enormous, irritated by the want of sympathy, and ready to buy notoriety at any price-men whose sleep was disturbed by the immortality of Marat and Babeuf.2 Such, according to Lamartine, were the chiefs of the Terrorist party. The subordinate members-the rank and file of the revolutionary army-he divides into three classes. First he places the dregs of society-the outcasts from civilised life, who infest every large town. Among these are the liberated convicts, who pass their time between crime and imprisonment; those who live by the expedients of the day-many by practices more shameful than crime itself; those who, having lost by misconduct the means of an honest livelihood, keep up a permanent warfare against law and order, who think vice a profession, and crime a glory; and, lastly, those who, in his words, to all of which we cannot attach a definite meaning (probably because the animal described is peculiar to France), 'ont en eux-memes le vertige continu du desordre, le souffle sans repos de ' Vol. i. pp. 338-'339. 2 Ibid. p. 343 - The Socialists. 4I l'agitation, la volupte du chaos, la soif du sang.'' This class of ruffians he estimates at 20,000. Next he puts the Communists-the systematic enemies of rent, of profit, of wages, of inheritance, of capital, of property -in short, of all the results of civilisation. To these he adds, as the third element, the mere ignorant, indigent population of Paris, thrown out of work by three days of tumult-ready to believe any statements and to trust to any promises, however monstrous, and to follow any leaders, whatever might be their course. Such is M. de Lamartine's description of the party which assumed the red flag as their standard. He denies that, at the commencement of this revolution, the Socialists, as distinguished from the Communists, sympathised with the Terrorist party. Their schemes, however impracticable and absurd, were not then tainted by violence. Firmly convinced of the truth of their theories, they believed that, if once their plans could be put into action, even on a small scale, the prosperity and happiness which they would diffuse would lead to their universal and voluntary adoption.2 We shall see that the Socialists did not long retain their fidelity to the moderate Republic. But, even without their assistance-even in spite of their opposition-the Red party was, on February 25, very formidable. M. de Lamartine estimates (p. 359) the number of those who made the first rush on the H6tel de Ville at between thirty and forty thousand; and the ' Vol. i. p. 346. 2 Ibid. p. 334. 42 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. number who, later in the day, filled the Place de Greve and the courts of the building he supposes (p. 386) to have been from sixty to eighty thousand. If these estimates are tolerable approximations, the Red party, up to the end of the day, formed one-half of those present, and, in the morning, were an overwhelming majority; while the Provisional Government had absolutely no force to oppose to it. Their second proclamation the day before had in fact, for the time, destroyed the National Guard, by declaring that all the citizens made a part of it. The greater part of the regular troops had retired from Paris; and those who remained could not be relied on in opposition to what seemed now to be the supreme authority-any crowd calling itself the people. The Garde Mobile-the happiest of Lamartine's creationsdid not yet exist. The means of resistance then possessed by the government were merely eloquence, reason, and authority; and the vigour, the courage, the perseverance, and ultimately the success, with which they were employed, have shed a lustre on this day of M. de Lamartine's life, which no other portion of his career, brilliant as it has been, has obtained. We ascribe the honours of this day to M. de Lamartine, because none of his colleagues have claimed much share in them. Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, and Ledru Rollin were absent during the struggle. Lamartine bears his testimony to the exertions of Marie, Cremieux, Garnier Pages, and Marrast; but no trace has been preserved of them. Flocon was employed at Vincennes, and Louis Blanc Contrast between the Red Flag and thze Tricolor. 43 and Albert sympathised-the former partially, the second entirely-with the enemy. The public is familiar with the general outline of these events. Lamartine's contrast between the red flagwhich never went farther than round the Champ de Mars, dragged through the blood of the people-and the tricolor, which had gone round the world, carrying with it the name, the glory, and the liberty of Franceis classical throughout Europe. The further details which he has now given to us are as graphic and picturesque as it is possible for a narrative to be. Such, for instance, is the description (p. 356) of the sudden appearance before the Hotel de Ville of the red colour of the party, of the manner in which the government whom it menaced saw it run through rank and rank of the crowd in-the Place de Greve, and along the Quays, and blaze from the opposite windows and roofs! Such, too, is his description of the Communist delegate who first penetrated into the room occupied by the Provisional Government, and bore to them the ultimatum of the people.' We had believed that the victory was gained by Lamartine's celebrated comparison of the fortunes of the red flag and the tricolor; but we now find that this was only an incident in the struggle. The mob to which it had been addressed was pouring back with shouts of ' Vive Lamartine!' 'Vive le drapeau tricolor!' when it was met and passed through by a body of revolu Vol. i p. 376. 44 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. tionists more fierce and more implacable than any of the previous columns. ' A bas Lamartine!' ' Mort a Lamartine!' they screamed. 'Point de paroles! Le decret, le decret! ou le gouvernement des traitres a la lanterne!' Lamartine had placed himself before the great gate, raised on a chair above the small knot of devoted adherents who stood between him and a band of ruffians whose bayonets and swords almost reached his body, and, indeed, slightly wounded one of his hands. His voice could not now be heard in the tumult. He would not retreat; yet, if he remained, the only result seemed to be, his being thrown down and trampled to death by the mob. He was saved, as in no other place in Europe he could have been saved, by a beggar, who rushed between him and his assailants; invoked him as the brother, the father, the god of the people; embraced him, kissed him, and at length obtained for him all that was necessary to his triumph-a hearing. For whenever a Parisian mob hears Lamartine it is subjugated. He subdued this last detachment of the Red party as he had subdued its predecessors: the tricolor was raised again over the great gates, the mob dispersed, and after eight hours of struggle the Place de Greve was again empty. The contest had left the members of the government in a state of mind which M. de Lamartine thinks peculiarly favourable to wise legislation. Tout (he says) etait de nature a susciter dans l'ame ces grandes pensees qui jaillissent du coeur, et qui sont la souve Legislation of the Provisional Government. 45 raine politique-parce qu'elles sont la souveraine nature et la souveraine verite. L'instinct est le supreme legislateur, celui qui l'ecrit en loi, ecrit sous la dicte'e de Dieu. Every member of the Council sought, in the depths of his heart and of his intellect, for some great reform, some great legislative, political, or moral improvement. Some proposed the instantaneous abolition of negro slavery. Others, the abolition of the restrictions imposed by the laws of September upon the press. Some, the proclamation of fraternity among nations, in order to abolish war by abolishing conquest. Some, the abolition of the qualification of electors. And all, the principles of mutual charity among all classes of citizens. As quickly as these great democratic truths, rather felt than discussed, were converted into decrees, they were printed in a press set up at the door of the council-room, thrown from the windows to the crowd, and despatched by couriers through the departments. A whole century, to which the revolution had restored speech, suddenly raised its voice; and poured forth all the Christian, and philosophical, and democratic truths which had slumbered for fifty years in the meditations of the wise, and in the vague desires of the nation. But the experience of those fifty years had also ripened the intellect of the country, and of the men whose decrees were proclaimed in its name. That experience sat with Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, Marie, and Carnot, at the table where these truths became realities. And it is remarkable that at this meeting, so inspired and so fruitful, not one instance of rashness or of exaggeration tainted the acts or the words of this government of enthusiasm. Not one of these legislators had afterwards to efface one of the engagements which he now made to the country and to posterity. Every one of these decrees passed as a law into the hands of the National Assembly.1 ' Vol. i. p. 442. 46 Sketch of/ te Revolution of 1848. It is remarkable that the proclamation of fraternity among nations and of the abolition of war and conquest does not appear among the printed acts of the Provisional Government. The invasion of a friendly state, and the siege and occupation of its capital,' in order to maintain the proper influence of France in Italy,' is a curious comment on it. It is also to be observed that the decree containing the abolition of the electoral qualification bears date March 4; that repealing the restrictions on the press, March 6; and the decrees relating to the abolition of slavery in the French colonies, March 4 and April 27; and therefore are not among the 'grandes verites democratiques' which were converted into decrees in this 'seance inspiree et feconde.' The important decrees, which actually bear date February 25 or 26, and which may therefore be referred to this evening of instinct, inspiration, and enthusiasm, are these:The I8th, which sets at liberty all persons detained on political grounds. The 19th, by which the governmentI. Engages to secure the existence of the operative (ouvrier) by employment. 2. Engages to secure employment [garantir du travail] to all citizens. 3. Admits that operatives ought to combine in order to enjoy the fruits of their labour. 4. And promises to return to the operatives, whose property it is, the million which will fall in from the civil list. Decrees of February 25 and 26. 47 The 22nd, which dissolves the Municipal Guards. The 26th, which declares that the actual government of France is republican, and that the nation will immediately be called on to ratify by its votes this resolution of the government and of the people of Paris. The 29th, which declares that Royalty, under any name whatever-Legitimacy, Bonapartism, or Regency -is abolished; and that the government has taken all the steps necessary to render impossible the return of the former dynasty or the accession of a new one; And the 30th, which directs the immediate establishment of national workshops (ateliers nationaux).1 We confess that we agree with Lamartine in thinking that they bear the stamp of instinct much more than that of reason. The liberation of all political offenders and the dissolution of the Municipal Guard were united by a curiosa infelicitas. One set free a band of conspirators, who very soon did their utmost to destroy the government that had released them; and the other deprived Paris, when it most wanted protection, of the only police which it possessed. The cruelty with which this admirable body of men, whose crime was that they had for many years protected the persons and property of the Parisians, were left utterly unprovided for, is a disgraceful part of the history of the Provisional Govern We extract these decrees from the Recueil cornplet des Actes du Gouvernement provisoire. Paris: 1848, 48 Sketch of the Revolution of 848. ment. It was an unmanly concession to the worst feelings of the worst part of the populace.1 The declaration that the actual government of France was republican is defended by Lamartine on the ground that the Provisional Government had only three courses to take-to proclaim no form of government, which would have been anarchy; to proclaim monarchy, which would have been civil war; or to proclaim a republic. Now the first answer to this is, that the declaration 'que le gouvernement actuel de la France est le gouvernement republicain,' was palpably untrue. The actual government of France at that time was as far removed from republicanism as it was possible for a government to be. It was a many-headed Dictatorship-a despotic oligarchy. Eleven men-some appointed in the offices of a newspaper, and the others by a mob which had broken into the Chamber of Deputies-ruled France, during three months, with an absoluteness of which there is no other example in history. The most tyrannical Asiatic or African monarch, the Emperor of China, the King of Dahomi or of the Ashantees, could not venture on one Their story is well told by M. Emile Thomas. He thus describes their state when they applied to him, as director of the ateliers nationaux, for relief:-' Ils avaient tout perdu dans l'incendie de leurs casernes; ils venaient, presqu'en haillons, tremblants, affames, s'exposer, dans les rangs des ouvriers, aux insultes, et aux menaces, qui ne leur faisaient pas faute, pour obtenir les secours offerts a tous. ' Le Gouvernement provisoire avait eu la cruaute de les repousser, de briser leur carriere, signalee par de longs et d'honourables services, et de les laisser en proie a la misere la plus affreuse.'-Histoire des Ateliers nationaux, p. 128. General Cavaignac had the courage to recall them to the service of the public. It was one of the first measures of his dictatorship. Despotism of the Republic. 49 tenth of the arbitrary acts which they crowded into their hundred days. They dissolved the Chamber of Deputies; they forbade the peers to meet; they added 200,000 men to the regular army, and raised a new metropolitan army of 20,000 more at double the ordinary pay; to meet this expense they added 45 centimes to the direct taxes; they restricted the Bank from cash payments; they made its paper a legal tender, and then required it to lend them fifty millions; they broke the public faith with the depositors in savings' banks; they abolished old taxes and enacted new ones; they declared at an end the treaties which regulated the base of the international law of Europe; they dismissed judicial officers who by law were irremovable; they sent commissioners through the country invested with powers as absolute as those which they had assumed themselves; they altered the hours of labour throughout France, and subjected to heavy fines any master who should allow his operatives to remain at work for the accustomed period. They behaved, in short, in a manner in which no government could behave, except one that was restrained by no opposing or moderating force, and in which a government so perfectly unrestrained might perhaps be expected to behave. And this state of things they describe by saying that ' the actual government of France is republican.' If this be a sample of republican government, we far prefer to it a Turkish despotism or even a Venetian aristocracy. It is probable, however, that the first of these decrees is not to be understood according to the apparent import VOL. I. E 50 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. of its words. It is probable that, instead of a statement of fact, it is a declaration of will-that the word actual means future; and that what was intended to be announced was, that the Provisional Government had decided that the government which was to succeed their dictatorship should be republican. This may have been a wise decision; but it was one not merely beyond the competence of a provisional government, according to all ordinary notions as to the functions of such a power, but peculiarly beyond the competence of the Provisional Government which was sitting on February 25, 1848. That government had been created on the express condition that it 'ne prejugerait rien sur la nature du gouvernement qu'il plairait a la nation de se donner, quand elle serait interrogee.' Lamartine himself tells us that there was a burst of applause when, on first proposing a provisional government, he made this reserve of the rights of the nation. The next day, however, if this be the meaning of the decree, this reserve was forgotten; nor is it of any consequence that this declaration was made subject to the ratification of the future Assembly. Every law that is passed by one government is of course liable to be altered by another. England is now a monarchy; but subject to the power of Parliament to change it, in the next session, into a democracy or an oligarchy. All doubts, however, as to the meaning of the 26th decree are removed by the 30th, which absolutely abolishes royalty, and announces that the Provisional Government has taken all the measures necessary to render impossible the return of the former or the acces Monarchical Element strong in France. 5 sion of a new dynasty. Thus the government which was to prejudge nothing takes all the measures necessary to render impossible a return to the institutions under which, with the exception of the seven most miserable years that she ever endured, France had lived ever since the times of Caesar. We do not attach, however, much importance to these two decrees. Great as was the power of the Provisional Government, it could not render impossible either the return of the old dynasty or the accession of a new one: it could not prevent the French nation from re-establishing Monarchy if it should so think fit. And in fact, not four months afterwards, Monarchy-real, though temporary-was re-established in the person of General Cavaignac. And under the existing constitution the monarchical element is stronger in France than in almost any part of Europe. Louis-Napoleon has more real power than any of his contemporary sovereigns, except the Czar. We are writing in October. Perhaps by the time that these pages are before the public the revolution will have passed into a new phase. But at this instant the French are more the subjects of a single will-uncontrolled, and, within very large limits and for several years, legally uncontrollable, by the people or by its representatives-than they have been under any king since the death of Louis XIV.-than they were during the times when their king was most autocratic, during the early part of the reign of Louis XVIII. and the latter part of that of Louis-Philippe. The I9th and 30th decrees-the universal guarantee E 2 52 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. of employment by the former, and the creation of ateliers nationaux by the latter-were less palpably absurd, but more extensively, and, we fear, more permanently, mischievous. The engagement to secure employment to all citizens is, when all which it necessarily implies is expressed, an engagement to supply to all applicants materials, tools, and-until those materials have been worked up, sold, and paid for-subsistence. Or, in other words, to provide every applicant with capital; and when he has lost it, or destroyed it, to give him fresh supplies; to take the property of the rich-that is to say, the fruits of industry, abstinence, and skill, and transfer it to the poor-that is to say, to those who, by idleness, or vice, or imprudence, or the ill luck which is the result of unobserved defects of character, have been deprived of wealth, or have been unable to acquire it. To produce equality, but certainly not equality of happiness. M. de Lamartine, as we have seen, looks on Socialists with pity, and on Communists with horror; but M. de Tocqueville, in his great speech on the droit aut travail, clearly showed that, if enforced, these decrees must end in the one or the other. If the State (says M. de Tocqueville) attempts to fulfil its engagement by itself giving work, it becomes itself a great employer of labour. As it is the only capitalist that cannot refuse employment, and as it is the capitalist whose workpeople are always the most lightly tasked, it will soon become the greatest, and soon after the only great, employer. The public revenue, instead of merely supporting the Government, will have to support all the industry of the country. As rents A teliers nationaux. 53 and profits are swallowed up by taxes, private property, now become a mere incumbrance, will be abandoned to the State; and, subject to the duty of maintaining the people, the Government will be the only proprietor. This is Communism. If, on the other hand, the State, in order to escape from this train of consequences, does not itself find work, but takes care that; it shall always be supplied by individual capitalists, it must take care that at no place and at no time there be a stagnation. It must take on itself the management of both capitalists and labourers. It must see that the one class do not injure one another by over trading, or the other by competition. It must regulate profits and wages-sometimes retard, sometimes accelerate, production or consumption. In short, in the jargon of the school, it must organise industry. This is Socialism.' The necessary consequence of the g9th decree, promising employment to all applicants, was the creation of the ateliers nationaux by the 30th. These workshops were immediately opened in the outskirts of Paris. A person who wished to take advantage of the offers of the Government took from the person with whom he lodged a certificate that he was an inhabitant of the Departerent de la Seine. This certificate he carried to the mairie of his arrondissement, and obtained an order of admission to an atelier. If he was received and employed there, he obtained an order on his mairie for forty sous. If he was not received, after having applied at all of them, and found them all full, he received an order for thirty sous.2 Thirty sosls is not high pay; but it was to be had for doing nothing; and hopes of ad' Seance du II sept. 1848. Assemblee Constituante. 2 Histoire des Ateliers nationaux, par Emile Thomas, p. 80. 54 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. vancement were held out. Every body of eleven persons formed an escouade; and their head, the escouadier, elected by his companions, got half a franc a day extra. Five escouades formed a brigade; and the brigadier, also elected by his subordinates, received three francs a day. Above these again were the lieutenants, the chefs de compagnie, the chefs de service, and the chefs d'arrondissement, appointed by the Government, and receiving progressively higher salaries.' Besides this, bread was distributed to their families in proportion to the number of children.2 The hours supposed to be employed in labour were nine and a half.3 We say supposed to be employed, because all eleemosynary employment, all relief work, all parish work (to use expressions which have become classical in Ireland and England), is in fact nominal. When the relations of the labourer and the capitalist are in the state which in a highly civilised society may be called natural, since it is the form which, in such a society, they naturally tend to assume when undistorted by mischievous legislation, the diligence of the labourer is their necessary result. As he is paid only in proportion to his services, he strives to make those services as valuable as he can. His exertions perhaps ought more frequently to be moderated than to be stimulated. A large proportion of our best artisans wear themselves out prematurely. In another state of society, which is also natural Histoire des Ateliers nationaux, p. 58. 2 Ibid. p. 97. 3 Ibid. p. 70. Ateliers nalionaux. 55 in a lower civilisation-that of slavery-a smaller, but still a considerable, amount of industry is enforced by punishment. But in eleemosynary employment there is absolutely no motive for the labourer to make any exertion, or for the employer, a mere public officer, to enforce it. The labourer is, at all events, to have subsistence for himself and his family. To give him more would immediately attract to the public paymaster all the labourers of the country; to give him less, and yet require his services, would be both cruelty and fraud. He cannot be discharged-he cannot be flogged-he cannot be put to task work-since to apportion the tasks to the various powers of individuals would require a degree of zealous and minute superintendence which no public officer ever gave. When the attempt was made in Paris, men accustomed to the work earned fifteen francs a day, those unaccustomed to it not one. This semi-military organisation, regular payment, and nominal work produced results which we cannot suppose to have been unexpected by the Government. M. Emile Thomas tells us that in one mairie, that containing the Faubourg St.-Antoine, a mere supplemental bureau enrolled, from March 12 to 20, more than,000o new applicants every day.' We have before us a list of those who had been enrolled on May I9, and it amounts to 87,942.2 A month later it amounted to 125,000 -representing, at 4 to a family, 6oo,ooo persons-more than one half of the population of Paris. To suppose that such an army as this could be reguHistoire des Atdiers nationaux, p. I72. 2 Ibid. p. 376. 56 Sketch of thze Revolution of 1848. larly organised, fed, and paid, for months in idleness, and then quietly disbanded, was a folly of which the Provisional Government was not long guilty. They soon saw that the monster which they had created could not be subdued, if it could be subdued at all, by any means short of civil war. Do you wish to know (says Lamartine in his 'Conseiller du Peuple' of October 1849) why some of us consented to retain power after the meeting of the Constituent Assembly? This is the secret. It was because we saw the inevitable approach of a battle with the ateliers nationaux, and we thought it our duty to cover the Assembly, at least during that battle, with our breasts and our popularity. Nearly a similar statement is to be found in the work which we are reviewing. A thunder-cloud (says M. de Lamartine) was always before our eyes. It was formed by the ateliers nationaux. This army of I20,000 workpeople, the great part of whom were idlers and agitators, was the deposit of the misery, the laziness, the vagrancy, the vice, and the sedition which the flood of the revolution had cast up and left on its shores. The Provisional Government had created these ateliers as a means of temporary relief, to prevent the unemployed workpeople from plundering the rich or dying of hunger; but they never concealed from themselves that the day when this mass of imperious idlers was to be broken up, scattered over the country, and employed in real work, must bring a change which could not be effected without resistance, without a conflict, without a formidable sedition.' M. de Lamartine's justification of a measure which Vol. ii. p. 458. A eliers nationaux. 57 assembled and disciplined in Paris an army of I20,000 enemies is, as we have seen, necessity. Trade and manufactures were stopped by the revolution, and Paris was in danger of being sacked. Paris, however, has passed through many revolutions without ateliers nationaux, and without being plundered. Without doubt the course that the revolution of 1848, under Lamartine's guidance, had taken, the subversion which he encouraged of royalty, and the promise which he made of pure democracy, had spread an unusual amount of terror among capitalists. There was probably greater alarm, and therefore greater want of employment, than in I830. It may have been consequently necessary to provide relief on a larger scale; but we firmly believe that such relief might have been given by means comparatively innocuous. It was not the 20th decree, creating the ateliers nationaux, which occasioned the rebellion of June. It was the g9th-that which guaranteed employment to every citizen, and recognised the right of workpeople to combine. Had not that decree been issued, relief to the unemployed would have been given, as relief. It might have been subjected to conditions to which none but the destitute would have submitted; and, though subject to these conditions, if tendered as charity, it would have been accepted with gratitude. But the I9th decree converted it into a debt; and the first consequence was to deprive the Government of all power of selection. Lamartine tells us that the greater part of the applicants were idlers and agitators; that the ateliers became deposits of laziness, vagrancy, vice, and sedition. 58 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. Under the g9th decree this was inevitable. The decree guaranteed employment-not to the diligent or to the well-disposed, but to all. Now, to guarantee subsistence to all-to proclaim that no man, whatever be his vices or even his crimes, shall die of hunger or cold-is a promise that in the state of civilisation of England, or of France, can be performed not merely with safety, but with advantage; because the gift of mere subsistence may be subjected to conditions which no one will voluntarily accept. But employment cannot safely be made degrading, and cannot practically be made severe. The latter part of the decree, which was a public encouragement of combinations, aided by the 42nd decree, published three days after, which proclaimed that the revolution had been made by the people and for the people, and that it was time to put an end to the long and unjust sufferings of the labouring population, of course produced an immediate crop of combinations. They followed their accustomed tactics-the unions of the different trades appointed committees, the committees ordered strikes, and the ateliers nationaux enabled those orders to be carried into execution. 'Les differents comites,' says Carlier, Directeur de la Police, 'ont obtenu par intimidation la cessation des travaux dans les ateliers des fabricants, et ont rejete les ouvriers dans les ateliers nationaux.' The workpeople were told: 'You may fold your arms; the Government cannot starve you; you will have it all Enquete sur l'Insurrection du 23 7uin et 15 Mai, tome ii, p. i6. The Days of 7une caused by these Measures. 59 your own way. Quit your masters, or ask wages that will force them to discharge you; their establishments must be closed, the Government will take possession of them, and hand them over to you.'" As they were managed, the ateliers nationaux, it is now admitted, produced or aggravated the very evils which they professed to cure or to palliate. They produced or continued the stagnation of business which they were to remedy; and, when they became absolutely intolerable, the attempt to put an end to them occasioned the civil war which they were to prevent. When men to whom employment had been guaranteed-men 'whose long and unjust sufferings were now to be terminated'men 'by whom and for whom the revolution had been made,' were told that all from seventeen to twenty-five years old must enter the army, that the rest must accept whatever employment, and on whatever terms, private individuals offered them or the Government imposed on them, and that all who refused compliance would be dismissed,2 they resisted, as Lamartine foresaw that they would do. They took to their arms-not without some pretence of justice; and no one who was at Paris during the four dreadful days of June, 1848, can say that on the first, or the second, or even the third day the contest was not doubtful. It was not until the sixth evening that Lamartine could turn his attention to his own department-foreign See the evidence of M. Goudchaux; Enqugte, tome ii. p. 290. 2 See a note of these Orders; Enqwute, tome ii. p. i6I. 60 Sketch of the Revolution of 84 8. affairs-and take possession of the hotel on the ill-omened Boulevard des Capucins:They opened (he says) to the new minister the apartments of M. Guizot. They seemed still tenanted by his shade. The room, the bed. the tables still scattered over with papers,'in the state in which the supporter of the monarchy had left them on the night of the 23rd, showed the sudden departure of a minister who thought that he had left his home for an instant -and had left it for ever. A woman in M. Guizot's confidence accompanied him. Lamartine placed in her hands the private documents and the few movables which belonged to his predecessor, and left an apartment which seemed to bring no good fortune to its inhabitant. He desired his mattress to be spread in the naked rooms of the ground-floor, more gloomy in themselves, but less so in their associations.1 We have ourselves received M. Guizot's testimony to the perfect good faith with which all his private papers were delivered to him, unmutilated and unexaminedpreserved by M. de Lamartine not only from plunder, but from curiosity. Lamartine tells us that he passed the night in reflections on the foreign policy of France. He has generally been considered a pacific foreign minister. It is true that, as he tells us in this history, and in his 'Conseiller du Peuple' of last June, he believed that war in I848 would have been fatal to the Moderate Republican party. He saw that war, successful or unsuccessful, would lead to increased expenditure and diminished income, double taxation, forced loans, national bank Vol. ii. p. 9. Foreign Policy f Lamartine. ruptcy, inconvertible paper currency, destruction of manufactures, suspension of commerce, insurrection of workmen, the emigration of the rich, the rage of the poor, and a reign of terror, which, by the copious use of its own powerful instruments, might be prolonged indefinitely. He laboured, therefore, anxiously to preserve peace at that particular period. But we are constrained to say that the general tendency of his political feelings is not pacific, for it is ambitious; and ambition is always warlike-especially in France. One of his complaints against Louis-Philippe is, that France under his government could not increase her territory. In his general view of the policy which France ought to adopt, he proposes only two courses-each of them involving war for the purpose of conquest —and decides in favour of the more violent, the more unprincipled, and the more ambitious: The treaties of I815 (he says) drove back France into limits too narrow for her vanity and for her activity. They left her without an ally, and therefore restless and suspicious. There were two modes by which we might have reconstructed our alliances, and established a French system on the Continent and on the ocean. One was to ally ourselves with Germany, against Russia and England; the other, to ally ourselves with Russia, against Austria and England. In the former case, we might extend our territory in Savoy, in Switzerland, and in the Prussian provinces on the Rhine-by granting to Austria an extension in Italy, on the Lower Danube and on the Adriatic. If we adopt the second alternative, we may stifle Austria between ourselves and Russia; extend ourselves freely over Italy, repossess ourselves of Belgium and of the Rhine, and reassume our influence 62 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. over Spain. Granting Constantinople, the Black Sea, the Dardanelles, and the Adriatic to Russia would insure to us these advantages! Our alliance with Russia is proclaimed by nature -it is revealed by geography. It is an alliance of zear, to preserve two great races from danger: it secures an equilibrium of peace, by placing two great weights on each side of the Continent, to keep down the centre, and by banishing England, as their satellite, to the sea and to Asia.' The deliberate proposal by M. de Lamartine of an object so violent and aggressive in itself, and attainable only through years of universal war, is a curious comment on ' La fraternite proclamee en principe, entre les peuples, pour abolir la guerre en abolissant les conquetes.' But these are not barren speculations. From M. de Lamartine's principles of conduct we turn to his acts. The first is the celebrated manifesto of March 6. In that manifesto he declares that the French Republic considers the treaties of 1815 as no longer binding on her; though she admits as a matter of fact their territorial demarcations. And, further, 'that when the hour for the reconstruction of any oppressed nationalities shall appear to France to have arrived, in the decrees of Providence, the French Republic will think herself justified in arming for their protection.' Among the attacks which have lately been made on that weak defence of civilisation, international law, this manifesto appears to be the boldest and the most mischievous. As Lamartine, while repudiating in the name of the French Republic the treaties which, as he himself Vol. ii. p. 14. Manifesto of Ite 6t March. 63 admits, have for the last thirty-four years formed the base of the public law of Europe, does not state the cause through which they have ceased to be obligatory, we are left to conjecture it. Is it that Russia, by incorporating the kingdom of Poland, and Austria, by seizing the republic of Cracow -both of which acts were violations of the Act of the Congress of Vienna —has released France from her obligations? It may be so. But how do those events affect the rights of England? The treaty of November 20, I815, between France and England, was an independent treaty; not referring to the Act of the Congress signed many months before-before the battle of Waterloo-and to which France, then under the government of Napoleon, was not really a party. England, who took not merely a substantial but an active part in the Act of the Congress, was as much injured by the violations of it as France. To hold, then, that these violations had the effect of depriving England of the benefits of the engagements made to her by France, would render nugatory all complicated arrangements; or all at least to which France may be a party. We cannot suppose that the Republic means to disclaim the obligations of the Monarchy. This would be an extremity of bad faith, of which no one ought to be accused till he avows it. The only remaining pretext that occurs to us is, that the treaties of I815 were extorted from France by force. Of course they were extorted by force. Every disadvantageous peace is extorted by force. The treaty 64 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. which recognised the independence of the United States was extorted from England by force. The treaty which gave Norway to Sweden was extorted from Denmark by force; that which gave Finland to Russia was extorted from Sweden by force; that which ended the late war between Austria and Piedmont was extorted from Piedmont by force. But are these treaties therefore void? or, what is the same thing, valid only until the beaten party is strong enough to repudiate them? If this be the law of nations, the practice of nations must revert to what it was 2,000 years ago. If the beaten party is not to be bound by stipulations longer than he is too weak to repudiate them, the consequence will be that he must be rendered incapable of ever doing further injury. If he cannot purchase safety by engagements, he must be destroyed. All wars must become wars of extermination. The offer of assistance to oppressed nationalities, when translated into intelligible language, is an offer of the armed interference of France to detach from their existing government any portions of a composite empire, distinguished by race or language from their fellow-subjects, which she may think fit to consider oppressed, and called by Providence to separate independence. When we recollect that almost every kingdom of Europe is a union of distinct nations-that neither the Swedish, the Danish, the Russian, the Prussian, the Austrian, the Turkish, the Neapolitan, the Sardinian, the Belgian, the Dutch, nor the British state is homogeneous-this is, in fact, a threat on the part of France to interfere by Lamartine's Forezgn Policy aggressive. 65 force in the domestic concerns of almost every government in Europe-and to interfere for the express purpose of dismembering it. It is an open encouragement to the barbarous feeling which leads men to quarrel because they differ in language or in race; which drives the Irish to clamour for repeal, the Holsteiners to demand separation, and the Croats to attack the Magyars; and has done more, within the last year, to retard the civilisation of Europe than can be repaired during the remainder of the century. So little did Lamartine know what he was doing, that his comment on this manifesto is, that it created no source of war, but removed many; that it abolished ambition and conquest. His second measure was to assemble an army on the frontier of Savoy, in order, as is not obscurely insinuated, to make the war between Piedmont and Austria a means of seizing on Savoy. 'Whatever,' he says, 'were the results of that war, the French army was to pass the Alps, in order to act or negotiate in arms.' This was Lamartine's policy. His successors abandoned it. He does not judge their conduct —he only relates it.' A third measure was, in a time of profound peace, and with a national income inferior by about twelve millions sterling to the national expenditure, to endeavour to raise the army from 370,000 men to 580,ooo;2 that is to say, to about one person in fifty-eight of the whole population, or to about one in fourteen of the ablebodied males. In the course of the year, he tells us that the number of 520,000 was actually reached; or Vol. ii. p. 278; see also p. 283. 2 Vol. ii. p 5[. VOL. I. F 66 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. about one in sixty-four of the whole population, and one in sixteen of the able-bodied males-a military force which, in proportion to the population of the country, is about three times as large as that of England, and twice as large as that of Russia-an army not exceeding, perhaps, the amount which a foreign policy of ambition and interference might require, but destined, if it be maintained, from its magnitude when compared with the resources of the country, to ruin its finances, and ultimately to destroy the little that it has retained of liberty. In general a minister is held responsible for all the acts of the cabinet. He is so responsible, because he voluntarily joined them and voluntarily remains with them. It is assumed that he knew beforehand what would be the outline and general course of their policy; and if he finds that they propose anything which he thinks seriously mischievous, he ought to resign. But we do not apply this rule to M. de Lamartine. He knew little-indeed it was impossible that he could know much-of his associates. We believe that he exercised little influence-much less than might be inferred from his own narrative-on their selection. He firmly believed that any change in the Provisional Government before the meeting of the Assembly would destroy it, and leave France in the midst of the tempest without a steersman. With this belief, he could neither resign himself, nor require, or indeed permit, the resignation of any of his associates, however numerous and deep-rooted might be their subjects of disagreement. This system must have been fatal to his influence. The Dissensions in the Government. 67 lever with which the member of a cabinet acts on his colleagues, in ordinary circumstances, is the threat of resignation. He uses it against measures, and, as a last resource, he uses it against men. But Lamartine could do neither. However he might disapprove of those whom he generally indicates as 'the minority in the government' (though it is clear that they often were the majority), he could not quit them, and he could not displace them. The evidence of several of his colleagues, taken by the Commissioners of Inquiry into the events of June 23 and May 15, contains some curious revelations. We will quote a few of them, beginning with that of one of the most eminent of the numberM. Arago:I admit that there was a disagreement in the Government: it contained two opposing elements-a republic of moderation, and one of violence. We (that is, the moderate party) were attacked, sometimes by reasoning, sometimes by threats. It was not only in the streets, but at the council-table, that the red flag was proposed. I answered that I had rather be cut to pieces than adopt that symbol. As the discussion became violent, I said, ' Call in your partisans: I will have the rappel beaten, and we will fight it out.' They were always ready to threaten us with the musket. 'Well, be it so, the musket! I used to answer.' He is followed by Garnier Pags:The Provisional Government contained several elements. There was the Socialist element, represented by Louis Blanc Enqute, tome i. pp. 224-230. The original is, ' Des coups de fusil, nous disait-on alors assez facilement. Eh bien, soit, des coups de fusil repondais-je.' F2 68 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. and Albert; there were the advanced republicans, represented by Ledru Rollin and Flocon. From February 24 to June 24 we were in a perpetual struggle. In order to hold together, without resignation or rupture, till the meeting of the Assembly, we were forced to submit to one continued system of compromise.' The next witness is M. Marrast: There were (he said) three parties in the Provisional Government-Socialism and Communism, represented by Louis Blanc and Albert; the Violent Republic, represented by Ledru Rollin and Flocon; and the Moderate Republic, by Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, Lamartine, Garnier Pages, Marie, and himself. There was a constant war between himself as Mayor of Paris and Ledru Rollin as Home Minister. Once Ledru Rollin resigned. Lamartine persuaded him to continue. On the question of delaying the election of the Assembly he was inexcusably violent. ' When one has 200,000 men at one's command,' he said, 'one may venture anything, and the Assembly itself shall not stop me.'2 We shall end these extracts by the evidence of two witnesses not actually members of the Government, but nearly connected with it. One is M. Carlier, Directeur de la Police:There were in fact four governments-one that of Louis Blanc and Albert, who wished for Communism; another that of Ledru Rollin, who desired the Red Republic and Terror; the third that of M. de Lamartine, who wished to conciliate everybody, and thought that he could do so by his eloquence; and the fourth that of Arago, Marie, Garnier Pages, and Marrast, who represented the moderate party. The evil influences worked separately and silently on ordinary occasions; but whenever there was an insurrection they united. 1 En2zute, p. 284. 2 Ibid. pp. 246-247. Conflicting wishes of the Government. 69 The other is M. Goudchaux, for a short time their Minister of Finance:The disagreement in the Provisional Government was constant. Lamartine gave up his opinions one by one. He let himself be overpowered and carried away. He wished to stand always as a sort of umpire, and thought that with his eloquence he could manage everybody. Ardour with him was capacity. He hoped to use the violent, and to control them.' To add to the difficulties of the moderate party, two of the most important of the subordinate ministries, the Postes and the Police, were occupied by E. Arago and Caussidiere-men appointed, as we have seen, in the bureau of the 'Reforme' newspaper, and claiming, therefore, an independent title and a sort of independent authority, and throwing their influence on the side of the violent party. The great practical questions that first divided the Government were, the period at which they were to be superseded by the meeting of the National Assembly, and the degree in which they ought to endeavour to give a decided character to that Assembly. Lamartine was wisely and sincerely anxious to retire as soon as possible from his slippery post; and desired that the Assembly, which was to provide for the immediate, and for the future, government of France, should fairly represent the opinions and wishes of the French people. But the violent party, both in the Government and in the streets, were anxious to prolong the existing state of things, under which Paris dictated to France, and they Engufte, pp. 289-310. 70 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. dictated to Paris. And they were still more anxious that, when at last the Assembly must meet, it should be found to contain a majority which would give effect to their theories, and maintain themn in power. The first open conflict between the two parties seems to have taken place with respect to the latter question. In the beginning of March, Ledru Rollin, as Minister of the Interior, issued circulars to the Commissioners, who had been sent, as a kind of proconsuls, into the provinces. In the first of them, that of March 8:Take as your rule (he said) that political functions, whatever be their rank, must be entrusted only to tried republicans. Those who have obeyed the contemptible power which the popular breath has just blown away cannot serve the people. Place everywhere men whose hearts and courage are with us, men who will give us an Assembly capable of understanding and carrying out the will of the people; in a word, men de la veille, et pas du lendemain.' By the second, dated March 12, he informed them that their powers, like those of the government which they represented, were absolute. The victory of the people (he said) has thrown on you the duty of completing its work, and for that purpose it invests you with its sovereignty: you are responsible only to your own consciences. Whatever the public safety requires, you must do. Your great business is with the elections. Be on your guard against those who, having served a king, now profess to serve a people. The Assembly must be animated with the spirit of' the revolution. Those who ask a seat in it must be pure from the traditions of the past. Let the word everywhere be, new ' Actes du Gouvernementprovisoire, 2de partie, p. 91. Lamartine's Proclamation. 7I men! and, if possible, from the mass of the people. No compromises, no compliances. Let the day of the election be the triumph of the revolution.' These circulars (says Lamartine) rang like a tocsin through the country. They suddenly roused it from its dreams of concord and peace. Men shuddered at the words 'Your powers are boundless'-which brought again to mind the Commissioners of the old Convention. The attempt to confine political power to the republicans de la veille was an attempt to disfranchise nearly the whole nation; for if the number of those whose reason preferred a republic was immense, that of those who would have taken steps to obtain one was very small.2 Lamartine felt that, if these circulars were not disavowed, the Republic would become the tyranny of a minority, to be upheld by terror within and by war without, by disturbance, by exactions, by dismissals-in short, by revolutionary violence in all its forms. He and the majority of his colleagues were resolved to suffer a thousand deaths rather than bear, before God, before history, and before their own consciences, the responsibility of so execrable a government.3 He summoned, therefore, a meeting of the whole Government for March I6. The debate was violent, and lasted for several hours. It ended in the adoption and publication of a proclamation drawn up by Lamartine, and intended to be a disavowal of the circulars of Ledru Rollin. But we must confess that it appears to us a very faint disavowal. The strongest passages are ' Actes du Gouvernement provisoire, 2d e partie, p. 125. 2 Vol. ii. p. I 84. We are not sure that we have discovered the sense of the last of these sentences. The original is this:-' Car si le nombre des republicains de raison etait immense, le nombre des r6publicains de faction etait bien petit.' 3 Vol. ii. p. 185. 72 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. those which urge the people to respect in others the freedom of suffrage which they demand for themselves -not to scrutinise the names which those whom they may think their enemies write on their cards, but to trust that they are those of true republicans. 'Trust,' it says, 'the good sense of the people-give it liberty, and it will give you back the Republic.' The next day, however, the celebrated March 17, the minority took a signal revenge. The Socialist and Red party, as usual, combined. Under the direction of Caussidiere, Louis Blanc, Blanqui, Barbes, Sobrier, and the other veterans of insurrection and conspiracy, a demonstration-to use the revolutionary name-was prepared, which was to carry to the Government the will of the people. At noon on the 17th (says M. de Lamartine) the members of the Government were assembled at the Hotel de Ville. From time to time they went out on the balcony to watch for the column. At length it showed itself over the approaches of the bridge. At its head were about 600 men, the leaders of the clubs, in ranks of about forty abreast. Before each club was its flag, borne by two or three men, and a woman wearing the hideous bonnet rouge. Immediately behind marched a broad compact column of workmen, of all professions, decently dressed, grave, modest, inoffensive, abstaining from every alarming gesture or word, and appearing to think that they were performing an act of calm and holy patriotism. The first ranks of this column filled the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, and its centre and rear extended back to the extremity of the Champs Elysees. Its number was estimated at from Ioo,000 to 140,000 men.2 I Actes dZ Gouvernement provisoire, I ere partie, p. 148. 2 Vol. ii. p. 207. Demonstration of the 17/ h March. 73 About Ioo of the leaders were admitted, and received by the Provisional Government in the great hall of the Hotel de Ville, the most historical room now remaining in Paris; the hall in which sat the formidable Commune de Paris; from whose window Henriot was thrown; on whose floor Robespierre lay wounded on the morning of the Ioth Thermidor. Blanqui, speaking in the name of the people, in decent but imperious terms, required the postponement for ten days of the election of the officers of the National Guard; the postponement for an indefinite time of the meeting of the National Assembly, then fixed forApril 20; and the perpetual exclusion from Paris of the regular army. He was answered by Louis Blanc and Ledru Rollinwhose expressions of indignation must have been amusing to those who were in the secret-by Cremieux, by Marie, and by Dupont de l'Eure. ' The answers,' says Lamartine, 'were not very clear. It was admitted that we agreed with them in some points, that we differed in others, and we promised to deliberate on all.' He has given us his own speech. It contains a promise to consider the question as to the National Guard, and denies any intention to bring back the troops to Paris. 'We never have thought,' he said, 'of doing so; we do not think of doing so; we never shall think of doing so. This is the truth. Tell it to the people. The Republic wants at home no defenders but the people in arms.' As to the postponement of the meeting of the Assembly, he refused to make any engagement inconsistent with the rights of the whole 74 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. country; but promised, as his colleagues had done, to make it the subject of serious deliberation. The fate of the Government now depended on the will of the instigators of the movement-Blanqui, Barbes, Sobrier, Raspail, and Cabet. Cabet took the lead, and advised his followers to grant the proposed terms of capitulation. The other leaders acquiesced; the delegates retired, and Louis Blanc harangued the people from the balcony, and thanked them in the name of the Provisional Government for the irresistible force which they had placed at its disposal. The majority of the Government (says Lamartine) affected to be-pleased and grateful! But their hearts were torn by the audacity and success of the conspirators. They now began to distrust a force over which there was no control. Lamartine himself understood what had passed. He saw that the moderate majority had received a signal defeat, and that those who called themselves their supporters were in fact their tyrants.' But the measure of his humiliation was not yet full. The next day he had to sign a proclamation in which the Provisional Government solemnly thanked the people of Paris for 'la manifestation si imposante dont vous avez donne hier le magnifique spectacle.' 'The Provisional Government,' it added, 'has seen its power confirmed by 200,000 citizens, marching with the calmness of power. People of Paris, you have been as great in this manifestation as you were courageous behind your barricades. Again the Government thanks you. The elections of the National Guard are postponed to April Vol. ii. pp. 225. 227. Effects of the fanifestation. 75 5." The best comment on these transactions is that of a very intelligent bystander, M. Emile Thomas, the director of the ateliers nationaux, whose intimate connection both with the Provisional Government and with the working classes of Paris gave him better opportunities of ascertaining the progress of events than were enjoyed by perhaps any other individual. The effect (he says) of the manifestation of March 17 was terrible. It struck with consternation the moderate portion of the Government; it gave triumphant influence to Ledru Rollin and his friends; and it showed to the workpeople the extent of their power. It may be well to state what was the previous state of the Government. Before MIarch 17 it stood thus: on one side Lamartine, Marrast, Garnier Pages, Arago, and Marie; on the other, Ledru Rollin, Flocon, Cr6mieux, Louis Blanc, and Albert. I omit the venerable Dupont de 'Eure, whose age, and still more whose character, kept him aloof from these struggles of ambition. After March 17 the moderate party was reduced to Marrast, Arago, and Marie. Garnier Pages was undecided; Lamartine, terrified by the nature and by the strength of the popular current, hesitated before the alternative of civil war. He was neutral for a time; but it was to unite himself afterwards with the man who seemed to have the popular sympathy on his side. Cremieux, Louis Blanc, and Albert connected themselves more strictly with Flocon and with Ledru Rollin, who afterwards alone gave to the Provisional Government its impulse, modified only by the wild preaching of Louis Blanc, which a month after threw him out of the sphere of his colleagues into that of Raspail, Barbes, and Blanqui.2 Lamartine's own narrative, on the whole, confirms Actes du Gouvernerent provisoire, I ere partie, p. 152. 2 HiJtoire des Ateliers nationaux, par Emile Thomas, p. 98. 76 Sketch of the Revodution of 1848. Emile Thomas. Between March 17, he says, and the meeting of the Assembly, lay an abyss of anarchy. The wisest of his friends denied that it could be crossed. Never (they said) will the Ultra-Republican party, already entrenched within the Government, commanding 200,000 men in Paris, its commissioners and clubs in the departments, and the artisans everywhere; masters of the police, of the Luxembourg, of the streets, of the National Guard from the suburbs, and of the ateliers nationaux-never will this party allow the election of an Assembly to tear it from power. Lamartine knew well all these sources of danger; but the lot was cast. His death, if he was to die in the attempt, would be avenged. And so he proceeded, resolved to work his way, by concession or by force [decide a transiger ou d combattre], to his two great objects-the preservation of peace abroad, and the meeting of the Assembly.' The means which he adopted were, as he tells us, two: taking measures for putting, as soon as possible, Paris, or at least the Government, under the protection of a regular army, and seeking to acquire an influence over the subordinate conspirators. For the first purpose, he entered into correspondence with Negrier, the commander of the army of the North, and ascertained that he could rely on his assistance, if an insurrection should drive the Provisional Government out of Paris; he also persuaded General Cavaignac to accept the War Office; and he urged the clothing and training of the Garde Mobile, which, though only three weeks had passed since the date of the decree which created it, already amounted to several thousands. His endeavours to bring over, or ) Vol. ii. p. 229. Attemapts to conciliate the Ultra-Republicans. 77 at least to mollify, the inferior members of the ultrarepublican party, appeared to him to succeed with the leaders of the principal clubs-with Cabet, with Barbes, with Raspail, and with Sobrier. If he could not persuade them all to abandon their schemes, he obtained at least an adjournment. He has given us an interesting account of his interview with one of the fiercest of the conspirators-Blanqui.' It ended in Blanqui's pouring out to Lamartine his whole soul. He told him the history of his life, which had been passed in plotting against every government under which he had lived; he described his passion for a woman, who had shared his sufferings until they killed her; his solitary meditations, his religious aspirations, his dislike of bloodshed, and at last his irresistible craving for conspiracy-a taste which long indulgence had made a second nature. Lamartine thought that he perceived in him the tact and sagacity of a negotiator, and asked him if he would exchange his life of treason for one of diplomacy. Blanqui, he says, seemed inclined to accept the offer. If it had been carried into effect, it would have been an amusing incident in the revolutionary phantasmagoria. He did not confine his seductions to the leaders of the clubs. The popular demagogues of the turbulent districts —St.-Marqeau, St.-Antoine, and the Bastillepassed whole nights in the gilded saloons of the Hotel des Affaires Etrangeres, discussing with him unreservedly the domestic and foreign policy of the Government, and 1 Blanqui was one of the band of insurgents who seized the Hotel de Ville last March.-ED. 78 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. the economical and social questions which are still perplexing the half-educated population of the great towns of France. Sometimes he convinced them that their opinions were absurd and their plans mischievous; but, at the worst, he thus learned what those opinions and plans were, and he believes that this knowledge enabled him to save Paris and the Assembly. In the meantime, the factions in the Government became more and more hostile. Their meetings, says Lamartine, were few, short, and full of suspicion and irritation. One party was suspected of aiming at counterrevolution and restoration; the other of striving to keep by force the power which accident had thrown into their hands. On March 26, Ledru Rollin, on the pretext that the National Guards had not yet received their arms and uniforms, forced an adjournment of the election of the Assembly from April 9 to 27. This produced a truce, but a short one. The two camps (says M. de Lamartine) which were now established in the Government were the centres of opposite tendencies and systems. The partisans of each, violent and suspicious, were grouped round their chiefs, irritated their mutual dislike, resentment, and mistrust, and at last led them to plot against one another, to lend their names and their cause to factions, and to urge those factions to extremities. The place of meeting was frequently changed. Precautions were taken against an assault. Two or three hundred men were often brought together secretly and posted in the neighbourhood of the Ministere des Finances (in the Rue de Rivoli), or of the Luxembourg, to prevent a surprise. Each party kept watch on the other.' 1 Vol. ii. p. 303. Intrizues of the Agitators. 79 By the end of the second week of April the National Guard had elected its officers and received its arms, but was not fully equipped. It had not yet been called out, and no one could foresee what would be its opinions; there seems, however, to have been a suspicion that it would side in general with the moderate party; for we are told that the violent party wished the decisive struggle to take place before it could be called out. The dissensions in the Government became fiercer. Ledru Rollin seldom appeared at their councils. Louis Blanc and Albert, masters of the army of thirty or forty thousand workmen, whose delegates met at the Luxembourg, reported to the Government, without justifying them, the demands and threats of their followers. On April I4, at a council which lasted long into the night, they confessed, in a tone partly of grief and partly of complaint, that a manifestation resembling that of March 1:7 was likely to take place, to obtain a further postponement of the elections, and redress of other grievances of the people. They promised, however, to endeavour to prevent it. The next day, the i5th, they lamented that their endeavours had been unsuccessful; but assured their colleagues that they had obtained a promise from the agitators that the character of the manifestation should be free from violence. Lamartine answered, in a tone of despair, that the violence consisted in the number; that a visit from 150,ooo remonstrants, however calm their demeanour, was enough to overthrow a defenceless government. At night, Lamartine, before he went to bed, burnt his 80 Skelch of the Revolution of 1848. papers. He was roused in his first sleep by some of his friends from the clubs, who brought him news that the conspirators had resolved the next day to collect Ioo,ooo men on the Champ de Mars at noon, to march along the quays to the Hotel de Ville, to expel the Provisional Government, and to substitute a Committee of Public Safety, consisting of Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, Albert, Arago (whose opinions they misunderstood), and some of the most violent of the subordinate agitators. According to the evidence of M. Marrast, of which we have already cited a part, the Committee of Public Safety, as finally settled at Sobrier's, after having been discussed at Ledru Rollin's, was to consist of Ledru Rollin, Flocon, and Albert, with the addition of Raspail, Blanqui, Kerausie, and Cabet. Ledru Rollin, however, refused to be associated with Blanqui, and Blanqui with Ledru Rollin; and this probably prevented the success of the conspiracy. Blanqui appears to have announced what was going on to Lamartine on the night of the I5th. The next morning, at about eleven, while Lamartine, still at his own house, was listening to reports of the gradual increase of the meeting in the Champ de Mars, Ledru Rollin was announced. He came-as his rival, Blanqui, had done a few hours before-to reveal the plans of the conspirators, which he professed to have learned only during the night. He was full, of course, of indignation, and of resolution to prefer death to treason. In a few hours, he said, we shall be attacked by more than Ioo,oco men. What is to be done? 1 Enquete, tome i. p. 322. The i6th of April. 8I Of course (said Lamartine) to beat the rappel, and call out the National Guard. You are Minister of the Interior; it is your business. I will go to the Hotel de Ville and shut myself up there with such battalions of the Garde Mobile as I can find. If the National Guard comes to my assistance, the insurrection will be destroyed between two fires. If it do not answer to the rappel, I shall die at my post.' They separated, apparently agreed on this course of action. Lamartine got together four companies of the Garde Mobile, and placed himself in the H6tel de Ville. He found there Marrast, Mayor of Paris, and General Changarnier. Lamartine gave to the latter the command of his little garrison. It did not exceed four hundred men. In'three hours he thought that the National Guard might be expected. Changarnier answered for a resistance of seven hours. The column of attack was by this time in motion. The scouts reported that its head had already reached the Quai de Chaillot, not three miles from the Hotel de Ville, and the rappel was not to be heard. Ledru Rollifn had forgotten his promise. There is some doubt as to the person to whom the actual calling out of the National Guard is due. Lamartine says that it was done by himself, Marrast, and Changarnier. The following is Changarnier's own story:On the morning of the i6th I was an ambassador. At a quarter after twelve I went to M. de Lamartine's to take his final instructions, and to request that I might be sent off to Berlin immediately. I found there a secretary, and asked ' Vol. ii. p. 347. VOL. I. G 82 Sketch of the Revoluzion of 1848. some questions about Holstein. 'Don't talk of Holstein,' he said; 'at this instant M. de Lamartine may be killed.' Madame de Lamartine entreated me to go to the Hotel de Ville. I found there Marrast. Lamartine soon arrived. He seemed disturbed, talked of the divisions of the Government, and complained of Louis Blanc and Ledru Rollin, whom he believed to be engaged in the insurrection. As he took no steps, I acted of my own accord. General Courtais had sumroned only a piquet from each legion. I thought that the rappel general ought to be beaten. Marrast wrote the order, at my dictation; and this was the summons which called out the National Guards.' The tenants of the Hotel de Ville looked anxiously up the river to see whether the attack or the relief would arrive first. At the northern end of the Pont Royal a column of insurgents, about thirty thousand strong, headed by some of the fiercest Clubbists and Socialists, encountered a body of National Guards marching along the Quay of the Louvre. The National Guards let it pass, closed up behind it, and marched after it along the quay. The red flags of the first ranks of the insurgents had just shown themselves on the Place de Greve, when a forest of bayonets shone on the other side of the river. It consisted of thirty or forty thousand National Guards from the left bank of the Seine. They rushed at once into the Place de Greve, interposed themselves between the insurgents and the H6tel de Ville, and forced them to disperse under the pressure of two armed bodies of superior numbers. The day ended as usual I Enquee, vol. i. p. 260. Meeting of te Assembly. 83 with harangues by Lamartine on the steps, in the courts, and from the windows. This i6th of April is one of the most important days which have occurred during the present revolution. It was the first check received by the democratic party. The success of the Government seems, however, to have depended on the accidental presence of General Changarnier at the Hotel de Ville. For it is clear that Lamartine was afraid to incur the responsibility of calling out the National Guards. Though warned for some days of what was coming, he did not think of this, the only effectual defence, till late in the morning of the I6th, when the enemy was already in force in the Champ de Mars. He left it to be done by Ledru Rollin, without seeing that he did it, and though he knew that Ledru Rollin was engaged in the conspiracy. And when, as might be expected, it was left undone, Changarnier describes him as helpless. He tells us that on the 15th he and his colleagues 'left to God and to the people the fate of the next day.'' He thinks this, however, the finest day of his political life.2 Five days after, on the 2ISt, the regular army was brought back to Paris. On the 27th the election of the Assembly took place. On May 4 it met. Lamartine was now the most popular man in France. The extent to which he had promoted the revolution was not generally known, and his conduct in the Chamber of Deputies was forgotten in the gratitude inspired by his resistance to the Ultra-Repub ' Vol. ii. p. 340. 2 Ibid. p. 332. G2 84 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. lican faction. The New Assembly was, as he tells us, 'non republicaine, ou peu republicaine.' The great majority were country people, little acquainted with public business or with Paris, oppressed by the new responsibility of having in their hands the destiny of a great nation, and terrified by the dangers, physical as well as moral, of their strangely acquired position. They had been warned by the Provisional Government that the people of Paris, if dissatisfied with their votes, would exercise against them the sacred right of insurrection. They knew that at the elections of the officers of the National Guard, and even of the Garde Mobile, the question 'How will you act if the Assembly does not sympathise with the people?' had been frequently asked, and that the popular answer had been,' March against it.' Their first reception by their new subjects could not have been encouraging. They were made to walk on foot, through ranks of men under arms, from the Place Vend6me to the Palais Bourbon; and when they arrived there, instead of enjoying, in pursuance of the engagement of the Provisional Government, absolute freedom in the choice of a constitution, they had to cry 'Vive la Republique!' according to the best computation, seventeen times in one day. They were required, in the name of the heroic people of Paris, to interrupt their debates, present themselves before the mob under their portico, and shout for the Republic. It has been said that they ' Vol. ii. p. 406. Lamartine hesitates to accept the Presidency. 85 were shown in their vaults an armoury, containing 900 muskets, and informed that it might be necessary to use them in self-defence. Lamartine and Ledru Rollin were at that time supposed to represent the opposite extremes of moderation and of violence, of peace and of war, of order and of anarchy. The great majority were ready to throw themselves at the feet of Lamartine, and implore his advice, his assistance, and his protection; and -in order to enable him to afford them-to appoint him by acclamation the temporary President of the Republic. All the Assembly, all Paris, all France, indeed all Europe (he says), had their eyes fixed on him-eager to applaud him if he accepted the dictatorship, to revile him if he refused it. He could not conceal from himself that his popularity had become an absolute passion-that the ten different elections which made him a sort of member for France-, the seven or eight millions of votes which were offered to him if the voice of the people should become necessary, and the support of six or seven hundred of the nine hundred representatives, pointed him out as the man predestined to exercise undivided power. He felt that he had the necessary strength; and he believed that he had the necessary prudence. The glory of having not only called forth the Assembly, but established it-of becoming the first lawful authority of his country, after being her first revolutionary ruler-of being the founder and protector of her infant freedom, offered to him a brilliant and permanent place in the records of distant ages.1 Two motives, however, overbalanced this strong temptation. In the first place, he now believed, as we have 1 Vol. ii. p. 203. 86 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. already stated, that neither France nor the Assembly was at heart republican; and that the jealousy which his elevation-supposing him able to maintain it-would excite would break into factions the republican party, and open a breach for the return of Monarchy. In the second place, he did not believe that he could maintain himself in the Assembly, if he admitted among his ministers the Ultra-Republican party; or in Paris, if he excluded them. The Assembly (he said to his friends) will name me president, on a tacit understanding that I exclude from office the republicans. If I admit them, I declare war against the Assembly, by imposing on it ministers whom it distrusts and fears. If I exclude them, all my rivals in the Provisional Government, and many of my friends, all the Republicans, whether Socialist, Terrorist, or Moderate, all the three or four hundred representatives who owe their seats to their democratic opinions, will combine against me. These men (the violent republicans) dispose of I20,000 men in the ateliers nationaux, an army now obedient, but which their voice can call into insurrection; they dispose also of the delegates of the different trades who meet at the Luxembourg, and of the 50,000 workpeople who are their fanatical followers; they dispose of the proletaires 1 of the National Guard, at least 60,000 bayonets; they are masters of the clubs, which they can rouse into insurrection in a single night; they have at their command the police, and the Montagnards, the Lyonnais, the Gardes Republicains, the Gardiens de Paris, the Guides-in short, all the armed revolutionary bands which are under its influence. The day after I shall construct my exclusive ministry the Assembly will be attacked, will be conThis word has no English equivalent, nor is its French signification fixed. Sometimes it is used by Lamartine as signifying persons without political power; sometimes, as in this case, without property. He decides on refusing it. 87 quered, and either degraded into a tool of the conquerors, or stain with its blood the halls in which I have seated it.1 A third course, however, was proposed to him-to retire from official life, and let France endeavour to do without him. This course (answered Lamartine) would be the most agreeable, and for me, personally, the wisest; but, if I retire from the Assembly, it will instantly get rid of all my colleagues. It will place power in hands suspected by the republicans. That party will be irritated; Paris will rise at its call. There will be the same calamities, though my name may not be mixed with them. I shall save, perhaps raise, myself by ruining the Assembly, the Republic, and the country. I will do the contrary-ruin myself to save the Assembly.2 On these grounds Lamartine impliedly refused the Presidentship of the Republic, by supporting the motion of Dornes, that the Assembly should vest the executive power in a body of five Commissioners; and he deprecated the exclusion of the Ultra-Republicans from that commission. 'The members of the Provisional Government,' he said, ' notwithstanding differences which were rather presumed than real, had separated the day before, full of mutual esteem, mutual gratitude, and mutual confidence.' The Assembly, after two days' debate, accepted-according to Lamartine from weariness, according to our suspicion from fear-what he calls ' this unsatisfactory but necessary measure.' It revenged itself, however, for his adherence to the anarchists by placing him fourth on the list-above Ledru Rollin, but ' Vol. ii. pp. 406-410. 2 Ibid. p 4I2. 88 Sketch of the Revolution of 1848. below Arago, Garnier Pages, and Marie. The Commissioners selected their ministers, says Lamartine, in the same spirit of compromise. Among them were Cremieux, Flocon, and Trelat, and, what was still more significant, Caussidiere. So that the police, which in Paris is almost the Government, remained in the hands of one who was known to have been for three months a traitor and conspirator. Lamartine, with benevolent simplicity, believed in his reformation. Subsequent events have shown that in thus yielding Lamartine committed a grievous error. The very next week the Assembly was attacked and overpowered; and not six weeks later it had to sustain a long and doubtful battle.' A further extract from the letter which we have already quoted furnishes a cotemporary account of Lamartine's feelings:' The first time,' says our correspondent,* that I spoke to Lamartine after the 24th of February was on the 4th May. We had then rather a warm discussion: I maintained that we ought to seize the opportunity to make use of the feeling exhibited by the nation, and to employ our parliamentary majority in energetic measures for the re-establishment of order. "That must bring with it," said Lamartine, "a frightful battle." "A battle," I replied, "is inevitable, do what we will; and, if it comes immediately, we shall gain it." " I had rather," he answered, " try to avoid one, and I think that I shall succeed." He was mistaken in thinking that the battle could be avoided; but when I saw the terrible days of June I excused his shrinking frem it. He had been nearer to the revolutionary army than I had been; and if he exaggerated its terrors, perhaps I undervalued them. Now I am inclined to think that the interval between the meeting of the Assembly and the great civil war was more profitable to us than to the enemy. Everyone saw that the questions at issue could be decided only by force. Each party employed these five weeks in preparation; and I think that we employed them best. I am not sure that those who conquered in June might not have been beaten in May.' * M. de Tocqueville. —ED. Lamartzne's Influence is lost. 89 We shall imitate Lamartine in passing rapidly over the rest of his political life. The confidence which he had inspired at the meeting of the Assembly, already much diminished by his alliance with Ledru Rollin, was further shaken by May 15, and utterly destroyed by June 23. By that time, indeed, the people of France had become tired of a collective executive, and they restored the monarchical element-first in General Cavaignac, and afterwards, more effectually, in Louis Napoleon. * * * * OURNA LS KEPT IN FRANCE AND ITALY FROM I848 TO 1852. JOURNAL, MAY I848. May 14, I848.-We (T. Phillips and I) reached Boulogne on the I3th, and started at half-past three the next morning by the Paris Railroad. Our companions, besides three Englishmen whom I did not know, were a young French republican, about 25, and an aristocrat of about 45. They began to talk of the fete which was to take place that day at Paris, and the aristocrat ridiculed the 500 jeunes filles who had been enrolling themselves at the Prefecture of the Police to act the part of Lacedemoniennes. The republican denied the fact. ' Mais je l'ai vu,' said the aristocrat. 'C'est possible,' said the republican. 'Mais c'est vrai,' said the aristocrat. 'I1 faudrait l'avoir vu pour y croire,' said the republican. 'Mais vous -le croirez sur ma parole,' said the aristocrat. 92 Yournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. By this time we had reached a station, and the republican changed his carriage, so that his powers of belief were no further tested. The aristocrat assured us, I have no doubt with truth, that if his friend had remained incredulous he should have asked for his company the next day somewhere in the outskirts of Paris. 'These are not times,' he said, 'when one can suffer such canaille to tread on one's toes.' He went on to describe the state of things in his own commune, a village near Abbeville. 'The people there,' he said,' had decided on the impropriety of any man's being richer than his neighbour; and had expressed their intention of pillaging his house and that of his "fermier," which alone were worth plundering.' In a short time, he believed that the country would be unsafe for the rich; they must live in the towns, where they could defend one another. He could get no rent-a state common to him, he said, with all other proprietors. We got to Paris at about half-past eleven instead of half-past ten, our appointed time. Since the revolution the trains go with less speed and regularity. We have the entresol of the H6tel Bristol, Place Vend6me, three rooms and an antechamber, for twelve francs a day. I believe we are the only strangers in the hotel, and most of the other hotels are equally empty. There are, however, fifty-six Americans at Meurice's. The first person I called on was J. Austin.' I found John Austin, the well-known author of Lectures on yurisprudence. Mrs. Austin was the translator of Ranke's History of the Popes, and of many other works; besides which, she contributed to several reviews and periodicals. 1848.] Postfponement of the Ftfe. 93 him, on the whole, pleased with the turn which events are taking. He thought Lamartine wise in conciliating the Ultra-Republican party-a party who could do enormous mischief if pushed to despair, but would be little dangerous if admitted to share power with a majority sufficient to swamp them. From him I went to Lord Normanby. He said that the last week had been a very painful one to him: that he had watched the decline in influence, and in the right to influence, of a man whom he wished highly to esteem-Lamartine. He thinks that Lamartine has coalesced with Ledru Rollin partly from a desire of popularity and partly from jealousy of the old opposition, such as Odillon Barrot, Thiers, &c., whose parliamentary experience is likely to render them formidable rivals. The postponement of the f6te, which was to have taken place to-day, has excited much discontent, especially among the delegates from the departments, who have come, some of them, forty or fifty miles to be actors or spectators. The motive, according to Lord Normanby, is the refusal of the ouvriers connected with the Commission sitting in the Luxembourg to take part in it. They are supposed to amount to 20,000, and when the National Guards are at the Champ de Mars such a body of violent men might make themselves masters of the city or of the Faubourg St.-Antoine. The people, however, do not understand these reasonings. The Place The Austins lived much on the Continent, and wherever they went they collected round them the best society., Mrs. Austin's salon in Paris was extremely agreeable.-ED. 94 ournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. Vendome, in which the Minister of Justice lives, has been full of groups, demanding an explanation, and commenting on the cowardice and indecision of the Government in no measured terms. At the corner of every street, indeed, there are groups, of which the nucleus is two men, engaged in a violent political dispute. The bystanders join in it, and parasitic discussions follow, with new sets of listeners, till sometimes what was a group of six persons, with two disputers in the middle, becomes one of thirty or forty, with half-a-dozen pairs of talkers enclosed in it. From the Embassy I went to Leon Faucher's,' and found at home Mdme. Faucher, a Pole, the sister of Wollowski,2 the deputy. She talked politics after the fashion of Poles-demanding English and French intervention to drive the Russians out of Russian Poland. Born in 1806, Leon Faucher began life as a teacher in 1827. He soon gave up this occupation, and became the editor successively of several newspapers till 1842, when he devoted himself to less ephemeral productions. He published several works on economical questions, the most remarkable of which was his Studies on England. He was elected Deputy in 1846, but he did not distinguish himself in the tribune till after the Revolution of 1848, when his speech on the 'Ateliers nationaux' placed him at once in the first rank of politicians. He served under Louis Napoleon as Minister of the Interior several times, as will appear in the following pages. After 1852 he gave up public life. He died in I854.-ED. 2 Louis Wollowski was born at Warsaw in I810. He pursued his studies in Paris from 1823 to 1827, when he returned to Poland, and took an active part in the Polish Revolution of I83I. He came in that year as Secretary of Legation to Paris, where he remained, in consequence of the failure of his party in Poland. He was naturalised a Frenchman in I834. He is a member of the Institute. He has especially devoted himself to questions of political economy, and in 1833 founded the Revue de Legislation et de 7u' isprudence. He was the right hand of M. Faucher, and is now one of the most ardent advocates of Free Trade and one of the first political economists in Europe.-ED. 1848.] Faucher's Opinion of Lamartine. 95 Prussia and Austria, she said, would willingly give up their own shares, and the old kingdom might be reconstructed as a barrier to Russia. As for the Treaty of Vienna, she said that had been broken by Russia when, in I83I, she had put an end to the separate administration and nationality of Poland, and by Russia, Prussia, and Austria when they destroyed the liberties of Cracow. I admitted that if any country ever was justified in rising against its existing government, Poland is that one; that its rulers have not even the right given by conquest in war; but that I could not believe that it was the interest of England or of France to make war on Russia in order to assist her. On which she was very angry with my egoism. In the evening Leon Faucher and Austin drank tea with us.. Faucher's view of Lamartine's conduct and character agrees with Lord Normanby's. He believes that vanity, ambition, and jealousy all lead him to wish to perpetuate an unsettled state of things, in which, standing between the two great parties of Levellers and Conservatives, he can receive the adoration of both. I said that everybody described his 'Girondins' to me as a wicked book, as an apology for Robespierre, and even for Danton, as a provocative of revolution; but that it appeared to me to give quite as vivid a picture of the horrors of the Revolution as of its glories; perhaps to raise the intellectual reputation of Robespierre, but to leave base, malignant selfishness almost more burnt into him than before, and to make the Girondins so hateful 96 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. that one comforts oneself, during the first four or five volumes, with the recollection that they are all to perish in the last. Austin and Faucher assented to this; still they said that the ' Girondins,' if not a most wicked, had been a most mischievous, book; that it was written with so picturesque a vividness that it not only familiarised the people with ideas of revolt and street war, but in many ill-regulated minds, thirsting for a new excitement, it created an intense desire to reproduce such scenes. 'The 24th of February,' they said, 'was a copy of the Ioth of August, and to-morrow we are threatened with a 3Ist of May. Ledru Rollin thinks himself a Danton, and Lamartine a Robespierre without his cruelty.' Faucher thinks the Chamber ignorant, but still more timid. It is afraid of the Republicans, afraid of the Legitimists, but, above all, afraid of war. He was in hopes that Lamartine would have joined the immense majority of the Chamber, which is highly Conservative, and crushed at once the Republican party. His present conduct has disgusted the Conservatives and encouraged the Republicans to endeavour to drive out the Assembly, and it is not impossible that an attempt will be made tomorrow, when the Anarchical party is to meet at the Place de la Bastille and march to the Assembly, to present a petition in favour of Polish intervention. Monday, May 15.-This morning, at about half-past 8, Phillips went to the Place de la Bastille, and I to the Palace (Palais Bourbon), where the Assembly sits. I found it impossible to get in except by taking my place at the end of the queue in the sun, and even then it 1848.] Polish Demonstration. 97 seemed unlikely that I could enter, as those before me were enough to fill the public tribune. As I was leaving the Palace, at about I I, I met Phillips. He had seen a body of from 8,00o to ro,ooo people meet at the Place de la Bastille, very sinister in their appearance and violent in their language, and left them proceeding to march towards the Palais. I went to meet them on the Boulevards. I saw a few companies of them pass, walking in ranks about six abreast, with colours on which 'Vive la Pologne!' and 'Vive la Republique!' were painted. I went on to the Rue Bleue, where I found Madame Say, and stayed with her till about half-past 12. The streets were quite quiet as I returned. At the hotel I found Phillips. He had remained near the Palais until the Polish demonstration reached the iron rails before the portico. Within these rails and on the steps leading to the portico were as many of the Garde Mobile as the space could hold. As the column approached, the Garde Mobile expressed their sympathy, cried 'Vive Barbes!' (the summoner of the meeting) and 'Vive la Pologne!' and dropped their ramrods into their guns, to show that they were not loaded. The column, as far as Phillips could perceive, dispersed after it reached the Palace. He supposed that Barbbs, who is a member of the Assembly, had taken in the petition. He had heard some alarm expressed as to what would happen when the answer to it, which must be unfavourable, should be given. At about 2 I left the hotel to call on Madame de Peyronnet in the Champs Elysees. As I passed through the VOL. I. H 98 yournals kept in France and Italy. [i848. garden of the Tuileries I found it crowded, but nobody seemed to know what had happened. Suddenly a drum, attended by twenty National Guards, crossed the Place de la Concorde beating the rappel, and produced an excitement which I could not understand. A crowd ran towards them shouting and cheering. While I was at Madame de Peyronnet's her husband came in. He brought two reports-one that six delegates had been allowed to enter the Chamber with their petition; the other, which he disbelieved, that the mob had broken into the Chamber and driven out the members. I left the Peyronnets at about 3, crossed the river by the wooden bridge, and went towards the Palais by the Quai d'Orsay. It was lined by two cavalry regiments of National Guards and by large bodies of infantry. At the Pont de la Concorde, opposite to the Palace, I was stopped. The bridge was filled with troops, who allowed no one to cross. Everything was quiet, very few spectators were present; but about 30,000 National Guards were posted along the Quai and in front of the Palace. I loitered about under the trees on each side of the Place des Invalides. About half-past 3 two regiments of cuirassiers of the line came in by the Place; one stationed itself in front of the Palais, the other crossed the wooden bridge and went towards the Rue de Rivoli. At about half-past 4 the column of the infantry regiment of the line was seen approaching from the top of the Place des Invalides, which is about half a mile from the Quai, and a gun went off apparently within the court of the Palais. The bystanders seemed to think that something was to happen, and a lemonade vendor ^ **:: - 1848.] Advance of, the National Guard. 99 begged us to take 'encore un verre avant que.a ne commence.' By the time the regiment of the line had reached the Quai a large battalion of National Guards, stationed in front of the Palais, began to move, among the cheers of the people around, met the line as it was taking up its position on the Quai, and saluted it with great cordiality, the two colonels kissing one another, broke open a gateway in front of some unfinished buildings on the side of the Palais which communicate with it, marched in, and disappeared behind the buildings. It was then nearly 5.. I had to be at Lord Normanby's at 7, and must return by the Champs Elysees, as they would not let me cross the stone bridge. So I returned by the Quai d'Orsay and the wooden bridge and the Place de la Concorde. On my way home through the Tuileries I went to the terrace looking over the river, and found that by that time the number of National Guards was much increased. I had left from 30,000 to 40,000 in front of the Palais and on the Quai. Now there seemed to be IOo,ooo. It was now about a quarter to 6. Suddenly this immense mass put itself in motion, and proceeded with the utmost rapidity over the bridges, and on each side of the quais towards the Hotel de Ville. I watched their march for about a quarter of an hour, then went home, dressed, and got to Lord Normanby's at 7. Then and there I first heard what had taken place. It seems inconceivable, but so it was, that for three hours and three quarters-from I o'clock, when Phillips saw the H 2 Ioo Journals kept in France and Italy. [1848. head of the column reach the iron rails before the Palace, till a quarter to 5, when I saw the battalion of National Guards enter the buildings which communicate with itthe National Assembly, though surrounded by 30,000 National Guards, most, indeed nearly all, of them its devoted adherents, was in the hands of a mob of less than 2,000 ruffians, few of them armed, whom a couple of companies of determined troops would have put to flight, and who, in fact, did take to flight the instant the first detachment of National Guards, not exceeding forty, made its appearance in the hall. Lord Normanby did not quite stay it out. He was in the diplomatic gallery when the mob broke in. Two men, each with bayonets under their blouses, entered the gallery, and one of them told Lord Normanby that he was one of the leaders and would be responsible for the safety of the ladies. So they stayed there till about half-past 4, when the timbers of part of the hall seemed to bend under the load of the people on the upper gallery, and one of the mob told Lord Normanby that he had been employed in building the hall, knew its strength, and did not think it equal to the pressure that it was undergoing. So Lord Normanby and the ladies in the gallery made their escape. One of his attaches, however, Mr. Stewart, who had entered with the mob. remained, and from him we heard the denouemen t. Lord Normanby could tell little of what had occurred. The diplomatic gallery is so far from the tribune, and the noise was so great, that he could only tell us that there was a great deal of noise, gesticulation, reading, *^: ".: -.: *....: 1848.] Reception at the Academy. 101 and shouting-but for what purpose he could not understand. Mr. Stewart did not know much more; but he had remained till the National Guards entered at about 5, and the mob ran out as fast as they could. The dinner was very gay, but little was said about what had happened in the Assembly. Not one of the French guests seemed to take any interest in it. Tuesday, May I6.-I drank tea this evening with the Tocquevilles. He attaches much' more importance to the events of yesterday tian was given to them at the Embassy.1 Wednesday, May I7.-I went in the morning to the Institute, to be present at the reception of M. Ampere2 as member of the Academy. Half of the amphitheatre was filled with ladies and well-dressed men, the rest with the Academicians in their green embroidered coats. M. Ampe:re made a speech full of gentillesses in praise of his predecessor, M. Giraud; and M. Merimee answered by a speech in praise of M. Ampere in the same style. The whole scene was as unrepublican as possible. This conversation is reserved for a future publication. 2 Jean-Jacques Ampere was the son of the celebrated mathematician. His tastes, unlike those of his father, were not scientific, but literary. He was professor successively at the Athenee at Marseilles, and at the Sorbonne and the College de France. His lectures were published, and, together with his articles and his travels —for he was an indefatigable traveller-form several charming volumes. But he was still more eminent as a talker than as a writer. His early days were spent in the society of Madame Recamier, Ballanche, and Chateaubriand, and he possessed, as his friend Tocqueville said of him, the real old French esprit. He was very animated ard full of action. He read aloud admirably, and was a most delightful companion and friend. He died in 1866.-ED. Io2 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I848. In the evening, I drank tea with the Tocquevilles. One of the guests, a National Guard living in the Faubourg St.-Germain, near the Palace, told us that on the I5th, at about 3 o'clock, he heard of the state of the Assembly; that having no summons, he ran into the street with his musket, called out his friends from door to door, and thus raised a force, which marched towards the Palace by the Rue de Burgogne. But they could not penetrate farther than the corner of the street. The space on that side before the door was filled by the insurgent mob, who kept crying out to them to unfix their bayonets and go home, and were sufficiently numerous to effectually prevent their advance. Thursday, May i8.-Horace Say' breakfasted with us. He spoke with great alarm of the financial state of the country. 'Every measure of the Government tends to increase the expenditure and to diminish the receipt. The persons employed by the ateliers nationaux exceed II5,000; of these many were earning three or four francs a day, and might continue to earn as much, but prefer idleness at thirty sous. Again, the business in which they are employed-removing earthis unfit for persons of weak body and sedentary occupation.' He mentioned a young man who had been driven to it by destitution, but was forced to give it up and Horace Say was son of the celebrated political economist, Jean-Baptiste, and was himself equally distinguished as a writer on that science. A quiet vein of satire ran through his conversation in spite of the benevolence beaming from his countenance. M. de Tocqueville used to say of him that his esprit was full of finesse. He died in I860. He was the father of Leon Say, now at Versailles.-ED. 1'848.] Dangers of the ' Droit au Travail.' 103 have recourse to hawking newspapers as a 'crieur,' a new occupation which the abundance of cheap newspapers has created. Say has a house in Paris, but can get no rent. The occupiers are shopkeepers, and can pay none, as they sell nothing. No one buys who can avoid it. Old clothes are worn, newspapers are read instead of books, and trade in all luxuries is at a stand. The promise made by the Provisional Government of employment at good wages has sunk deep into the miinds of the people, and renders poor law on the English system-that of affording relief on terms less acceptable than wages-impossible. 'The French,' he says, 'accustomed to the constant and powerful interference of their Government, believe it to be omnipotent, and the working classes, who are told that they are the " peuple souverain," require this omnipotence to be exercised for their benefit. They believe that it is in the power of the Government to put them all in easy circumstances, and, on that supposition, are justly enraged if it have not the will.' Friday, May I9.-Tocqueville got us into the Chamber. It resembles our House of Commons, with galleries for spectators all round, and the President's seat, and below it the tribune, at the end. There is ample room for the 9oo members, and for about 500 spectators. When the house is silent, a person speaking loud from the tribune is well heard; but the speaker must be as loud as he can, which is fatal to good speaking-and the house must be very silent, which it seldom was while I was there. The noise and bustle were con I04 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. stant, the speeches very short, and more, I think, was said by the President than by anybody else. I recollect Leon Faucher's telling me, some time ago, that nothing can be more appalling than the first instant that a man finds himself in the tribune with the Assembly ready to hear what he has to say. In the present noisy Chamber, where no one is attended to, there is, I suspect, less room for this alarm. No one seemed to feel it. They all screamed out (for otherwise they were not audible) their opinions and explanations with perfect self-possession. The principal subjects of discussion were two. One was personal-the explanations of the President and of Etienne Arago of their conduct on the I 5th. The President admitted that, in obedience to the mob, he had signed orders prohibiting the rappel from being beaten, and therefore impliedly forbidding the interference of the National Guard. But he did not believe that any well-disposed person would act on such orders. Everybody, he thought, must see at once that they had been extorted from him by violence, and he believed that his signing them was an act, not of weakness, but of prudence. The object was to gain time. A refusal might have produced an instant massacre. E. Arago admitted that he had been ordered by M. Degousee, the Questor of the Assembly, to go out and take measures to have the Assembly delivered from its invaders; that he met M. Charras, the Minister of War; that the papers signed by the President, forbidding the rappel to be beaten, were shown to him; that he and the minister admitted I848.] General Fear of Responsibility. Io5 the authenticity of the signature, and said that all good citizens ought to obey it; and that he consequently went to the Post Office, in which he has a high office, leaving the Assembly to its fate. So, while the Chamber was in the hands of the mob, two ministers thought a scrap of paper signed by the President a sufficient authority to advise the National Guards not to attempt to rescue it. What is most alarming, perhaps, is the general fear of responsibility. M. 0 -- called on me this morning before he went to the Assembly. He was on duty on Monday as a National Guard before the Palace. I asked him at what time he heard of what had occurred within. 'At about half-past 3.' ' And why did not you and those around immediately enter and deliver the Assembly?' ' Mon Dieu!-we had no orders.' This terror is peculiarly strong when the question is whether the populace, or, as they call themselves, the 'peuple,' are to be resisted. It seems that anyone who has caused the blood of the people to be shed, however justly, is thenceforth a moral outlaw. The discharge before M. Guizot's door was an act-very rash, without doubt-of self-defence. The mob had fired on the commander of the troops. The men who returned the fire, or rather the officer who ordered them to do so, might have been punished. Instead of this, the death of the fifty persons killed by it was expiated by a revolution. This feeling, however, is not found among the people I The initials throughout this publication are purposely feigned.-ED. 0o6 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. when acting against the officers of the Government. Then there is not the least repugnance to bloodshed. In the last revolution, boys of ten years old were encouraged to lurk at the corners of the streets and shoot the officers as the troops marched by. A post of men opposite the Palais Royal refused to lay down their arms. The building, the Chateau d'Eau, was burnt with its garrison. The other matter that occupied this sitting was the settling a proclamation from the Assembly to the nation. A draft was proposed, and 900 critics set to work to pick holes and suggest amendments. The confusion was indescribable, and the Assembly got through it at last by voting without hearing. On the whole, unless the Assembly very much improves, it cannot retain the respect of the nation. Those who fixed its numbers at 9oo have much to answer for; much ignorance, if they fancied that 900 men, 800 of whom are unaccustomed to public life, could act well together either as administrators or as legislators; much wickedness, if, as is generally suspected, they intended their instrument to work ill. I asked Tocqueville, who hopes little from the Assembly, why it need work worse than the National Assembly of 1789, of which the members were still more numerous and equally inexperienced? He answered, ' Because then we had the cream of France, now we have only the skim milk. The members of the late ministerial party cannot show themselves; we of the opposition party have been re-elected indeed by great 1848.] Proposals for a Constitution. 107 majorities, but we are suspected, with truth, of being Monarchists. We cannot take any lead in.the Chamber. 'The Legitimists, of whom there are about 120, are naturally objects of still greater suspicion. So we leave the field to the 680 merchants, lawyers, and proprietors, whom the provinces have sent to us-timid, pacific, wellintentioned men, but quite new to public business.' Saturday, May 2o.-Beaumont' breakfasted with us, and stayed till near i o'clock. He thinks that Lamartine has managed foreign affairs honestly and ably, with an earnest wish for peace, but that the rest of his conduct has been vain, selfish, and timid. Ten days ago he would have been elected President by acclamation, now he would be chosen only to keep out somebody worse. He thinks that the Committee for making a Constitu tion, of which he and Tocclueville are members, wiL report in about two months. He is anxious for two Chambers, but fears great opposition. The President will, he thinks, be named for I Although M. Gustave de Beaumont was for a short time in 1848 Ambassador at our Court-an appointment which he threw up as soon as Louis Napoleon was elected President-he is best known in England as the biographer of Tocqueville. When the latter became Minister for Foreign Affairs, Beaumont was appointed French Ambassador at Vienna. He afterwards sat in the Assembly and supported Tocqueville's party till the coup d'etat took place. From that time he gave up politics and devoted himself to literature and to the education of his son. Tocqueville looked on him in the light of a brother. They entered public life together, travelled together, and suffered together. He was loyal, straightforward, a most devoted friend, and agreeable companion. He died in i868. M. de Beaumont and M. de Corcelle married two sisters, the granddaughters of the great Lafayette.-ED. io8 yournals kept in France and Italy. [848. four years, and be re-eligible. I said that I hoped they would alter the voting by departments and lists. He said that he hoped not; that, being one of six members for a department with a population of 300,000, he was independent, had not to canvass for his election, or to ask places for his constituents, or to account to them for his votes; whereas, if he represented only 50,000 people, he would be their slave. This is the best defence of departmental representation that I have heard. I asked him if Thiers would return to power. He said, certainly not at present. That his having accepted office under Louis-Philippe had ruined his popularity. Recurring to the subject of the President, I said that if they made him responsible he must govern; for a Constitution, not admitting the advice of his ministers as a defence of his conduct, impliedly required him to act on his own opinions, and that in that case they would have a Prime Minister irremovable for four years, though the majority of the Assembly, and even of the whole country, might disapprove his policy, or detest his character, or despise his abilities. I hoped, therefore, that they would make him irresponsible, and therefore bound to follow the advice of his ministers, and therefore bound to obey the majority of the Chamber. He said that all that was quite true, but that nevertheless the Constitution would certainly declare the President to be responsible; for otherwise what would distinguish him, except his being elective, from a constitutional king? And if that were the only distinction, would it 1848.] Constilutional Government not understood. 109 not soon cease? And what should we have got by changing the Orleans dynasty for a Lamartine or a Bugeaud one? The Republican experiment may not last, but it must be tried. It is the only experiment which the men of this generation have not made. They had absolute monarchy under the Emperor, as much aristocracy as France can supply under Louis XVIII., as much constitutional government as we can bear under Louis-Philippe, and now we must undergo a republic. I objected to his calling the government of LouisPhilippe constitutional, since Louis-Philippe was his own Prime Minister-a most unconstitutional proceeding, according to our notions. 'Yes,' he said, 'according to your notions, but not according to ours. We have not yet adopted the true faith, the faith of the cochon d I'engrais.' To preserve our respect our sovereign must act. And this, perhaps, makes us incapable at present of your Constitutional Government. If our sovereign, whether you call him president or king, merely takes the members whom the Assembly points out to him, keeps them so long as they can keep their majority, follows their advice implicitly, and dismisses them as soon as they lose their majority, he becomes King Log, and we despise him. If he acts he must sometimes make mistakes, and still oftener be thought to do so. He will sometimes offend the good sense of the nation and oftener its susceptibilities, and we shall hate him. This is the objection to a president Buonaparte's idea of a constitutional king.-ED. I Io yournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. for life; he would inevitably in time become hated or despised, or both, and then we should go into the streets and depose him. For in France,' he added, 'we are not good balancers of inconveniences. " Nous sommes trop logiques." As soon as we see the faults of an institution, nous la brisons. In England you calculate; we act on impulse. We should never have tolerated your Hanoverian kings, with their German favourites and their German policy. We should have turned them out in a year. You kept them until they were acclimatised, and gradually became the best royal stock in Europe. Unless we greatly improve, we never shall have any permanent institutions; for as we destroy every institution as soon as we discover its faults, and no one is free from them, nothing can last.' He would not guess who will be elected President. The great difficulty is that there is no marked person whose election would not humiliate some large party. Henri V., the Comte de Paris, Lamartine, Changarnier, would all be offensive to millions; so would every person of any distinction. And there is not yet any wellorganised party who could carry through an obscure person, like Polk in America. The great advantage possessed by the older Bourbons and by the Buonaparte family is, that they have both been so long exiled. They have no personal enemies, and that more than counterbalances the want of personal friends. Henri V., however, is for the present impossible, and he is perhaps the only person of whom that can be said. In the evening we went to the club of the atelier, held 1848.] Club of the Atelier. I I I in one of the lecture-rooms of the Ecole de Medecine. The committee or bureau, consisting of four persons, were on the platform at the end, the visitors on benches rising towards the ceiling. The propositions to be discussed were two:-First, that the power of the majority of the people is limited, since it can do nothing that is opposed to morality. Secondly, that it can make no permanent delegation of its power. In other words, that, though it may appoint officers or representatives for fixed periods, it can the next day, or the next minute, revoke that appointment and resume its original power. One of the members of the committee opened the first question. A visitor, in answer, requested him to explain the meaning of morality (la morale). ' Why,' he answered, 'everyone knows that morality is the difference between "le bien et le mal."' This did not satisfy the querist, and I left them in high metaphysics, discussing the foundation of morals. The whole thing was eminently dull. I suspect that since the meeting of the Assembly the clubs have lost their interest. ' La Gazette des Clubs' has ceased to appear. The second proposition was worth discussing. It is obviously anarchical, but I dare say was unanimously affirmed. The dmeute of the I5th was an attempt to give it a practical application. Sunday, May 21.-I walked before breakfast to see the preparations for the f6te. From the Tuileries to the Arc: de l'Etoile there are ranges of lamps, with pyramids from time to time, and garlands of lanterns suspended in the middle. In the Champ de Mars is a 112 journals kept in France and Italy. -[848. gigantic plaster female in the centre and a dozen more on each side. They were putting on their heads when I was there, at about half-past 7. In the middle of the day Count Arrivabenel arrived from Brussels. He thinks it his duty to be in Lombardy, but he does not perform it very readily-he is too old, he says, for revolutions. Belgium, he says, is ultra-loyal. The King has delighted the people by living three months in Brussels. The electoral qualification is to be reduced to a florin-the lowest qualification which the Constitution allows. He rather fears that he may be a member of the Upper Chamber of Lombardy, but hopes still to be able to live half the year at Brussels. He thinks that Austria could now sell independence to Lombardy for a considerable sum-that is, could persuade Lombardy to take twenty millions sterling of her debt. If the war goes on, she will spend that money in vain attempts at reconquest, and probably have to surrender her sovereignty without an equivalent. He thinks highly of Charles Albert's abilities, and has no doubt of his becoming King of Northern Italy. In the evening we went to see the illuminations. The finest thing was the Count Giovanni Arrivabene is a native of Mantua, and was imprisoned in 1821 for not having denounced Silvio Pellico. He was exiled, and lived for some years in England, France, and Belgium. He was naturalised a Belgian subject in I840. He was elected, as he expected to be, Member of the Upper Chamber of Lombardy in 1848, and he still continues to divide his time between Italy and Belgium. He is a great political economist, has written on the subject, and translated some of the writings of Archbishop Whately and Mr. Senior into Italian. When in England he lived a great deal in Mr. Senior's house, where he was a most welcome visitor. — ED. 1848.1 Advantages of the Octroi. I3 view from the Arc de l'Etoile-two miles and a half of light and of spectators. 300,000 people, at least, must have been collected between the Arch and the Tuileries. The splendid architecture of the Place de la Concorde, marked by the ranges of lamps along the architraves and at the bases of the porticoes, was the finest thing of the kind that I have ever seen. Monday, May 22.-Horace Say breakfasted with us. We talked of the octroi. As a member of the Conseil Municipal of Paris he has to distribute it, and therefore is not quite impartial on the question of its continuance. It affords Paris about thirty-two millions a year, nearly half its revenue, and he cannot see how they are to do without it or supply its place. A rate on houses, the English plan, would not do, as the whole rental of Paris does not exceed eighty-two millions. A rate of 40 per cent., therefore, would not produce the required sum, even if rents did not fall in consequence; and it is to be remembered that the octroi supplies Paris, not only with the funds for all its ordinary municipal expenses, such as paving, markets, and police, but with many things which with us are supplied by public companies, such as lighting and water, and for others which we support by voluntary subscriptions, such as hospitals, and the hospitals of Paris are enormous. One-third of the population die in them. Tuesday, May 23.-I walked in the morning with Bastiat.' He sees but one possible remedy for the proA distinguished writer on political economy. He was member of the Assemblee Nationale in 1848.-ED VOL. I. I II4 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. vincial distress, and that is the diminution of the military expenses, which might easily be done, since they have been increased by eight millions during the last eight years. Every Frenchman, he says, in a tete-a-tete, admits the necessity of this, and, as the means, the propriety of a system of non-intervention. But the instant three Frenchmen meet they talk of nothing but the necessity of extending French influence over Europe, and vote by acclamation for military expenditure. He is very desponding. The example of the ateliers nationaux is catching. Other workmen than those of Paris wish for light work at 30 sous a day. Candidates, among whom is D'Alton Shee, pledge themselves to the doctrine that it is the duty of the State to maintain the children of the poor, to give work to able-bodied, and pensions (retraites) to the old. He cannot guess how it is to end, and foresees nothing except the non-payment of the interest on the debt. Wednesday, May 24.-Michel Chevalier came over from Versailles. He is much bolder than Bastiat, for he dares to prophesy. This will end, he says, and within three months, by a battle in the streets. The Anarchists were very near success on the 15th, and think themselves still nearer. They see that the bourgeoisie and the Assembly are their enemies. They see that the National Guard, in their fear of responsibility, will allow them to make all their preparations and choose their time for attack. They were expected to make an attack yesterday, and 50,000 extra National Guards were called out. He does not believe that the 1848.] Predictlon of tie Days of 7une. I5 Anarchists will suffer the labourers in the ateliers nationaux to be dismissed or materially reduced. As soon as this is attempted an attack will be made on the Assembly, and this time not, as was the case on the I5th, by men without arms. He has little doubt, however, of the victory of the friends of order, but he thinks that it will be a sanguinary one. The National Guards are so disgusted with the loss of time and money occasioned by the present state of agitation and insecurity, that they will show no mercy. He thinks that Thiers will acquire great influence in the Assembly, and that he will use it usefully. But he will not prophesy further. Thursday, May 25.-Austin had given me some hopes that he would return with me. I found him, however, not quite ready for next Saturday, which must be my day of departure. He is beginning, he says, to doubt whether he was quite right in determining to break up his establishment in Paris. Paris gave him good society on very easy terms.' Everything is so near that he could walk to his friends' houses and they could walk to 'his. He had very good apartments at 6o1. a year, could give an evening party once a week at the expense of a little extra tea and extra candles, and found the bulk of the people among whom he lived little richer than himself. What made him resolve to leave Paris was not any fear of personal danger to Mrs. Austin or to himself, but the spectacle of misery all round him. All I The Empire changed all this. A year ago living was more expensive in Paris than in London. -ED. 12 116 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. his friends were ruined, or thought themselves on the verge of ruin. And though, without doubt, prosperity will return to Paris, it may not return to the same people. He is inclined now, however, to think that the extent of suffering will be shorter than he at first supposed. May I5 was, he thinks, a turning-point; it proved that the Anarchical party was a minority, without able or even recognised leaders. Were Lamartine frankly and decidedly to separate himself from it, it would lose all weight in the Chamber. His adhesion to it will probably occasion him to share its fall. Every day sinks Ledru Rollin lower into infamy. Lamartine seems unable to extricate himself from his embrace, so they will go down together. After leaving Austin, I called on M. and Madame Le Normand.1 I had not seen them since the early morning of the I 5th. She could talk of nothing but the events of the I 5th. M. Le Normand was returning home at about half-past 2, when he heard the rappel. He instantly armed, joined the rendezvous of his battalion, and they reached the Pont de la Concorde at about 4. Between them and the Palace was a crowd of people, who told them that the Assembly was dissolved, that there was nothing more to be done, and that they had better go home. Their colonel said that he could not move without orders; so said the lieutenant-colonel; both of them M. Le Normand believes to have been in the plot. Half an hour was lost before the rest of the officers and the privates could resolve to act; at length 1 The biographer and niece of Mdme. Recamier,-ED. 1848.] Conversation in the Railway Carriage. I 7 they put themselves in motion, and were the battalion whom I saw break into the yard adjoining the Palace, and so enter it by the side. It was not until 6 o'clock that Madame Le Normand heard of the result. The interval she had, of course, spent in intense anxiety. Both M. and Madame Le Normand believe that it was part of the scheme to murder from forty to fifty of the members, and that persons were employed to point them out. I then went to pay a visit to Thiers, who came to Paris yesterday. I found him, however, so busy with electioneering that I could have little conversation with him, and as he goes this evening we shall not meet again. He begged me (which is significant) to send him a collection of poor-law documents. Afterwards I called on Madame de Tocqueville. Saturday, 'May 27.-Yesterday, at 12, I left Paris, got to Boulogne by 7, started at 4 this morning, and was at Folkestone before 6. In the railway were some Americans and an Englishman, who left Naples on the evening of the I6th. The Americans were incredulous when I said that the Republic was unpopular in France. They believed the French to be ready to suffer any temporary inconvenience in order, to use their expression, 'to govern themselves.' Another Englishman took up my side, and I left them in high dispute, to talk to the traveller from Naples. He said that he understood that there were differences of opinion between the king and the deputies, and that a party among the National Guards determined 118 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1848. to prevent his opening the Assembly on the I5th. That for this purpose early in the morning they raised barricades between his palace and the hall of the Assembly. That the troops were called out, and that about 2,500 National Guards took post behind their barricades and in the houses on each side of them. That after the parties had stood some time looking at one another a shot was fired by the National Guards. That the troops returned it, and the National Guards, after a slight resistance, abandoned their barricades and entered the houses, from which they fired on the troops, especially on the Swiss. That the troops attacked the houses, broke open the doors, often with cannon, and frequently killed all whom they found inside. That the great majority of the inhabitants, including all the lazzaroni, sided with the king, otherwise he could not have succeeded, as the troops did not exceed 7,500; He thinks that the loss of the National Guards was about 500, and that of the troops 200, of whom I50 were Swiss. He does not think that above sixteen were shot after the action: they were persons detected in an attempt to set fire to the prisons. He was told that in the evening of the I 5th the Diplomatic body complimented the king on his firmness and congratulated him on his victory. The battle in the streets predicted by M. Michel Chevalier (page 114) occurred in less than a month after Mr. Senior quitted Paris. The members of 1848.] Louis Napoleon is proclaimed President. r 19 the Executive Council (Arago, Ledru Rollin, Garnier Pages, Lamartine, and Marie) resigned. After six days of desperate fighting and romantic incident, General Cavaignac, who commanded the army and the Garde Mobile, succeeded in defeating the insurgents and restoring order. On June 29 General Cavaignac was named temporary President of the Republic. Five months were now spent in organising a Constitution, during which time the popularity of Cavaignac declined, while that of Prince Louis Napoleon, who had been elected deputy by four constituencies, made such progress that he was proclaimed President by universal suffrage and an immense majority on December 20. The Ministers appointed by him wereM. Odillon Barrot, President of the Council and Minister of Justice. M. Drouyn de l'Huys, Foreign Affairs. M. de Malleville, Interior. M. Passy, Finance. M. Bixio, Commerce. General Bulhieres, War. M. de Tracy, Marine. M. de Malleville resigned his portfolio within a week of his appointment, in consequence of the President's demand that the documents respecting the affairs of Strasbourg and Boulogne should be given up. M. Faucher then became Minister of the Interior. Shortly before Mr. Senior's visit in 1849 the French expedition in support of the Papal Government had taken place.-ED. 120 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. I849. [Mr. Senior accepted an invitation from Mrs. Grote to spend a few days with her in Paris in May, 1849.] May 12, 1849.-I reached Paris this morning at a quarter to I I, and proceeded to the Maison Fenci, 63 Champs Elysees. It is a charming apartment, about 500 yards from the Arc de l'Etoile, looking west towards Chaillot, Passy, and the left bank of the Seine. Mrs. Grote had got tickets for the Assembly, so we went there directly after breakfast. It was about one o'clock: the debate had not begun, but the Tribune was full-the practice being to give tickets for about onehalf more than it can hold. We were told that somebody would probably go and make room for us. We loitered about, waiting for this chance, when we met Madame Leon Faucher going to her place in the Tribune Diplomatique. She took me under her protection, and after many repulses, and invoking the aid of one questeur and huissier after another, she got me in. The debate was a very important one. To make it intelligible, I must go back a few days. The invasion of the Roman States in I849 was a counterpart of the Protectorate of Otaheite in I843. It was an exertion of strength without any purpose of I849.] French ExpKedition to Rome. I121 permanent advantage. The Government seem to have thought that an intervention in favour of the Pope would please the priests, who are expected to exercise great influence over the elections, and that the reappearance of the French flag in Italy would flatter the vanity of those whose constant desire is that France should do something, whatever that something may be. It displeased, however, the Republicans, as it denied to a sister republic the right of existence and to the Roman people the right of revolution. It alarmed the friends of peace as a dangerous little war, and, as a gross breach of international law, disgusted those who wish to strengthen that weak restraint on royal and national ambition. If, however, the French had been welcomed in Rome as mediators and friends, and the Pope had been re-established by them as a constitutional sovereign reigning under the influence of France, it is probable that the injustice and rashness of the enterprise would have been forgotten in its success. Its failure, of course, aggravated its original sins. There was also a general belief, which now turns out to have been well founded, that the expedition had not been managed constitutionally; that Oudinot had received some direct instructions from the President, and that his other instructions had been communicated to only a part of the cabinet. The selection, too, of Oudinot, a Legitimist, was suspicious; and a letter to him from the President, approving his conduct and promising him reinforcements, was thought a very monarchical proceeding. Under such circumstances, on May 7, the previous Monday, 122 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. the Assembly had resolved that the expedition ought no longer to be diverted from its proper purposes. What those purposes were it was difficult to say, but the vote amounted to a censure, and if it had been passed by an Assembly in any but an expiring state it must have compelled the resignation of the ministry. To-day the opposition followed up the blow by proposing a resolution that, since the Italian expedition, the ministry had lost the confidence of the Assembly. When I got in, Ledru Rollin, who had opened the debate about half an hour before, was still speaking, or rather screaming, from the tribune. He is a large, redfaced man, with an enormous voice and violent action. His speech, and indeed that of every speaker, on that day, was not a continuous discourse. It was a series of short sentences, each of which was interrupted or followed by an explosion of fierce denial or furious abuse from the one side or from the other of the Assembly. His voice, I have said, was powerful, but he mouthed his words in order to give them emphasis, and dropped his voice at the end of each sentence, so that amidst the general roar I caught little of what he said. Odillon Barrot followed, and it was still worse. With certain persons, he said, the repulse of our troops is a ' bonne fortune.' One person shouted out, 'C'est un mensonge!' another, 'C'est une infamie!' another, ' C'est le langage de 1815!' another, 'C'est une lachete!' another, ' Les Cosaques pourtant ne sont pas encore a nos portes!' Then the President was requested by the Left to call the speaker to order; by the Right to call the inter 1849.] Scene in the Assembly. 123 j rupters to order. Then he rang his bell, and screamed out' A l'ordre! a l'ordre!' Then Odillon Barrot cried out, 'The policy which you are attacking has given to us at least peace.' 'Peace!' interrupted Clement Thomas; 'it is your policy that has brought us to the brink of civil war, and, if the Chamber does not save us, see what will happen to-morrow.' ' We thank,' replied Barrot, ' M. Thomas for giving us this notice. It is not the first that we have received. It is time to tear away the veil, since we have violence and physical force before us.' Then Clement Thomas was allowed to occupy half the tribune, and make a speech in explanation of his interruption, and maintain that it was not 'un defi, mais une appreciation.' Then followed a few minutes of calm, the screamers being apparently exhausted, and Odillon Barrot managed to get through his speech, which was, in fact, not a defence of the Italian expedition, but a declamation against anarchy. He was followed by Jules Favre, who attempted to read a letter from Rome. Unfortunately for him, the second sentence was a statement that many of the Shot on the i8th of last March by the mob. Clement Thomas was an ardent Republican. He entered the army as a volunteer. He conspired against Louis-Philippe in 1835, was imprisoned, exiled, and returned to Paris as soon as his offence was pardoned. He became editor of the National, and in I848 was elected a Representative. His conduct in May was rewarded by the command of the National Guard, which he was forced to surrender to Changarnier in June. He left France during the Empire, and lived in Belgium till the late lamentable events.-ED. 124 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. French prisoners had offered to serve in the Roman ranks. Then the storm raged, if possible, more violently than before. Some cried that it was false, others that, whether true or false, the ears of Frenchmen ought not to be disgusted by such statements. Favre was imprudent enough to attempt to justify the imputation. 'The soldier,' he said, ' is intelligent, and when he knows that his orders are against the will of the country —' 'No!' they cried, 'he is not intelligent; in war he knows nothing but his colours.' 'You know well,' said De Malleville, 'that such conduct would denationalise him.' ' I ask,' said Favre, 'what would Monsieur de Malleville have done in such a situation?' 'Stuck to my colours,' said Malleville. So Favre had to apologise for having ' blesse une legitime susceptibilite.' He tried to continue to read his letter. 'La Grande Corniche de St.-Pierre,' he cried. ' We won't hear any more!' exclaimed M. Taschenau. 'You have no right to interrupt,' said the President. 'What?' said Taschenau; 'we have no right to interrupt?' 'La Grande Corniche de St.-Pierre,' repeated Favre. 'Assez de Corniches!' said the Right. 'La Grande Corniche de St.-Pierre —' Then there was a greater hubbub than ever. Then Manuel rose to order, and maintained that if a document was attempted to be read, 'qui blessait profondement et legitimement les susceptibilites de l'Assemblee,' the President was bound by the rtglement to I849-. Arduous Duzies of Faucher. 125 take the opinion of the house whether the reading should continue or not. The President, however, said that he could find no such passage in the rdglement, and decided that the speaker was entitled to read whatever he thought fit. The rhglemnent, however, seems to contain no passage obliging the Assembly to listen; so that Favre folded up his letter, and we are ignorant up to this time what has been the fate of the ' Grande Corniche de St.-Pierre.' What he had read, however, was enough to turn the majority against him. General Leflo rose, and was received with acclamations when he protested against letters being read from a tribune franqaise which 'insultent le drapeau.' ' You tell us,' he said,' that the enemy has taken one of our colours. You know it is impossible, for only five hundred men are said to have fallen on our side; but before a colour could be taken whole regiments must have died.' This bit of eloquence was followed by round after round of applause. And the real question, the management of the expenditure, having been quite lost sight of in a cloud of incense to the drapeau, the Assembly, by a majority of thirtyseven, passed to the order of the day. We drank tea in the evening with the Leon Fauchers. They attached great importance to the vote. Had Favre's vote of a want of confidence been carried, we should have had, said Faucher, the barricades to-morrow; The duty of preventing an mneute falls on the Minister of the Interior, and an arduous one he finds it. Mdme. Faucher told me that the night before last her husband was twice called up after midnight by messages from the 1 26 7ournals kept in France and ftaly. [1849 -Prefet de Police, announcing an insurrection on the point of exploding. We went this morning to the Chamber, but, warned by experience, an hour and a half before the discussion. We got good places, therefore, and could have heard if there had been anything worth hearing; but there was not, and, after spending four hours in very bad air, we refreshed ourselves in the Luxembourg Gardens. In the afternoon we had a visit from Horace Say. He has just been elected Conseiller d'Etat-a place of great importance, though, according to our notions, not highly paid: only 9,oo0 francs a year, the salary of a representative. The members are elected by the Assembly for six years, but are re-eligible, and therefore may expect to sit for life; and the Conseil is not only independent of the Government, but exercises over it considerable authority. Every law which the Government proposes must be submitted to its revision; and all ' reglements d'administration publique (which means, I suppose, rules for the transaction of public business) are formed by it, and, when required so to do by the Assembly, it frames them without appeal. Besides which, the Constitution gives to it a general power of superintendence and control. Sunday, lMay I3.-We drove to St. Cloud, lounged for a couple of hours over the beautiful park, and then dined with the Leon Fauchers. We met the Wollowskis, Horace Says, and M. Buffet,1 Minister of Commerce. 1 Member of the late Ollivier Ministry. He resigned as soon as it ceased to perform its promise of being a Liberal Administration.-ED. 1849.] Rapid Recovery of Prosperity. During the whole of dinner, and in the evening, Faucher was receiving telegraphic despatches as to the progress of the elections-that is, as to the number of voters and the tranquillity. The nature of the votes will not be known for some days. Faucher and Buffet discussed the propriety of some legal changes. One was the increasing the cautionnement of the journals. In this they agreed. The other was the giving the nomination of the maires, now elected, to the Executive. On this they disagreed. 'There are 32,000 of them,' said Faucher; 'we are in direct correspondence with them, we are responsible for their errors and neglects, yet we have no power to obtain good people, or to dismiss bad ones, or to enforce obedience.' M. Buffet, admitting the difficulty occasioned by the insubordination of the maires, said that he thought that the Government would find a still greater difficulty than the communes in making good choices. Perhaps the best plan would be that which we adopted on the appointment of officers under the new Poor Law. They are elected by the Boards of Guardians, but the Commissioners have the power both of dismissing them and of retaining them in office. So that, once elected, they become the servants of the Commissioners. The same result would follow if the maires held office at the will of the French Executive. Faucher spoke with great and justifiable pride of the prosperity of France under the present ministry. 'Never,' he said, 'was so much done in five months. At Rouen, at Havre, at Marseilles, and above all at Muhlhausen, business is in full activity. Paris, of course, yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. will be among the last to recover completely; but it is in rapid convalescence.' The hotels are full, and apartments are scarce. Prices are, however, still comparatively low. I found the Curries in an apartment in the H6tel Wagram, on the first floor, for which they pay 30 francs a day. We had the corresponding apartment in October in 1847, on the second floor, and paid 250 francs a week-the first floor was then 300 francs a week. I reminded Faucher of his description, a couple of years ago, of his feelings in addressing the Chamber of Deputies. He then told me that the moment in which he took possession of the tribune, and saw the deputies silent and listening, was more awful than he could express. That his knees trembled and his mouth got dry, and it was not till after the third or fourth sentence that he recovered complete self-possession; and I asked him whether the present Assembly was as formidable. He replied, 'For an independent member, not; nobody listens, and nobody is silent. It is difficult to speak well to such an audience, if audience it can be called, but tolerably easy to go on. The difficulty is chiefly physical, the exertion of voice necessary to be audible to the reporters. But to address this Chamber as a minister is absolutely frightful. To face four or five hundred enemies screaming out against you denial and obloquy, distorting your premisses, refusing your inferences, and trying to exhaust on you all the forms of hatred and contempt, with a consciousness that everything that you say, and everything that is said to you, I849.] Power of the Opposition. 129 will be read by thirty millions of people; that every insult which you have had to endure, and every indiscretion into which you may have been hurried, will be perpetuated in the " Moniteur," is far more terrible than even the silence of unapproving listeners.' Great: apprehension was expressed by everyone as to the probable conduct of the Assembly during the next fortnight, especially if a large portion, as is expected, should not be re-elected. There are some fears, though none of our guests seemed to feel them, that it may attempt a coup d'etat-put off the meeting of the new Chamber for three months, and take some pretext to declare the elections void, or Louis Napoleon 'dechu,' and appoint a temporary dictator. What Faucher, Buffet, and Wollowski fear is, that it may endeavour, as to a certain extent it has been endeavouring ever since the election of Louis Napoleon, to prevent good government, to force the ministry on bad measures, to deprive it of the means of effecting good ones. These, indeed, are generally the tactics of an opposition, especially of a French opposition; but in the other constitutional governments of Europe the opposition is always a minority, and is kept within some bounds by the expectation of having to hold office and to incur the responsibility of carrying out its doctrines or the shame of retracting them. In the present Assembly the opposition is the majority, and a large portion of it, if they are not re-elected to-morrow, have no hopes of public life during more than a fortnight longer. The majority of an omnipotent Assembly elected by universal suffrage, VOL. I. K 130 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. whose will becomes law without any further sanction, has obviously the power to do, even in a single fortnight, almost any amount of mischief; and the present Government and its friends believe that it will not let its power sleep. They think that it will try to die like a whale, lashing with its tail and spouting blood. The ministry and their adherents, and generally the moderate party, hope to prevent this by absenting themselves, so that the Assembly may not be in the number 500, which is necessary to a vote. Several have left Paris. It is obvious that this is a very dangerous expedient. Unless it is completely successful it must fail completely, and the hostile majority will have everything their own way. They are now a little restrained by the debate, though they can generally carry the vote. We talked of the article of the Constitution which excludes representatives from paid public functions in the gift of the Executive. It not only excludes them while representatives, but prohibits their appointment during the existence of that Assembly, even if they resign their seats. Thus, M. Bethmont, having been a representative, and having resigned, was unable to take the office of President of the Court of Appeal of Paris. This general rule is subject to exceptions, embodied in the organic electoral law; but that law has added other restrictions. Thus, a representative cannot be a director of a railway. I asked Wollowski if there was anything interesting in the Court. He said that to-morrow the trial of the Carabys and Coetlogon comes on in the Cour d'Assises, and we agreed to go there together. 1849.] Cour d'Assises. I3 Monday, May I4.-Wollowski procured me, in the character of Master in Chancery, admission to a seat behind the President in the Cour d'Assises-a very coveted place, for the trial excited so much interest that crowds were in waiting before the public entrance for hours before the door was opened, and a large portion of the bar were unable to get in. The following is the arrangement of the court:+ + Prisoners. + + + + + + +;a+ Eefe -- E aAdvocates. 'Z +: n 3 + e ~p, + + +? +++ It will be observed that the three accused-Mdme. Caraby, IM. Caraby, and Coetlogon-with a gendarme between each, were on the left of the President, within a few yards of the privileged spectators. As Mdme. Caraby did not wish to see either her husband or her lover, she turned her face constantly towards K 2 K 2 132 7ournals keyt in France and Italy. [1849. us, and I happened to be exactly opposite her. I do not think I ever saw anything more beautiful. She has a good figure, rather below the middle size, a clear, pale complexion, small mouth, straight well-chiselled nose, black hair, straight black eyebrows, long black eyelashes and dark eyes, such as I never saw in any face, except that of young Dwarkanath Tagore. Europe never produced any so large and so soft; she must owe them to her New Orleans extraction. I ought not, however, to describe her, for the advocate against her, Chaixd'Est Ange, spoke of her as ' si belle qu'il faut renoncer a trouver des expressions pour la depeindre.' A spectator next to me said,' Did you ever see such eyes?' One of the gendarmes came too near to her, and she gave him a look which made him start back three yards and fall over the benches. These eyes, however, we seldom saw, except when she had to raise them to the President during her examination. At other times she generally looked down. Nothing could exceed the expression of sorrow on her countenance. It seemed a settled despair, which made her indifferent to the result of the trial, indifferent to the effect of her answers, indifferent even to the public exposure. And yet it did not distort her features, or apparently diminish her beauty. She put me constantly in mind of the Cenci head, which, like hers, is the perfection of beauty and of grief.l Tuesday, iMay I5.-In the evening we had a visit from Mdme. Leon Faucher. ' I came,' she said, 'to tell you that we are out.' ' Out!' I The trial was of no public interest; it is therefore omitted.-ED. 1849.] Resignation of Faucher. I33 we said. ' Yes, out; I did not wish you to see it first in the newspapers.' She then told us of the circular which Faucher had sent on Saturday by telegraph to many of the departments, announcing the triumph of the Government on Friday; saying that it had saved the country from immediate civil war, and adding the names of the voters on each side. This, she said, had been denounced by the opposition as unconstitutional and dishonestunconstitutional as an attempt to influence the elections; and dishonest, as implying that all who voted against the Government, or abstained from voting, wished for civil war. She was present during the debate, and described it as more violent even than that of last Friday. Faucher's defence, she thought, had been triumphant in argument. The departments, he had said, were full of falsehoods circulated by the Anarchists. One country paper announced that Louis Napoleon had been deposed, another that he had chosen Ledru Rollin as his minister, another that Marrast and Ledru Rollin had been appointed dictators, and another that Louis Napoleon had proclaimed himself emperor. To stop these reports he had merely stated the truth. It was true that the Assembly had refused to blame the Government. It was true that a contrary vote was the signal for which the men of the barricades were waiting, and it was true that the votes of the members were such as the circular stated them to have been. The 'Moniteur' would have published them the next day. What was the crime of publishing them twenty-four hours earlier? 134 Journals kept in France and Italy. [I849. But he had been feebly supported by Odillon Barrot, the only one of his colleagues who had spoken, and, to his and her astonishment, violently attacked by LarocheJacquelin. This was the part of the debate which had most annoyed her. When Laroche-Jacquelin rose she had fully expected that it was as a friend; but his speech was as malicious as he could make it. He was the first who introduced into the debate the accusation of dishonesty. He refused to accept Faucher's denial of an intention to impute anarchical wishes to the opponents of the Government. She added that Faucher had been personal in his reply, and that 'ils s'etaient dit des choses tres-dures.' The Government plan of not making a House ought, she said, to have succeeded, for when they came to the vote there were little more than 400 members present; so that the House ought, according to its r),lement, to have instantly separated. But that a ballot had been demanded, and the President, Marrast, had kept it open for an hour, until a hundred more members, principally Montagnards and Legitimists, had been collected. She doubted indeed whether, even at the end, there were 500 real voters, for the Montagnards frequently put more than one paper into the urn, and the bureau, being all rouge, assists in the fraud. The vote of censure had, however, been carried by some hundreds to five, and Faucher, tfie instant it was over, had sent his resignation to the President, and she had no doubt it would be accepted. As far as her 1849.] Peculiarities of a French Trial. 135 husband was concerned, she rejoiced at this, for the fatigue and anxiety were ruining his health; but she trembled for the country. The men of vigour and firmness in the Cabinet were Faucher and Falloux, and Falloux's subordinate position gives him little influence. The Cabinet itself, indeed, cannot survive the loss of its most efficient member. So that in a fortnight hence there will be, she thinks, a new Cabinet as well as a new Assembly. The President, indeed, is a permanent prime minister, but he is an emnigre who from the time he was eight years old to his election was never in France except as a prisoner, and can know nothing of the country or of the people. I perceived from her conversation that Faucher thought that the President interfered too much; but his defence is, 'I am responsible, and therefore I must act.' Mdrne. Faucher remained with us all the evening; she did not like to go home, where she would be exposed to visits and condolences. Wednesday, May i6.-Mrs. Grote and I rode, before breakfast, for a couple of hours, in the Bois de Boulogne. When we came home we found in the morning's papers the verdict and sentences in the Caraby trial. The peculiarities of a French trial are, first, the free admission of re-evidence. Our rule, that the best evidence only is to be received, is unknown. One witness was asked what another had told him, though that other was also examined, so that more than half of the evidence was mere hearsay, and no question 136 yournals kept in France and IZtay. [1849. was objected to by either side; and secondly, the examination of the witnesses by the judge, instead of our examination-in-chief by the counsel on one side and cross-examination on the other. This is favourable to the eliciting of truth from an honest witness. It prevents the disgraceful browbeating and tricks by which in England a stupid or timid person is often frightened, or confused, or entrapped into contradictions. But it must be unfavourable to the detection of dishonesty. Though the counsel can cross-examine through the judge, such a process gives so much time to the witness that he must be very dull if he is not prepared with his answer by the time that the question has reached him. After breakfast I went to see the Beaumonts. I found there, besides ourselves, La Fayette and M. de Corcelle.' We talked of the Parisian elections, and of the Socialists, who are said to have headed the poll. I asked what were precisely the measures which were to be feared from the Socialist party. Beaumont said that the Socialist party was like the Protestant Church, an aggregate of many sects, each holding some peculiar doctrines, but all agreeing in some others. The points M. de Corcelle shared the political opinions of M. de Tocqueville before the Revolution of 1848, but after that time his ardent Catholicism drew him nearer to Montalembert. Tocqueville never thoroughly approved of the French intervention at Rome, while Corcelle was one of its warmest supporters. In 1849 he represented France at the Papal Court, and assisted the Pope in restoring the Papal Government. The Pope entreated him to remain, and to become his Prime Minister, but M. de Corcelle refused to forsake his own country. From 1852 to 1871 he took no active part in politics. He is now at Versailles, and last March there was some question of his going on a mission to Rome.-ED. 1849.] Socialist Doctrines. I37 of faith in which they agree are, that poverty and excessive toil are the result of human institutions, and could be prevented by a more equitable distribution of wealth, and by restricting the hours of labour; that the only lawful source of revenue is labour; and that rent and profit are abuses-abuses even when they arise from acquired property, still more so when from inherited property. That the steps to be taken towards the suppression of these abuses are, first, the abolition of the national debt, which will instantly restore to the community about six milliards; secondly, the abolition of the rent of land, the occupier being turned into the owner, or, where the farm is too large for a single owner, the excess being divided among the peasants who have no land; thirdly, the inmp6t progressif sur la fortune prsmurnee, by which means all taxation is to be thrown on the rich, and in proportion to their wealth. This, he said, as the most direct road to equality of fortune, was the most approved Socialist claptrap at the elections. Fourthly, the Government to enable the workmen to act without capitalists, by supplying them with capital to be managed by themselves; fifthly, the Government to provide employment for those out of work, allowance in aid of insufficient wages, and pensions and asylums for the aged, and foundling hospitals and schools for the young. To these general principles of action some sects add the reduction of the hours of labour, others the creation of an inconvertible paper-money to be a legal tender. This is a favourite measure for the extinction of the enormous weight of mortgages which oppresses the small 138 7ournal's kept in France and Italy. [I849. proprietors. The Government is to lend to the mortgagor government paper, at a very low interest (which it can afford to do, as it will cost nothing), with which he will pay off the mortgage. The Government is also to lend its paper at a still lower interest to working men, on the security of the income they expect to earn. Wages are no longer to depend on the tyranny of masters; they are to be equitably fixed by public officers, and to be proportioned to the wants of the labourer and of his family. And, to prevent a rise of wages, in consequence of the emission of so much paper, they are to be fixed from time to time by officers elected by the people, but paid by the Government. All foreign commerce by sea and by land is to be managed by national corporations for the benefit of the nation, assisted by consuls to represent the Republic in all foreign towns. In all the centres of population magazines are to be established by the Government, in which all objects of consumption-that is, cf the frugal consumption which becomes equal fraternal republicansare to be sold at the cost of production or equitably bartered. Law is no longer to be the luxury of the rich. Judges, advocates, and attorneys are to be paid by the Government, and the suitor is to get not only his decision but his pleadings for nothing. The army is never to be diminished, even in peace. It is to be employed in public works. I asked if the Socialists were likely to be warlike. Not, he said, avowedly for the extension of territory, but certainly for the extension of influence. One of i849.] Foreign Policy of France. I39 their schemes is a propagandc humanitaire for the emancipation of nations and races and the diffusion of social democracy, of which France is to be the apostle and the soldier. We then went to the general foreign policy of France, and one of the interlocutors said that the usual feeling among the French was not so much ambition as sensitiveness and suspicion; that they are always ready to believe themselves injured or insulted, and rush into wild enterprises lest they should be suspected of cowardice or weakness. He attributed to this feeling, acted on by the events of 1840, the present misfortunes of France and of Europe. The French thought themselves insulted; Guizot and Louis-Philippe would not let them go to war and revenge themselves on England and Lord Palmerston; so, being in want of a victim, they turned on Guizot. He tried to gratify the national anger and vanity by refusing to ratify the Slave Trade Treaty, by taking possession of Otaheite, by increasing the naval force, and, at: last, by the Spanish marriages. But as all these measures, though offensive to England, and so far acceptable, were bad in themselves, Guizot's unpopularity went on accumulating. It enveloped the king, as his supporter, and the body politic became so predisposed to inflammatory action that what in its healthy state would have been a mere street riot burst out a revolution. The Treaty of July I8z4o was, he said, the turningpoint of the destinies of Europe. Had not the French mind been poisoned by having to endure that insult, 140 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. France would still have been a Constitutional Monarchy, and Germany would.have been governed by sovereigns instead of by mobs. We then went to the foreign policy of England. I maintained that it ought to be one of non-interference, but they were all against me. It would be all well, they said, if no one else interfered, but France cannot suffer Russia and Austria to crush Hungary, Germany, and Italy, which they will certainly try to do if you stand aloof. Engaged in such a struggle, we shall be forced to use the tremendous power which our misfortunes give us. We shall speak as a democracy to democrats, and they are not wanting, even in Prussia. You will see us surrounded by new Cisalpine and Ligurian, and Rhenal and Batavian, and; perhaps, Swabian and Bavarian republics, and one of two events, each formidable to you, will happen: either an enormous increase of French power and influence if we succeed, or an enormous increase of Russian power and influence if we are beaten. Give us your support; let it be known that England will not suffer Italy to become Austrian, and Hungary to become Russian, and you may find in Hungary a bulwark against Russia, and in Italy a bulwark against us. A general war must destroy the European balance of power, and it is only by assisting us that you can prevent one. Friday, May I8.-After breakfast Mdme. Ldon Faucher came. To-morrow they return from the splendid salons of the Rue de Grenelle to their modest third floor in the Rue Blanche. She offered us the Ministerial box at the 1849.] Probable Result of the Elections. I41 Theatre FranSais to-night, to see Rachel in 'Adrienne Lecouvreur.' Faucher, she said, who was anxious to see us, but too busy to get out in the morning, would come. After breakfast I went to the Embassy, and found Lord Normanby at home. He expressed much regret at the resignation of Faucher, on whose vigilance, honesty, and courage he has much reliance. It will precipitate, he says, the fall of the whole Cabinet, which has been tottering for some weeks. It has had, indeed, a long life for a revolutionary Ministry-not less than five months. One of the worst effects of these short administrations is, the number of persons whose political character is damaged; for scarcely anyone quits office with as much reputation as he had when he entered it. We talked of the elections. It is supposed that out of the 750 members of the new Assembly nearly 250 are Socialists —a compact, unscrupulous minority, opposed to a majority consisting of Orleanists, Legitimists, and Moderate Republicans. To these four parties, and to a Prime Minister, called the President of the Republic, the framers of the Constitution have committed, for three years, the government of France. During those three years the Constitution cannot be altered, the Assembly cannot be dissolved or even prorogued, and the President cannot be changed. The President and the four hostile factions which constitute the Assembly are turned out in an arena walled round by the law, with no legal power in any party to obtain a decisive superiority by ejecting T42 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. its opponents. Lord Normanby, however, thinks that this legal fence will be broken through by violence, and that within a short period-a month at the least, three months at the most-the struggle of last June will be renewed. He hopes that it may be delayed till the latter time. There will then probably be a steady Government and a tolerably disciplined Chamber. A month hence will be a time of disorganisation. The new Assembly will not know its business; the friends of order will not have found one another out; no one will know whom to trust. He fears much from an ineute in June, but looks with tolerable confidence to the result if it take place in August. In the evening I went to the Franqais. Faucher did not come, so I left the theatre at the end of the second act. Saturday, May 19.-I went to the Fauchers, and found them reinstalled in the Rue Blanche. Faucher agrees with Lord Normanby as to the probability, almost the certainty, of another sanguinary struggle. 'All parties,' he says, 'seem to be preparing for it, and all have elected men of extreme opinions.' He thinks, too, that it will occur within three months. He hopes that it may take place soon. Now he thinks that the army and National Guard will act together and put down the Socialists. Three months hence he cannot answer for the army. I hear that Bugeaud is of the same opinion. He looks with alarm on the 8th Section of the Preamble of the Constitution, which declares it to be the duty of the State to provide for the destitute either 1849.] Dangerous Clauses in the Constitution. 143 work or relief. Such a duty imposed on the State implies a corresponding right in the poor. It authorises everyone who is in want to consider that want not as a misfortune, but as an injustice; as a breach of the duty which the Constitution imposes on the Government. It sanctions the ferocious cry of the Lyonese, 'Vivre en travaillant ou mourir en combattant!' The Constitution contains two provisions which seem almost intended as pretexts for insurrection. One is the 68th, which declares that if the President obstruct the Assembly in the exercise of its functions (met obstacle d l'exercice de son mandat) he is ipso facto deposed (dechu), the people are bound to refuse to obey him, and all executive power vests instantly in the Assembly.' Under this clause, on an assumed event, all obedience except to the Assembly is to cease. Who is to decide whether the event which releases the citizens from their obedience and gives absolute power to the Chamber has happened? The citizens or the Assembly? No other tribunal is provided. Among the citizens are the army. So are the National Guards. If either force, or any regiment, or any company, or any individuals in either force, think that the event by which the President forfeits his power has occurred, they are bound to disobey all orders proceeding from him. It may be supposed that an event, the consequences of which are so vast, is precisely defined. But the words used seem studiously vague. 1 See Tocqueville's account of the coup d'etat in vol. ii. of the present work. -E). 144 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. Perhaps what was meant was the arrest of a member of the Assembly, or an armed interruption of its debates. The words, however, are capable of a wider construction. Any disobedience to the orders of the Assembly may be said to be an obstruction to the exercise of its functions. The Assembly, for instance, ordered, on the 7th of this month, that the army in the Roman territory should no longer be diverted from its proper objects. Since that time the army has been employed just as it was before -namely, in attacking the Roman Republic. Is it clear that the Assembly has not been obstructed in the exercise of its functions? Is there not doubt enough to afford a pretext for an emeute? Is there not doubt enough to afford a pretext to the Assembly for seizing all executive power? On the other hand, there clearly is doubt enough to authorise the President to deny that the case has occurred, and, as no arbiter is appointed, he can try the question only by civil war. The other anarchical clause is the IIoth, which entrusts the Constitution and the rights which it gives to the custody of all the French people (de tous les Franfais). How are all the French people to protect the Constitution? How are they to act as a body, except by an insurrection? If the Assembly declares the constitution violated, and calls on the people en masse to support it, will not this clause authorise them to rise in arms for that purpose? From Fauchers' I went to Kay Shuttleworth, at Meurice's. He was at Amiens when Faucher's circular arrived. He ventured at the table d'hote to disapprove 1849.] AMischievous Resolutions of the Assembly. 145 it, but was borne down by the company, who said that the time for half-measures was passed; that the friends of order ought to know one another, and support one another, and that the circular would have an excellent effect on the elections of the department. This, of course, is precisely the objection to it. In the afternoon I dined at the Embassy. Among the guests were Abercromby,l just come from Turin, and Dudley Fortescue, from Rome. Fortescue was there for the two months preceding the entrance of the French into Civita Vecchia, and says that Rome was never better governed or more quiet and safe. Abercromby does not say the same for Piedmont. The Republican party is strong and unscrupulous, utterly indifferent to the Italian nationality, of which we have heard so much, and anxious merely to propagate democracy. It is ready to give up the independence of the country and become the slave of France, if it can get rid of its king and aristocracy. Lord Normanby joins in the fear that the Assembly may go on doing mischief all next week. Yesterday it resolved that the duty on fermented liquors should cease at the end of this year, the Government being required in the meantime to provide a substitute. This is a loss of more than Ioo millions. Taxes producing about 60 millions have already been abolished. So that the dying Assembly has diminished the revenue by above six millions sterling. Lord Normanby does not believe it possible to carry through the next Assembly, or, if The late Lord Dunfermline.-ED. VOL. I. L 146 7ournals kept in France and Ilay. [i849. carried there, to enforce a set of new taxes producing six millions sterling. Yesterday's sitting has been called 'Dialogues of the Dead,' for almost all who took part in it were among those whose political life has been terminated by their failure in the elections. The survivors let them have it all their own way, and were conversing in groups, till Marrast, the President, was scandalised, and cried out, 'We are voting away IOO millions, and no one pays the least attention. If this goes on, I must adjourn the House.' He told us that this morning it had taken a step not perhaps so permanently mischievous, since it can more easily be remedied by the new Assembly, but more immediately dangerous. It had refused to sanction the union in Changarnier's hands of the command of the National Guards and of the garrison of Paris. This union is illegal. It has existed, however, ever since the accession of the present ministry. The separation of the two commands in June is supposed to have been one of the causes which enabled the insurrection to make such progress during the first two days, and one of the first acts of the present ministry was to vest in Changarnier alone the command of the whole force. The Assembly has always complained of this, and marked its disapprobation by refusing Changarnier the salary and allowances which belong to the commander of the National Guard, and to-day it has rejected a bill introduced by the Government to authorise the double command in Changarnier for three months longer. He must resign, therefore, one of them. The Provisional Government, said Lord Normanby, was I849.] Defeat of the Piedmontese Army. I47 accused of doing all that it could to render difficult the task of this Assembly. And this Assembly is doing all that it can to embarrass that which is to come. Sunday, May 20. - I called on Abercromby. He does not think that any generalship could have saved the Piedmontese cause. The army had been remodelled after its defeat last year, and was still imperfectly organised. The men were not acquainted with their officers, or the officers with their generals; the materiel was deficient; in short, they were quite unprepared for the contest. I asked how it came, then, that they chose that time to begin it. It was they that put an end to the armistice, not Radetzki. It was the work, he answered, of the Republican party, whose object it was to get the army across the frontier, and then revolutionise the country. But the coup de grce was Ramorino's treachery. When the Austrians advanced from Pavia, instead of opposing them he fell back on Alexandria, in the hope of seizing that fortress for the Republicans. An insurrection was to have broken out at the same time in Genoa and in Turin, and when once the Republic was established the French were to fraternise with it, and drive back the Austrians. This movement of Ramorino, by enabling Radetzki to pass to the south of the main Piedmontese army, was what rendered its defeat at Novara fatal. It was cut off from Turin, Alexandria, Casale, Genoa, in short, from all its fortresses, and driven up towards the Lago d'Orta and the Lago Maggiore, and disbanded in the Alpine valleys. L 2. 148 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. When I returned I found the carriage at the door to take us to St. Cloud. Beaumont came up just as we were starting, and we passed a long morning in the park. Beaumont's expectations are very gloomy. ' We are on the shore,' he said, ' of an unknown ocean; we are stepping into a boat, and have no means of conjecturing what will be the course or the termination of our voyage. All that we know is, that it will depend much more on the currents and the winds than on the rudder.' He blamed what may be called the late ministry-for it is dying —for having acted as if the President were a constitutional monarch, a branch of the Legislature, instead of being, as he is, merely its head servant. The double command given to Changarnier, the sanction given to his disobedience of the orders of the Assembly, the expedition to Rome, undertaken without its consent, and carried on in a manner opposed to its wishes, the monarchical tone of the President's letter to Oudinot, were all instances. They were acts of rebellion against the sovereign. Their whole conduct betrayed an arricrepensee that the Republic cannot work, and is merely a transition to some new dynasty. Whereas, said Beaumont, I believe that the Republic is our only chance of safety. We have tried every other anchor, and every other anchor has parted. It is the only Government compatible with the restless, suspicious, ill-tempered disposition in which we have been for some years. To avoid hating or despising our governors we must be made to believe that we govern ourselves. I849.] Fortifcations of Paris. r49 Within a few months we shall have to fight another battle with the Anarchists, and this time it will be more decisive than last year. No quarter will be given, no prisoners will be taken; one side or the other will be destroyed. If we fight for a dynasty I have no hopes; if we fight for a republic I am sanguine. We then talked of foreign politics, and he agreed with me that the Hungarians will probably be a match for the Russians, so as to make French interference in that quarter unnecessary. The chances of war, he thinks, are two. First, if the Rouge party become masters, they will rush on Belgium, to revenge the repulse of 'Risquons Tout,' and flatter the popular desire for the Rhine. On the other hand, if the moderate party remain in power, they may think it necessary to occupy the army, and preserve it from socialism by carrying it across the frontier. In this case, however, they will endeavour to avoid quarrelling with England. They will therefore turn towards Italy or Poland, and choose Austria and Russia for enemies. He agrees with Faucher that war under any circumstances is commercial and manufacturing ruin, but he doubts whether even the Anarchists desire it for those purposes. They may wish for' confiscation and terror, but they do not steadily foresee and predetermine that their road shall pass through war, national bankruptcy, and assignats. They may accept this road if it be the only one open to them, but they do not seek it. As we passed through the fortifications, he pointed to them as a gigantic monument of national folly. I 1 50 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. defended them. I said that Paris, with such fortifications, and with 250,000 men armed and, unhappily, practised in war, both foreign and civil, is impregnable; and that its extent is too great to be invested and starved. That while Paris was an open town, not three days' march from the frontier, it was always uneasy, and that this feeling had been one of the causes which turned French ambition towards Belgium, in order to throw back from Paris the northern frontier; and the security given to Paris by its fortifications was cheaply bought at the cost of 300,000 francs. Beaumont answered that, when he called the fortifications a gigantic folly it was in reference to the intentions of those who proposed them. The real object for which they were erected was the coercion of Paris, and for this purpose they have proved quite ineffectual; but he agreed with me that they had relieved the Parisians from the fear of foreign invasion, and that this relief was well worth all that they had cost. At the Barriere de Passy we fell into the crowd returning from the review. This led us to talk of the army, and we all agreed that one of the most dangerous innovations of the Provisional Government was the giving votes to the soldiers. Socialism-that is to say, the belief that the inequality of conditions is remediableis natural to all the uneducated. Much reflection and the power of following and retaining a long train of reasoning are necessary to enable men thoroughly to master the premisses which prove that, though it is in the power of human institutions to make everybody poor, 1849.] How to Govern the Uneducated. I 5 they cannot make everybody rich; that they can diffuse misery, but not happiness. Among philosophers this is a conviction; among the higher and middle classes-that is to say, among those to whom an equal distribution of wealth would be obviously unfavourable-this is a prejudice founded partly on the authority of those to whom they look up, and partly on their own apparent interest. But the apparent interest of the lower classes is the other way. They grossly miscalculate the number and value of the prizes in the lottery of life, they think that they have drawn little better than blanks, and believe those who tell them that if all the high lots were abolished everybody might have a hundred-pound prize. As long as this is the political economy of the poor, there seem to be only three means of governing a densely peopled country in which they form the large majority. One is to exclude them from political life. This is our English policy, and where we have deviated from it, as has been done in some boroughs, the sort of constituents that the freemen make show what would be our fate under universal suffrage. Another is the existence among them of a blind devotion to the laws and customs of the country. The small cantons of Switzerland, Uri, Schweitz, Unterwalden, Glarus, Zug, Appenzell, and the Grisons are pure democracies. The males of legal age form the sovereign power, without even the intervention of representatives. But they venerate their clergy, their men of birth and of wealth, and their institutions, and form practically the aristocratic portion of Switzerland. A third plan is to rely 152 journals kept in France and Ital,. [1849. on military power-to arm and discipline the higher and middle classes, and support them by a regular army trained to implicit obedience. This seems to be the only course open to France. She cannot recall universal suffrage and withdraw the attention of the poor from politics. She has promised them the election of a sort of king every four years, of a sovereign Assembly every three years, and of mayors and justices almost every day. * The only law in France for which any affection is felt is the law of equal partition; the only.body for whom there is any respect are the parochial clergy; and they are valued principally in consequence of the Socialist tendency of the former and the Socialist opinions of the latter. All their other institutions may be said to exist on trial, and without much expectation or even desire of their permanence. There remains, therefore, only the third instrument, military force. The majority of the National Guards may be depended on, for they belong to the higher and middle classes, but the army is taken almost exclusively from the lowest. So far as they are politicians, they are Socialists. To a certain extent this is unavoidable. An army in which the average period of service does not exceed six years must share in some measure the feelings and opinions of the people. The 80,000 new conscripts that join it every year must share them completely. Experience, however, shows that an army separated from the rest of the world, and fully occupied in the performance of its duties, quickly acquires an esprit de corps of its own, and forgets its early opinions. I849.l ffa irs of Hitngary. I53 The French armies in the first revolution soon ceased to sympathise with the people. The giving votes to the soldiers seems to be an expedient for preventing this change. It reminds the soldier that he is a citizen and a proletaire, a member of the vast indigent majority whom the wealthy few rob and oppress. After having given in May his vote to a Socialist Committee, is he likely in July to be the foremost to storm a Socialist barricade? Monday, May 21.-I called before breakfast on George Sumner.' He knows Kossuth well, thinks him very honest, as well as very able, and believes that nothing but extreme necessity will ever force him to renounce his allegiance to the House of Hapsburg. That allegiance, however, is due to King Ferdinand, not to the person who calls himself Joseph, King of Hungary. Ferdinand's abdication was forced, therefore void; and Joseph's seizure of the crown equally void, not only because the throne is full, but because his accession has not been assented to by the States, or confirmed by his taking the coronation oath. Sumner is angry, therefore, with those who call the Hungarians rebels. The rebels are those who support the Archduke Joseph against their king and his. Sumner maintains that the Hungarians have been in the right throughout. Their connection with Austria was precisely that of England with Hanover. If William IV. had issued a proclamation uniting England and Hanover, fixing the seat of Government in Zell, summoning there a mixed Brother of the Senator of the United States. Mr. George Sumner died several years ago.-ED. 154 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. parliament to manage the affairs of the United Kingdom, and fixing at his own will the proportion of English and Hanoverian deputies, would the English people have obeyed? Hungary is nearly as superior in extent and population to Austria proper as England is to Hanover. She has a history of her own, and a constitution of her own, which has lasted for I,ooo years, and which she will not exchange for a new one depending on a grant from the crown instead of on the habits and experience of centuries. I cannot make out the precise nature of the quarrel between Hungary and Croatia. The demand of the Hungarians that the Magyar language should be spoken in the Diet does not seem a sufficient ground for civil war. Hungary proper is on every side surrounded by other parts of the Austrian Empire. This accounts for our knowing so little of what is going on there. The route by which travellers from Hungary now generally reach us is the Danube, Constantinople, and the Mediterranean. The restoration of the old connection between her and Croatia is of the utmost importance to her, as it would give her a sea-coast, and it would enable her to effect a purpose which she earnestly desires-to open a direct commerce with England. After breakfast, Prandi' and Count Gallina came to Prandi left Italy in I82I, and lived as a refugee for many years in England, where he was well known in the best society, and much liked. He returned to Italy about the year I847, and was elected deputy in the Piedmontese Parliament. He'subsequently engaged in some unfortunate commercial undertakings, and lost his mind. He died in I868.-ED. 1649.] State of Piedmont. 155 us. Gal lina gave an interesting account of his last interview with Charles Albert in I844, when he ceased to be his minister. He then told the King that he saw clouds in the horizon-that he believed that times of difficulty were coming, and that when they came he should offer his services. They are now come, and he has accepted a mission to England, to endeavour to obtain, through our mediation with Austria, a redemption of the contribution which she exacts fi-om Piedmont. It amounts altogether, or rather is likely to amount (for a large part is yet unfixed), to about twelve millions sterling-equal, when we compare the wealth and population of the two countries, to a fine of seven times that amount imposed on the British Islands. And this sum, if paid at all, must be paid almost exclusively by Piedmont proper; that is to say, by a population not amounting to three millions. For Savoy had the good sense to protest against the war, and will join France if she is asked to contribute. The Nice territory is too poor, and the territory of which Genoa is the capital, though the richest portion of the whole kingdom, and next to Piedmont the most populous, never has paid, and never will pay, its share of any public expenditure. In deference to its strength and to its disaffection, it has always been left comparatively untaxed. To raise this sum in the present state of Piedmont, broken down by an unsuccessful war, he believes to be impossible without an amount of suffering and discontent which would overturn not merely the ministry, but the throne. He does not believe that any 156 7ournals kept in France and I/aly. [1849. ministry will attempt it, and, if Austria insists, the consequence must be the occupation of Piedmont by her armies. This must bring in the French. A Republican Government will not be able to restrain its subjects when they see Savoy and Piedmont in the hands of Austria. The Austrians will probably be ultimately driven out, Savoy will revert to France, and Piedmont and Genoa will be republics under her influence. This result is contemplated by the Austrians as possible. Schwartzenberg has said,' I shall give Piedmont such a lesson that she will not hold up her head again for a century. And if she throws herself on French assistance, the Republicans will give her King a lesson quite as severe, though of a different kind.' He described Charles Albert as shy and reserved, but capable of exerting considerable influence over those with whom he comes in contact. Both these characteristics belong frequently to kings. Gallina was his minister for nine years, from 1835 to 1844-first of finance, and afterwards both of finance and the interior.' The labour ruined his constitution, destroyed the sight of one eye, and injured the other. His average work was twelve hours a day. This excess of business was partly owing to the continental habit of over-recording and over-auditing, and partly to the habits of his master. Charles Albert rose at 4 and worked till about 10, then breakfasted and reviewed his troops, gave audiences till dinner, worked again after He was subsequently Sardinian Minister in Paris and in London. He was a very agreeable man and a man of talent. He died several years ago. -ED. I849.] Character of Charles Albert. I57 dinner, and went to bed at 9. He read, or attempted to read, every paper that was presented to him, and asked for written remarks on them from his ministers. A great MIS. pamphlet was often put into Gallina's hands in the evening, on which the King wished for his opinion the next morning, and he sat up all night to give it. Both the military and political studies of Charles Albert have been mischievous. The first led him to be his own general, the second to be his own prime minister. He rather wished his ministers to act without concert, and sometimes kept men in office together who would not speak to one another. Gallina put into his hands in 1835 Tocqueville's introduction to 'La Democratie,' in which the great writer bows in religious terror before democracy, and recognises the finger of God in its irresistible progress. But he does not seem to think that the King understood it. It certainly was very long before he acted on it. I said that the opinion in England was that the war with Austria was owing partly to the ambition of Charles Albert and partly to the passions of his people, and that either cause would have been sufficient. That his eagerness to become King of Northern Italy would have led him to invade Lombardy, even if the Piedmontese had not urged him on; and that, even if he had been anxious for peace, the enthusiasm of the Piedmontese in the Italian cause would have driven him forward. In short, that he had to choose between war and abdication. Gallina said that both these opinions were wrong. That 158 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. Charles Albert was vain rather than ambitious, desirous of fame rather than of power; and that he would have been satisfied with the glory of being the head of the Liberal party in Italy, without any extension of territory. And, as to the feelings of the people, that there was no strong war party in any part of the kingdom except in the Genoese province. That Genoa had always been disaffected, always thinking of its own traditional glories, and desirous of connection rather with Milan than with Turin. That when a change of ministry took place in March 1848, he had himself recommended Pareto, a Genoese, and was thunderstruck when he heard that the first article in the programme of the new ministry was war with Austria. It so frightened the person whom they had intended for their Chancellor that he took his hat and disappeared without saying a word. As for the King having to choose between revolution and war, it was nonsense. If he had resisted, as it was his duty to do, he would have been supported by all the kingdom, excepting Genoa. He admitted, however, that the war was popular. It was supposed that it would be easy and short. And the treachery and injustice of an attack, without warning, on a friendly power, were concealed by calling it a war, not for the conquest of Lombardy, but for the freedom of Italy. I asked him the real history of the rejection by Piedmont of the frontier of the Mincio. He threw the blame on Genoa. Both from her hatred of Turin and her connection with Milan, Genoa wishes Milan to be the I849.] Defence of Lord Palmerston. I59 capital of the kingdom of Sardinia. But if the Mincio were the frontier, Milan would be almost a frontier town. If the Venetian provinces were added to the kingdom, Milan would be in its centre, and would almost necessarily become the capital. Neither the strength of Austria nor the weakness of Piedmont was suspected when Austria made the offer of the Mincio. It was believed that three months more of war would drive her troops beyond the Tagliamento. Pareto kept the offer in his desk for a fortnight without showing it to his colleagues, and then forwarded it without a syllable of comment to the King. And the King was afraid to accept it on his own responsibility. He said to Franzini, the only minister who was with him, 'See how I am treated. Of course they do not wish me to accept, or they would say so. But they will not take on themselves the responsibility of advising me to refuse.' Gallina believes, I think, that the gift of Genoa to Piedmont in I815 was a cruel kindness. Genoa never acquiesced in it, did not help the general revenue during peace, and has ruined the United Kingdom by provoking and misconducting a war. Gallina said that he had heard with astonishment Lord Palmerston accused of intriguing against Austria in I847. He knew, he said, of his own knowledge, that Lord Minto always said to the Piedmontese Government, 'England cannot countenance any attack on Austria. She thinks the maintenance of the Austrian power intact essential to the safety of Europe.' 160 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. In the evening we went to hear ' Le Prophete.' The house was very full, as indeed all places of amusement appear to be. The probability, indeed, in the opinion of most persons, the certainty, that in a few weeks Paris will be a bloody field of battle, seems to weigh on nobody's spirits. At night, Pierre, the valet de place, gave us an account of the review. The Government evening papers describe it as an enthusiastically loyal demonstration. Pierre says that it went off very coldly; that many officers cried 'Vive Napoleon!' but few soldiers; and that the only really enthusiastic shouters were about 300 spectators who followed the President, and whom Pierre believes to have been paid. Pierre is, however, I suspect, somewhat rouge. He would not tell us for whom he voted; said, indeed, that he should not tell his wife. I went this morning to pay my visits of adieu, but found nobody at home, except Mdme. Faucher and Mdme. de Beaumont. Both ladies begged me to urge Mrs. Grote not to remain in Paris more than three weeks longer: for that time they think that she is safe. Probably, indeed, where she is, she would run little risk, even if an dmeute took place, provided she lived in the back rooms. The only danger would be that of her house being occupied as a military post. But that can scarcely take place in the Champs Elysees. The road is too broad to be barricaded, and the insurgents will not meet the troops in a fair fight without defences. Besides which, as the 1849.1 Last Days of the Assembly. road slopes towards Paris, it would give the assailants a great advantage. During the three or four days that the battle may last she would have to stay at home, and keep the windows closed and the wooden blinds open, with lights at night on the outside, but none within, such being the reglement of an dmeute. It would be advisable to be victualled for a week, as it is often dangerous to go out for supplies. Should the Government triumph, that would be, of course, the whole amount of inconvenience. Nor is it likely that the success of the insurrection would produce much more. Frequent as such events have been in Paris during the last sixty years, not one of them has been followed by the only thing to be feared by strangers-a general pillage. There would be a difficulty, however, in getting away. The railroads would be broken up to stop the troops, and the country round might remain disturbed and unsafe long after Paris had become quiet under the sceptre of Ledru Rollin and Proudhon. Such are the topics of a morning visit in Paris in May I849. The Funds fell yesterday 7 per cent. When I reached Paris, ten days ago, the Five per Cents were at 9I; they are now at 77. The alarm began with the vote of the Assembly against Leon Faucher, was increased by the refusal of the duty on liquors, and aggravated to a panic by the vote against Changarnier. VOL. I. M '.' "*-'":* — 162 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [849. It now appears that out of its 900 members only 312 have been re-elected. An attempt was made on Saturday to persuade it to adjourn to-morrow, the 23rd, in order to enable some alterations to be made in the room. But it refused, and, if 500 of its members can be kept together, will retain its power of mischief till the 26th. After leaving Madame de Beaumont, I called on Count Gallina, and agreed to travel with him and Prandi by the 8 o'clock train to-night. Between 5 and 6, as we were going to dinner, Prandi entered fresh from the Assembly. He came to say that Gallina could not quit Paris this evening. He had left the Assembly, after a scene of violence far exceeding anything Italian, on the point of virtually declaring war against Austria and Russia. And Gallina and he must stay a day or two to write to their Court. This was his report of the sitting. A M. Sarrans, one of the politically dead, gave notice yesterday that he should ask the Foreign Minister what were the intentions of the Government with respect to the Russian intervention in Hungary, and should require the Assembly before its dissolution to repudiate a foreign policy 'which showed talent only in its cunning, and decision only in its cowardice.' To-day, he asked his question, prefacing it by a long speech, in which he denounced the Russian manifesto as a declaration of war against liberty, or, to use the Russian term, against anarchy. At this instant, he said, 315,000 Russians are in Hungary, or on their march; 1849.] kWarlike Debate iz the Assembly. I63 200,000 Austrians are moving to join them. Do you believe that it requires more than half a million of men to suppress the Hungarian revolt? The thing to be suppressed is Democracy, the common enemy of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and the coalition which has determined to do this is far more formidable than that which was concocted at Pilnitz. Never before was civilisation exposed to such a danger. If the Ministry are passive, or even irresolute, in its presence, they deserve the execration of Europe. If the Assembly separates without forcing them to declare their intentions, it deserves the contempt of France. Drouyn de l'Huys' answer was, that when a similar question was asked him a few days ago he had replied that France could not see the entry of the Russians into Hungary with indifference, and that the Government were in communication on this subject with the Courts of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Vienna, and London. Such was still the state of things. If anyone had any other course to suggest, in plain words if anyone preferred war to diplomacy, let him get up and say so. On which M. Joly, who had been standing just below the tribune, rushed into it and cried out, 'I accept the challenge! I accept the responsibility, if responsibility there be! I declare that I prefer war to infamy! I prefer war to counter-revolution! I prefer war to such peace as we are now enduring!' And two or three hundred of the Gauche rose, shouting, ' La guerre, la guerre! plut6t la guerre que l'infamie!' ' Plutot la guerre que les Bourbons!' ' La guerre, la guerre! nous voulons la guerre.' M 2 164 70ornals kept in France and Italy. [I849. This lasted for some minutes, and then Joly continued, and compared the Russian manifesto to that of the Duke of Brunswick, and 1849 to 1792. 'In I792,' he said,' the Government opposed the coalition only with the arms of diplomacy. The Assembly left this folly or this crime unpunished, and the result was the Ioth of August, and the ioth of August was followed by the 2nd of September. Are the sovereigns who now conspire against us less hostile, is the Government less timid, are the people less intelligent, less patriotic, or less daring?' After this threat he proposed an ordre du jour mrotive, by which the Assembly expressed its alarm at the prospect of Russian intervention in the affairs of Germany, and required the Government to use the most energetic means to prevent it. In vain some member of the Government-Prandi was not sure who-endeavoured to convince the Assembly of the absurdity of voting the loss of a revenue of I20 millions one day, and a war with Austria and Russia the next. The love of war, or of mischief, or the hatred of Russia, was irresistible. Even Cavaignac was carried away; he proposed an amendment on Joly's order of the day, rather less offensive in terms, but little less so in substance; and when Prandi left the House they were proceeding to vote, the best hope being that there might not be 500 voters. I left Paris at 8 that evening. 1849.] Charitable Duties of a Minister's Wife. 165 [The new Assembly, the Assemblee Legislative, as it was called, met on June I. Odillon Barrot remained Prime Minister, and Dufaure,Tocqueville, and Lanjuinais were appointed in the places of Faucher, Drouyn de l'Huys, and Buffet. The expected insurrection of the Rouges occurred on June 12, but General Changarnier's measures were so well conceived and executed that the emeute was quickly put down. M. de Tocqueville was Minister for Foreign Affairs when Mr. Senior next visited Paris, on his way to the Pyrenees, in July.-ED.] Paris, _3uly 26.-We, Mrs. Senior and I, have our old apartments in the Hotel Bristol, and are nearly the only guests. uily 27.-We went at about 12 o'clock to Mdme. de Tocqueville, whom we found sitting with a large bag of five-franc pieces before her, and an employe in the Foreign-office, who is her secretary of charities, by her side, making out a list of the people among whom the contents of the bag were to be distributed. The table was covered with begging letters. I looked at two or three of them. One was from the widow of a littdrateur; another from a tradesman ruined by the revolution. None of them were supported by any peculiar claims on the Foreign Minister. He was applied to merely as supposed to have a large income. Mdme. de Tocqueville says that, of course, she makes enquiries, but that they are necessarily superficial, and that she must be constantly deceived, and, at a great sacrifice of time and money, probably does more harm than good. A poor-law seems to be as much wanted for the relief of the rich as of the poor. 166 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. We talked of the chances of a prorogation. She said that from the moment it had been suggested an alarm had been spread of a coup d'etat intended by the President. She admitted that many of those around him were urging him to seize monarchical power, and that, if his character had not altered since I840, he might be supposed accessible to such a temptation; but she thinks that he has too much sense to make an attempt, the temporary success of which is very doubtful, and the permanent success impossible. And she is sure that none of his Ministers would assist him. 'They believe us,' she said, 'to be ambitious conspirators; but all that we attempt and all that we hope is to keep our own heads and properties, and to protect those of our countrymen. We ourselves have removed nothing from our own house. We are mere birds of passage in this hotel.' Satuzrday, 7zly 28.-I went to the weekly meeting at the Institute. It was thinly attended and not very interesting. We dined with the De Tocquevilles. * * X * * Sunday, 7uly 29.-I went over with Bancroft 1 to visit Lamartine at his house, called 'Madrid,' a pretty villa close to the Neuilly gate of the Bois de Boulogne. We found him confined to the sofa by what he called rheumatism, but, as I suspect, rheumatic gout. He does not expect to enter the Assembly for the next three ] Minister of the United States in London in 1849. He is now American Minister in Berlin.-ED. I849.] Conversation with Lamartzne. i67 months. We talked of the chances of war. He thinks that peace is in danger from two parties —those who look to foreign war as a source of internal tranquillity, and those who look to it as a source of internal disorder. The first think that war would preserve the troops from Socialism, that it would divert public attention from anarchical projects of Government, that it would afford hope to disappointed ambitions and employment to unoccupied energies, that it would open a career to the men too highly educated for their actual social position who swarm in Paris more than in any other capital, that it would give popularity and force and patronage to the Executive; in short, that it would be at the same time a safety valve and a source of power. These views he thinks utterly wrong. Those who entertain them forget that war may be totally unsuccessful, and is sure to be partially so. Every defeat, and there must be many, would occasion outcries against the Ministers and against the generals, complaints of inefficiency, suspicions of treason, the murder of generals by their troops, the assumption of direct military power by the commissaires of the Assembly, and soon the dictatorship of the Assembly. If the moderates draw the sword, they give to the anarchists the axe. The anarchists see more clearly. They see that war, successful or unsuccessful, is increased expenditure and diminished income, double taxation, forced loans, national bankruptcy, inconvertible paper currency, destruction of manufactures, suspension of work, the emigration of the rich, the rage of the poor, and a reign of terror which, by the discreet I68 Journals kept in France and Italy. [I849. use of that powerful instrument, they hope to prolong indefinitely. The selfish anarchists, who look to a reign of terror as a mere source of power to themselves, are but few; but the fanatics, who believe it to be a necessary step in the transition to their Socialist Utopia, are quite numerous enough to be formidable. In the evening Bancroft dined with us, and we went together to Thiers'. We found there the ladies of the house, to whom we were not introduced, and about twenty men-among them Lord Normanby and Mignet. Thiers spoke with the utmost contempt of the new Constitution, and laughed heartily at Bancroft for calling himself a democrat. Lord Normanby was not more favourable to the Constitution than Thiers. He said that the agricultural part of the population was universally monarchical-not all, of course, in the same sense, but all anti-republican. He joins in the common opinion that this form of government cannot last, and that the next will contain a much stronger infusion of the monarchical element. Mo;onday, 7uYly 30.-We called on Mdme. de Tocqueville, and found her, as before, with her bag of five-franc pieces and her almoner, deciding on petitions. She said that the rising on June 13 was far more serious than it was generally supposed to be. As the Hotel des Affaires Etrangeres is very exposed, she removed all her papers and valuables to her own house, and the econome, or house-steward, contributed to the establishment by Bastide, entertained her with assurances of the triumph of the Republique Rouge. I849.] Conversation with Dzuoyer. I69 'I thought,' she said,' after you left us yesterday, how much your conversation showed that you belonged to a settled Government. You are to be absent for three months, and you have no doubt that when you return Queen Victoria will be still on her throne, and Lord John Russell still her Minister, and Mr. Senior still Master in Chancery. No Frenchman can look forward for three months, or indeed for three weeks.' From the Affaires Etrangeres I went to Dunoyer's,' and introduced Bancroft to him. Like the rest of the French world, he could talk only politics. Nothing can be more gloomy than his expectations.2 'The French,' he says, 'utterly misconceive the purposes for which a Government ought to exist, and if that misconception continue they will fall from revolution to revolution, and from distress to distress, till they end in bankruptcy, anarchy, and barbarism. They think that the purpose of Government is not to allow men to make their fortunes, but to make their fortunes for them. The great object of every Frenchman is to exchange the labours and risks of a business or a profession, or even a trade, for a public salary. The thousands of workmen who I Dunoyer had from an early age fought in the cause of liberty. In 1814 he was one of the founders of the ' Censeur,' a paper which sustained for several years an animated struggle with the ruling powers. When at length the paper was suppressed, M. Dunoyer and his colleague Charles Comte were punished by fine and imprisonment. Dunoyer then gave himself up to studying economical questions, under the guidance of Jean-Baptiste Say, and published several important works. In 1849 he was elected Conseiller d'Etat. He wrote against the principles of the Socialists, and upheld the electoral law of the 3Ist May, 1850. He took no part in politics after 1852. He died several years ago.-ED. 2 The substance of the first part of this conversation is contained in the 'Sketch of the Revolution of 1848,' pages I, 2, and 3 of this volume.-ED. 170 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. deserted employments at which they were earning four or five francs a day to get 30 sous from the ateliers nationaux were mere examples of the general feeling. To satisfy this desire every Government goes on increasing the extent of its duties, the number of its servants, and the amount of its expenditure. It subjects every Frenchman to the slavery of passports, because they give employment to some thousands of officials. It preserves the monopoly of tobacco, because that enables it to give away 30,000 debits de tabac. It has taken on itself both religious and secular instruction. It has long taken charge of highways, bridges, canals, and the forwarding travellers and letters. It has secured the reversion of all the railways, and threatens to take immediate possession of them. It proposes to assume insurance both of life and fire, banking, lighting, paving, and draining towns, and mining. Even with the branches of industry which it leaves to the public it interferes, by prescribing the modes in which they are to be carried on, and by favouring some by bounties, others by repelling competitors, and others by advances of money. And finally, it promises by the Constitution to furnish to everyone employment or relief. For these purposes it pays and feeds 500,000 soldiers and 500,000 civilians. For these purposes the 500 millions of expenditure, which were enough during the Consulate, rose to 800 in the Empire, to 970 in the Restoration, to 1,500 millions under Louis-Philippe, and to I,8oo millions under the Republic.' Dunoyer attributes all the revolutions since the i8th 1849.] Failure of successive Governments. I7 Brumaire, partly to the violence, exaction, and fraud on which every Government has been forced in order to keep up this system, and partly to the animosity of the parties, which endeavour to upset every existing government in the expectation of forming part of that which they hope to put in its place. 'Napoleon was always opposed to the Republicans and the Legitimists: the Legitimists took the lead in overthrowing him in 1814, the Republicans in I815. The Government of the Restoration was besieged by all the Faubourg St.-Germain, by all its emigrant friends, and by a whole army of the functionaries of the Republic and of the Empire, driven back upon France from the territories which were relinquished. It strove to provide for them by recalling as many as it dared of the abuses of the old regime, by carefully maintaining, and where it could by increasing, those of the Revolution and of the Empire, by repressing every liberty through which its profligacy could be attacked, by dispensing with juries, by suspending the freedom of the press, by interfering witlh the elections, and, when it was met for the second time by an irresistible majority, by abolishing the Constitution. And it fell because it had sacrificed things to persons, because instead of trying to benefit the whole country it had striven to purchase a part of it, and because it had nothing to oppose to the united attack of the Republicans and Buonapartists, except an army which was Buonapartist, and a set of favourites and officials debased by eighteen years of wealth, patronage, and power. Then,' he said, 'came Louis-Philippe. He 172 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. found the political world divided into Republicans, Imperialists, and Legitimists. The Legitimists, of course, were his enemies. The Republicans and Imperialists, to whom he owed his throne, he tried to purchase in the old way by place, and power, and protection, and privilege. But, though the unparalleled prosperity of France under his reign enabled him to raise the public expenditure from 970 millions to 1,500 millions, the number whom he could satisfy was, of course, small compared to the number of those whom he was compelled to disappoint. The Republican and Imperialist parties, which had united to crown him, broke up into four factions. One consisted of the Louis-Philippists, strong in the Chamber but weak in the country; another formed the Opposition Dynastique, which wished to change the Ministers but to retain the King, or at least the family; another consisted of the Imperialists, who sighed for a Buonaparte and an Empire; and the fourth of the real Republicans, who desired not to change the Monarch, but to subvert the throne. Of the two last parties, one was formidable from its violence, the other from its numbers, and each has since, to a certain extent, succeeded. But it was not till the end of 1847 that either seemed likely to obtain much influence. Much more was expected from a fifth party, the Legitimists, who, though they entered the Chamber of Deputies in small numbers, were a constant nucleus of disaffection, always endeavouring to make the existing Government work ill. Though Louis-Philippe was able to bribe a steady majority in the Chamber, and to enable that majority to bribe a majority of the electors, I849.] Causes of the Revolution of 1848. I73 though he could buy hundreds and enable those hundreds to buy thousands, yet he could not purchase millions. Every year, at the beginning of the session, some grievance was seized or invented, blown up into gigantic dimensions, and suffered to collapse into insignificance as soon as the address was voted. One time it was the recensement des portes et des fenetres, another time the affairs of Poland, another the droit de visite, another the Pritchard indemnity, another the Spanish marriages. All were forgotten as soon as they had served their turn. In 1848 it was political corruption and, as its cure, parliamentary reform. This was the most dangerous mode in which the Government could be attacked; first, because the imputation of corruption was well-founded, though not peculiar to Louis-Philippe; and secondly, because the frightful and disgraceful events of the autumn of 1847 filled France with terror and disgust, and led men to look with hate or contempt on a Government among whose high functionaries were such men as Teste, Cubieres,' and Choiseul-Praslin.2 Then, too, the Opposition Dynastique joined the Republican and Legitimist factions, fancying that it could lead those whom, when the contest came, it was forced to follow. Had it not done this, had it not been too impatient to wait the slow process of parliamentary warfare, it must in time have obtained parliamentary reform, and, what 1 General Cubieres was interested in a salt mine. He and his associates bribed M. Teste, at that time Minister of Public Works, in order to obtain his support. They were convicted, and Teste tried to commit suicide.-ED. 2 The dreadful murder of the Duchesse de Praslin by her husband can scarcely yet be forgotten.-ED. 174 ou2rnals kept in France and Italy. [1849. was its real object, office and power. By joining the anti-dynastic parties, by appearing at banquets at which the King's health was not to be drunk, by countenancing all the truths and some of the calumnies with which the Court was assailed, they produced in the Parisian bourgeoisie and in the National Guard the disaffection which made them favour the emeute during the two first days, when the slightest exertion would have stifled it, and the third day made them obey, in stupid astonishment, the handful of ruffians who proclaimed the Republic.' He laughed at the prevailing outcry against Socialism. 'Socialism,' he said, 'is merely the present system logically carried out. It is the theory of a paternal Government, which treats its citizens as children, to be all taken care of by the State. Thiers, who speaks and writes so well against Socialism, is a Socialist so far as he is an Imperialist and a Protectionist.' This is a very imperfect sketch of a conversation which lasted a couple of hours. It was not indeed a conversation, but a monologue; for Dunoyer was anxious to pour out to an American and an Englishman his indignation against paternal government and centralisation, and Bancroft and I were delighted to hear him. After leaving Dunoyer I went to the Assembly. The Legislative Assembly were to-day rather less noisy than my recollections of the Constituent, and M. Dupin I interferes less than M. Marrast.2 Still the interruptions President of the Assemblee Legislative. 2 President of the Assemblee Constituante. 1849.] Debale in the Assenbly. I75 prevented much continuous speaking. The subject discussed was a motion by M. Creton, that the decision of the Constituent Assembly of May 19, ordering the tax on liquors to cease on January I next, the Government being required to find a substitute in the meantime, should be recalled. IM. Passy, the Minister of Finance, moved that the question be adjourned to next week, before which time he will have brought forward his budget; and, according to the rdglenment as expounded by the President, the question of adjournment only could be debated. He was unable, however, to prevent speaker after speaker from discussing the merits and demerits of the tax. M. Mauguin, for instance, proclaimed that the question was whether an unjust, demoralising, impious tax should be continued-or rather, attempted to be continued-for he warned the minister that he would be resisted by force. In short, the question was whether they would or would not have a new revolution. M. Passy replied that, without defending this tax in particular, he must say that when the Constituent Assembly required the Government to find a substitute for a tax producing 4 millions sterling a year, it required what was impossible in France, and, indeed, in any country in the world. At last the adjournment was adopted. In the afternoon we dined with Bancroft, and then went to the Vaudeville to see ' La Foire aux Idees.' It is a merciless satire on the Republic and on all who administer it, and was received with great applause by a full audience. 176 Journals kept in France and Italy. [1849. I finished the evening with the Horace Says. He is waiting with anxiety for the Budget, which is promised a week hence, and is to contain a plan for equalising the revenue and expenditure. How this is to be done in the present state of French politics, foreign and domestic, Say cannot conjecture. Tuesday, 7zdy 31I.-Sumner and Twisleton breakfasted with us. Sumner still expects the Hungarians to maintain their independence against the Austrians and Russians, but should this fail he thinks that rather than return to Austria they will become Russian. I have heard this language in London from Pulski and others, and I remember saying to Teleki that I thought it a strong proof of the extent to which national folly can go. As a portion, and the most important single portion, of the Austrian Empire, Hungary must always exercise great influence over the central power, and may in time obtain general good government. As a province of Russia it has nothing to hope but permanent submission to a semi-barbarous despotism. Purgatory is bad, but from hell nulla est redemptio. After breakfast we met M. Wohrman at the Exposition de l'Industrie. He is a Courlander, and has been kept for some years in Paris by the Russian Government, to report to them on the improvements in French manufacturing processes., Until lately the Government advanced large funds to the Russian manufacturers, and its agents of this kind were numerous. Since the Hungarian war it has discontinued these advances, and withdrawn the greater part of its commercial missionaries. 1849.] Plan for encouraging Labour. I77 Wohrman, however, is retained. He talked of a speech of Cobden's at some meeting on the Hungarian question, in which the Russian army was described as ill paid and ill fed, and the Russian finances as distressed. It will do, he thinks, great harm to the cause of free trade in Russia. Cobden is considered there as the representative of free trade, which has become popular there chiefly on his authority. This speech will be considered a tissue of errors and calumnies, and among the Russians, who are not good logicians, it will throw discredit on his other opinions. From the Exposition I went to the Assembly. The matter debated was a motion by M. Roselli-Moret, that a plan for encouraging labour by advances on moral security should be examined by a committee. His views, as far as they were shown in the discussion, were these: Labour to be profitable must be assisted by capitar. The man who has no capital can obtain it only by offering a security, which may be physical or moral. Everyone who can offer a sufficient security of either kind ought to be able to obtain an advance of capital, and as individuals cannot be forced to advance it, it must be advanced by the Government. To this it was objected that such a proposition went beyond le droit au travail, since to propose to give to every labourer a right to as much capital as his employment requires, is to give to the labouring classes a right to the whole capital of the country: in fact, a right to more than the whole capital, for there is no branch of VOL. I. N 178 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. industry that could not profitably employ more capital than it can obtain. All these plans, said another member, rest on three propositions: the State is to supply capital; it must supply it in the form of paper money, since it has no other funds capable of indefinite extension; and this paper money must represent either nothing or property belonging, not to the State, but to individuals. Disguise it as we may, it is a scheme to take the wealth of those who have, in order to place it in the hands of those who have not. The proposition was rejected by 323 votes to 162; a formidable minority. Bancroft dined with us, and at 9 o'clock we went to Mdme. de Tocqueville's Reception. The arrangement was very German. Mdme. de Tocqueville sat in an armchair by the mantelpiece, and the ladies as they arrived, about twenty in all, were ranged in a line by her side. The men stood in groups in the middle of the room. Once or twice Mdme. de Tocqueville escaped from her throne and sat on an ottoman, but she soon returnedand she told us that even this was an innovation. Her predecessors never rose. The whole was stiff. [On Wednesday, August I, Mr. Senior left Paris. He had suffered from bronchitis in the spring, and was ordered to try the mineral waters of Eaux Bonnes. He visited likewise Cauterets, Bagneres de Bigorre, and Eamx Bonnes. t79 Biarritz, besides all the great towns which lay in his way. Descriptions of them, and of the long walks and rides which he took among the mountains, are contained in the journals; but I have omitted all but a few extracts, to make room for more important matter.-ED.] Eaztr Bonnes, Wedlesday, A rg. 15. -Walked by the Chaussee to Eaux Chaudes to breakfast; then took a guide and returned by the Goursie and the mountain which rises immediately above the town-I believe it to be the Brecque. The walk by the Chaussee took me an hour and a half, the return by the mountains five hours and three-quarters, three of which were employed in the ascent from Eaux Chaudes to the plateau of the Goursie-more than two-thirds of this was a pathless scramble up a nearly perpendicular steep. The view from the plateau was magnificent. Due north was the valley of Ossau, Pau, and then the plains of France for fifty or sixty miles farther; due south was the Pic du Midi, standing alone, and seen from its base to its summit; on every other side high mountain ridges. If I were a millionaire I would build myself a house on the Brecque at the point where it overlooks Eaux Bonnes, I should pass July and August there, in the finest air and some of the finest scenery in Europe. Nothing, to be sure, could reach me on wheels, but I should have a very good horse-communication with Eaux Bonnes, and keep cows and grow vegetables on the mountain. My guide was thirty-seven years old, a day labourer, N 2 I80 zournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. without property and unmarried. He could earn thirty sous a day, or more, and if he was out of work went into the mountains, cut a beech and made a cart, and thought himself better off than the small proprietors. From twenty to twenty-seven he was in the I6th Regiment of Foot, and liked the service much. He probably would have remained in it if his Colonel had not quarrelled with his immediate superior, who endeavoured, according to my informant, to oppress both the Colonel and his men. The Colonel tried to break his sword on parade, and, not being able to do so, threw it on the ground, and said that whoever liked might pick it up-he never would. And 400 of the men, whose time of service had expired, left the service with him. As a private he was well fed, lodged, and clothed, and had five centimes (a halfpenny) a day to spend, and was as neat as a gentleman. He thought the service so popular that the conscription was unnecessary. More than enough volunteers would enter. I asked if the years spent in the army at all disqualified the peasantry for ordinary work. He said, No; what had been early learned was not forgotten. He set to work the day after he returned, and did not find himself the worse workman. I asked if the Republic was popular. ' O yes,' he said; 'we all voted for Louis Napoleon, partly because of his uncle, who was the greatest man that ever lived. To be sure he was too ambitious; he said that there ought to be only one God, one sun, and one emperor in the world-which was trop fortbut then he made all the laws which govern France. I849.] Politics of a Peasant. 18I And his nephew is the richest man in the 'world; he supports all the poor in Paris. He offered to supply the Treasury with all the money of which Ledru Rollin robbed it. He would certainly be king or emperor for life, which would not much signify, as, if they disliked him, they should turn him out, as they did his predecessors. They knew nothing of Guizot, or Odillon Barrot, or Cavaignac in his country; the only names known were Lamartine, Ledru Rollin, and Louis Napoleon. As for Lamartine, he was a querelleur, a taquineur. Ledru Rollin was a thief. There were 40,000 people in Paris who paid him forty sous a day a-piece. He intended to make himself king. It was the money which he had carried away which made the Republid poor.' I asked him if he had seen bears in the mountains. He said not unfrequently. The bear is afraid of man, and if he perceives you at a distance steals off. If you come suddenly upon him he rises on his hind legs in an attitude of defence, but does not attack. But if wounded he is a most dangerous enemy. Nothing but a bullet will pierce his hide. A single wound, though it may be mortal, does not stop him; he rushes on desperately as long as his strength lasts. About three years ago a Garde Champetre killed one on the Pic de Ger, which was the largest ever seen-as big as a cow. By tracking its footsteps he found the spring at which it drank, lay hid behind a rock near the path, fired as it passed, and wounded it. It stopped, and he fired the other barrel, and wounded it again. The bear, not seeing its enemy, 182 7ournals kept in France and IZaly. [1849. posted itself at the root of a large beech, so that it could not be attacked from behind. The huntsman loaded, but was forced to come from his cover to fire. The instant the bear saw him it rushed at him. He fired, hit it in the head, and it fell; but though a very bold, indeed rash, man, he was too much alarmed to wait to see the result, but scrambled away down the mountain. The next day he. returned, and found the bear dead. They tried to eat its flesh, but it was coarse and rank. M. Moncald, the author of the 'Itineraire aux Eaux Bonnes,' tells the story of a bear-lunt in which he was one:My six companions and I (he says) were posted separately in the most promising paths, up to our middles in snow, and in a sun of a hundred degrees. For eight mortal hours we stood sentinel-as to six of us, in vain; but the seventh, a mighty hunter, was more fortunate. Suddenly we heard two shots in his direction. Guides, sportsmen and all, we ran towards him, an(t found him in the highest excitement, hurrahing, gesticulating, shouting to us that he had wounded the bear, but that the brute had trotted by him at the distance of seventy or eighty feet, so that he was not sure where the ball had lodged. There were no traces of blood on the snow, and we feared that the enemy had escaped without much injury, and that the only result of the day would be my friend's glory in having hit a real live bear. While this was going on, the oldest of the guides was looking narrowly about him, and at last, as we are old friends, he said to me aside, ' Come with me, and I'll show you just what has happened. Here I put your friend. Here came the bear along this road, just over his head. You may see his footsteps and the stones which he threw down. Now look at the marks of your friend's shoes; the bear must have passed within a yard of him. But he did what I have known I849.] Bears. I83 many a one do before him; he crouched behind the rock, let the beast pass, and fired when he was in no danger of hitting his mark. But take no notice; we must humour the gentleman. They pay us well for going out with them in the summer, and in the winter we kill the bears.' In the evening I teased my friend with questions, and at last brought him to confess. 'I was delighted,' he said, ' when the noise of the stones, which he displaced, announced the bear's approach. I cocked my gun, and determined to put a ball into his brain. But when he peered over the rocks, just above my head, as big as any four of his fellows in the Jardin des Plantes, I own that I suddenly thought of my wife, and my children, and my friends. I remembered that I had only my gun and my cutlass. The nearest of you was 500 yards off. If I had missed, or slightly wounded him, I might have been eaten up before any of you could come to my assistance. So I resolved to part on good terms with my new acquaintance, and reserved my fire till he was out of sight.' Sunday, A ug. 26.-Rode through Laruns to Louvie in the Val d'Ossau. Nothing can be more deceptive than the villages seen from a distance. They are charmingly placed, being on little shelves of table-land on the sides of the mountains, or on projecting promontories, and always Bosomed high in tufted trees. I was often tempted to ride up to them. But the moment you enter you find yourself in a lane more rocky and dirty than even the approach to it, among black-looking stone buildings, closely packed together, looking like gigantic pigsties, and in a population of beggars. Children call out from two pair of stair I84 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. windows, 'Donnez-moi un sou;' women withdraw their hand from the cart-load of hay or wood which they carry on their heads to hold it out to you. The only person who ever abstains is the young, able-bodied man, and he sets his children at you. In this country, Sunday is often the market day. Laruns was almost impassable from the crowds of country people, with their droves of lean goats, sheep, and pigs, and the display of baskets and woollen work and crockery ware that covered the market-place. They are a very handsome race. The men are tall, with spare figures, good legs, and aquiline noses. The women have black hair and eyes, glowing brunette complexions, and dimpled cheeks. Their figures, too, are often very fine, probably improved by the habit of carrying things balanced on their heads. They are a contrast to the round-shouldered, stooping German peasantry. Wednesday, Auzg. 29.-Rode by the Brecque nearly to the plateau of the Goursie. It was a day of brilliant sunshine below, but shifting clouds among the mountains. The ride from the Brecque to the Goursie lies across some wide cols and round high promontories of mountains, and partly through a wood. The number of cattle, by making tracks of their own, have confused the path. But in clear weather it is easy to get to the Goursie by keeping in its direction, and getting round the natural obstacles that occur. To-day, however, the whole crests of the mountains were generally covered with cloud. From time to time there was a rent, through which the valley of Ossau and the green moun i849-] 4 A Mfountain Ride. i85 tain sides were seen in bright sunshine, looking like glimpses of Paradise. I observed one remarkable effect. The long road through the valley of Ossau looks in clear weather like what it is-sometimes flat, sometimes declining. To-day it was frequently the only object that could be distinguished, the sun's rays being swallowed up by the green of the fields and woods, but reflected from the white surface of the roads with sufficient strength to pierce the mist. So seen, it seemed to mount almost perpendicularly. I could have fancied that it rose up before me to the skies. What the eye sees must be an upright surface, a wall; but aerial perspective corrects the impression, and shows that much of what looks perpendicular is horizontal. Here there was nothing to correct the visible appearance. I believe that once or twice I got within three or four hundred yards of the plateau, but I was constantly losing the right direction, and at last thought it prudent to return. This, however, was not very easy. I lost myself again and again, went backwards and forwards over the same mountain ridges, and skirted the same beech woods, and I began to speculate on the chances of my being missed and discovered from Eaux Bonnes, till the mist suddenly cleared for half a mile round me, and I found a track that I remembered. Thursday, Aug. 30.-A clear day. I. rode to the Goursie, this time without difficulty. The effect, however, of the bright sun and perfectly unclouded mountains was very inferior to the half-revealed, half-covered prospects of yesterday. The mountains, seen at once 86 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. from root to summit, seemed much lower; the sunshine, uncontrasted by darkness, was less brilliant; the valleys did not look so green as yesterday. Such scenes as these ought to be visited under different circumstances, but if they can be seen only once it should be on a day when sunshine is partially obscured by mist. Tuesday, Sept. i.-Bagneres de Bigorre, Walked to the Palombiere. It consists of a set of magnificent beech trees, planted two and two along the ridge of a mountain to the northwest of the town, overlooking a sort of sea of lower mountains which stretches along between the high chain and the plain towards the Mediterranean. Between these trees immense nets, Ioo feet high, are extended, so thin, however, as to be scarcely visible. Before them, towards the west, are very high perches, as high as the trees, in each of which a man stands at this time of the year to watch the approach of the wild pigeons. He can see them about a quarter of hour before they arrive, and gives notice to those below to get ready the pulleys and strings. As soon as the pigeons approach he throws a piece of wood into the flock. They are alarmed, fly nearer the ground to take refuge among the trees, and are caught in the nets. I found a priest there, in his long ecclesiastical robes, busily employed in attending to the nets. His brother, he told me, rented them. I asked him if the trees had been planted for that purpose. He said certainly, and they must have been planted 300 years ago, for in that exposed situation they grow very slowly. He pointed out a tree which he had known for 38 years, still little i849.] Pyrenean Dogs. more than a sapling. When the full season comes, which is not till the middle of October, they catch some times Ioo pair a day. Friday, Sept. 14.-I walked to La Bassere, an ancient fort on the summit of an insulated slate rock, about six miles from Bagneres. About a mile from La Bassere I passed an enormous dog, on duty over sheep in a neighbouring field. He left his sheep to growl and bark at me; left the field and came down into the road and followed me for half a mile, growling and barking with a very malignant expression. I asked a man whom I met at the castle if there was any danger in passing him. He said, 'Assurement il y a du danger. Il est tresmechant.' On my return, by a parallel ridge of hills, I asked my way of a very fine man, a peasant, who said that he was going my way and would show me. Property, he said, was much divided, few persons possessing more than Ioo journees, which we made out to be I2 or 13 acres; but in this soil and climate, with three or four crops from the same land in a year, this is equal to twenty in England. The people, he said, were poor but industrious, and, on the whole, not ill off. As we passed a cottage, charmingly nestled among walnuts and chesnuts, on the side of the mountain, he said that it was his house, and asked me to come in and take some milk and bread, which of course I did. On a tree before the door was a Republican tricolor. I complimented him on his patriotism. He answered, 'The children have put it there because I am the Maire of La Bassere.' I asked him what he thought of Leon Faucher's opinion, that the 188 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. maires ought to be selected by the Minister, instead of being chosen, as they are since the Revolution of 1848, by the people. He said that Faucher (whose name, bythe-bye, he had never heard) was perfectly right. Better people would be appointed, and the Government would have more confidence in them. He did not recollect the names of the representatives of his department, though he was the returning officer of his commune; he brought me the list, but knew nothing about them. He had voted for Louis Napoleon. Why? For his uncle's sake. Why? Because he made the laws which govern France, and because under his reign they paid much less in taxes. Napoleon's military glory did not much affect him. The conscription by which it was bought was a dreadful calamity. He did not recollect it, but heard it spoken of with horror by those who did. The room in which we took our bread and milk was a large ground floor apartment, with two beds, commanding a glorious view. I asked after my acquaintance, the dog. He said that there was not much danger in riding by him on horseback when you passed rapidly, but that it was not safe to walk by him. Such dogs are necessary to protect the sheep against the wolves, which in winter come down from the high forests. After I left him, I fell in with a man who described himself as a maker of millstones, and wanted me to take a specimen of his work to England. I said that I feared I had not quite room in my carpet bag. I asked him what he thought of the Republic. He answered that he was no politician, for that la politiqze was merely la 1849.] NVeat Villages. I89 chasse aux places, and he did not want a place. This is Dunoyer's view. Wtednesday, Sept. I9.-I rode with Knight Bruce' to see La Bassere. Here we passed my old acquaintance the dog, who followed us growling and barking for about half a mile. We then wandered among the deep valleys which surround the old castle, crossed the table-land which commands the view of the high chain and of the plains, and returned through some neat, picturesque villages a little off the high road. The villages and farmhouses of this part of France are by far the most civilised that I have seen on the Continent, except in Holland and Switzerland. In many of them there are three or four country houses, generally old, but well kept up, and occupied by gentry; low, covering much ground, the offices forming usually a separate building. The second floor generally looks into a portico or verandah, open to the south. Thursday, Sept. 20. - Crossed the river and rode along the right bank through grotesque old villages covered with trees and vines to Mont Gaillard, and returned by Caesar's Camp. Every cottage is surrounded by walnuts, cherry trees, and chesnuts, and the vines, often of most venerable antiquity, with stems as large as a man's arm, climb up to their tops. The grapes are usually black, and hang in festoons among the branches, sometimes quite concealing the tree. Tuesday, Oct. 2.-Drove to Biarritz, four miles from Bayonne, and established ourselves at M. Waltry's-a 1 The late Lord Justice.-ED. 190 7ozrnals keptin i France and Italy. [I849. detached house in a garden on the cliff overlooking the Bay of Biscay. He is a very fine old man, above 80: he crossed the great St. Bernard with Buonaparte, wears the ribbon of the Legion of Honour, and is employed in the Mairie at Bayonne. His wife, I believe a Spaniard, cooks for us. They have four sons in the army; one expects immediately to be made an officer. Biarritz is an irregular village of white houses, most of them in gardens, and with trees, generally pollard, planes, or figs, before their doors, scattered over two sandstone promontories advancing into the Bay of Biscay, and wedged into the narrow valley between them. The rocks are eaten by the waves into all sorts of fantastic forms, arches, caves, rocky islands, and promontories, which run out into very deep water, on which a surf beats, even in calm weather, which no one who knows only the German Ocean or the Channel can imagine. To the south are the Pyrenees; the nearest of them seems about Io miles off, the most distant, to the west, must be those of La Montana. Between Biscay and Asturia, they seem to be about So or 90 miles from us; the most distant that I can make out to the east are the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, about 120 miles distant, and the Pic du Midi de Pau, about o00; so that the whole visible line is about 200 miles long. There can be few points in Europe commanding so extensive a range. At the entrance of the village, Mr. O'Shea, the great Madrid banker, has built a pretty marine villa, where he spends four or five months every summer. I had a 1849.1 Spanish Banditti. I9[ letter for him from Mrs. Austin, and found him very sensible and agreeable. I told him that we thought of running over to St. Sebastian, and asked him about the safety of the roads. He said that they were as safe as in the greater part of Europe; that he had heard of only two robberies during the last year, one of which took place about two months ago, about 500 yards from the gates of Madrid. Two diligences, containing forty-one passengers, were travelling together; they were met by three men, who made them drive off by a cross road four or five miles, robbed them, and let them go, after a detention of a couple of hours. He admitted, however, that he had not yet ventured to visit an estate of 7,000 acres, which he bought fourteen years ago, near Toledo. But he is a marked man; his visit would be foreknown, or at least his return, and he might be taken to the mountains for a ransom. That happened to a young American three or four years ago. He disappeared; and soon after a letter came to his friends to say that he was in the hands of robbers, and would be shot on a given day unless I,ooo dollars were sent. Mr. O'Shea thought that 500 would do, and sent them by a reclaimed robber. The man came back, reported that the money had been refused, and that he himself had been robbed of it on his return; and, at last, the whole I,ooo were sent. It arrived just in time, and his friend returned with the messenger, looking very thin. He had not been illtreated, but had been fed with only raw potatoes, the robbers themselves having nothing better, and the diet had not proved wholesome. Mr. O'Shea T92 Journals kept in France and taly. [1849. cares little about mere road robbery. He has been four times robbed, and always treated with great kindness. The last time the robber gave him back a few dollars to carry him to Valladolid, and took a very affectionate leave of him. Wednesday, Oct. 3.-I hired a pony and rode to find the mouth of the Adour. But I got into a labyrinth of sandhills and vineyards, and was forced to make my way to the beach, as the only safe road. The vines are planted on the southern exposure of the sandhills, and kept very low, not above 18 inches high-a contrast to the vines in the higher districts, which are carried to the tops of the chesnuts, cherry trees, and ashes, and hang in festoons from all the branches. On the beach I found some women returning from bathing; they were walking two and two, and I was struck with the peculiarity of their dress-black gowns with white veils. I asked a countryman who they were; he said, 'Religieuses, from a neighbouring convent.' Though October 3, the sun was so hot that I was forced to leave the beach, which I did with regret; the surf was magnificent; a land breeze blew off the tops of the waves before they broke, and the spray formed a succession of rainbows. On my return I passed the convent; it looks like a mere farm-house. Thursday, Oct. 4.-To-day was the highest tide of the whole year, and, as it was agitated by a breeze from the south, it was feared that the bathing-houses might be carried away. At about two o'clock, therefore, the whole able-bodied population of Biarritz was active in taking ,849.] High Tide in the Bay of Biscay. 193 them down. At about 4, though it was raining, all the visitors were scattered over the rocks to watch the breakers. I never saw anything resembling them. The waves came in very slowly at intervals of about Ioo yards apart, each, as far as I could judge, about 12 feet high. They first broke on outlying rocks, and threw up sheets of spray to 40 or 50 feet, then met with the promontories and reefs, and dashed clean over them, rushed through the arches which are eaten through many parts of the reefs, poured into the caves in the cliffs, and when they could get no farther were driven back with a report as loud as that of artillery. The ground where we stood, a rocky promontory, frequently shook beneath us. The finest seas that I have ever seen-that is, at Horn Head and at the Giant's Causeway-are lakes compared to the Bay of Biscay. Friday, Oct. 5.-The rain of yesterday has been snow in the high Pyrenees. The distant ranges to the east are all white. Sunday, Oct. 7.-Drank tea with the O'Sheas. He told me the story of the marriage of his eldest son, now only 21. When he was 20, and young for his age, he told his step-mother that he was in love with a daughter of the Iuke of Montemar, a girl of I8. His parents were sorry to hear it-first, because they wished him to marry an Englishwoman; and secondly, because they thought him too young. But as to the lady, and the connection, there could be no objection. The father was an old friend of O'Shea's, and the children had been playfellows from youth. The first step to be taken was VOL. I. O 194 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. that O'Shea should call on the duke and ask for his daughter. The duke was prepared for the visit. He was in full dress, with two secretaries, his family archives, and a sort of Durbar of attendants. O'Shea ought to have gone in state, but he walked to the house alone in a morning dress, and begged the duke, as an old friend, to talk over the matter in private. By the Spanish law, a husband takes his wife's rank. The duke has a son and three daughters; thirteen different dukedoms have centred in him, and he can divide them among his children. He has given one to each of his other daughters, and proposed to do the same for the future Mrs. O'Shea. O'Shea objected. His son, he said, would not have a ducal fortune; but his objections were overruled, and young O'Shea is to be a duke, though, at his father's request, his elevation is for the present postponed. The O'Sheas spoke in very high terms of the Spaniards, as kind, amiable, joyous people. Their houses are always open, though they have few meetings by express invitation. Monday, Oct. 8.-Drank tea with the O'Sheas; they return to Spain to-morrow. He spoke, like all the world, in the highest terms of Lord Clarendon. Since we have had no Minister our affairs have gone admirably. Anything that an Englishman wishes to have done is done more readily than if it had to be asked for officially. The tariff will be published in a few weeks. It was facilitated by the cessation of our diplomatic relations. It could not be attributed to our dictation. I849-] Revolution leads to Despotism. I95 I asked him about Salamanca. He is a man, O'Shea says, of great talent, but thoroughly unprincipled; and it is a defect in the Spanish character that such a man is generally well received. Nothing excludes a man from society, if he is supposed to have the means of getting on. Sunday, Oct. I4.-We left Biarritz. I was very sorry to do so. Orleans, Oct. 2r.-At a quarter after To we started by the railway and got to Paris by a quarter after I. In the evening I went to Mdme. de Tocqueville's. -* * * * * * Monday, Oct. 22.-I called on Lord Normanby. He talks rather despondingly. The Legitimist and Moderate parties, he says, made it up on Saturday, for the vote on the Roman question-but it is a hollow peace. He fears either a junction of the Legitimist and Republican parties, like that which overset Louis-Philippe in I848, or a new appeal to force on the part of the Mountain. He agreed with me that the effect of the revolution has been to subject France to monarchical rule; first under the Provisional Government, the most absolute of despotisms, next under Cavaignac, and now under Louis Napoleon. I said that I thought Louis Napoleon the sovereign in Europe who had most influence in his own Government next to the Czar; and Lord Normanby assented. Lord Brougham was here last week, in great force. He did good by convincing the Russian Minister Kissileff that the English protestation against the extradition of the Hungarians was not a mere newspaper 0 2 196 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. cry, but the deep feeling of the whole people. Lord Normanby was startled a day or two after at seeing the conversation between Brougham and Kissileff reproduced in the English ' Sun,' and mentioned as having taken place, as in fact it did, at the Embassy. Tuesday, Oct. 23. —I breakfasted with the Tocquevilles. * * * * * * Afterwards we called on the Culpeppers. Mrs. Culpepper says that her Legitimist friends say that France has not yet suffered enough; that she must be made to taste still more bitterly the fruits of the Revolution of 1830; that they believe that a year of the Rouge party in power is necessary to a perfect cure; that they are endeavouring to make the present Government work as ill as possible, in the hope that a Ledru Rollin or Barbes faction may get in, and play such pranks as may force the recall of Henry V. In the evening we drank tea with the Fauchers. Faucher looks with some alarm to the motion of M. Creton, which has precedence over a similar one of Napoleon Buonaparte (Jerome's son), for the recall of the Bourbons. The matter was discussed about ten days ago at a meeting of the club of the majority, which sits in one of the halls of the Conseil d'Etat; and Berryer made a speech unfavourable to the continuance of the apparent concurrence of the White and Blue (Legitimist and Orleanist) parties. It disclaimed on the part of the elder branch the propriety, even the possibility, of a 1849.] Discussion as to Recall of the Bourbons. 197 return as simple citizens. They could not, he said, ever forget that their ancestors had enjoyed for centuries the highest position that men could hold-that of reigning over the greatest nation in the world-anc would become objects of contempt if they condescended to return to mix with the crowd, or to ask for employment in the Republican service. This avowal of a 'continual claim' in legal language, to the throne, and this more than sneer at the requests made by the Orleans princes, had roused the Orleans party; they had almost declared that the offer made by the Duc d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville to accept commands in the army and in the fleet was no abandonment of the rights of their family. ' And at last,' said Faucher, 'I was forced to rise and remind each party that we are living under an established Government, which has a right to consider the assertion of such claims as treason; that we are all now Republicans, and that if we quarrel as to the rights of pretenders we shall let in the common enemy, the Rouge.' Wednesday, Oct. 24.-Horace Say breakfasted with us. Say is going to London on Sunday to hear Cobden at Exeter Hall, much to our amusement. He is much struck by Cobden's tact in addressing a French audience. Both his matter and his manner are more lively, more French, than when he speaks to an English public. After breakfast, Knight Bruce and I went to the Chamber to hear the discussion as to the recall of the Bourbons. M. Creton opened it heavily. He was followed by Berryer, whose speech fulfilled Faucher's pro 198 Journals kept in France and Italy. [1849. phecy. He maintained that the proposition was not sincere; that those who made it knew well that the Bourbons could not accept it. ' The inheritors of royalty,' he said, 'may be driven from the throne; they may be proscribed, they may be exiled, but they cannot be turned into private citizens. Revolutions can command the present and influence the future, but they cannot destroy the past. In every foreign land throughout civilised Europe, where every royal race boasts that its blood has been enriched by that of the House of France, what are these Princes? They are the children of the most ancient, of the most illustrious family that has ever governed the earth. They are the children of the family which has governed the great French nation, and has governed it for ages. Are they to be forced, or even to be invited, to forget this glorious past; to give up the only inheritance which cannot be torn from them? If any one of them were to come to us as a mere fellowcitizen, were to seek to be made a duke or a marquis, or to represent a department, or were to ask for a ship or a regiment, I ask you all, I ask those who sit on the highest of those benches of the Left, what would be the sort of feeling that he would inspire? Which would despise him the most? Those who believed him to be treacherous or those who believed him to be sincere? I demand that the proposition be rejected immediately and irrevocably.' After a dull speech from M. Duprat, which I did not attend to, Dufaure rose. He is one of the very best debaters that I ever heard. Clear, unembarrassed, sen I849.] Speech of Prince Napoleon. 199 sible, and with an enunciation and a voice so perfect that in that enormous hall not a syllable was lost. Approving the principle of the proposition, he thought it premature. 'France is just recovering from a frightful disease, and, like all convalescents, is preternaturally sensitive. The presence of a Bourbon at this instant would excite absurd hopes and absurd fears, and in each case interrupt the advance towards stability and repose which the country is slowly making.' Then came Napoleon Buonaparte, Jerome's son. Up to the present time the debate had been decorous. Creton and Duprat were too dull to excite opposition. Berryer speaks very seldom; the House, therefore, was anxious to hear him, and as his speech was very offensive to the Orleanists, it pleased the noisy party, the Montagnards. Dufaure was conciliatory, and it was so agreeable to listen to him that no one could bear to interrupt him. But as soon as Buonaparte rose, who was neither conciliatory, nor agreeable, nor sensible, nor a novelty, the interruptions began in good earnest. He said, which was true, that Berryer's speech was a declaration of eternal war between the Legitimists and the rest of the nation. That it affirmed that the Assembly or the President might be sovereigns de facto, but that at Frohsdorf resided the sovereign dejure, and that his inalienable rights admitted no compromise. But he asked if there were no Bourbons but the inhabitant of Frohsdorf? and he read the letters of the Orleanist Princes —Joinville, Nemours, and Aumale-asking permission to return. As for Dufaure's plan of delaying 2zoo ournals kept in France and Italy. [1xs49 the recall to a more favourable opportunity, to a period of greater calm, he asked when that period was to come? Would the nation be calmer three years hence, on the eve of a Presidential election, or four years hence, when revising the Constitution? Or did M. Dufaure mean to refer to the calm period which is to follow the abolition of the Republic and of universal suffrage? He succeeded, as the Montagnards generally do, in irritating, by turns, the Legitimists, the Orleanists, and the Buonapartists, and helped to occasion the defeat of his own party by a majority of three to one. Thursday, Oct. 25.-We went this morning with Horace Say and Knight Bruce to the Hotel de Ville. Say showed us a little room in which the Conseil Municipal met on February 24; they knew that the King had abdicated, but not which Government was to follow, and in that extremity proposed to assume the Government themselves, as the descendants of that formidable body, the Commune de Paris. Say drew up a proclamation, of which the following is a copy. It was printed; but before it could be distributed, the other Provisional Governments-one nominated in the Chamber, the other in the office of the 'Reforme' newspaper-had arrived, coalesced, and assumed absolute power: Proclamation du Conseil municipal. Citoyens,-Le roi vient d'abdiquer. Les chambres sont dissoutes; en l'absence de tout pouvoir regulier, le Conseil municipal s'est reuni; il veille sur les interets de la grande cite, I849.] The Hotel de Ville. 201 et son premier besoin est de s'occuper des moyens d'arreter avant.tout l'effusion du sang. De'j les troupes ont reSu l'ordre positif de se retirer et de laisser la garde nationale exclusivement chargee du service. Le Conseil a confiance dans le peuple. Respect aux monuments publics et aux proprietees privees. La doit s'arreter l'action du Conseil municipal. A la nation seule appartient le droit de regler son avenir. De l'Hotel de Ville de Paris, le 24 fevrier 1848, a deux heures apres-midi. We saw the back staircase at the top of which Robespierre was shot, the room in which he was exposed during the remainder of the night of the 9th Thermidor, and the window out of which Coffinhal was thrown. Thence we went to the room, in a corner at the end of a passage, in which the Provisional Government held their first sittings. I do not wonder that many persons were suffocated or trampled to death in the narrow passage that leads to it. All the apartments on the ground floor are filled with soldiers; for, as yet, the destinies of France have depended on the possession of the Hotel de Ville. Whoever has that has Paris, and whoever has Paris has France. Afterwards I went with V. and Wollowski to the Libraries of the National Assembly and of the Chamber of Peers, to show them some of our parliamentary papers. Both are fine rooms-that of the Peers a magnificent one, and the collections are very extensive, not like those of our houses, confined to law, history, and statistics. Wollowski now went to the 202 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. Chamber, and V. and I walked for a couple of hours in the Luxembourg Gardens. He is an Orleanist and a friend of Guizot's, at whose house I made his acquaintance some years ago. He was a member of the last Chamber of Deputies. I recurred to the subject on which I had talked with Tocqueville ---the separation between the gentilshommes and roturiers. He agrees with Tocqueville, that it exists in full force-the two classes do not intermarry, or live together, or sympathise. They hate us, said V., and we despise them. They are as rich as we are, and more active, but, as they can give only a portion of their time to society, much less agreeable. Most of the old noblesse have enough to live decently in idleness. The indemnity enabled many old fortunes to be reconstructed. Land was cheap then, and the old families are perhaps less expensive, because less ostentatious, than the new ones. They have in general no pursuit except society, and therefore are masters of its arts. Like everybody else who knows Tocqueville, he considers him as the perfect type of the best society of the old regime. He thinks this separation a great political difficulty. It keeps apart the Legitimists and the Orleanists: even if the Heads could agree their followers could not. Each party, too, wishes for the monopoly of power and, what is more coveted, of place. He thinks French centralisation and French place-hunting as mischievous as Dunoyer himself, but sees no prospect of a remedy. Every party when out of power reprobates centralisation, but every party when in power clings to it. A strongly centralised Government is too 1849.] France unfi forConslitutional Monarchy. 203 powerful an instrument to be voluntarily surrendered by those who grasp it. V. agrees with Faucher as to the dangers announced by Berryer's speech. ' I porte,' he says, 'la guerre civile dans ses flancs.' The present Constitution, he thinks, cannot last. A triennial election of a President would be a triennial revolution. He believes, indeed, that the existence of a President is incompatible with the freedom of the press. Any man, any angel, would be libelled down in two or three years. The next phase of the revolution may be the prolongation of the President's term; but no constitutional monarchy, whether the monarch be called Emperor, King, or President, can last in France. If democracy prevail in the next convulsion, the result will probably be a Chamber appointing Ministers and governing by them. If monarchy prevail, the monarch will be absolute. The government of an Assembly in which there are parties and debates does not suit France. As it sees much more clearly the faults than the merits of men, of measures, and of institutions, it is inclined to believe all the statements and to trust all the arguments of the minority, and thus to lose its confidence in the Ministry which is supported by the majority. The debates which took place in the last Assembly destroyed its influence before it ceased to sit, and the present Assembly has already lost much ground with the public. He thinks it fortunate, on the whole, that in 1848 monarchy made no resistance. The country fell at 204 yournals kept in France and Ital,. [1849. once to the bottom of the pit without a prolonged agony. In the then state of men's minds no resistance would have been permanently successful, but the contest might have lasted for a year or two. A Mole Ministry, a Thiers and Odillon Barrot Ministry, an abdication, the Regency of the Duc de Nemours, the Regency of the Duchess of Orleans, and a Provisional Government, would probably all have succeeded one another, and in nearly the same order; but instead of lasting each for three or four hours, they would have lasted each for three or four months, and the country would have been worn out. Lamartine, he says, is the most unpopular man in France. The Orleanists detest him as the subverter of their dynasty, the Legitimists as a Republican, and the Republicans as a traitor. Dumon' came to us at dinner. He has taken a house at Versailles. In the course of the autumn he spent three weeks at Dieppe, found Thiers there, and lived in great intimacy with him. Thiers denied to him most positively and circumstantially that on February 24 he ordered the withdrawal of the troops, and asserted that, in fact, he never could have done so, for that he never was actual Minister on that day. I have been promised a memoir of the events drawn up by Marshal Bugeaud 2 1 M. Dumon was ' Ministre des Finances' under M. Guizot in the last days of Louis-Philippe's reign. He escaped from France in 1848, and lived in London,(where he was the delight of all who had the pleasure of knowing him) during the period of his exile. After his return to France he gave up politics, and became director of the Lyons Railway. He died in I870.-ED. 2 Marshal Bugeaud died in June I849.-ED. i849.] Politics of the French Army. 205 himself. Dumon sees the imminence of bankruptcy, but not the means of averting it. To increase the revenue by increased taxation seems impossible; and though the Customs, now producing only six millions sterling, might be considerably raised by lowering the prohibitory duties on iron, and on woollen, cotton, and silk manufactures, this would endanger for a time the prosperity of the four greatest French industries, and raise a rebellion among both workmen and masters. The Socialists are opposed to free trade, or, as they call it, competition, even at home, much more from foreigners. A Dictator might do it, not an Assembly. The ruin of France is Algiers. Under the monarchy it cost 120 millions a year; it costs now a little, but a very little, less. Mrs. Marcet and her son, the Fauchers, Wollowski, Prevost, and V. drank tea with us. We talked of the politics of the French army. V. said that its politics were professional-it cared for nothing but advancement and, as a means of advancement, war. I said that I could quite understand that with respect to the portion of the army which consists of remplaaants, who adopt arms as a profession; but that the conscript, who intends to quit as soon as his six years are over, would naturally prefer peace and quiet quarters. V. answered that my supposition, though plausible, was wrong. That the conscript, though hating the service, though counting every month that he has to remain in it, yet while he is a soldier feels the esprit de corps, and longs to cross the frontier and to fight. He sighs for the time when he can return to his field or to his vineyard, but till that 206 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. time comes he wishes for glory, and contest, and excitement. Faucher says that Lord Normanby is at present rather unpopular. He is thought to have pushed the French Government into a quarrel with Russia about the Hungarian refugees, and to stimulate the President's wish for war. Friday, Oct. 26.-I went with Knight Bruce to the Haute Cour at Versailles. My landlord was in the carriage with us. We talked of the National Guards; he said that he had been out with them on all the recent occasions, and not one-third of them would fight. A pare de famille has great reverence for a barricade. We took our places at half-past IO; at i, the judges, eight or nine, and the Avocat-General-all dressed in scarlet and ermine —took their seats; and the jury came in, but not the prisoners. Ever since the beginning of the trial, a war had been kept up by the Rouge party against the witnesses. They are insulted by the prisoners and by their advocates (and sometimes insult them in return); they are overwhelmed with threatening letters, their testimony is misrepresented in the reports of the low newspapers, and their addresses are printed there in large capitals. In short, it is a system of intimidation. The 'Tribune des Peuples,' an evening paper, in its report of the sitting of October I8, had blamed severely the conduct of the Court and of the witnesses, and had omitted some material facts. Under Article 7 of a law of March 25, I822, a report (compte rendut) of any judicial proceedings, if wilfully i849.] Haute Cour at Versailles. 207 false or libellous, is summarily punishable by the Court as a contempt. But the 83rd clause of the new Constitution declares that all dglits de la presse shall be cognisable exclusively by a jury. There were, therefore, three questions to be considered: I. Was the law of 1822 impliedly repealed by the 83rd clause of the Constitution? in which case the Court was incompetent. 2. Was the article a report or a comment (un compte rendu, or une appreciation)? 3. Was it maliciously false? The Editor was first called up, and admitted his responsibility. MM. Laissac and Michel de Bourges, his counsel, then urged the incompetence of the Court. M. Michel, on whom the chief burthen fell, maintained., that it must have been the intention of the framers of the Constitution to put the press, the safeguard of the Republic, under the safeguard of the only incorruptible and infallible tribunal-a jury. The Court, after an hour's deliberation, declared itself competent, and the counsel for the Editor declined arguing the other questions, leaving them to the Court, which inflicted a month's imprisonment and a fine of I,ooo francs. This occupied the whole day. M. Lain, the Avocat-General, spoke temperately and clearly; M. Laissac, a great vulgar-looking man, coarsely and heavily. M. Michel had the usual French faults of violence, exaggeration, and bad taste in an unusual degree. I never heard a speech which made me more 208 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. anxious to decide against the speaker. Its violence gave notice to the Court that he despaired of his cause. This finished the business. It seems strange that such a discussion should interrupt for a whole day the proceedings of one of the most important trials that has ever occurred in France; but I do not know how some interruption could have been avoided. It was necessary to protect the witnesses by the immediate punishment of one of those who were misrepresenting and intimidating them, and impossible to punish without hearing the culprit; but perhaps they need not have given up a whole day to it. Mrs. Marcet and V. drank tea with us. I asked V. what would be the consequence of the adoption of Lamartine's plan-the abolition of the salary of the clergy. He answered that it would be the abolition of the clergy, for that the people were too poor to pay them. I replied that they could not be poorer than the Irish, yet the Irish pay their priests, and pay them well. The ordinary income of a French priest does not exceed 50/. a year-that of an Irish priest often amounts to iool. or 200. He answered that the Irish were far more religious than the French, and that they had gradually acquired a habit of paying their priests. The priests themselves are of V.'s opinion, and their hostility defeated Lamartine at the late general election. This led us to talk about the condition of French peasantry, and V. described it as generally bad. I said that in the country from which I had just come they appeared well off, their clothes good, their fields 1849.1 Condition of the French Peasantry. 209 well cultivated, and their persons handsome. He replied that the Basses Pyrenees form an exceptional district; that they enjoy a fine soil, a peculiarly healthy climate, are inhabited by a vigorous race, and enriched by the affluence of strangers. But that the centre of France, which is the country that he knows best, and of which he was thinking, has a poorer soil, bad roads, often none, and is inhabited by an ignorant and indolent, and therefore poor and degraded, population. Late in the evening we went to the Embassy, it being Lady Normanby's night. The rooms are fine, but the French practice of putting the doors at the corners unfits them for a large party. Each room makes a separate crowd. We heard there the good news, just received by the telegraph, that Russia no longer requires the extradition of the Poles. Lord Normanby will, I suppose, now be again in favour with the French; but their uneasiness and ill-humour, while the decision of the Czar was doubtful, show how little they can be depended on as allies. Saturday, Oct. 27.-Auguste Chevalier breakfasted with us,. He gave us an account of his journey, on June 22, I848, to Amiens, to bring up the National Guard. He went to the station with a companion, both of them disguised as Englishmen, with the order from the Minister of the Interior in the sole of his boot. The station was in the hands of the insurgents, who had entrenched themselves with great military skill in the Secretary to the President, and brother of M. Michel Chevalier. He died some years ago.-ED. VOL. I. P 2IO 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1849, neighbouring unfinished church of St. Paul. His friend followed, at the distance of about Ioo yards, in order, if Chevalier should be detected and shot, to return with the news. They were allowed, however, to pass on, till they found an engine unemployed, on which they mounted, and as soon as they had gone two miles they were safe. In five hours they brought up 3,000 National Guards from Amiens. Mrs. Senior asked him if he felt alarmed. He said not in the least; the excitement of such scenes destroys all sense of danger. In the course of the morning a friend, who desired me not to name him, brought me Marshal Bugeaud's memoir. It is a very long letter, in the Marshal's own hand, dated October I9, 1848. He allowed me to exract the material parts, and they are these: At 2 in the morning of the 24th (says Marshal Bugeaud) an aide-de-camp of the King summoned me to the Tuileries, where the command of the troops and of the National Guard was offered to me. I thought myself bound to accept, and Duchatel and Guizot were sent for to countersign the order. Some precious time was lost in this, and it was half-past 3 before I could get to the troops, drawn up in the Place du Carrousel and the Cour des Tuileries. They were very demoralised, having been kept for sixty hours, their feet in the cold mud, their knapsacks on their backs, with only three rations of biscuit, and forced to see, without interfering, the rioters attack the Municipal Guards, cut down the trees, break the lamps, and burn the guard-houses. Generally, they had only ten cartridges a man-the best provided had only twenty-there were only three caissons of cartridges at the Tuileries, about as many at the Ecole Militaire, 1849.] Marshal Bugeaud's Account of Feb. 24. 211 and no more in Paris. Even at Vincennes there were only thirteen caissons, and to reach them the whole insurrection had to be crossed. The cavalry horses were knocked up, there was no corn for them, and the men had been kept nearly three days on their backs. All the detachments at the Pantheon, Bastille, Hotel de Ville, and on the Boulevards had been ordered to fall back on the Tuileries. I sent them orders to remain firm where they were. As respects the National Guards, things were still worse. I found the chief of the staff in a garret. He wanted to resign. I could get nothing out of him. At half-past 5, as day broke, I put in motion four columnsordered one to march to the Bastille, one to the Hotel de Ville, one to the Pantheon, and the last to follow the two first and prevent the barricades which were abandoned from being reoccupied. The only column which encountered any resistance was that which marched by the Boulevards on the Bastille. The General who commanded it sent me word that his way was barred at the Boulevard Montmartre by an enormous crowd, all armed, crying, 'Vive la Reforme ' &c., and asked for instructions. I ordered him to force his way, but I afterwards heard that he disobeyed, and acted with great weakness. At half-past 7 a crowd of bourgeois came to me, almost in tears, to beseech me to recall the troops, who irritated the people, and to let the National Guards who were collecting put down the riot. I was explaining to them the absurdity of their proposal, when Thiers and Barrot brought me express orders from the King to withdraw the troops and employ only the National Guards; of whom I could not see more than three or four files. I resisted the Ministers as I had the bourgeois, when the order was repeated by the Duc de Nemours, who came straight from the King. I could not incur the responsibility of further disobedience, and dictated orders in these terms, 'By the express command of the King and of the Ministers, you will reP 2 22 2 ournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. tire on the Tuileries. If, however, you are attacked, you will resume the offensive, and act on my former orders.' The zeal with which these orders were carried to the different posts by the bourgeois and National Guards near me was no good omen. If the troops had met with any resistance they could not have been obeyed, as the battle would have been already raging, and the result would have been very different. At about 9 o'clock Thiers and Barrot came back to me, bringing Lamoriciere, on whom the command of the National Guard had been conferred. ' Since we are not to fight,' I said to him, ' go and employ your popularity in bringing these madmen to reason.' He executed this mission with great courage and at great risk. Thiers and Barrot were getting on horseback to do the same, when Vernet the painter begged me to keep back Thiers, whom the mob would tear to pieces. I did so with difficulty. Barrot went out, was ill received, and came back to say, 'Thiers is not possible. I am scarcely so. I shall go to the Chateau.' It was now Io o'clock. Two battalions of the loth Legion 1 entered the Place du Carrousel. They applauded me, but cried 'A bas Guizot!' Soon after the King came out and reviewed them. He was well received. I had no doubt but that he intended to show himself to the troops and to the people, when, to my astonishment, he turned back, dismounted, and returned to the Chateau. With these two battalions I took possession, without resistance, of the barricades which were erecting in the streets opening on the Rue de Rivoli. A column of rioters was advancing through the Carrousel, and had got as far as the solitary house where the diligences stop. I addressed them with good effect; one man said, 'Are you Marshal Bugeaud? You had my brother killed in the Rue Transnonain.' ' You lie,' I said; ' I was not there.' He pointed his gun at me, but was stopped by his companions. They shouted 'Vive le Marechal Bugeaud! Vive la gloire militaire ' I National Guards. I849.] Marshal Bugeaud's Account of Feb. 24. 213 and I began to hope that the riot would die out-a piece of great simplicity. I ought to have known that an enemy is not stopped by a retreat, nor a mob by concessions, I now heard a shot or two in the direction of the Palais Royal. I had not time to look at my watch, but it must have been about half-past i. I ran to a battalion of the 9th Leger. I said, ' Since they begin, we accept; I am at your head.' At this instant two aides-de-camp of the King came to tell me that the King had abdicated, and that Gerard had the command of the troops. I ordered the battalion to advance, and ran to the Chateau. I found the King writing his abdication, in the midst of a crowd who were pressing him to finish it. I opposed this with all my might. I said that it was too late, that it would have no effect, except demoralising the soldiers, that they were ready to act, and that to fight it out was the only thing left to us. The Queen supported me with energy. The King rose, leaving his abdication unfinished, but the Duc de Montpensier and many others cried out that he had promised to abdicate, and that he must abdicate. My voice was stifled by the crowd, and the King sat down again to write. I heard the firing outside, and ran out to head the first volunteers who would follow me against the rioters. Cremieux tried to stop me; I got rid of him, and ran into the Place du Carrousel. To my astonishment, I saw the troops leaving it by every exit; I presume, under the orders of my successor, Marshal Gerard. It was too late to stop them, even if they would have listened to me. I[ went along the Quai to the Palais Bourbon. It seemed deserted, and I supposed that the Chamber of Deputies had not met. A mob met me coming along the Quai d'Orsay, and began to cry 'A bas le Marechal Bugeaud!' I said to them, 'Do you cry, Down with the conqueror of Abd-el-Kader? Down with the man who has subdued the Arabs and conquered Africa? Down with the man whom you will want to lead you against the Germans and the Russians? In a month perhaps you will wish for my experience and my courage.' This 2I4 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1849. succeeded, and they began to cry 'Vive le Marechal Bugeaud!' and all would shake hands with me. I reached my own house, changed my dress, and went back to the Palais Bourbon. When I got there I met some Deputies running out of the Chamber, looking almost frightened to death; those who could speak cried out, 'All is over; they have proclaimed the Republic.' I ran to the detachment of the Ioth Legion, which was stationed in the Place, and said, 'You don't wish for a Republic?' 'No, sacre-bleu!' they said. 'Then come with me to the Chamber.' There were about 150 of them; they ran for their arms. Oudinot joined us, and we moved towards the Chamber; about twenty Deputies met us escaping from the Chamber. ' All is lost,' they said; 'the Duchess is going to the Invalides, the Republic is proclaimed.' And it was too late, or we were too few. And the monarchy fell. If the Court had been at Versailles, if I had had the command a fortnight before, things might have passed differently. But all had been neglected. No preparation was made for resistance or for retreat, no plan laid down, no instructions given. There were no supplies of ammunition, no deposits of provisions, no collections of the tools for breaking through doors and piercing walls; nothing was thought of, except to follow what was recollected of the management of I834. I have often talked to the Ministers and to M. Guizot about the dangers to which their want of preparation exposed the minority, but I never could excite their interest or even gain their attention. There was a sort of sneer, as if they thought I was talking in hopes of obtaining a command. Tout d vous de cceur, MRL. B. DE -.I Note by Mr. Senior:-I have just received (Dec. I3, I849) a letter from De Tocqueville, containing the following anecdote:After having sat out the revolutionary scene, heard the Proclamation of the Republic, and seen Lamartine and Ledru Rollin set off for the Hotel de Ville, I was quitting the Chamber, and had reached the landing 1849.] Letter from M. de Tocgueville. 215 Mrs. Marcet and Faucher drank tea with us. Faucher's anticipations are very gloomy. He fully expects another outbreak at no distant time, and is not at all confident as to the issue. Much, a great deal too much, depends on Changarnier, who, however, is cool and determined. 'June 13, 1849, was,' said Faucher, 'merely the execution of the plan which he and I laid down for the management of the emeute which was expected on the 29th of the previous January. Faucher has little reliance on the National Guards, and doubts whether on the first or even the second day of the contest of June 1848 more place of the staircase which leads from the waiting-room into the court, now occupied by our Provisional House, when I met a company of the Ioth Legion, with fixed bayonets, led by General Oudinot, not in uniform, but brandishing his cane in a very military style, and crying ' En avant, Vive le Roi! ' and 'La duchesse d'Orleans regente!' By his side, gesticulating and shouting in the same manner, was a man whom I will not name, who by the evening had become a fierce Republican. The National Guards, though not numerous, uttered the same cries, and rushed up the staircase with great resolution. Oudinot, recognising me, caught me by the arm, and cried, ' Where are you going? Come with us, and we will sweep these ruffians out of the Chamber.' 'My dear General,' I answered, 'it is too late; the Chamber is dissolved, the Duchess has fled, the Provisional Government is on its way to the Hotel de Ville.' The impulse, however, which he had given to the column of National Guards was such that it did not stop. I turned back, and we all re-entered the Chamber. The crowd had just left it. The National Guards stood still for an instant, looking at the empty benches, and then dispersed in all directions. They belonged to the Quartier St. Germain. Oudinot had collected them by going from house to house. If he had been able to do so two hours, or even one hour, earlier, the destinies of France, and perhaps of Europe, might have been altered. Even on February 24 (continued Tocqueville) the monarchy might have been saved, if the Proclamation of the Provisional Government and the retreat of the Duchess of Orleans could have been retarded an hour. I Lamartine. -ED. 216 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I849. than Io,0oo of them were present. He attributes the success of that struggle to the part taken in it, I believe on the third day, by the members of the Assembly. As soon as they appeared at the barricades, dressed in their scarfs, the troops and the well-disposed part of the National Guards felt they should not be abandoned by the Government, as they were on February 24. Faucher does not agree with V. in thinking government by an Assembly and its ministers, but with no President of the State, possible. It would be anarchy. He thinks, too, that France is essentially monarchical; that is to say, that it does not easily obey any but a single will. He laughed at the idea of the Assembly or the country being restrained by the article in the Constitution which declares it unalterable for three years. One supreme government cannot bind its successor. If the Constituent Assembly could render their Constitution unalterable for three years, they could render it unalterable for thirty years. 'That Assembly,' he said, 'perceived that, unless we were to become the victims of a new revolutionary conspiracy, it was the last Assembly in which the Republicans would have the majority. They strove, therefore, to make the most of their temporary ascendancy. They and the Provisional Government filled the country with administrators selected for the violence of their opinions, some of them men stained by crime and even by conviction. They doubled our expenses, destroyed our revenue, imposed on us a Constitution under which good govern x849.1 Depression in Paris. 2J7 ment or indeed any permanent government is impossible, and inserted this clause in it in the hope of making it last at least until another presidency. But unless they are assisted by another convulsion they will fail. Long before the three years are out the Constitution will be revised, and, among other changes, the President's term will be prolonged, probably to ten years.' Mrs.. Marcet spoke of the apparent prosperity of the country which she had travelled through on. her road from Geneva, and particularly of the goodness of the cultivation. Faucher said the prosperity was only apparent; that cultivation had gone back during the last two years. Though the peasant proprietor, who cultivates merely to eat, may go on working as he did before, all those who cultivate to sell are suffering. The price of produce is low, labourers are discharged, rents are unpaid, and distress is spreading and growing. I never recollect so general a depression and anxiety as seems to overspread Paris. The workpeople in the shops tell Mrs. Senior that they are afraid the worst is not over. Mdme. de Tocqueville in a note this morning says that she is ill in body and sad in mind-yet she has just received the news of the accommodation with Russia, which relieves the Ministry, and particularly De Tocqueville, from a load of responsibility; and last week the Ministry obtained a victory so great as to seem decisive. Different dangers, of course, oppress different minds. Some see the steady approach of national bankruptcy, others look with alarm to the events which are to be apprehended when once the Presidential term 218 journals kept in France and Italy. [I849. and the term of the Assembly expire together, and others think the risk of a coup d'etat on the part of the President, or of the Assembly, imminent. The manner in which the President's letter to Ney was ignored in Thiers's report on the Roman question, and the little attention paid to it in the debate, are said to have irritated him. A President is certainly a more powerful impersonation of the monarchical element than a King, and perhaps he may be able to do what a King cannot do; turn out a Ministry which possesses the confidence, or at least receives the support, of a large majority. But where can he find successors for them? If he takes them from the Liberal majority they must be obscure men, for none of the eminent men in that majority would accept vacancies made by the dismissal of the best administration that France has enjoyed since February g4; and as to other parties, the Legitimists would not take office, and the Republicans would take it as enemies. It is a marvellous instance of the folly with which great affairs are generally conducted that a people which assumes to be the first, and certainly is among the first nations in the most civilised period of the world's existence, should have turned out the family under which it has been growing great for centuries, and the King who has given to it prosperity such as it never enjoyed in any previous period of its brilliant hisThis was a non-official note to Edgar Ney, in which the President expressed his admiration at the conduct of the French troops, and his warm approval of the policy that led to the Roman expedition.-ED. 1849.] Folly of the Revolution of T 848. 219 tory, and thrown its fate into the hands of an adventurer, unacquainted with the country, inexperienced in politics, and even in ordinary business, whose only achievements have been the two most unprincipled and senseless enterprises of modern times. 220 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. I 8 50. [Soon after Mr. Senior left Paris in October 1849, the President dissolved the Odillon Barrot Ministry, and in the following May none of Mr. Senior's friends, either Orleanist or Republican, held office. The law, called afterwards 'The Electoral Law of May 31,' which restricted the suffrage, was at this time under discussion in the Assembly.-ED.] Hotel Bristol, Paris, Saturday, May i I.-Dr. Jeune and I reached this place on Thursday evening. The first person that I saw yesterday morning was Leon Faucher. He was glad to hear that Mrs. Senior had not accompanied me, as she might have had to witness painful scenes. I said that I had twice before visited Paris in May, and each time been told that there would be a fight in June, and I supposed that until June we were safe. Faucher answered that all the information which he received led him to believe that the conflict would take place sooner, that plans of insurrection were forming quietly, but widely and rapidly, in the Faubourgs, and that he saw the advance of the crisis without regret. Now the army may be relied on, six months hence it cannot. I The late Bishop of Peterborough. -ED. I850.] Probability of an Emeute. 221 After breakfast I called on Lord Normanby. I found him out of spirits. He was expecting a visit from Lahitte on the subject of the Greek question, which has taken a painful turn. It seems that Mr. Wyse has rejected the terms proposed by M. Gros, has refused to continue the truce until the Berlin Government can be consulted, and by the resumption of hostilities has forced the Greek Government to submit to his terms. If the French were not too much occupied with home affairs to attend to foreign ones, Lord Normanby thinks that this peremptory refusal to abide by the terms proposed by the French mediator, or even to give time for their being reconsidered, would bring on a serious quarrel. 'It is disheartening,' he says, 'that a good understanding, which it has cost so much time, so much trouble, and, in fact, so many sacrifices to bring about, should be endangered by an affair in which France and England have no conflicting interests.' We then talked of the subjects which occupy everybody's thoughts-the new electoral law, and the probability of an edeute. He disapproves of the law, thinks it ill-timed, as it looks like an attempt to punish the Parisians for having elected Eugene Sue, and insufficient for its ostensible purposes, since the irritation which it will produce will deprive the Reactionary party of at least as many votes as the law will take from the Republicans. But if it be proposed as a means to force on a conflict, he thinks that it will succeed. The Montagnards in the Assembly and, generally, the Rouge leaders are indeed anxious to prevent a conflict. They 222 7ournals kept in France and Itay. [1850. believe, and Lord Normanby thinks correctly, that their chances of ultimate success are improving every day; that administration after administration is becoming unpopular, since, among the difficulties of the times, everyone must commit errors and undergo misfortune, and that two years hence all the monarchical parties will be discredited and a Republican Assembly returned. But they are forced to utter language which provokes the contest which they fear. Next Monday, the I3th, the discussion on the law in the bureaux begins. It will last about a week; therefore, on Monday week, the 20th, it may come on in the Assembly. If it continue there a week it will pass about Saturday the 25th, in which case the insurrection may be expected about the 26th or 27th. He has little doubt of the success of the Government. Changarnier, whom he met at dinner the day before, answered for the troops. How the victory will be used is a large question on which I did not try to get his opinion, as I had already paid an unconscionable visit. Perhaps I may as well state here the outline of the new electoral law. Under the present law every man has a vote, and every man ought to pay the taxepersonnelle; that is to say, the value of three days' labour, a day's labour being estimated at different sums between 30 sous and o1 sous. In fact, however, of the 9 millions of voters, not above 7 pay the tax. Some live in the houses of their parents or masters, others are excused as indigent, and others elude it by a wandering life. 1850.] Outline of the New Electoral Law. 223 Again, everyone ought to be registered and to vote in the canton in which he is domiciled, but as the domicile required is only a residence of six months, and the register is carelessly made out, often on mere hearsay evidence, many frauds occur, and in towns a large proportion of the voters are temporary residents little connected with the department. Again, conviction for crime does not occasion a forfeiture of the franchise, unless a sentence of three months' imprisonment has been pronounced. Again, the present system gives a dangerous prominence to the military votes. France can never enjoy the moderate security which its trade and manufactures, and even its agriculture, require, unless the army not only is, but is believed to be, on the side of authority. Its Socialist votes, often the result of mere caprice, or of a wish to annoy an unpopular officer, are used as signs of its general disaffection. Again, the necessity imposed by the present law of filling every vacancy within six weeks may bring on a contested election inopportunely with respect to the Government. Five months hence Leclerc might have beaten Eugene Sue. Lastly, in consequence of the unanimity and activity of the Republican party, and of indolence and divisions among the Monarchists, an election is often carried by a small minority of the electoral body. To remedy these evils a law has been proposed, and was read for the first time on Wednesday, which provides: 224 7ournals kepg in France and Italy. [185o. First, that as a general rule those only shall be inscribed in the list of voters in a commune who have for the three previous years been domiciled there. This domicile is to be proved by having paid there, for the three previous years, the taxe personnelle, or by a declaration on the part of a parent or a master that the child or servant has resided three years under his roof. A person who, having been domiciled for three years in one commune, quits it, is to be retained for the three following years on the list of that commune, and must return thither to vote. Public functionaries are held domiciled and vote wherever they are stationed. Men in the army and navy retain their original domicile, their votes are to be sent thither under seal, and confounded with the others. Forfeiture of the franchise is inflicted for crimes of dishonesty, whatever be the sentence, and on persons convicted of vagabondage, mendicity, or resistance against the public authorities. Unless one candidate has a majority of those who vote, and a fourth of the whole body of electors, a second election is to take place within a fortnight; if this again fails, a third is to take place a fortnight later, in which any majority is sufficient. An occasional vacancy need not be supplied, or, in our language, a new writ need not issue, for six months. The Assembly voted the bill urgent. Instead, therefore, of being referred, as it naturally would be, to the Conseil d 'Itat, and read three times, with fixed intervals, it has been referred at once to a Committee, composed 850o.] Dinner of the Political Economists. 225 of members from the different bureaux, and may pass in one more reading. From Lord Normanby I went to De Tocqueville, and found him convalescent, but still feeble. Mdme. de Tocqueville now is ill. As soon as she recovers they go to Tocqueville, where they remain quietly till they return to Paris at the end of September. I tried to persuade him to come with us in November to Italy. ' But for the changes produced by the Revolution,' he said, 'he would do so, but it would be difficult to persuade his constituents that a paid deputy ought to desert his post.' I was afraid of fatiguing him, and paid a short visit. I then went to the Assembly. They were settling the Budget of the Chamber, and dully discussing small items. People's minds were obviously preoccupied with other matters. In the afternoon, H. Say took me to dine with the Political Economists. They have a dinner every month, like that of our Political Economy Club, except that the subjects for discussion are not previously announced. They were so at first, but men prepared themselves and made long speeches. I sat next to Baron de Billing, long Secretary to the French Embassy in London. He talked of nothing but the Greek affair, and the bad impression which our disregard of the French mediation would produce. This morning (Saturday) Count Arrivabene and Leon Faucher breakfasted with us. Faucher told us the story of the Electoral Bill. Soon VOL. I. Q 226 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. after the first Socialist elections, the different monarchical parties, who form the majority in the Assembly, and constitute the Club called the Club of the Conseil d'Etat, from its meeting in the building belonging to that body, saw that the Republican party was steadily gaining strength. They foresaw the election in 1852 of a Montagnard Assembly, and they believed that such an Assembly would reproduce the follies and atrocities of the first Revolution-bankruptcy, assignats, confiscation, judicial murders, civil war, and foreign war. They believe that the present Constitution, with its universal suffrage and its triennial Assemblies and Presidents, keeps the country oscillating between actual civil war and preparation for civil war, and that at all risks it must be amended and the constituencies improved before any more such scandals as the election of Eugene Sue are perpetrated. They appointed a committee of seventeen, consisting of the existing and immediately previous vice presidents of the bureaux into which the Club is divided, and instructed them to prepare a measure for that purpose. That committee delegated their office to a sub-committee, consisting of Berryer, the Duc de Broglie, and Faucher (a Legitimist, an Orleanist, and a Napoleonist), and the sub-committee appointed Faucher to draw up the measure. Faucher, therefore, is the author of the Bill. When finished it was presented to the Government, who, after some demur-for they felt that they were almost abdicating-consented to bring it in. The President was perhaps more reluctant than his Ministers; but 1850.] Changes in the Constitution. 227 Faucher thinks that he felt that, in assisting the majority of the Assembly to perpetuate their power, he obtained a claim on them to assist in perpetuating his. Faucher does not think the highest estimate of the disfranchising power of the Bill excessive. More than two millions, lie believes, will either actually lose their votes or find it too expensive or too troublesome to give them. I asked him what was the sort of improved Constitution which the Assembly elected by this sifted constituency would create. He said a government of transition. France is Monarchical-that is to say, it is not Republican-but it has no loyalty or personal predilection. A Henri cinq dynasty would be overthrown before its chief could march from the Porte St. Denis to the Porte St. Martin. A Regency would be still less possible, and all the other factions would combine against a revival of the Empire. But as a means of transition, as an escape from the Republic to a more stable form, a prolongation of the Louis Napoleon presidency for ten years might be accepted, and he trusts will be so, for he sees no tolerable alternative. And he thinks that events may bring it on even under the present Assembly. If the passing of the Bill should be followed by an emezute, the Anti-Republican party will obtain a victory which will give them absolute power. And they will exercise it byimmediately amending the Constitution, instead of waiting for the legal time, two years hence. I alluded to the general suspicion that this was one of the objects of the introducers of the present measure. He said that such intentions were not to be avowed, Q2 228 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. perhaps ought not to be entertained, but we all thought his disclaimer feeble. And yet he does not seem to think highly of the man into whose hands he wishes to throw the destiny of France for ten years. He thinks still more meanly of Cavaignac. Once indeed in his own defence he made a good speech, pectus disertum facitbut as a statesman he is nothing. And as a soldier, he is able to command a regiment, scarcely a brigade, and would be quite incompetent at the head of a division. I asked if he did not manage well the battle of June I848. ' No, indeed,' answered Faucher. 'I will not accuse him of treachery; I do not, indeed, believe that he wished to betray us; but it was owing to his slowness and irresolution that it lasted four days. As soon as the Faubourg St. Antoine was vigorously attacked, the business was done. If he had been elected President, we should have had the Red Republic in six months.' We asked as to the resources of the Republicans. He said that a regular (meute was supposed to cost about 40,0001., which they obtained by rating (cotisant) one another. As for guns, they probably have still about 50,000. Under his administration the police, which was then in the highest efficiency, was constantly searching for arms, and did not discover more than about 600 stand, most of which appeared to have been buried; they were soiled and rusty. In the afternoon I had a visit from M. Z. Lahitte 1 had just left him in the utmost excitement. He did not know, he said, what prevented him from instantly recalling the French Embassy from London. I begged Z. to ' General de Lahitte was Minister for Foreign Affairs.-ED. 1850.] Electoral Law. 229 explain to me the complaint against Lord Palmerston. He said that Lahitte always told him that although all that he heard from Ad. C. Parker and Mr. Wyse was unpleasant, Drouyn de l'Huys' reports of his conversations with Lord Palmerston were satisfactory. That Palmerston always said that he should consent to any reasonable arrangement which M. Gros might propose. And that at last an arrangement had been made in London settling the matter in a way which, on the whole, was favourable to Greece. That Palmerston assured Drouyn de l'Huys that Wyse was instructed under no circumstances to resume hostilities without communicating with London and receiving fresh instructions. That Lahitte, therefore, flattered himself and told all his friends that he had settled the matter well. But that now it appears that Wyse has absolutely refused to abide by M. Gros' decision, has refused to communicate with London, has refused even a week's delay, has reimposed the blockade, and has forced Greece to submit t6 terms which Gros had declared to be inadmissible and which Palmerston himself had abandoned in London. Lahitte proclaims that France has been betrayed and insulted, and Z. does not see how the Assembly can think otherwise. We proceeded to talk of the Electoral Bill. The objects of the Government, he said, ate two. If the Bill excite no insurrection, they hope that it will so far improve the constituencies as to give them another Conservative Assembly. If it is followed by an insurrection, they expect to subdue that insurrection, and to follow 230 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. up their victory by an immediate remodelling of the Constitution. But he looks forward with little hope to either alternative. The alteration produced by the Bill will not be sufficient materially to influence the next election. And though a subdued cmeutewould give them a revolutionary plenitude of power, he does not think that there is sense enough or forbearance enough in the three parties which form the majority to enable them to join in forming a Government much better than the present. But though he thinks the attempt which the majority is now making desperate, he does not wonder at its being made. Under the present system, a Montagnard Assembly is steadily approaching, and, with it, public and private ruin. I asked why universal suffrage must return a Montagnard Assembly in 1852, when it did not in 1848 or in I849. Neither the Constituent Assembly, he answered, nor the Legislative were Montagnard, but the Convention was. The parallel did not convince me, but I did not push the discussion further. In the evening, George Sumner called on us, and now we heard the Republican side of the question. He agrees with everybody to whom I have talked that the next Assembly will be Montagnard, but looks to that result with unmixed pleasure. The Montagnards, he says, desire nothing but an honest, peaceful republic. As soon as they are in power they will reduce the army to 250,000 men, and substitute an income-tax for the present oppressive and exclusive land-tax, and a little liberty for the arbitrary tyranny which is now compressing us. What calls itself the party of order is, in fact, I850.] Greek Affairs. 231 the party of disorder. It is carrying the nation straight to bankruptcy, and is trying to carry it to civil war. If the definition of treason be an attempt to subvert by force the institutions of a country, all its plans and language are treasonable. It openly proclaims that France shall not remain Republican; that it will provoke the people to resistance, and use that resistance as a pretence for recreating monarchy. But the people are too wise to be thus provoked. They have resolved to remain quiet until the elections of 1852 ensure them a legal triumph. Then, indeed, those whom the proposed bill excludes may, perhaps, tender their votes, justly thinking their exclusion unconstitutional and therefore void; but they will do it without violence, for the Republican party will then be unresisted, since it will be obviously irresistible. Sunday, May 12.-Beaumont breakfasted with us. He, too, saw Lahitte yesterday, and said that nothing can exceed his irritation. He says that he would rather be torn into a thousand pieces than continue Foreign Minister unless he is allowed to require satisfaction for the insolence and treachery with which he has been treated. Beaumnot is sure that we only know a part of the story: as it is told it is incomprehensible. He admits that Lord Palmerston is quarrelsome and litigious-qu'il a l'esprit procedurier-that he is constantly urging his extreme rights, and is a negotiator against whom one must be always on one's guard; but he also says that he is perfectly honest; that he states nothing but what he thinks true, and promises nothing that he 232 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. does not fully perform. He cannot believe, therefore, that he has deceived Lahitte, though he may have overreached him. I said that the whole Greek affair seemed to me inexplicable; that, in the first place, our demands seemed to me illegal. All that one country can require as to its subjects when travelling or residing in another is, that they shall be subject to the same laws as the natives. If the tribunals are as open to them as to others, it is to them that they must have recourse; and if they fail, under circumstances in which a native might fail, there is no further redress. They must be supposed to have known the character of the laws and of the people when they went there. If a Frenchman is robbed on Hounslow Heath he may sue the hundred. If his house is pulled down by a mob he may sue the country. If his land is taken by a railroad, he may bring his action. If he fails in these proceedings, he does not ask his Minister to interfere for him. He does not say, 'Your laws are barbarous; they do not afford the protection to person and property to which a Frenchman is accustomed. They may do for you, but they won't do for me. Your Government shall pay me what I think my losses entitle me to, or a French fleet shall blockade the Thames.' And, in the second place, supposing the demands justified by law and by fact, this seemed a strange time to enforce them, when the general interests of the West of Europe and our special interests in holding the Ionian Isles lead us to wish to weaken Russian influence over Greece. I850.1 Electoral Law. 233 Beaumont answered that our claims on Greece appeared to him about as good, or rather about as bad, as those of France on Mexico, or on Tahiti, or on Algiers; that a practice seemed to be arising among powerful nations, in their intercourse with weak ones, to exact compensation for private injuries which they would not think of requiring from nations capable of resisting. And he very much regretted that France and England were setting so bad an example. Beaumont looks with great alarm and disapprobation on the new electoral law. He thinks it a new attempt of the reactionary party to excite a revolt. It is their fourth. 'First,' he said, 'they tried to provoke the people by attacking the liberty of the press. It remained quiet, and they then attempted to rouse it by cutting down the trees of liberty. That failed, and they brought in a law of transportation not only severe but absolutely unjust, for it was to be applied to those who have already been convicted. We of the " tiers" party rejected these clauses, or, perhaps, the revolt would have already taken place. Now they are attacking the Parisians with a new electoral law avowedly to punish them for the last elections. One proof of the animus with which this is done is, that instead of softening down they exaggerate its probable effects. It might, perhaps, disfranchise 2 millions. They put forth that it will disfranchise three or even four. Their newspapers taunt the people sometimes by telling them that they have been beaten into submission, and will not venture to rise; and sometimes by hinting that this is only a 234 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. beginning, and that disfranchisement will be followed by coercion. Carlier, the Prefet de Police, is just the instrument for such a faction. His body and soul are iron, and he has as little scruple as he has fear. He offered to the President, some months ago, to get him up an emeute. The President refused; but no one doubts that his services for that purpose have now been accepted. ' Such is the strange state of feeling that the party of order is intent on nothing but civil war, and the anarchists are trying to keep the peace. Which will succeed is very doubtful. The Montagnards made a grievous, perhaps a fatal, blunder yesterday-200 of them abstained from voting on the selection of the committee to which the Bill is referred. So that a reactionist committee is appointed. Had the Montagne voted, a committee, not consisting, as the present one does, of moderes enrages, but really moderate, would have been appointed, and they would probably have mitigated or removed the most irritating parts of the Bill. 'If a conflict takes place,' he continued, 'it will be very sanguinary. If the Government succeed, as they probably will do, endeavours will be made to take as few prisoners as possible. Prisoners are worse than enemies in arms; it is impossible to dispose of them without mischief. To try and put to death Io,ooo men, or to keep them in prison, or to transport them, seem all equally impracticable. And if they are pardoned they return to swell the hostile part of the population of 1850.] Probable result of an Insurrection. 235 Paris, without character and without employment, living on theft or on public assistance. It is the 0o,ooo gracies of 1848 that keep Paris now in alarm. On the other hand, there is no doubt that if the insurgents succeed, their victory this time will be one of plunder and murder. Two hours of pillage have been promised to them, and will be taken. What a Rouge Government would dare to do or fear to do can be conjectured only in a few points. It is not probable that they would raise the guillotine. France is disgusted with judicial murder. But they would assassinate widely. They would impose progressive taxes on property which would confiscate or drive away capital; they would effect a national bankruptcy, probably by means of an enormous paper currency. Beyond this all is obscurity. They are not warlike. The Provisional Government talked absurdly about Italy and about the treaties of 1815, but never seriously contemplated war. The ruling power of that period, the army of the Ateliers nationaux, was resolved to keep the peace. It had no warlike propensities. It had no enthusiasm or ambition or self-devotion. All that it wished was sensual enjoyment and idleness. Thirty sous a day and nothing to do for them satisfied their wishes. The only motive that could excite them to fight was the threat of drafting them into the army.' Beaumont puts Cavaignac high. He is silent, apathetic, and reserved, and has excited great hostility by his apparent superciliousness. Mole, for instance, cannot bear his haughtiness; but he is wise as a statesman and 236 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850 -great as a general. I mentioned Faucher's opinion, that the contest of July 1848 had been prolonged by Cavaignac's want of skill or of decision. De Beaumont strongly denied this. When the contest began there were only I6,ooo troops in Paris. All that they could do was to hold their ground till others could be brought up. Lamoriciere was for two days in the Montmartre quarter, surrounded by a host of enemies, who would have destroyed him if he had advanced a step beyond the narrow circle which he occupied. The rejection of Cavaignac on December 10 was a fatal mistake. It was the work of those who, either from interest or from passion, had resolved that the Republic should fail, and who thought that the best mode of ruining it was to put Louis Napoleon at its head-a calculation which has turned out to be correct. Monday, May I3.-Count Horace Viel Castel, the Secretary of the Museum, breakfasted with us, and took us over the Louvre. * * * * * * Viel Castel lives much with Carlier, and with the people about the President. Carlier expects and desires a conflict. Changarnier, however, intends to manage it this time in a new manner. The eastern quarters, which are always its seats, are to be surrounded by troops, and then the artillery from Vincennes is to be brought up and to bombard them. He is quite ready to burn down St. Antoine and St. Marqeau. Viel Castel disbelieves the honesty which has been attributed to the Parisian emeutiers. In 1848 they plundered the Tuileries and I850.] Dishonesty of the Insurgents. 237 the Louvre to the amount of two millions; most of those who executed summary justice on thieves were thieves themselves, who murdered their associates in order to plunder them. On a Sunday hundreds flock to the Louvre, not to admire but to mark down the presses which contain articles of value. They hope to revisit them the next time they storm the Tuileries. Changarnier lives under the feeling of the constant possibility of assassination. He never goes out without leaving at home a sort of military or political will, in which he appoints his provisional successor, and gives instructions for his guidance. We dined with Horace Say. Among the guests were the Fauchers. Faucher had been engaged in the committee on the Bill from 8 in the morning till 6 in the evening, and returned to it directly after dinner. He has refused to be rapporteur, but fears that it will be thrust on him. His objections are founded partly on the labour and the responsibility and partly on his dislike to coming into intimate contact with Mole and Thiers. They have never forgiven his rapid rise, and View him with scornful yet with jealous eyes. For several months he would not speak to either of them. Mole, Thiers, Montalembert, Broglie, and Berryer are considered the heads of the coalition which calls itself the party of order, or the moderate party, and is called by the public the reactionary party. They have been nicknamed the five Burgraves. They consist, it will be observed, of Legitimists and Orleanists. The 238 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. present Ministers, who have no party, are merely clerks, holding office by sufferance. We talked of the danger to be apprehended from the forfats liberes. Faucher laughed at it. Dupin, he said, had entertained the same fears; but he had convinced him that there were not 3,000 of them in Paris. The really dangerous persons are the gracids of 1848, of whom there are 7,000 or 8,o00. Say confirmed Faucher. He can tell, he says, a forfat libder the instant he sees him. There is a sharp, inquisitive glance, lancecommze un trait, immediately after which the countenance falls back into listless apathy. Greece, however, was the great subject of conversation. Faucher said that at the opera yesterday every member of the Corps Diplomatique, except Lord Normanby, came up to him to pour out indignation against Lord Palmerston. It puts him in mind of 1840, and, if the hands of France were not full, would lead to very serious results. I ended the evening at Lady Elgin's-small and somewhat stiff, like most French parties. Tuesday, May I4.-After breakfast I sat for half an hour with Tocqueville. He utterly disapproves of what is going on, and, if he is to be ill, is glad to be ill now, and to have nothing to do with it. *- - * * * -*- * As I left the Rue Castellane I met Lord Normanby. I told him that I had forgotten to ask him if there was any difficulty in my being presented to the President. I85o.] Optposilion to Free Trade. 239 None, he said, if you can stay till Thursday week. But I do not intend to go there the day after to-morrow, as something may be said that morning in the Assembly which would render my presence objectionable. I am, therefore, at Versailles, supposed to be ill. I shall not return to Paris till next week. He does not, it seems, expect Lahitte to execute his threat of recalling Drouyn de l'Huys, or he would not talk of presenting me next week. I then went to Michel Chevalier's. The Conseil general de l'Agriculture, des Manufactures et du Commerce, have petitioned the Government to order the Professors of Political Economy to abstain from recommending free trade. Michel Chevalier, as one of those Professors, is both angry and amused. The cause of free trade, he said, was gained in all the world as soon as it was adopted in England. He thinks, however, that this Greek affair will retard the victory-not only by exciting a strong anti-English feeling, and indisposing the French people against any changes which may be supposed favourable to English interests, but by spreading and confirming the general opinion of English bad faith, and leading the Continent in general, and France in particular, to suspect that at the bottom of our free trade is a wish to do mischief to our neighbours. Ten years ago, in I840, there would have been a commercial treaty between England and France, if the quarrel of July had not occurred. This, he says, is the pendant to it. In the evening I went to M. Guizot's, and afterwards 240 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. to Mdme. de Circourt's.' Guizot's party was arranged in the continental style-all the women on one side of the larger room and the men on the other; there was a little room behind, into which those who were tired of the formality of the larger room retired. The only anecdote that we heard was a speech of La Grange's, 'Mon armee ne donnera pas-pour celle de Carlier je ne reponds pas.' Mdme. de Circourt's was after the English fashion — hot, crowded, the men and women dispersed and easy. She sat constantly at the tea-table. The rooms were full of celebrities-half the men wore stars. G. Sumner was talking radicalism to W6hrman and me, when Wohrman checked him. 'I agree with you,' he said; ' but perhaps I am the only person present who does. So pray speak lower.' Wednesday, May 5. - I called this morning on Decaisne, the painter, and Triqueti, the sculptor. They both told me that works of art had been selling during the winter at extravagant prices. Triqueti said that the cost at which one collection had been made was fabulous. Everybody, indeed, agrees that the expense and luxury of Paris during this year have been unprecedented. I heard the same story from Lady Elgin, from Mrs. Holmes, from Chevalier, from Mdme. de Circourt, from Mdme. de Tocqueville, from Mdme. Czarkowska, and from Mdme. Faucher. They had heard it accounted I Mdme. de Circourt was a Muscovite. She was full of talent and vivacity, and a brilliant talker. She had a very agreeable salon. She died in consequence of an accident in 1863. Her husband survives her. He is French, and a very distinguished man.-ED. 1850.] Increase of Expense. 241 for in different ways. Some from the prevalence of an opinion that the ship was sinking, and that it was well to have a last hour's amusement before she went down. C'est un vol,' they said,' que nous faisons aux Rouges.' Others thought that it was principally the result of the economy of the previous year and a half. People bought nothing in 1848 or I849, and therefore were rich and unprovided in I850. Mdme. Faucher said that it began in public spirit. Ladies were told that trade ought to be encouraged, and they were delighted to be patriotically fine. The result was, she said, that never were such toilettes seen. Afterwards I went to the Assembly. The Government is waging a violent war against the opposition press. Every day there are reports of trials in which Editors are convicted, fined, and imprisoned. The opposition journals are not allowed to be sold in the streets. They can be bought only at the Editors', or in a few readingrooms in the democratic quarters. Yesterday, a further step was taken. A M. Boule, the printer of three opposition papers-the 'Estafette,' the 'Republique,' and the 'Voix du Peuple'-was suddenly deprived of his license and his presses sealed up, so that for two or three days, until they have made new arrangements, those papers cannot appear. This was complained of to-day in the Chamber. Baroche, the Minister of the Interior, defended it, on the ground that a year ago M. Boule had been convicted of an offence as printer, and that a law of I814, one of the early laws of the -Restoration, authorised the withdrawing of the license. VOL. I. R 242 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. He was answered in the first place that this law was never put in force, and in the second place that M. Boule's offences were merely technical slips, and that it was not the printer, but the liberal journal, that was the real-object of attack. When I entered, M. Piscatory was defending him, in the usual hubbub of a French Assembly. 'We all of the majority,' he said (he is an Orleanist), ' thank the Minister for what he has said and for what he has done. We all promise to support him indoors and out of doors (ici et hors d'ici).' The words ' hors d'ici' created an immense tumult. ' Nous verrons,' said one. ' C'est une provocation,' said another. 'Le pouvoir,' said Piscatory, 'nous trouvera fideles a sa cause. I1 nous trouvera ici et hors d'ici les eanemis de l'anarchie.' 'The people,' answered Dupont de Bussac, 'will not take up your challenge. You cannot tempt it into the streets.' The turn which the debate was taking became so disagreeable to the majority that it used its formidable power of voting the cloture, and then passed to the order of the day, and I left them engaged on the Budget. We dined with the Beaumonts. The guests were Lanjuinais,' Minister of Commerce in the last Cabinet, and M., who was at Athens when the Greek question first arose. It arose out of a quarrel between 1 Vicomte Victor Lanjuinais was son of the celebrated member of the Convention. He was a consistent and independent Liberal. After the coup d'dtat he took no part in politics; would never take the oath of allegiance to the Emperor; refused every advance on the part of the Government, and declined to be elected Member of the Corps Legislatif. He died not many years ago.-ED. i850.] Character of the President. 243 Lyons and the King. They hated one another bitterly. Lyons got up these claims to annoy him, and Otho would not let them be satisfied because it would please Lyons. M. belongs to the Moderate party, and, as Mdme. de Beaumont told me, is one of the most moderate among them. But it seems to me difficult to exceed the violence of his language or of his wishes. One of two dictatorships, he said, must be submitted to-the dictatorship of the many, or the dictatorship of the few. If the many prevail, adieu to civilisation; if the few, adieu for a time to what is called freedom. The first thing to be done is to put down the mob of Paris. Just in this part of the town, as far as the Rue Richelieu, a gentleman is safe; but let him go beyond it and he is insulted. They must be trampled down (ecrase) by force, if they can be brought into the streets, or by law if they refuse to fight us. When we have done with them we shall fight out the other questions among ourselves. How they will be resolved no human being can conjecture, but any solution will be an improvement on what we are now enduring. Lanjuinais talked to me about the President, whom for six months he used to see almost every day. He does not think him vain or even ambitious, in the ordinary sense of the word, but impressed with a perfect conviction that he is destined to end the revolution, and to restore France to prosperity under a Buonaparte dynasty. He is silent, reserved, keeps faithfully the secrets of his different Ministers and his own, has perfect courage, physical and moral, and a determination R2 244 7ournals kept in France an'd Italy. [1850. amounting to obstinacy. He has considerable knowledge, and an understanding, not brilliant certainly, but yet not contemptible. Lanjuinais says that he understands the details of business far better than the average of persons. On the other hand, he is absolutely without tact or knowledge of mankind; he is impervious to reasoning, and his personal friends, Persigny, Ney, Morny, and others, are very bad advisers. Of course, we discussed the Greek question, which occupies the Parisian mind at present even more than the neuzte. I said that I could not understand how Wyse refused M. Gros' terms, and then conceded others more favourable to Greece; that, if he was authorised to make concessions, the natural thing seemed to be to let the mediator have the credit of having obtained them. The rest of the party, however, had their solution ready; that his object was to show the utter contempt in which England held France as well as Russia; to prove that she was not to be influenced by enemy or friend. The English ought to be aware, however, said M., of the effect which Lord Palmerston's conduct is producing on the Continent. As long as your present strength and our weakness continue, you are safe; but let your resources, or your power of using them, be weakened; let you be -involved in an American war or in an Irish rebellion, and you will reap the results of the hatred which Lord Palmerston is sowing. Beaumont talked of Italy. He thinks that the Cavaignac Government made a fatal mistake in not marching 8o,coo men across the frontier to support the Piedmon I850.] Ita lian Affairs. 245 tese invasion of Lombardy. The objections to it were three-the fear of war with Austria and Russia, the expense, and the pretext which a state of war would have given for returning to the warlike measures of the first revolution, assignats, bankruptcy, and the general system which is called revolutionary. The first of these was not really to be feared. Austria was ready to surrender Lombardy and even Venice. She wanted only an honourable pretext. The second was what prevailed. When the question was debated in the Council, Goudchaux, then Finance Minister, actually burst into tears as he described the effects of war on the Budget. Beaumont discussed the matter with Lord Palmerston over and over. Lord Palmerston, as he was bound to do, constantly dissuaded the measure. He suggested every argument against it. But Beaumont did not then doubt, and does not now doubt, that he earnestly wished it to take place. Beaumont always told him so, always said to him, ' You are arguing against your wishes and your convictions;' and Lord Palmerston did not seem annoyed by the imputation, though, in fact, it was one of insincerity. I asked what France was to' gain by the annexation of Lombardy and Venice to Piedmont. Was it her interest to have a strong kingdom in Northern Italy? They all answered, certainly not. It is her interest to keep Italy divided and weak. But it never was intended that Piedmont should have Venice; that would have been kept separate. And, at all events, France would have obtained the enormous advantage of having dis 246 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I850o. played and increased her influence. Now, excepting at Rome, it is nothing, and it will cease even there the instant that her troops are withdrawn. Besides this, the Cavaignac Government would have done something, and to do something is the duty, the necessity of a new Government. Louis XVIII. saved his throne by marching into Spain. Charles X., if he had had common sense, would have saved his by seizing Algiers. Nobody knew what we were doing when we went there; nobody knows now what it will lead us to, but it was doing something. It is for want of doing something that the Government is falling. We went on to talk of Austria. 'She is,' said Beaumont, 'the only Power that has gained by our revolution. The shock which we gave to the rest of the world was mischievous. But it did good to Austria. She could not continue as she was; the Metternich policy had destroyed the cohesion of her different states and worn out the means of improvement. She has had her revolution. It has swept away not only the old men but the old traditions. Hungary, for the first time, is Austrian; she has subdued all resistance in Lombardy. Her scattered provinces are now actually tied together in one sheaf, and I believe that they will really unite.' I asked what he thought of Schwartzenberg. 'He is a man,' said Beaumont,' of fair talents and extraordinary firmness. His ruling passion, I think, is hatred of Lord Palmerston -a hatred, indeed, which extends, though not in so virulent a degree, to the whole English nation.' I850.] Chasm between Gentilhomme andRoturier. 247 Thursday, May I6.-I called on Baron de Billing; his hopes of tranquillity rest much on the salary received by the deputies. It binds over the Montagnards to keep the peace; and, though the Moderate majority is panting for a conflict, it cannot make the attack. ' Money,' he added,' has far more influence in France than in England. The Englishman wishes for it in order to spend, the Frenchman in order to save, and the desire of accumulation is a more constant and a more intense stimulus than that of expenditure. Money, too, is more necessary to the bulk of our people than to yours. An Englishman cannot starve-the poor laws prevent that; they offer him, though not on agreeable terms, a better maintenance, a better lodging, warmth, clothing, and food than the French peasant can get, or even the English hard-working labourer. This is one of the reasons of our universal place-hunting. Everyone is anxious for a permanent income, however small. This is the reason, too, why our marriages are made so constantly for money. An English commoner, if he does not marry for love, marries for connection. He hopes to rise into a higher circle. A French roturier has no such hope. Nothing will place him on a level with a gentilhomme. You in England fancy that we have got rid of this distinction. There is not a shadow of its diminution. You are deceived by the familiarity with which the noblesse treat the roturiers. They treat them so because they know that between them there is an impassable gulf. I will give you an instance. There are two men of great political importance, friends of 248 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. yours (and he mentioned their names): one is of a respectable but plebeian family, the other's birth is very high. They are intimate friends; their children have been brought up together. It occurred to the roturier that a match might be made between two of their children. He was at that time, indeed is now, one of the first men in France; and he thought that his personal rank might supply the place of inherited rank. The noble was sounded, through certain entremetteurs. He was as much astonished, or rather shocked, as if it had been proposed to connect his family with that of a shoemaker. From De Billing's I went to the Assembly. On the opening of the sitting, Lahitte entered the tribune, and read the letter which he had addressed to Drouyn de l'Huys. I extract it from the newspaper:A M. PA mbassadeur de France c Londres. Paris, 14 mai I85o. Monsieur, comme j'avais l'honneur de vous lannoncer hier, le conseil a delibere sur la reponse du cabinet de Londres a la demande que vous avez ete charge de lui transmettre. Mes precedentes depeches vous auront fait pressentir la resolution du gouvernement de la Republique. La France, dans un esprit de bienveillance et de paix s'etait decidee a interposer ses bons offices, dans le but de terminer, i des conditions honorables, le differend qui s'etait eleve entre la Grande-Bretagne et la Gr'ece. I1 avait ete convenu que les mesures coercitives deja mises en usage par l'Angleterre seraient suspendues pendant la duree de la mediation, et que si un arrangement juge acceptable par le mediateur frangais etait repousse par le negociateur bri 1850.] Lahitte to Drouyn de 'fHuys. 249 tannique, ce dernier devrait en referer a Londres avant de recourir de nouveau a l'emploi de la force. Nous avions recu, sur ce dernier point, les promesses les plus formelles. Elles n'ont pas ete' tenues. II en est resulte cette deplorable consequence, qu'au moment meme ou un projet de convention, negocie directement et definitivement arrete entre les cabinets de Paris et de Londres, etait sur le point d'arriver a Athenes, oh deja les bases essentielles en etaient connues, la Grece, attaquee de nouveau par les forces navales britanniques, malgre les vives representations de l'envoye frangais, a du, pour echapper a une ruine complete, accepter sans discussion les clauses d'un ultimatum bien autrement rigoureux. En apprenant cet etrange resultat de notre mediation, nous avons voulu n'y voir que l'effet de quelque malentendu; nous avions espere que le cabinet de Londres, considerant comme non avenus des faits regrettables pour tout le monde, et qui n'avaient eu lieu que par suite de la violation d'un engagement pris envers nous, maintiendrait le projet de convention que nous avons arrete avec lui. Vous avez ete charge de lui en faire la demande. Cette demande n'ayant pas ete e'coutee, il nous a paru que la prolongation de votre sejour a Londres n'etait plus compatible avec la dignite de la Republique. Le President m'a ordonne de vous inviter a rentrer en France, apres avoir accredite M. de Marescalchi en qualite de charge d'affaires. I1 m'a charge egalement de vous exprimer toute la satisfaction du gouvernement de la Republique pour le zele, l'habilite, l'esprit de conciliation et de fermete tout a la fois que vous avez constamment porte dans une negociation dont il n'a pas tenu a vous d'assurer le succes. Vous voudrez bien donner lecture de la presente depeche a Lord Palmerston. (Signe) GPNgRAL DE LAHITTE. It was followed by three separate rounds of clapping from all parts of the house excepting the Montagne, 250 7ournals kept Zin France and Ilaly. [1850. which remained quiet and silent. After they had ended the Assembly was supposed to be too much excited for discussion. So the President left the chair, and the members talked and gesticulated in groups for threequarters of an hour. The seance was then resumed; they proceeded with the estimates, and I went away. After leaving the Assembly I went to Mdme. de Circourt's. As a specimen of the manner in which a Frenchwoman ensures that she shall be found at home I give her hours of reception for all the week, as they were furnished to me by M. de Circourt:P.M. P.M. Monday... 4 to 6 Thursday.. 2 to 6 Tuesday... 9,, 2 Friday... 4, 6 Wednesday.. 4,, 6 Saturday.. 4,, 6 This being Thursday, at four I found there a little circle. I told them what had occurred in the Assembly, for which they were prepared. And they were prepared also with their explanations, that the whole Greek business was originally undertaken by Lord Palmerston for the mere purpose of insulting France. He knew, they said, that France would offer her good offices, and he was resolved to accept them, and then to decide the matter without regard to them. He cared nothing about Finlay or Pacifico; his only object was to wound France through Greece, as he had before wounded her through Egypt. I ventured to suggest that this was ascribing to him conduct without a motive, but could I850.] French Republicans. 25 I not get a hearing. Palmerston's hatred of France accounted for everything. The general opinion seemed rather favourable to an emneute. Carlier was reported to have said that the women of the Faubourg St. Antoine were busy among the groups, which was a formidable sign. I suggested that his wish was father to the thought, to which everybody assented. I drank tea with the Tocquevilles. As he does not admit the usual explanation that the whole matter was a scheme to insult France, he is as much puzzled by the Greek affair as I am. Friday, May 17.-Sumner breakfasted with us. He maintains that the real Socialists, the different schools who follow Proudhon, Cabet, Fourrier, or Louis Blanc, are insignificant in number as well as in power; and that the large party to whom that name is given merely wish to give the Republic a fair trial, and to introduce a poor-law, an income-tax, and a reduction of the army. He believes their success probable under any circumstances, and certain if the moderate party pursue its present reckless counter-revolutionary course. He believes also that the Republicans are the only real supporters of the English alliance, that they see in us their only friends, because we are the only really constitutional country in Europe; and that we are the objects of deep-seated hatred on the part of the Legitimists, Orleanists, and Imperialists, partly from old traditions, and partly and principally because we are constitutional. He begged me to read the Republican papers, and test 252 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. the accuracy of his views by comparing them with the organs of the other factions. He was at the Elysee Bourbon yesterday evening. All the diplomatists were rejoicing at the prospect of getting rid of Lord Palmerston. After breakfast I called on Mdme. Schaffer. She is very pleasing; whether French or English I cannot sayperhaps that very agreeable variety, a Frenchified Englishwoman. Her husband looks German, and put me a little in mind of Rauch of Berlin, which is high praise. He took me over his atelier, which is at present very rich. C* * * * * * * He is, I think, the best of the modern French school; grand in design and in expression, and a sober though rather cold colourist. I then went to see the R.'s of Geneva. He describes. Lausanne and Geneva as in the state which may be expected where the Government is in the hands of ignorant but not ill-disposed peasants and artisans. In both cantons the ancient foundations and institutions, dating in general from the time of the Reformation, have been suppressed or diverted. Nothing remains of old Geneva but its houses and its lake. The fortifications are to be removed, which is right; but instead of converting them into boulevards, as any decent aristocracy or monarchy would do, they are to be built upon, for the express purpose of increasing the poor and Roman Catholic population, which forms the basis of the democracy. In other respects the Government in Geneva is fair; neither persons, nor opinions, nor pro I850.] Radical Newspapers. 253 perty are molested. In Lausanne the mob is intolerant. The chapels of the Dissenters are shut, many of the Protestant clergy have been dismissed, and the Government dictates to the others what doctrines they shall teach. After dinner I tried to follow Sumner's advice and read some of the Radical papers. They are not allowed to be sold in the streets, and they are not taken in in the West-end shops or cafes. It was not till I got to the Place de la Bastille, in the middle of the republican quarter, that I found a shop which sold them, and even there only a few could be obtained. The ' Democratie Pacifique' and the ' Credit' had been seized that morning; three others being virtually suspended by the seizure of the types of their publisher Boule. I bought, however, five at a sou apiece. We had been told that a gentleman would be insulted in the democratic quarter. We met, however, with no molestation, and saw no signs of excitement except 300 or 400 men in blouses talking earnestly in little knots of seven or eight in the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. When I came home I compared the Democratic and Conservative newspapers. The comparison justified Sumner. The democratic papers try to soften the quarrel. They admit that Lord Palmerston's conduct is strange and unexplained; that at the best it was very sharp practice, but they separate England from its Minister. They hold us up as the only constitutional allies of France, and protest against her throwing herself into the arms of her enemies because sle has been snubbed by her friend. Spain, they say, 254 yournals kept in France and Italy. [8ss0 got on perfectly well with England as soon as official relations between the countries ceased, and so will France. As a specimen of the language of the Conservative papers, I have cut out the leading article of the 'Ami du Peuple' of May I8. The others are not less frantic: Chaque fois que la France a ete dechiree par les discordes intestines, chaque fois qu'une calamite a pese sur notre pays, toujours on a vu l'Anglais, cette autre calamite de la France, nous lancer du fond de son ile linsulte ou la menace! Perfidie, mepris, oppression, iniquite de tous genres, rien ne lui coute, rien ne lui repugne. Bons ou mauvais pretextes, il s'empare de tout avec l'audace, avec l'effronterie la plus revoltante. Oui, nous reconnaissons bien la tortueuse politique anglaise, &c.1 Saturday, May I8.-Arrivabene and Gioberti2 breakfasted with us. Gioberti is very agreeable, but has more the manner of a 'Gelehrter' than of a statesman. It is, perhaps, presumptuous in me to differ from him on matters of fact, which he has better opportunities of ascertaining; but I must say that much that he believes I As the article is rather long, I suppress the rest.-ED. 2 [This and nearly all the other notices of Italian statesmen are furnished by an Italian friend.] Gioberti, a priest, a man of great parts, a sincere patriot, an exile from Piedmont in the first years of Charles Albert's reign, wrote books of philosophy and politics, and pamphlets against the Jesuits, and attempted the tour deforce of transforming the Church into an instrument of liberation for Italy. His popularity in Italy was immense at one time, as the tendencies of Pio Nono seemed to fulfil his expectations. He was made a Minister in I849, but soon quarrelled with his colleagues about an armed intervention which he had planned in the affairs of Tuscany. After Novara he was sent as Minister to Paris, but was soon recalled. He died long ago.-S. 256 7ournals kept in Fiance and Italy. [1850. establish and see fail, a few co-operative societies; and it will, by its success in France, prepare men's minds for what must happen-the gradual extension of republican government over all Europe. He mentioned his attempts to obtain Lamoriciere as commander of the Piedmontese army. I asked how it happened that they had no native for that purpose. It was owing, he said, to a traditional belief in the House of Savoy that they were born generals-a tradition supported by a remarkable succession of military dukes and kings-and to their jealousy of native merit. Charles Albert kept away or kept down those whom he thought formidable rivals. He intended to monopolise the fame of having driven the Austrians out of Italy. r* * * * * * May I8.-I dined with M. Anisson Duperron. The Duc de Broglie, M. de Viel Castel, and Baron de Billing were of the party. The Duke seemed much out of spirits. He looked ten years older than when I saw him last in 1847 in London. We talked of the theory of the Thiers party, that the proper course is to try to make the best of the existing Constitution. No one present assented to it. 'If we wait,' they said, ' for a third Assembly elected by universal suffrage, we are lost.' Everybody expressed indignation at the imputation thrown on the party in power of wishing to quarrel with England. 'We are anxious,' they said, 'for peace with England, indeed with everybody, for our own affairs require our undivided attention and our whole strength.' i85o.] Recall of Drouyn de t'Hzys. 257 Sunday, May I9.-Beaumont breakfasted with us. His explanation of Lord Palmerston's statement in the House of Commons that Drouyn de l'Huys had not been recalled, but had returned merely to confer with his own Government, is this: Drouyn de l'Huys admitted to him (Beaumont) that, after he had read to Lord Palmerston the letter of recall, they had a long conversation. I have no doubt that he told Lord Palmerston that he hoped to smooth over matters in France; he could not expect, 'no one could expect, Lahitte to read the despatch of recall from the tribune. If the matter were arranged, it seemed probable that that despatch would never be published; and Palmerston's denial of the recall was intended to facilitate the arrangement. Drouyn de l'Huys arrived about three hours before the letter was read. He was thunderstruck at hearing what Lahitte meant to do, and used his utmost efforts to prevent it. At present the Reactionists are making the most of the quarrel. But as soon as they have trampled under foot the Republicans, and turn against the Imperialists, they will make the rupture with England one of their foremost grievances. Your rashness and unskilfulness, they will say, and will say with truth, in writing so undiplomatic a letter, in which you twice accuse England of a gross breach of truth, and in publishing it to the world before you had heard what England had to answer, have deprived us of our most useful ally, and thrown us into the arms of Russia. The President, he added, is fond of alluding to his responsibility. It authorises him to interfere in a degree VOL. 1. S 258 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. which would be unconstitutional in an irresponsible King. But he may bitterly suffer for it. His party is the weakest of the three. The one which ultimately prevails will not be satisfied with dethroning him. He will be impeached, and may revisit Ham, or endure something worse. After breakfast I went to Versailles, where Lord Normanby has a pretty country house, and lunched with them. There was no appearance of departure. Lord Normanby does not seem very grateful to the Republican party for their support-at least his gratitude does not extend to a wish for their success. Nor does he believe that they are really much more favourable, or rather much less hostile, to England than the Monarchists. Lahitte, he says, is an honest man, but hot and inexperienced. He has, however, no fears as to the immediate result of the present dispute, though it will leave unpleasant recollections. Monday, May 20.-I breakfasted with the Czarkowskis. The other guest was a very intelligent Russian Pole, Count Louis Brystzonowski. The Czarkowski property is not farmed; it is cultivated and managed for them by servants, who have been born in the family, and remit to them the net produce, which must be considerable, as they are living with great comfort in a charming apartment on the Boulevard des Capucins. They complain, however, that some recent measures of the Austrian Government have materially injured the fortunes of the landed proprietors. Czarkowski's estates, like those of the other great nobles, are partly in his 1850.] P s Polish Politics. 259 own hands, and partly in those of his peasants, who pay, or at least used to pay, their rents by labour, or, to use the French term, by corvy. In this way they have been always cultivated, and, if additional labour was wanted, it was cheap. But the Austrian Government, under the influence of Bach, the Minister of the Interior, whom Czarkowski calls a Communist, has abolished the corvee, and authorised the peasants to retain as owners the lands which they tenanted as occupiers. An indemnity was promised to the landlords, but none has as yet Leen given. The peasants can, of course, afford to live without working for anybody but themselves, since the work which they formerly did for their landlords was paid for only by land, and they now have that land for nothing. They combine, therefore, to refuse work except at extravagant wages-generally 8d. a day for ordinary work, and I6d. for harvest work; prices which, in proportion to the work done, are higher than those of England. They seem resolved not to return to live under the Austrian rule. I said that if I were a Pole I should try to make the best of the Government to which I was subjected-educate my children at Berlin if I belonged to.Posen, or at Vienna if I were a Gallician; imitate in that the conduct of the people of Alsace and Lorraine, who, though they are Germans by race, by history, and by language, are French in feeling. Mdme. Czarkowska answered that that might be well if the Austrians treated Gallicia as the French treated Alsace. But what was to be done if you lived under a Government which was S 2 260 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. your enemy? If the very institution which was intended to assist you, and to raise you, directed all its efforts to weaken and depress you? If it ground you by excessive taxation, and denied you the protection for which taxes are paid? If it strove to break the peace instead of keeping it; if it excited the peasant against the noble, the tenant against the landlord, the rural population against the townspeople, the debtor against the creditor, the ignorant against the instructed, the poor against the rich? If it prescribed to every child whose parents wished him to rise beyond the parish school precisely the same education, precisely the same doses of mathematics and Latin, and rhetoric and law, without any reference to his tastes or destination, and rendered that education so expensive that no ordinary fortune could support it? If it surrounded you with an atmosphere of espionage, and was always ready to plunge you, and then forget you, in a dungeon, on the report of a guest or of a servant? Count Brystzonowski remarked that my supposition represented the state of the Russian Poles in I830. We had then, he said, in the kingdom of Poland-that is to say, in Russian Poland-a Constitution, not perfect, but yet far better than we ever had before: a Constitution which, if we had been independent, I would have died to maintain. We had our own laws, our own judges, and our army. The Russian Government tried every means to conciliate every class, and particularly the army. It took the officers from the ranks, partly in the hope that so large a field for selection would enable them 1850.] Polish Patriotism. 26I to find the best men, but principally in the belief that, owing their rise to the Russian Commander-in-Chief, they would be faithful to the Russian Government. We were well governed, but we were governed by a foreigner; and the instant that the French revolution gave us hope of independence we rose as one man. The army, on which the Grand Duke Constantine relied as his blind instrument, was destroyed in resisting him. This is a remarkable testimony, and not the first that I have heard, to the excellence of the Russian administration of Poland. Mierjejewski, who was one of those who signed the dethronement of Nicholas, described to me the kingdom of Poland, even in 1839 and I840, after the rebellion and the consequent abolition of the Constitution, as the best governed part of Poland-as far more flourishing than either Prussian Poland or Gallicia. He must have been about fifty years old at the time of the rebellion; Brystzonowski about twenty-five. Mierjejewski joined in it against his better judgment, because, as he told me, he would not abandon his younger friends. Brystzonowski seems even now to think himself justified. This stubborn determination of the Poles not to submit to a state of things which they have no reasonable prospect of changing, though it does not excuse the manner in which Austria treats them, yet accounts for it. It has been the misfortune, perhaps still more than it has been the fault, of that Government that its Polish and Italian subjects have been for the last thirty-five years in a state of chronic conspiracy against 262 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. it. This may not have rendered inevitable misgovernment to the degree in which it has existed, particularly in Gallicia, but it has rendered good government impossible. No people can be well governed against their will. The Italians complain that the Italian regiments are sent to serve in Hungary, and that Lombardy and the Terra Firma are governed by Hungarians; but how is it possible to entrust the defence of a government to troops that are avowedly disaffected? They complain that the public offices are filled with Germans, but can Austria fill them with its enemies? This barbarous feeling of nationality, of which the Polish insurrection of 1830 was perhaps the most irrational outbreak, has become the curse of Europe. The tendency of events in Europe during the last I,000 years has been towards the coalition of numerous small states with a few large ones. This coalition has been partly the effect and partly the cause of improved civilisation. If England were divided into a heptarchy, or even if England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland were four independent nations, they would always be fighing one another, commercially or physically. To this coalition the feeling of nationality is opposed. Its ultimate tendency is to split the composite frame of every European sovereignty into hostile fragments. Its immediate tendency is to make the central sovereign fear his subjects, and his subjects hate their sovereign. I dined with Lady Elgin. Among the guests was M. de C. He belongs to the Reactionary party, but as an intimate friend of Lamartine's, and an old ser I850.] Restoralion of Alsace and Lorraine. 263 vant of the Provisional Government, is likely to be, and indeed is thought to be, one of its most moderate members. He seems, however, fully imbued with its spirit. 'We do not,' he said, 'propose this change in the electoral law for its own sake, any more than you passed the Reform Bill for its own sake; we intend it to be a means, nor is it the only weapon we are forging.'. I asked him what repressive measures, short of absolute counter-revolution, the majority could take against the Republicans which they were not now taking? 'Why,' he said, 'they may impose a stamp upon newspapers, they may increase the cautionnement required from the Editors, and they may disband and disarm the National Guard in all the disaffected quarters. To a counter-revolution, however, we must come, though the road to it cannot yet be distinctly pointed out.' He rather surprised me by expressing a wish that in 1815 Alsace and Lorraine had been restored to Germany. Till that is done, he said, we shall never be upon good terms with Germany. And these provinces, though not disaffected to France, are disaffected to good government in France. They send the worst disposed members to the Assembly and the worst disposed soldiers to the army. He fears that Lamartine is connecting himself with dangerous associates. Since the late Parisian elections he has delayed his journey to take possession of his estates in Asia Minor. He intends to oppose the electoral law, and admits the chiefs of the Montagne to his counsels. 'The other day,' continued 264 7ournals kept in France and Itady. [1850. C., 'I was told at his door that he was engaged. I waited more than an hour till his friends went-they were let out by a back door. He was afraid of their being seen.' From Lady Elgin's I went to Mdme. Say's. I found there Dunoyer. As an Orleanist he is very angry with the English Government for the part that they took in depopularising. Louis-Philippe on account of the Spanish marriages. I tried to show him that we were justified both by our interest in preventing a new family compact, and by the gross fraud with which we were treated, but could produce no effect. He persisted in considering our resentment as mere spite, because we had been baffled in our intrigue to put a Cobourg on the Spanish throne. He, too, is reactionary, but desponding. ' Nothing,' he said, 'can give us good government until we have a real desire for liberty. Until we wish for liberty of trade, liberty of locomotion, general liberty, in short, of action, we shall be the slaves of our prefects and of our police, whatever be the nature of our supreme power. While I cannot buy a piece of Turkey carpeting or of English flannel, while I cannot publish a newspaper without giving security, or open a mine without authorisation, or sell tobacco without the leave of the Minister, or meat or bread without the leave of the police, or quit my department without a passport, I am not free, though I may enjoy one thirtyfour millionth part of the sovereignty of the people.' Tuesday, May 2I.-The Abbe Gioberti, M. de Circourt, Anisson Duperron, and F. Marcet breakfasted with 1850.] Prophecies of Gioberti. 265 us. Circourt talked despondingly as to the prospects of France. 'We are Gaels,' he said; 'the Teutonic blood of the Franks is worn out. We have the levity and irresolution which led our ancestors to disband when they had imprisoned Caesar between their own army and the walls of Alesia.' He then gave us a dissertation on the Celts, whom he divided into the Cwmri and the Gaels, agreeing in the love of war, but in nothing else. 'The Cwmri,' he said, 'are sluggish and obstinate; the Gael quick and inconstant. The Gael do great things and then throw away their success. The Cwmri do nothing. Who ever heard of a great Welshman or of a great Breton? In Ireland you have both. The Cwmri furnish the torpid savages of Connaught and Donegal, the Gael the turbulent savages of Munster. If we fall into chronic anarchy France will be a vast Tipperary.' Gioberti has no fears of such an anarchy. The Republican party, he thinks, must in a very few years be absolute masters, and he does not believe that they will abuse their power. I asked what effect their success would have on Italy. 'Italy,' he answered,' will be instantly revolutionised. No interference on the part of France will be necessary. Her example will be sufficient. If Piedmont has wisdom and courage enough to put herself at the head of the movement, the King of Sardinia will be King of Upper Italy, and may hold that crown during the interval, not a very long one, in which royalty will be possible in Italy. But I know my countrymen. Their feeling is not Italian but Piedmontese. They will try to avoid taking part in the 266 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. struggle, and the result will be that, instead of directing it, they will be carried away by it, and in the place of the Kingdom of Sardinia you will see one, or perhaps more than one, Republic.' The temporal power of the Pope as an independent sovereign is, he thinks, over. Pio Nono attempted to unite freedom and ecclesiastical government. Having found them irreconcilable, he has clung to the latter, submits every matter to the cardinals, and allows the majority to decide; and the majority is always oppressive and ignorant, and the friend of ignorance. Wishing to hear some treason, I called on A.,' and was not disappointed. 'To go on,' he said, 'with so absurd a Constitution as this is utterly impossible. La France est tres-malade. A remedy, a strong remedy, a heroic remedy is necessary, and if I were master I would apply it immediately.' I did not think it discreet to enquire what that remedy might be. He asked me what I thought of the Palmerston affair. I said that I would not venture to say what was the true explanation of Lord Palmerston's conduct, but that I would venture to affirm that the explanation currently received in Paris was untrue, namely, that he intended or even wished to offer an insult to France. A. is a sensible man, but on this subject I found his prejudices invincible. The explanation, he said, which you reject is the only plausible one. Lord Palmerston has always been the bitter enemy of France. He was bred up in A personal friend of the President's. —ED. I850.] Schemes of the President's friends. 267 the Castlereagh school, and his whole official intercourse with us has been a series of injuries inflicted and received. The separation of Belgium from Holland, the breach of the Quadruple Alliance, the non-ratification of the Right of Search Treaty, and the Montpensier marriages were all felt by him as personal affronts. He revenged himself by the treaty of 1840, and by the revolution of I848. The first destroyed our power abroad, the second has destroyed our power at home, and now that he thinks we are fallen, he amuses himself with kicking us. I drank tea with the De Tocquevilles, but saw little of him. It was the first day of the Electoral Bill, and one member after another came in and held a council with him in the next room. His longest conference was with Lamoriciere. He came out of it rather exhausted. Lamoriciere had thrown away his cigar only at the top of the stairs, and De Tocqueville, never very tolerant of tobacco, is peculiarly sensitive after his long illness. He said that he was enmpestM. Mdme. de Tocqueville spoke highly of the wit and conversational powers of Lamoriciere. She amused me with an account of the schemes of some of the President's friends; I suspect of the lady members of the party. When the dmeute takes place (for they have decided that there shall be one) the President is to show himself in the moment of triumph, and march as Emperor to the Tuileries. Changarnier, of course, will be his competitor, but they rely on his beating him, as he is a better rider, and has the best horse in Paris. Lahitte's letter, recalling Drouyn de 'Huys, was 268 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. not inserted in the body of the ' Moniteur.' It appeared in a supplement. Dupin, who as President transmits to the 'Moniteur' the official documents that are communicated to the Assembly, explained from his chair at some length the circumstances through which this happened. I forget what they were, but they proved that it was a mere accident. The President (Louis Napoleon I mean), of his own authority, forbade the insertion of the letter. Hereupon Lahitte tendered his resignation, and as a compromise it was inserted in the supplement. I do not think that in England a Speaker of the House of Commons could be prevailed on to tell a series of deliberate falsehoods in order to conceal a Cabinet dispute. I went afterwards to Mdme. de Circourt's, and found her circle much pleased with the course of the debate. Cavaignac had been commonplace, La Flotte timid, and Victor Hugo's speech was a collection of laboured antitheses. Wednesday, May 22.-I breakfasted with De Billing. One of the principle causes, he says, of the turbulence of Paris is the absurd education which the middle classes give to their children. They have been told for the last sixty years that all employments are open to all Frenchmen. They see journalists, schoolmasters, tradesmen, and tradesmen's clerks made Ministers and more than Ministers; they will not send their children to commercial schools, or teach them habits of business by keeping them in their own shops. They resolve to fit them for the high offices to which the Constitution, iS5o.] Unpopularity of Lord Normanby. 269 according to their interpretation of it, declares them entitled. The children, therefore, of the grocer and of the tailor receive the same education as those of the duke or of the millionaire. All go to the Lycees, or to Pensions, which are to fit them for the Lycees, where they obtain what is supposed to be a gentleman's education. A little Latin, rather less Greek, and a good deal of mathematics, and then they come into the world unfit for business, and indeed despising it, join the crowds of candidates that besiege every public office, and in despair turn demagogues, journalists, and deeutiers. De Billing, as an Orleanist, is angry with us for the haste with which we recognised the Provisional Government of 1848. After the Assembly had met on May 4 France had a sort of lawful authority, but Ledru Rollin and his associates, the nominees of a rabble, ought not to have been treated as a legitimate power. He attributes it, of course, to Palmerston, who, having overturned Louis-Philippe, was anxious to show his gratitude to his tools. The same dislike extends to Lord Normanby as Lord Palmerston's agent, and is aggravated by a jealousy of his influence with the President. He persuaded the President to order the French Fleet to join ours in our demonstration at the Dardanelles in the matter of the Polish refugees. His ministers prevailed on him to recall the order, and Lord Normanby persuaded him to renew it; the business being one in which, according to De Billing, France ought not to have interfered. 270 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. Though they warmly deny it, there is a strong tendency in all the three monarchical parties in France to rely for support on Russia. It shows itself in the contrast which they delight in drawing between what they call the digne conduct of Russia and the agitation which they attribute to England; it shows itself in their regret that we led them to join our protest against the extradition of the Poles; and it might also be inferred from the vehemence with which the Republicans take up the cause of Poland, as an obstacle to a Russian alliance. All parties seem to identify Russia with resistance and England with movement. De Billing sees no means by which France can recover, or even avoid progressive deterioration, except by passing through a military despotism. ' Before you return,' he said, 'next May, des evbzemnenzts trhs-gravcs auront eu lieu.' On my return, I found Michel Chevalier waiting for me. He, De Tocqueville, and De Beaumont are the only Frenchmen I have found believers in the possibility of working the present Constitution. What the Republican party promise, he says, he would give at once. He would introduce a poor-law and an income-tax, and would reduce the army by increasing the Corps d'elite. The gendarmerie, though far more expensive per man than the line, is really cheaper. There are now about 20,000 gendarmes. He thinks that raising 20,000 more would enable Ioo,ooo of the line to be reduced. For internal purposes, one gendarme is worth more than five ordinary recruits. The present French army of 400,000 i850.] Probable Conduct of Republican Assembly. 271 men is the result of a conscription of 80,o00 men per year, who serve for only five years. A portion of these, but not above I6 per cent., re-enter the service; so that the army, as a whole, is young and inexperienced. 250,000 good troops would form a much more efficient force; and even if their pay were increased 20 per cent. they would not cost more than three-fourths of the present expense. By such an increase, assisted by pensions for long service, he believes that the conscription might be abandoned and a permanent, well-disciplined army of volunteers be created. Such an army would be more efficient abroad, and, in a still greater degree, more efficient at home. It would acquire a real military spirit, and, what is more important, would retain that spirit. The feelings of the present army are, of course, constantly changing. Before every emeute their conduct is a matter of conjecture. Add to which, the present system gives military skill and training to the mob. Paris contains more veterans in its streets than in its garrison. Chevalier would make a still greater reduction in the navy. It has been raised, in a mere spirit of rivalry with England, to a size quite inconsistent with the wants or even with the honour of France. The want of a mercantile marine makes it impossible to keep up, in time of war, a military marine. France can man one fleet, but, if that be destroyed, she cannot man a second. I asked him if he shared the general fear of the conduct of a Republican Assembly. Not, he said, if the leaders in the Assembly itself were masters. But he fears that such an Assembly would be governed by the Parisian 272 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. mob, by the people in the tribunes, and by the newspapers, and there is no saying to what follies and excesses such influences might drive them. Thursday, May 23, we quitted Paris. [Mr. Senior paid a visit to M. de Tocqueville in Normandy in the following August. His journal is reserved for a future publication. He was again in Paris in October, on his way to pass the winter in Italy and Sicily. The events which had taken place in the meantime are described by M. Faucher in p. 274.] Hotel Bristol, Paris, Thursday, Oct. 26.-Mrs. Senior, M., and I reached Paris last night. This morning Beaumont breakfasted with us. We talked of the chances of Savoy's becoming a department of France. 'I can understand,' he said, 'the grounds on which the Piedmontese dread the loss of Savoy. Though it gives them little revenue, it supplies their best troops-the kernel on which the excellence of the rest of their army mainly depends; but I cannot see why we are supposed to desire its acquisition. In what respect should we become happier, or even more powerful, by adding to our 36 millions of people, and to our 230,000 square miles of territory, a poor, mountainous country and a half-civilised population, whom it would be difficult to govern and expensive to defend.' 'This,' I replied, ' may be true, and may be the view taken by a philosophical statesman; but it is not the I850.] Szpressing Anonymous Writing. 273 opinion of the people. Ever since Louis XIV. corrupted the French mind by his early conquests, its ruling passion has been territorial aggrandisement.' 'That passion,' he answered, 'is rapidly subsiding. At this instant nobody, except those to whom, like myself, politics are a profession, think nruch about public affairs. They are almost all busy in taking advantage of the return of prosperity and re-establishing their fortunes. The few who care about politics are watching internal events. They are speculating how a Constitution is to work whose instruments are a Prime Minister who cannot be dismissed, and a Parliament which cannot be dissolved. As for foreign politics, we desire nothing but peace. I do not believe that there is even any anxiety for the Rhine. We find that Belgium, independent and allied, is just as useful to us as if she were converted into a set of French departments.' I asked him how the new law prohibiting anonymous writing in the newspapers was received. ' Better,' he answered,' than was expected. In the first place, it is much eluded. Every journal has some confidential subaltern whose name is affixed to articles which the reader sees to be the work of a different hand. So far, indeed, as it is obeyed, the object of those who framed it, the diminution of the influence of the newspaper press, has been effected. The oracle loses half its force by losing all its mystery; but this is not an unpopular result. The world is glad to see weakened a power which has been so much abused. Many writers, too, are pleased to read their names in print. Many VOL. I. T 274 Yournals kept in France and Italy. [850. new reputations will be made. Obscure men of letters will become political characters.' I asked how an obscure man of letters could write well on politics. For that purpose a man must live in the political world. 'Every evening,' he answered, ' tere is a meeting at the bureau of an important journal of its principal contributors, often attended by the heads of the party whom it supports. Every day Guizot saw Bertin, the proprietor and editor of the " Debats," At these meetings the topics of the day are discussed, and the editor distributes the parts and prescribes the tone each contributor is to adopt. Such meetings are not perfect substitutes for the knowledge which is acquired by living and acting in the political world, but they are tolerable ones.' In the evening Faucher drank tea with us. I asked him what had been the principal events since we parted in May. 'When you left us,' he answered, 'the majority was completing its last work-the electoral law. 'Immediately after that law had passed it began to split. Each section of it advanced pretensions which the others could not tolerate. The Comte de Chambord and the Legitimists raised the banner of divine right. The Orleanists, when the death of Louis Philippe removed the principal source of their unpopularity, began to urge the claims of the Comte de Paris, and the President no longer pretends to be bound by the Constitution. Now that the Rouge party seems to be beaten I850.] Position of the President. 275. down, he has become the great object of suspicion. I -was anxious that the Permanent Committee of the Assembly should contain at least one or two of his adherents, but I failed. A Committee has been named in which he has not a friend. If he would submit to be a parliamentary sovereign, if he would condescend to be no greater a person than Queen Victoria, I believe that his reign might be postponed far beyond its legal term. But he seems to take Louis-Philippe for his model, and the Assembly will scarcely bear that the only consequence of the Revolution should be the substitution of a Buonaparte for a Bourbon.' I asked whether his Progress had done him good or harm-it could scarcely be neutral. 'Good,' said Faucher. 'The French love to have an idol, and in many departments they made one of him. The reviews, on the other hand, have done him harm. It appears that the treasonable cry of" Vive l'Empereur! " was dictated to the troops by their officers. The Colonel generally gave the signal as the first rank was passing the President, and more than one regiment, which obeyed the signal enthusiastically, was rewarded by being detained in Paris. The Committee has left a record of the whole transaction, which may lead to grave consequences. The next session must be a stormy one; now that the majority has broken up, the four factions will be instantly worrying one another. Commerce, however, has revived, the working-classes are well employed, prices are high, and the indirect taxes are becoming as productive as they were in I847. The deficit this year will hot be T 2 276 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. more than fifty millions, and probably may disappear next year.' Sunday, Oct. 29.-Beaumont and Sir James Stephen breakfasted with us. Beaumont is turning his attention to a poor-law. He asked me if I did not believe that England owed her stability mainly to her poor-law. I answered that a poor-law is an engine of enormous power both for good and for evil; that the security it gives to the poor man that neither he nor his wife nor his children shall starve is a great tranquilliser; but that the indefinite claim on property which it gives to those who have none is a great irritant. 'You may be right,' I continued, 'in thinking that at present the sedative effects preponderate. Twenty years ago the anarchical ones prevailed. We seemed then to be, and in fact we were, drifting rapidly towards Socialism in its most frightful forms.' 'But,' said Beaumont, 'as soon as you saw your danger you corrected the errors of your law, or rather of its administration.' 'Not,' I answered, 'as soon as we saw our dangernot until we had watched its steady advance for half a century. Writer after writer and committee after committee warned us that ruin was approaching; but we applied nothing but what were meant for palliatives, and really acted as stimulants. Until the Poor Law Amendment Act, every attempt at a remedy turned into a poison. Until the Reform Act our case was hopeless. The dislocation of parties, the discredit of traditions, the uprooting of prejudices, and the general ferment which i850.] Objections to a Poor Law. 277 that measure produced, enabled the Poor Law Amendment Bill to be carried. But never before or since has the public mind been in a state in which so violent a change in our most important social relations, in the whole intercourse between the poor and the rich, could have been effected, or even have been proposed.' ' But,' said Beaumont, ' is not a poor-law required by justice? I say nothing in defence of the idler, and I know how difficult it is to prove that a man is out of employment except by his own fault: but suppose this proved-suppose there to be no doubt that the applicant for relief has done his best to get employment or to keep it, and has failed. Has he not a right to existence? Is not the community bound to give him the means?' 'I will answer,' I said, 'your question by another. Suppose it to be proved that in the previous three months he earned wages which would have supported him during the year. Is the community bound to supply his want of providence? Again, you claim nothing for the idler. How do you treat his wife and children? Are the innocent to suffer for the guilty? Or, to prevent this, is the man who chooses to drink up all his earnings to be allowed to throw on the public the support of his family?' 'You talk of justice,' said Stephen; 'but one rule of justice is, not to promise what you may be unable to perform. How can a community promise support to all its members, whatever be their numbers, whatever be their conduct, or whatever be its own fortunes? During the last sixty years the population of England has risen 278 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. from 9 millions to I8. If in the next sixty years it rises to 36 millions, are they all to be entitled to support? and if they are to be so entitled, if no man is to be deterred from marrying by the fear of not being able to maintain a family, what is to prevent its increasing in the next sixty years to 72 millions? Again, what is to be done if the manufactures, on which millions depend for support, should be interrupted?' 'Well,' said Beaumont,' whether for good or evil, or rather for both, the experiment must be tried. When once such a system has been suggested it will sooner or later be adopted. Try it we shall. Our business is to try it in the least dangerous form.' In the afternoon we called on Mdme. de Collegno. 'Collegno,' she said, 'at first rather wished to decline being a member of the Piedmontese Senate. But now that he sees who are to be his associates, he is quite reconciled to his honours.' They are to meet us in Turin about November 3. On the Ioth we hope to find the Tocquevilles in Genoa. [We left Paris on the 28th, and went over the Cenis into Italy. I omit the description of so well known a route.-ED.] 1 Collegno, a Piedmontese exile of the year 1821, a thorough liberal and a man of science; a very fine character. He was made a Senator in 1848, and became a Minister, indeed the leading Minister, in the shortlived Cabinet that included the Lombards towards the middle of 1848. He belonged to the best Turinese aristocracy, and was a trait d'union between that class and the Lombard aristocracy, having married a ' Trotti,' sister to Madame Arconati. IIe died several years ago. —S. JOURNAL KEPT IN ITALY. JOURNAL. Turin, Monday, Nov. 4.-We slept at Susa, and reached Turin at about 2 this afternoon, after a seven hours' drive through the beautiful valley of Susa. The mountains, as you recede from them, seem to rise higher and higher. Their summits, unveiled by a single cloud, were cut out sharply on the blue of the sky. As the sun was behind them, only the snowy portion was distinctly visible; all below looked like a wall of black cloud. This tremendous barrier enclosed us on three sides, leaving open only the road to Turin, at the end of which we saw, from fifteen miles off, the Superga. As the road is perfectly straight, we kept approaching it for three hours, until at length a turn to the right brought us into the stately streets of Turin. After dinner, we walked on the further side of the Po, and saw Monte Viso and his companions, which had looked white in the morning sun, now of a uniform dark blue, but as unclouded as before and more distinct, for they were visible down to their roots. Prandi drank tea with us. As he is intimate with most of the members of the Government, I begged him to give me an account of them. In a Continental Government we ought to begin with the permanent Prime Minister, the King. 282 yozrnals keypt in France and Italy. [1850. He is, Prandi says, a man of courage and resolution, a soldier by education, and rather preferring that profession to royalty. This gives him independence. If he is required, he says, to do anything wrong, he shall leave Piedmont and easily find employment elsewhere. He is very frank, Prandi believes him to be honestly Constitutional, and he has fair talents and knowledge; so that the Piedmontese, on the whole, have not to complain of their sovereign. Azeglio,l the Minister of Foreign Affairs, says of himself, with truth, that he is more an artist than a politician. Office was forced on him under the following circumstances:-In the absence of popular institutions, authorship was the only avenue to wide notoriety. The three most eminent political writers were Balbo,2 Massimo d'Azeglio was born in I80o. His father placed him in the army, but in consequence of a serious illness he quitted the service and devoted himself to the arts. He married a daughter of the celebrated Manzoni, and has written several romances, ' Ettore Fioramosca,' ' Niccolo de' Lapi,' &c., which, though not to be compared with the 'Promessi Sposi,' are among the best in the Italian language. In 1841 he began to take an active part in politics. Some of the liberal measures which inaugurated the reign of Pius IX. were due to his influence. He fought valiantly and was wounded in Charles Albert's disastrous campaign in 1848. He was elected a Deputy in 1849, afterwards President of the Council and Prime Minister. He was replaced, as Prandi anticipated, by Cavour in 1852. He was sent by the Sardinian Government to tranquillise the Romagna in 1859, and succeeded in preventing serious reprisals, Afterwards he was appointed a Senator and Director of the Royal Galleries. In 1853 he came over to England and employed himself once more as a landscape painter. His pictures sold very well, though they were not firstrate. He was a frequent visitor at the house of Mr. Senior. He was tall and handsome-quite the ideal of a preux chevalier.-ED. 2 Balbo, a liberal Piedmontese patrician of the highest respectability. He published in 1842 'Le Speranze d' Italia' and several books on the History of Italy. Had Guelphic tendencies, which, coinciding with those of I850.1 Ministers of Victor Emmanuel. 283 Gioberti, and Azeglio. When the Revolution of 1848 required a liberal Minister, Balbo was selected. He was soon passed by popular opinion, and made room in a few days for Gioberti, then for Alfieri,1 and in a few months for Gioberti again. Gioberti was for a time omnipotent. His nominees ruled the Chamber, but his long absence from Piedmont and his revolutionary prejudices made him a bad selector both of deputies and of officials. He filled the Chamber and the public offices with Mazzinists and Republicans, and soon found himself at the tail of his party. What turned him out, however, was his attempt to interfere in Tuscany against the Republican Revolution. If he had succeeded in effecting this, the subsequent misfortunes might have been avoided. Piedmont and Austria might have pulled together, and the second disastrous war would not have occurred. But his democratic colleagues would not hear of an anti-republican intervention, and he was forced to resign. The Government which followed had no decided head. Perhaps the most important member of it was Ratazzi,2 an advocate of Casale. After the defeat of that hlsus naturas, Pius IX., paved the way to his entrance into the Ministry after the proclamation of the Statuto. Was a Senator, and died several years ago. Had five sons in the Piedmontese army during the struggle.-S. I Alfieri Sostegno was a leading member of the Piedmontese aristocracy, a descendant of the poet, a personal friend of Charles Albert, and a liberal. Had been in diplomacy, and helped to baffle the Austrian intrigues, which wanted to exclude Charles Albert from the succession to the throne of Sardinia. He was the head of the Ministry formed after the disaster of Novara. He was a Senator; a most respectable and agreeable man. He died some years ago.-S. 2 Afterwards Prime Minister. -ED. 284 yournals kept in France and I1aly. [I850. Novara, peace with Austria, immediate peace, became absolutely necessary. The Administration which had recommended that absurd war felt that they could not terminate it, and did their only wise act in resigning. The Ministry which followed, of which Count Delauney, a Savoyard, was President, was overthrown by the Genoese insurrection. He was personally unpopular in Genoa, and was sacrificed. The only untried liberal was Azeglio, and to him, in this extremity, the King turned. It was with difficulty that he consented to take office, and now, either from indolence or from inaptitude, he does it carelessly. During the last session he never spoke, and was even absent from the Chamber when the peace which he had himself made with Austria was discussed. Prandi does not think that, having admitted Camille de Cavour into the Cabinet, he can long retain its leadership. Cavour has all the ambition and activity which Azeglio wants. He is not satisfied with the three offices, Agriculture, Commerce, and Marine, which he now holds. The Ministry which he desires is that of Finance, and Prandi believes that he will add to it the Premiership. Whether Azeglio will serve under him is to be seen, but he will not long serve under Azeglio. Negri, the present Minister of Finance, is a mere banker, and is not likely to retain his post long. Prandi spoke highly of Paleocapa, the Minister of Public Works, a Venetian, one of the large body of persons who took the popular side in the Venetian insurrection, and have been admitted to citizenship in Piedmont. Siccardi, the Minister of Justice, could not avoid 1850.] Siccardi Law. 285 proposing the law subjecting the priests to the. ordinary tribunals. It was required by public opinion, and the Ministry would have been turned out if they had not proposed it. The only member of the Cabinet of whom Prandi thinks ill is the Minister of Public Instruction, one of the least instructed persons in the kingdom. Tuesday, Nov. 5.-Marquis Sauli breakfasted with us. He belongs, he says, to His Majesty's Opposition: an Opposition, according to Sauli, so mild that Azeglio enumerated among the grounds for anticipating public prosperity that they had an Opposition which was more anxious for the welfare of the country than for any party triumph. I asked him if he could tell me of any modern Italian work which I could employ my leisure at Rome in reviewing. He proposed ' Farini's History of the Roman States,' 2 a work of great merit, which brings the story down to the entry of the French in I849. I said that such an article could not be written without' blue books' and contemporary works, and asked him for Sauli, a Genoese noble, a liberal, formerly a Deputy, now a Senator. Was sent Minister to London in 1849, which place he resigned after the battle of Novara. Was sent by Cavour as Minister to Tuscany, and afterwards to St. Petersburg. Was named also by Cavour Governor of Tuscany on the retirement of Ricasoli.-S. 2 Farini, the nephew of Monsignor Farini, a Romagnole exile. Was made a Minister by Cavour, and took a leading part in the Italian movement. Was Dictator in.Emilia after the Peace of Villafranca, and did signal service in that capacity, keeping the provinces united, and baffling the attempts of the Ultras of either side. Was sent to Naples by Cavour to direct the Government there after the fall of the Bourbons. Was a Cabinet Minister for a short time. Over-exertion destroyed his health, and he died with impaired mental faculties several years ago.-S. 286 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. some other kernel over which I could spin dissertations out of my own brain. But he could propose nothing; nobody for some years has written about anything but politics. Were there no novels, I asked, no plays? Nothing, he answered, tolerable. Any narrative of the recent events in Piedmont? None. Any trials? Only one, that of a priest called Ganoschi, who attempted to found a new religion. This he is to bring me; it seems my only chance of finding an Italian peg. After breakfast I called on Count Camille de Cavour at his office. The porter doubted if I could be admitted, as it was the 'hour of signing.' Accordingly I found him with Count Castelborgo, whom he introduced to me as the Chef of the Department of Trade, signing letters. As yet, he says, he does not find the work heavy; Castelborgo relieves him from the greater part of it; but this is only his honeymoon. He has not been in office four weeks, and the Chambers met only to-day. I asked what was the ordinary duration of ministerial life? At present, he said, three or four months. Before the Constitution, said Castelborgo, it was three years, according to a computation which has been carefully made. Cavour talked sanguinely of the prospects of the country; the debt, even after the two wars and the Austrian indemnity, is only sixteen millions sterling. I asked what the Customs produced. About I8 millions of francs, he said; but if you add, to compare them to the English Customs, the profits of the manufacture of ' The famous Minister. He had been intimately acquainted with Mr. Senior years before, when he came over with M. de la Rive to England. -ED. 1850.] Chamber of Deputies. 287 tobacco, 30 millions. The difficulty of substituting for that monopoly an import duty is not, as in France, the interest of the tobacco growers, for none is grown in Piedmont, but the loss of patronage-a couple of thousand debits de tabac-and the places in the different manufactories are sources of influence which a Constitutional Government does not readily part with. We went to the Chamber of Deputies. The legal quorum, I02 (the whole number being 200), was barely present. The house is an oval, with a tribune for the President; the members spoke from their places. The space for strangers is not large; the building requires little exertion of voice, and the whole had a tranquil, business-like air. The discussion, in which the question was 'Whether this was a new session or an adjourned meeting,' was soon over, and as we were going out I was introduced to Balbo, and to Azeglio, Paleocapa, and one or two other Ministers. Azeglio is a fine-looking man, with simple, easy manners. 'He has done well,' said Cavour, 'everything that he has attempted; and yet has done it all with great ease. He is one of our best novelists, one of our best artists, one of our best political writers, and one of our best speakers; yet he never seems to give himself much trouble. I suspect the truth to be that he is a man of great talents, to whom, on the usual condition of great labour, great eminence in one, or perhaps in more than one, career was open, but who has rested satisfied with the comparatively easy acquisition of moderate success in many.' Cavour came home with me, and stayed with us for a long time. The cares of office hang lightly on him. 288 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. The Marquis Cavour,' Prandi, and Marquis Arconati 2 passed the evening with us. They tried to persuade me to write on Charles Albert. He was not, Arconati said, a man of great talent, though it was his misfortune to fancy himself one; nor was he in early life a man of firm character; but his moral qualities improved as he grew older. Nothing could exceed his courage. He looked in the face not only death but ruin: for even at the beginning of the Austrian war he contemplated the possibility that it might cost him his crown. He said to his favourite servant, Carlo, ' Will you always follow me?' 'Yes.' 'Even if I were to be no longer a king?' Bassi, Arconati's brother-in-law, was the Podesta of Milan, and by the King's side when he passed through it after his first defeat. Some shots were fired at him, and Bassi urged him to hurry on. ' What does it signify,' said the King,' whether I am killed here or elsewhere?' The same day, as he was leaving the town, he drew up his horse just after he had passed the gate, in a place which was exposed to the fire of an Austrian battery, and remained stationary for nearly a quarter of an hour. Luckily for him there was a fog, so that he was not discerned by the enemy, and no fire was directed specially against him, but several of those about him were struck. Marquis Alfieri, from whom I heard the story, thinks that he did not intend on this occasion, as he afterwards did at Novara, to get killed; but that he stayed there merely because he was indifferent to danger. I Elder brother of Camille.-ED. 2 Arconati, a Lombard exile, a most beneficent as well as a very rich proprietor, a Senator; brother-in-law of Collegno. Madame Arconati is a very distinguished woman. -S. 1850.] Conduct of the Austrian Government. 289 His courage, therefore, being a mere negation, was not contagious. We sympathise in self-devotion, but not in insensibility or in fatalism. The evening of his final defeat, after his abdication, he took the road towards France, with a passport as Colonel le Comte de Barges. At the first stage, Vercelli, he found unexpectedly an Austrian post. The officer in command took him to his Colonel, and they talked together during the long time which it takes Germans to scrutinise a passport. The Colonel was struck by the knowledge and intelligence of his visitor, and at last said to him: 'How comes it that, at your age and with your talents, you are only a Colonel?' 'Hdlas,' said Charles Albert, 'I have been unfortunate all my life.' Like most kings, he was shy, especially in the presence of numbers; he never could even address his troops. He had also the royal power of attaching those about him. He was always worshipped by his immediate circle, and his death has made him the idol of the multitude. Wednesday, Nov. 6.-I called on the Marchioness Arconati. The Austrians have not sequestered the Arconati property, though they have charged it with a heavy contribution. They paid the Marchioness the compliment of imposing one especially on her, as a notice of her exertions in the Liberal cause. Their beautiful villa on the Lake of Como was used as a military post, and underwent the honour of a bombardment. I asked after her friend the Countess Polcastro Quirini, whom I have not been able to hear of since she was very kind to us in Venice in 1847. ' She threw herVOL. I. U 290 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [850o. self into the Liberal party,' answered Madame Arconati, 'was active in the cause, and resolutely endured the privations and dangers of the long siege-a conduct the more meritorious as she had passed a life of ease, caring for little except the pleasures of society and the brilliancy of her soirees. She lives now a little to the north of Padua, where she has an agreeable country house.' I said that in 1847 her politics were antiAustrian, but that I could not find what she wished to substitute. Did she wish Venice to be annexed to Romagna? No. Or to Piedmont? No. Or to be an independent town like Hamburg? No. Then what, of practicable things, did she wish? For its reconstruction as a Metropolitan State, with Padua, Vicenza, Brescia, and Bergamo as her suffragans, was not practicable. 'She only wished,' she replied, ' to get rid of the Austrians.' 'This,' answered Madame Arconati, 'is our general feeling; and when you consider that we are one people, separated from the rest of the world by the sea and the Alps, with one origin, one religion, and for many purposes one language, you cannot wonder that we wish to exclude the foreigner. Nationality may be a barbarous feeling, but its being barbarous shows that it is instinctive, or it would not belong to all races in their early state. Like all instinctive feelings, it may be carried too far; but, notwithstanding the misfortunes into which it has led us, I doubt whether it is carried too far by us.' ' If I had been a Venetian,' I said, ' I think that I should have preferred being a member of the great Austrian Empire, which is now constitutional by law, and will soon be so in fact, to 1850.] Tyranny of Austria. 29I a precarious independence.' 'Supposing you to be right,' she answered, 'as to Lombardy and Venice, your reasoning does not apply to the rest of Italy. The Austrian Government, as respects its own subjects, was a tolerable one, far better than the Roman, the Neapolitan, and, indeed, than most of the others; but the badness of the others was mainly owing to her. She would not permit them to improve. Their interest, therefore, in expelling her from Italy was obvious, and there was nothing to counterbalance it, for they did not enjoy her protection, that is to say, the people did not. She protected, indeed, the sovereigns, but only while they were dependent on her, and independent of their subjects. In the second place, if the Austrians had been driven out, Venice would have been a great gainer. Of course Manin's proposal, to erect the standard of St. Mark and restore the Imperial power of Venice, was absurd, but it was only by making it that he could rouse the people. They had forgotten the oppressions of their doge and senate, and only remembered their glories. If the war had succeeded, Venice must have been united to the kingdom of Upper Italy. She would have been its great mart and port, instead of being sacrificed, as she now is, to Trieste. And lastly, I cannot believe that Austria will become really constitutional, at least according to the present scheme. What sort of a diet will it be in which nine languages are spoken? Even in Piedmont, difference of language is our great difficulty: our three native languages are French, Piedmontese, and Genoese. Of these, French alone is generally intelligible. A U2 292 yournals kept in France and Itay. [1850. speech in Genoese or Piedmontese would be unintelligible to two-thirds of the Assembly. Except the Savoyards, who sometimes use French, the deputies all speak in Italian; but this is to them a dead language, in which they have never been accustomed even to converse. They scarcely ever, therefore, can use it with spirit or even with fluency. Cavour is naturally a good speaker, but in Italian he is embarrassed. You see that he is translating; so is Azeglio; so are they all, except a few lawyers who have been accustomed to address the tribunals in Italian.' 'Why, then,' I said, ' do not they speak in French? That is a language in which they must be able to think.' ' Without doubt,' she answered, 'they would speak better in French: but we should not like to hear French, except from a Savoyard. It would be doubly unpopular-first as not being Italian, next as being French; for, next to the Germans, we dread and dislike the French.' I asked if she approved of the Siccardi Laws. 'Certainly,' she said; 'they were not only just, but politic. The mass of the people approve of them, and the Ministry would have been turned out if it had not proposed them; they are a step towards independence, and, religious as the Piedmontese are, in their present state of mind they prefer independence even to re I igion.' The 'Augsburg Gazette' was on the table, containing a statement that on the Ist Io,ooo Bavarians and two Austrian battalions had entered Hanau. We speculated as to the consequences, but could get no further 850o.] Dificulties of Italian Composition. 293 than that they must be serious. I afterwards met Camille de Cavour, and told him the news, which he had not heard, and now discredited. I said that, from all that I knew of the boldness and unscrupulousness of Schwartzenberg, I was inclined to expect it, and therefore could not disbelieve it when circumstantially asserted in such a paper as the 'Augsburg Gazette.' Prandi dined with us, and we went together in the evening and drank tea at Count Balbo's. He is a Member of the Chamber, but does not take much part in the debates, partly because his chest is weak, and partly because he came too late into public life. 'My life,' he said, ' has been that of a writer; my ideas do not flow well unless I have a sheet of paper before me, and even then they flow very slowly, and I endeavour to express them with the utmost brevity. If a whole day produces one or two pages I have done well. Instead of slow and concise, a public speaker ought to be. rapid and diffuse. Then I am very fastidious. I correct over and over, and never am tolerably satisfied with the result. To write well Italian prose is very difficult. Scarcely any one, except Manzoni, has done it. Though the language is often unfixed (and that is one of the difficulties), there are thousands of niceties to be observed, thousands of causes of offence to be avoided.' We talked of the state of the country. 'It is not,' said Balbo, 'hopeless, but it is alarming. Our debt is 400 millions, our expenses are 120 millions. We call ourselves at peace, yet we maintain an army of 50,000 men, or i per cent. of our population, which is as if 294 Journals kept in France and Italy. [I850o you kept one of 400,000. We have increased everything except our revenue; that remains as it was before the war, only eighty millions. Until I see some attempt to supply, or at least to diminish, our deficit, I cannot feel at ease.' 'And yet,' said one of the guests, Meligrado, the Professor of Constitutional Law,' the country is prosperous, the new Constitution, the " Statuto" as they call it, has produced great activity, prices are high, and the labouring classes are well employed.' 'I cannot believe,' said Balbo, 'that the " Statuto " has yet had time to improve much our powers of production. The war made the fortunes of the military contractors, and gave good wages to those who made uniforms, muskets, and saddles; the peace has filled the hotels, and the refugees from Lombardy and Venice pass their lives in the cafes, and bid against one another for lodgings; but this is not prosperity. I repeat, that, until provision is made to meet the expenses of our unhappy war, no Piedmontese statesman ought to feel tranquil.' 'Could that war,' I said, 'have been avoided?' 'It could not,' he answered; ' nobody knows that better than I do, for it was I who declared it, and I knew at the time what were the dangers which it brought with it. ' On that day I had been Prime Minister for four days. The "Statuto " bears date March 8, 1848. I was appointed Minister on the i6th. On the 20th we heard of the insurrection of Milan, and d'Adda came to implore our aid, telling us that, if we refused, they had orders to go on to Paris. I saw clearly that the worst consequence of our refusal would not have been French intervention, 850o.] Declaration of War. 295 bad as that would have been; but that in a week we should have had a Republic in Milan, a Republic in Venice, a Republic most certainly in Genoa, and most probably in Turin. I went instantly to the King, told him the news, and said that we must have immediately a Cabinet Council. The King, anxious to be Constitutional, asked if he ought to be present. I said that his presence would not only be proper but necessary. It assembled about 2 o'clock, in a room overlooking the Piazza del Castello, at that time filling rapidly with an excited mob. They were crying "Vive le Roi!" but with a manner which clearly showed that they meant "Vive la Republique!" The Milanese had asked 3,000 men. This would have been absurd. Count Revel proposed that Io,ooo men should be allowed to go as volunteers. "I think," said the King, "that, if we are to act, we should act more decidedly." This showed me what were his views; and as they agreed with my own, I looked round the table, and then, without alluding to Revel's proposition, I said, "Sire, I believe we are all agreed that we should act, as your Majesty expresses it, decidedly, and that the Minister of War should instantly take measures to move forward the disposable part of the army; and I think that it may be advisable that your Majesty's resolution should immediately be communicated to the people." " By all means," said the King, " and I hope that you will all dine with me." And thus, and in not much longer time than it has taken me to relate it, ended a Council on which the fate of the kingdom seemed to depend. We 296 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. immediately threw open the windows, and from the balcony proclaimed to the people that the army had been ordered to march on the Milanese frontier. Of course the news was received with applause; not, indeed, with the furious joy that would have been exhibited by our southern neighbours, for we are a calm and grave people, but with congratulations on the glorious career on which the country seemed to be entering, a little tempered by a consciousness of the perils which it was to encounter. ' Our dinner at the Palace was serious. The royal dinner never lasted more than about half an hour or forty minutes, after which we took our coffee in a half circle in the drawing-room, each with his hat under his arm, and the King went his round, saying something to everybody. This time he suddenly left us, after having gone only half round. Despatches from Milan had arrived, and he came back to tell us that the Austrians had been driven out. We rejoiced at having proclaimed our decision so soon. If made after this was known, it would have lost half its merit, and more than half its effect. I went home at night tired to death, and found a messenger waiting to tell me that Abercromby wanted to see me. I sent word that I was undressing, but would receive him in my bed-room. By the time that he came I was in bed. "Do you know," he said, as he came in, " what you have been doing?" "Yes," I said, "we know what we have done, and we will stand by it." "Do you know," he continued, "that you have virtually declared war against a friend and ally, that friend and 1850.] Why War was Unavoidable. 297 ally being one of the greatest military powers in Europe?" "Yes," I said, "I know that we have done all this, and we have done right; on no other conditions could the Monarchy have been saved, as I could prove to you if I were not dying for want of sleep." " Well," he said, " after having done all this, sleep if you can." And I did sleep, for my conscience then was, as it is now, perfectly calm. By resisting the popular will we might have lost our Constitution, but we should not have preserved peace.' ' Do you recollect,' he said, turning to the Countess, 'the visit of Camille de Cavour?' ' Yes,' she answered; 'when the King seemed to waver he came to urge you to proclaim yourself dictator, and to march even against his will; he said that he was ready to go barefoot to Milan. When the madness reached such men as Cavour, you may judge what were the passions of the people.' Thursday, Nov. 7.-Marquis Alfieri paid us a long and interesting visit. I mentioned to him Count Balbo's opinion that the war was unavoidable. 'Considering,' he said, 'our previous conduct, I agree with Balbo. We could not wash our hands of the Milanese insurrection. We had been instigating it for years. The Executive, too, was paralysed. The Piazza del Castello was the seat of Government. The Sovereign and his Ministers were not those who sat in Council in the Palace, but the mob below and its demagogues.' ' Could the second war,' I asked,' have been avoided?' 'There was an interval,' he answered, 'in which perhaps it could. It was immediately after Gioberti's first Ministry, 298 7ouenals kept in France and Italy. [1850. after he had succeeded Balbo, had held office for a few days, and then had resigned, and had been followed by me. At that time Austria would have given to us not only an honourable peace, but the Duchies of Parma and Placentia. This is the sort of gradual aggrandisement which suits the House of Savoy. But Gioberti, the day that he quitted office, became president of the most Democratic Club, and attacked us and Austria and the armistice with a pamphlet which set the people on fire. The King, too, was anxious for war: he could not endure his defeat, and was resolved to play double or quits with fortune.' 'Do you tolerate,' I said, 'applause from the galleries?' 'We are too young,' he answered, ' in political life to be able quite to suppress it. When I have been President I have addressed the spectators, and explained to them the necessity of absolute silence; they seemed to agree with me, and testified their assent vociferously, so that I could only shrug my shoulders and sit down. Our debates, however, are now too dull to excite much interruption; it is difficult indeed to get up a debate. We are all unused to public speaking. Till within the last few years public speaking was an offence. I often try to speak merely to prevent Bills from being passed in silence, but when I am on my legs I sometimes feel a nervous contraction about the throat which makes me almost inaudible and quite deprives me of all ease. Our orators will belong to the rising generation.' We talked about Naples. 'You would have found 1850.] Sociely in Naples. 299 there,' he said, ' three years ago, an interesting society. But now the most distinguished members of it are among the 30,000 who fill its prisons. The King is not like ordinary tyrants, oppressive merely to maintain his authority; he dislikes superiority of every kind; he hates a man who writes well, or plays well, or sings well, or dances well. Many of his prisoners are the victims of this jealousy. Among them is a man whom I should have been anxious to introduce to you, Scialoja.' was Professor of Political Economy in Naples. we founded such a chair here I persuaded hA milder or a more inoffensive man doe When the Constitution was established in thought it his duty, though not without som to return, and he became a member of Ministry. As such, he was in attendance on the day of the insurrection in May IE months afterwards a person, who was under to him, came to tell him that he and two c denounced as having been on the barricac warned the other two, but knowing that he hac that instant in the King's presence he desp accusation for himself. He was arrested, and has now for two years in prison, untried. He will perha], pass the remainder of his life there, and it may not be a long one. A Neapolitan prison is any place with walls Scialoja, a writer on Political Economy, a Neapolitan exile, a man of talent; has been Minister of Finance in the Italian Kingdom; is a Senator and Councillor of State; a very terse and eloquent speaker.-S. 300 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [i850. and a roof; light and air are thought unnecessary, and the food is not more wholesome than the lodging. We dined with the Marquis Cavour, and found there his daughter, who is very pleasing, his brother, General La Marmora, Count Castelborgo, Arconati, and a man whose name I did not catch. The palace is large, the rooms well proportioned, and about 20 feet high. La M/armora is young, tall, and thin, dark and very handThey tried to make me explain to them the between our Courts of Law and Equity: a t incomprehensible to foreigners, and not;tood by natives. I doubt whether I suce report that Prussia is to occupy the north tuiescing in the occupation of the south by mentioned. 'I fear,' said Camille de it is true, though it seems almost inconJo not wonder at Prussia's refusing to make )ort of the liberties of Hesse, but I cannot her countenancing their destruction. It is, however, with the King's false, irresolute, yet timid policy. The old Germanic Conn is now nearly reconstructed, and if the people L interfere, or interfere and are beaten, the next _p will be the reconstruction of the Holy Alliance, and European freedom will scarcely extend beyond England, France, Switzerland, and Piedmont.' Friday, Nov. 8.-Count Gallina has written to say that he is not well enough to come to Turin, and begs us to spend a few days in his country house at Marenna, 850.] Political Duels. 301 near Savigliano, if we can tolerate the want of English comfort. We intend to go there on Tuesday. Marquis Sauli passed the early part of the evening with us. He talked of the political duels which were frequent in Turin during the past year. They are generally fought with pistols. In one in which Sauli was second the parties were placed at twenty-five paces, without liberty to advance. The first time both pistols missed fire, neither was hit: the seconds and the principals then shook hands. In another the parties were Camille de Cavour and a Protectionist deputy. The latter violently attacked Cavour in the Chamber. Cavour retaliated in the Resorgimento. The deputy was the challenger. They were placed at twenty-five paces, but as the offence had been serious each was allowed to advance five. Here, too, neither was hit. Cavour showed great coolness: he made a long and excellent speech immediately before the duel. We drank tea with the Arconatis. 'We met there a Marchioness Lajatico (whom we shall find a valuable friend in Florence), the Collegnos, and Massari, a Neapolitan. Collegno and Massari' agreed that Italy was not ripe for a representative government. 'Twenty or thirty years,' said Collegno, 'of liberty of the press, liberty of public speaking, and open procedure, might have prepared Piedmont for it-forty or fifty years of Massari, a Neapolitan student and an exile. Went to Belgium, became here intimate with Gioberti, whom he accompanied in his political tour in Italy; has been a deputy since 1848; Liberal, with a shade of cleri-:alism.-S. 302 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. such training the rest of Italy; for Piedmont is far the most advanced. The people are sober and reflecting, and she has a real aristocracy, consisting of men not only of birth and fortune, but of knowledge and industry. The most eminent men whom the Revolution has produced belong to it. But popular government came to us too soon. It has cost us our two disastrous wars and our deficit, which Ministry after Ministry allows to increase. Of course it was still more premature in less civilised districts. The person principally responsible is the King of Naples. He was alarmed by the general ferment which followed Pio Nono's early demonstrations. General Filangieri urged him to make concessions, and he thought to outbid the agitators by granting a Constitution. This produced the promise of the Piedmontese Constitution. Charles Albert did not choose to be less liberal than his brother. But Charles Albert was honest: he really wished to be a Constitutional King-and so does his successor. It is not the Executive but the people who, from time to time, ask for a cozup d'etat, when they find that liberty has its duties as well as its rights, its restrictions as well as its privileges. The King of Naples was utterly dishonest. He never intended to abide by his Constitution, he took the first opportunity to suspend it, and it will not be revived Filangieri, a very distinguished general in the Neapolitan service. Conquered the Silician Rebellion, was Governor of the island, and subsequently a leading member of the Neapolitan Cabinet in the last years of Ferdinand's reign. His principles had formerly been Liberal. He remained in Italy after Ferdinand's fall. He is the son of the celebrated political writer, Gaetano Filangieri. —S. 1850.] Insurrection of 1848. 303 while he has Swiss or Austrians to rely on. Merely having acted as a deputy under it now is a crime, though some other pretext for punishment is used.' 'This was my crime,' said Massari; 'but, as they could not openly assign it, they got up a story about some conversations in which I had taken part in Florence and Turin six years before, and if I had not fled I should now be in some Neapolitan dungeon. The Insurrection of 1848,' he continued, 'was the turning point of Italian regeneration. Until that time, though perhaps all was not going on well, yet all was going on. Radetzky was driven from Lombardy and imprisoned within his fortresses, Austria was willing to give up all to the Mincio, and deliberated whether she could retain the Piave. If the Neapolitan contingent had taken up its position in the Italian army, Vicenza would not have fallen, the Tyrolese reinforcements would not have reached Radetzky, and the campaign of 1848 would probably have been successful. The moral effects were as fatal as the military ones. Till that time the progress of liberty had never been checked. The troops had either sided with the people or looked on. 'The I5th of May broke the spell of insurrection. Till then neither party knew its own strength, but on the whole the sovereigns felt most alarm. But as soon as it was found that the soldiers would fight for those who paid them, and that discipline would beat enthusiasm, it was the turn of the people to tremble. The King of Naples instantly recalled the concessions which fear had extorted from him, and revenged himself 304 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. bitterly on the Liberals for the fright which we had given him; his example was imitated in Tuscany, and France and Austria together have extinguished liberty almost everywhere else. And yet this fatal insurrection was without a motive. The Chambers had not formally been opened, though they had met irregularly in the Town Hall of Monte Oliveto. A question arose as to the oath which they should take. It was proposed that they should swear to the Constitution. They objected that it required modifications. As soon as it was known that there was a difference of opinion between the King and the Deputies, the National Guards ran to arms. Barricades were erected in the street leading from the Palace to the House, the troops attacked them, and this riot ruined the liberties of Italy. Among the crimes,' continued Massari, 'of the present hateful tyranny, perhaps the worst is its systematic corruption of justice. The Neapolitan judges were amongst the best in Europe. The law which they had to apply to political offences was indeed severe, and they enforced it strictly, but they were impartial. The punishments were what you would think excessive, but they were inflicted on those only who were legally guilty. After the counter-revolution the Government resolved to effect the ruin of the Constitutional party through the courts of law. By this means it hoped to deprive its victims of European sympathy. So general is the detestation of the Republican party, and so little is known of Neapolitan affairs or of Neapolitan public men out of Naples, that it expected to destroy as I850.] Neapolitan Courts of 7ustice. 305 Mazzinists men whose political life had been passed in opposition to Mazzini, and to his anarchical theories. To effect this, every judge who was suspected, not merely of Liberal principles, but of common honesty and common integrity, has been removed. This system began soon after May i848, but was not fully carried out until the dissolution of the Chamber in March I849. Then it was that Pica, Sannio, Chiga, and Cesare were dismissed-most of them men whom you would call Tories-men opposed to the Constitution, but incapable of condemning an opponent unless on sufficient evidence. In their places were appointed men like Navarro, the President of the Court which is now trying those who are accused of belonging to the Society of the Unita Italiana. Navarro was one of the exceptions to the general good character of the old Neapolitan magistracy. Ever since he has been raised to the Bench he has been infamous for his ferocity. One of his colleagues in the Criminal Court of Lucera told me that at every trial Navarro voted first for conviction, and secondly, for the infliction of the highest penalty which by law could be awarded. He has seen him, when the sentence was under deliberation, implore his colleagues one after another, as a personal favour to himself, to add on a few years, or a single year, or even a month, to the proposed period of imprisonment. In 1847 he was removed from the Court of Lucera to that of Campo Basso just as sentence was to be pronounced on a political prisoner. He entreated to be allowed to retain his seat at Lucera for one day longer, in order to enjoy the pleasure of VOL. I. X 306 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. punishing. These are his qualifications for the Presidency of the first Criminal Court in Naples. It may be supposed that when such judges are selected few victims are snatched from the Government by acquittal. When this does occur, woe to the judge who has pronounced it. Soon after May 15, 1848, a Neapolitan printer copied some articles from the "Contemporaneo," a Roman journal circulating freely in the Neapolitan States. The Government disapproved of these articles and prosecuted the printer. The judge was a respectable man named Tibet. As the Government allowed the journal containing the original articles to be sold, Tibet did not think that he could declare the reprinting them a crime, and he discharged the prisoner. He was immediately cashiered, without being heard in his defence, indeed without trial, and this in defiance, not merely of the Constitution, which declares the judges irremovable, but of the old laws of the kingdom, which prohibit their removal except after solemn enquiry. Soon after, the "Independente," a Neapolitan journal, was prosecuted. The charge was so absurd that the Court rejected it unanimously. Every judge who sat on that trial was instantly dismissed, without pension or provision. You may conceive what are the prospects of Poerio, Dragonetti, Leopardi, and the other ex-members of the Constitutional Administration, who are now'suffering the horrors of a Neapolitan prison, or undergoing the farce of a Neapolitan trial.' Lord Palmerstonis universally popular here, and I am told that it is the same throughout Italy. His treat I850.] Austrian Demands. 307 ment of Greece is explained and forgiven as having been really a defiance of Russia and Austria, and is accepted as an evidence that we shall not allow them to trample out what remains of Italian independence. 'We watched,' said Madame Arconati,' with intense interest the debate on the Greek question. Immediately after Lord Stanley's success in the Lords, the Austrian troops advanced towards the Ticino. They were withdrawn when the division in the Commons was known. I doubt whether, if Lord Palmerston had been overthrown, we should have ventured to resist the exigencies of Austria.' 'What would they have been?' I asked. 'One,' said Collegno, 'would have been the abandonment of our tricolor flag and the resumption of our old national standard; another would have been a restriction of the liberty of the press; and a third the expulsion of our emigrants, or, at least, of many of them.' 'The first,' I said, 'would have been insolent, but its insolence would have been its principal evil. As for the second, I suppose that your press, like every revolutionary press, runs very wild?' 'Certainly,' he answered. 'It is chiefly managed by foreigners, and dangerous ones, many of them in the pay of Austria, as was found the other day on the death of a soi-disant rouge in Genoa; and if we could restrict its license, without doing so at the bidding of a foreign Power, it would be a great blessing. The same may be said as to the emigrants. Piedmont is become the sink into which all the rascality of Italy is confluent. They do more harm and create more danger to us than to anyX2 308 journals kept in France and Ztaly. [1s50. body else. If we had any sense, we should not wait for the summons of Austria to make a great sifting of them.' 'What support,' I asked, 'do you expect from Lord Palmerston in your resistance?' 'We are told,' said Massari, 'that he said that England would not suffer any interference with our domestic institutions. At all events, we hope more from him than from Lord Aberdeen.' 'I suspect,' I answered, 'that you would have the same sort of support from the one as from the otherstrong expressions of sympathy for you, and strong expressions of disapprobation of them-but I do not believe that any English statesman would send an army to defend Genoa or a fleet to bombard Trieste. If, indeed, France and England were agreed in the matter, something might be done.' 'Oh,' said Collegno, 'we know perfectly well what France would do; she would occupy Savoy and leave Piedmont to its fate.' Saturday, Nov. 9.-The Chevalier and Madame de Collegno, Prandi, Marquis Alfieri, and Marquis Cavour drank tea with us. Mrs. Senior had gone with the Marchioness Arconati over her new apartment, which, to her English eyes, appeared magnificent, but our guests would not allow it to be more than 'pretty.' 'There are,' said Alfieri, 'in Turin some of the finest houses in Europe. In the middle of the last century it was the fashion to build, Fortunes were large and permanent, for they were strictly entailed, and, in fact, the younger branches of a family seldom married. The head of the house maintained them; they filled the army and the high offices of the Church, and formed a I850.] Italian Unity. 309 large society, who, having nothing else to do, studied the arts of pleasing. Country houses were then, as indeed, to a considerable degree, they are now, open to all the owners' friends, and they went in large parties from one to another. Now, since we have adopted, with some modification, the French system of equal partition, our homes are become too large for us, and we must copy what we have not yet done, another French habit, that of letting off the greater part and confining ourselves to a floor.' I asked Madame Collegno if what I heard was true, that the Arconatis thought of building on one of their estates. 'Certainly not,' she said. 'No one would build in Italy in such times as these. I am not sure that they are prudent in taking an apartment for three years.' ' We talk,' said Collegno, ' of Italian unity. This little kingdom consists of four provinces without any feelings in common. There is Sardinia, half civilised, and under the domination of the priests. There is Genoa, feeling towards Piedmont much as Lombardy feels towards Austria. As Genoa is the seat of our commerce, and as one of the subjects requiring immediate attention is an alteration in our protectionist tariff, the Genoese merchants were expected to send us useful commercial members. They have sent us nothing but firebrands, wild Democrats, and a renegade priest. Savoy is in the other extreme; more than half her members are ultra Tories; if France were Legitimist they would try to coalesce with her. Under present circumstances, they are endeavouring to restore absolutism, tempered only by priestcraft. Piedmont is the only 3Io 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. sound part of the monarchy; but Piedmont has little political knowledge. The only real statesman in the Cabinet is the man who has just entered it, Cavour. The Ministry of Public Instruction has been refused by four persons during this week, and is not yet filled up. We have, however, over the rest of Italy an enormous advantage, in the antiquity of the House of Savoy. The Bourbons in Naples, the House of Lorraine in Tuscany, the House of Hapsburg in Lombardy and Venice, are looked on as strangers. If they governed well, they might be approved, just as Leopold is approved in Belgium; but they could excite no loyalty. Now, with the exception, of course, of Genoa, we are loyal. We identify our King with our history. Charles Albert, with all his defects, was popular, and since his death he is almost sanctified. In the rest of Italy, the idea that always suggests itself to those who suffer under misgovernment is a Republic; with us it was a Constitution.' Sunday, Nov. Io.-Camille de Cavour, Balbo, Count Sclopis,l and the Arconatis called on us. Cavour thinks that the Pope's creation of Romish sees in England is unwise, as it will throw discredit on Puseyism, the bridge over which the English converts pass. He believes that a sincere belief in the peculiarities of Catholicism is general in Piedmont, even among the educated I Sclopis, a Piedmontese noble and magistrate, an eminent writer on legal and historical subjects. His liberalism has been chequered with Turinese municipalism. Was Minister in j848, and since President of the Senate, which office he resigned on the transfer of the capital to Florence. A man of great respectability.-S. i850.] Manzoni's Politics. 31I classes. They sympathise, however, with the Government in its quarrel with the Pope. What the effect of an interdict would be it is difficult to say. Balbo came to ask us to dine with him on Tuesday, to meet Azeglio -a pleasure which we must refuse, as we are going to Gallina's. He is reprinting his 'History of Italy,' and adds a chapter on the period between 1847 and 1850, which he hoped to have shown me in manuscript. As it will not be ready before I go, I must be satisfied with the proofs; but it will be long before they are out. Balbo is slow and the printers are still slower. Madame Arconati brought me Manzoni's essay on the historical novel. This led us to speak of my meeting him at her house in 1847, the day of his daughter's marriage. 'What did he talk to you about?' said Balbo. 'Politics,' I said. 'I have no doubt,' said Balbo, 'detestable ones. I have talked politics to him, and nothing could be wilder. And yet he once uttered a political mot which was perfect. We asked him in 1847 to join the Government. He refused. We had the weakness to insist, and he then wrote to us to say, with the utmost sincerity, that he felt unfit to take a part in public affairs, knowing himself to be incapable of distinguishing between the desirable and the possible. In that incapacity lies the secret of all our misfortunes.' Sclopis belongs to the magistracy; his family is of the lesser nobility, the decurioni of a provincial town. At the time of the Revolution he was Attorney-General, and Balbo made him Minister of Justice. He was the chief draughtsman of the 'Statuto.' We talked of the 312 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. law, the church, and medicine, and I asked whether a gentleman would put his son into one of them. 'The class of gentlemen,' said Sclopis, ' in your sense of the word-that is, of men placed by education and manners in the highest position, without reference to birth-does not exist in Italy. Though the nobles live familiarly with the haute bourgeoisie, they are not of the same class. But to return to your question. A man of the higher orders would scarcely make his son a priest. Besides the restriction of celibacy, the life of a priest is one of great labour. In addition to the daily, or almost daily, celebration of Mass, and the daily repeating the Breviary, and the long hours occupied by hearing confessions, he spends with the sick more time than even the physician. Whatever be the hour or the weather, he must proceed with the sacraments to those who are supposed to be in immediate danger, and he almost lives by the bedside of the dying; for he ought to be present when the last breath is expired, to accompany it with the beautiful prayer which begins " Proficiscere anima Christiana." In many of the parishes in Turin a priest does not get more than six nights' undisturbed sleep in a month. The dignities of the church which once attracted the higher classes are no longer made pieces of patronage: they are now given to the most distinguished ecclesiastics, and when those who were appointed under the old system have passed away they will be filled almost exclusively by men of humble birth. 'Nor would a member of the aristocracy readily make his son a physician. It is looked on as a sort of trade, 1850.] Position of the Learned Professions. 313 and though there are some physicians in the Senate, they are there as members of the Academy, not as physicians. The Revolution has given great importance to advocates: they are almost the only members of our Chamber who can speak; but their social position is not high. The Bar is not the road to the magistracy. We can scarcely, therefore, be said to have any professions for the higher orders, except the army and the higher department of the public service. The middle classes fill the medical and legal professions, and swarm in the employment of Government: we have copied from France her centralisation, and with it her hosts of public servants. The church is recruited chiefly from the lower classes. They alone can endure its fatigues and privations. A peasant's family feels itself almost ennobled by having a son in the church, and the cheapness of a learned education renders it easy.' The morning was fine, but about noon came on a thick, cold fog; there was probably, they said, a tourmente in the Alps. Arconati admitted the variableness and, in winter, the severity of the climate, but praised its healthiness. Marquis Cavour spent the evening with us. He is curious, as I find most of the Piedmontese, respecting our institutions, and tried to get from me an outline of the English law of real property. When I told him that we had no notaries to authenticate the transmission of property, and no register to record it, and that the only evidence of title was the possession, in the proprietor's or mortgagee's hands, of a bundle of parchments, he 314 Journals kept in France and Italy. [i850. remarked, what is true, that we are the only civilised nation which endures so barbarous a system of conveyancing. Monday, Nov. II.-Madame Arconati called on us, and brought with her M. Cordova, Minister of Finance in the Provisional Government of Palermo. We talked, of course, of the Sicilian insurrection. He admitted that the hope of the insurgents lay in foreign assistance, since the Neapolitan Government has carefully kept the Sicilians unmilitary. The only portion of the Neapolitan law which is not extended to Sicily is the conscription; and that, though the people have often petitioned for it, has always been refused. There were only two Sicilian regiments, and they were of course kept in Naples. 'We have been blamed,' he said, 'for not accepting the terms which the King would have conceded. We should have been satisfied with the terms, if we had seen any grounds for believing that they would be kept. But the King offered no pledges; he was to retain the fortresses and the army. We utterly distrusted him, and the manner in which he has treated his neighbours in Naples shows that we were right.' I asked about the safety of the country. ' The roads,' he said, 'in the interior, are safe; you may go from Palermo to Messina, and from Messina to Syracuse. Twelve hundred persons have been executed during the last two years, most of them, of course, for political offences; but crime of every kind has been vigorously suppressed. The only country in which there is the least danger is among the mountains to the east of 1850.] Education in Piedmont. 3I5 Palermo, which has always been the least secure district. If you post to Messina you will probably take an escort for the first stage or two.' The Cavours, Sauli, Alfieri, Prandi, Sclopis, Meligrado, and Massari drank tea with us. Alfieri, five and twenty years ago, lived in great intimacy with Schwartzenberg. He thinks highly of his talents and judgment. I mentioned Beaumont's opinion that his ruling passion was hatred of Lord Palmerston. Alfieri disbelieved it. He is too cool and calculating to be actuated by personal feelings. His ruling passion is the preservation of the Austrian Empire; to this he will sacrifice everything at home and abroad. He has no despotic or aristocratic prejudices; he is not likely, indeed, to be favourable to a system which gives him only an annuity of 2,ooo0. a year, while his brother inherits a sixth of Bohemia. Alfieri does not wonder at the difficulty of filling the department of Public Instruction. He held it for four years before the 'Statuto,' and has no pleasant recollection of it, though then it was less disagreeable than it is now; for the Government and clergy were then acting together, now they are at war. The clergy require that religion be taught in all the schools. The Government consents. They affirm that they must be the only teachers of it. The Government assents. 'But,' they add, 'to teach religion effectually we must teach or superintend every other instruction, or the lessons taught by the priest may be nullified by the teacher of history or philosophy.' Here the Government resists. The consequence is, that the priests have retired from 316 Journals kept in France and Italy. [I85o. the schools, and endeavour to withdraw their parishioners; the Government finds it difficult to get tolerable teachers, and education is falling off. 'The great fault,' he added, 'in our education is, that no one is satisfied with giving to his son a mere commercial or industrial training. As no one is disqualified for any office by want of birth, parents do not choose that their children should be disqualified by want of education. Instead of fitting them to be shoemakers or shopkeepers, they prepare them to be bishops or statesmen. This gives us every year a crop of unquiet, dissatisfied youths, who despise trades, and yet, for want of fortune or of connection, cannot succeed in professions. What I envy in England is the cheerfulness with which men submit to their vocation. A linendraper breeds his sons to be a linendraper; the young man knows that his proper place is behind a counter, and does not try to pull down the House of Lords because he has no chance of sitting there. With us no one thinks that his proper place is any except the hignest. The middle and higher classes receive, as far as mere teaching is concerned, nearly the same education; and the lad who sees his schoolfellow enjoying social eminence, or taking the path that leads to it, wishes either to imitate him or to pull him back. He becomes ambitious or discontented.' The potato disease was mentioned. It has shown itself in Piedmont this year, though not severely, and it is difficult to wish for its total disappearance. Potatoes were gradually superseding polenta, and it is found that, when once an Italian population takes to them, it 1850.] Immigration into Sardinia. 3 I 7 becomes too numerous, or too idle, to live on anything else. The Neapolitan lazzaroni have sunk to them from macaroni. They examined me about our Irish emigration. For many years there has been a desire to obtain an immigration into Sardinia. It must be Roman Catholic, and it must be sufficiently numerous to protect itself against attacks from the natives: scattered strangers would not be safe among that barbarous population. But an objection has been raised, founded on our law of nationality. The Government would object to having one or two hundred thousand subjects who were also subjects of England, and entitled to demand English protection against the Sardinian authorities. I said that the same objection had been made to me by Bancroft with respect to our immigration into the United States, where there must now be some millions of English subjects, but that no practical difficulty had as yet arisen, or seemed to me likely to arise; that the right to English protection is an imperfect right, to be granted or refused according to circumstances; and that I did not believe that our Government would readily interfere in favour of those who had given a foreign allegiance, unless some case of oppression should arise which roused our religious feelings-a persecution, for instance, of Protestant immigrants. A more serious objection appeared to be the expense. I asked what it would cost to plant an Irish emigrant in Sardinia. They said, perhaps I51. I said that he could be removed to the United States for 41. IOS. This difference would prevent its being 318 yournals kept in France and Itady. [1850. done by us, and I doubted, and so did they, whether the Sardinian Government could afford to do it. The 'Galignani' was brought in, containing Lord John Russell's letter to the Bishop of Durham. It was read aloud, and at first many were inclined to doubt its genuineness. All the foreigners disapproved of the vehemence of its language. Admitting, as they all did, that the Pope's conduct was unwise and offensive, they thought that an English Prime Minister ought to have spoken of the acts of a friendly sovereign, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, with more reserve. The expressions 'insolent and insidious' they thought undiplomatic, and regret was expressed at the plainness, not to say the rudeness, which has lately been introduced into international correspondence. They asked me to what means of defence against Papal aggression Lord John could allude? Prohibiting the new Roman Catholic Bishops from assuming their new titles is merely repeating an experiment which has been tried in Ireland, and has failed. Are people to be punished for giving them those titles? That would scarcely agree with English freedom. I was forced to admit that I could not help them. Spiritual power is an enemy that defies Acts of Parliament and even an Attorney-General. 'In that case,' they said, 'why show your teeth if you cannot bite? Why give additional importance to the Pope's assumption of authority if, after all, you must submit to it?' A discussion arose between Prandi and Sauli as to the generalship of Chrzanowski' at the battle of Novara. Prandi maintained that, but for the treachery of Ramorino See note on p. 321. I850.] State of the Piedmontese Army. 319 and the incapacity of Durando, the battle would have been won. Sauli admitted that these were misfortunes which Chrzanowski could not anticipate, but he blamed him for having weakened himself by detaching La Marmora with Io,ooo men to cut off Radetzky's retreat. His whole force concentrated would not have been more than was necessary, even if every division had done its duty. Prandi answered that Chrzanowski was justified by the superiority of the Piedmontese to the Austrians. He still retained the advantage in point of number, and with nearly equal numbers he had a right to expect success. Tuesday, Nov. I2.-The weather continues disagreeable. The town is covered with a thick, wet fog. Though our room is small, we find it difficult to keep it warm by burning old wood in basketsful. We are forced to give up our visit to Gallina. I have agreed to dine with Balbo, and we have resolved to quit this hospitable people, but inhospitable climate, to-morrow. Collegno called on us. As he is an old general officer, and has been Minister of War, I asked his opinion as to the theory maintained by Prandi, that the the Piedmontese soldier is superior to the Austrian. 'The Piedmontese,' answered Collegno, 'and the Savoyards are military races. The feeling of honour is high among all classes. Many of the officers who fell victims to the rashness with which they exposed themselves in the last campaign utterly disapproved of the war. When well disciplined, and fighting for a cause which interests them, a Sardinian army is a formidable one, probably superior to an average Austrian army. But 320 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. the army which fought at Novara, indeed the army which fought the year before at Custoza, was not disciplined. Our cavalry, artillery, and engineers are regular troops, but our infantry are scarcely better than militia. Every year we raise by conscription 8,o00 men, who are bound to serve for sixteen years. During the first eight years they are supposed to be in actual service, and are forbidden to marry; during the last eight years they form an army of reserve, and may marry. But instead of being kept under arms during their eight years of active service, they are dismissed at the end of the first fourteen months, and are not recalled unless specially wanted. The consequence, of course, is, that they take to ordinary employments, break the rules of the service by marrying, and in fact lose their military character. Four-fifths of the men with whom Charles Albert marched on Milan in 1848, and a larger proportion, perhaps, of his troops in 1849, were married men with families, who had not carried a musket for years, and had not seen fire in their lives. They did well enough while they were advancing, but at the first check they lost heart. And when they had to retreat through their own country they disbanded and took refuge with their families or friends.' ' It follows,' I said, 'that, long as the attack on Austria had been meditated, you were not prepared for it.' ' Of course we were not,' he answered. ' And it follows, also,' I said, ' that you would require five or six years before you could go to war again, since it would take that time to create an army.' ' It certainly,' he answered, 'would take some years; whether so long 1850.] Piedmontese and Austrian Armies. 321 a time as you mention I am not sure. Napoleon said that he could turn a Frenchman into a tolerable soldier in two years, though it takes seven to make a good one. I believe that our people would make good soldiers as quickly as the French; but it was a fatal mistake to fancy, as we did inr 1848, that fourteen months would do. Other circumstances were unfavourable to the discipline of that army. Our Radicals told the privates that their superiors owed their rank to the accident of birth, which was not quite true, since a man cannot rise in our army without professional knowledge; but it was plausible, and there did not exist between the officers and men the confidence which is produced by having 'long served together. Radetzky's army contained also many new raised levies, but he drilled them most diligently behind the walls of his fortresses. We professed to do the same, but executed it negligently. We generally found in the pockets of the Austrian officers, who were stripped, plans of the country in which they were fighting. Many even of our superior officers had no local knowledge. Radetzky's information, too, was far better than ours. He not only made us believe what he chose as to his own movements, but was perfectly master of ours. Our schemes were debated among so many that there was no chance of concealing them.' 'How,' I asked, 'did Chrzanowski's' appointment turn out?' ' He I A Polish officer. His first campaigns were in the service of France. He was engaged in the battles of Leipsic, Paris, and Waterloo. Afterwards he was attached to the Russian Staff and distinguished himself in the siege of Varna. In I830 he took part in the Polish insurrection, and was rewarded for his skill and courage by the rank of General of Division. VOL. 1. Y 322.ournals kept in France and Italy. [i85o. was strictly honourable,' answered Collegno, 'which cannot be said of all his countrymen. He would accept nothing for his services, and I found him the other day in Paris on a fourth floor, forced apparently to live with the greatest economy. But he knew nothing of the country or of the army, he could not speak our language, nor did his military skill make up for these deficiencies. He would have done well at the head of a division, but was not fit to command an army.' I was at Balbo's at the dinner hour, half-past 5, but found nobody. At about 6 he came in from the Chamber of Deputies, in some excitement. ' We have had,' he said, 'a sudden storm. The Government has been in danger from its own friends, and has been saved only by the spirit of Cavour. The Houses adjourned in the summer without having passed the Budget. Only a portion of the estimates were considered. Among them were the pensions; and the Chamber of Deputies recommended a reduction of them. The question did not reach the Senate. The Government now asks a provisional credit; and Farini, one of their own party, proposed as an amendment to add a direction that the He soon began to despair of its ultimate success, and his countrymen looked upon him with an evil eye in consequence. He was, however, named Governor of Warsaw, and they attributed the surrender of that town to his mismanagement and treachery. He was, in consequence, illreceived by the Poles in Paris and Brussels, where he lived in great retirement till I849, when he reluctantly accepted the command of the Piedmontese army. After the disastrous battle of Novara, for the loss of which his lieutenant, Ramorino, paid with his life, Chrzanowski was able entirely to justify his conduct, and he stayed in Piedmont till I850, when he returned to Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life. —ED. 1850.] Dissensions in the Chamber. 323 reduction voted by the deputies be made. The Government answered that a still larger reduction has been made 'and will be continued, but that as the vote of the Chamber has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, it is not binding, and they object to a direction which assumes that the vote of the Chamber of Deputies has the force of an Act of Parliament. This aroused the jealousy. against the Senate which, latent or expressed, always prevails in the Chamber. Farini's amendment was supported by many of the Right. Pinelli, the President, left his chair three or four times to speak against his own friends, and if Cavour had not, with great animation, announced that his colleagues considered the amendment a declaration of want of confidence, the Government would probably have been in a minority. As it was, the amendment was rejected by a majority of only five, and the original motion is not yet disposed of. I agree with the Government on every point, except their Siccardi Law, to which I am opposed on religious motives, and should look on their overthrow as a great misfortune. But we have not yet acquired parliamentary discipline. Most of the members are more anxious about their own crotchets or their own consistency than about the country. The Ministry has a large nominal majority, but every member of it is ready to put them into a minority for any whim of his own.' A few minutes after, came in Azeglio and Cavour. Azeglio seemed annoyed at the events of the morning, and told Prandi that being a Minister was mn;tier de galcricn. This is not quite so strong an expression of Y 2 324 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. disgust at power as the King's, who says that being King is mestiere di boja, as bad as being a hangman. He said to me that he should call a meeting of his party in the evening, and tell them plainly that they were making government impossible. Cavour was, as usual, in high spirits. He asked me where he could find the best information as to the habits of the English House of Commons. As he had got May's book, I could refer him only to the Report in 1848 of the Committee on the mode of transacting public business. He asked me if I did not think their quorum, a majority of the whole Chamber, excessive. I said, 'Certainly, if with a smaller number they could be safe from surprises.' He seemed to doubt whether they were yet sufficiently practised in parliamentary life to estimate the utility of good faith. 'At all events,' I said, 'you might copy our practice of not taking notice that you are not a quorum; you might in that way dispose, as we do, of many uncontested matters in Houses of twenty or thirty members. The deputies went away to their meeting almost immediately after dinner. Among the guests who remained was a Count Persan or Persano,' Captain of the frigate 'Eurydice.' The Sardinian Navy consists at present of four frigates and two steamers. It is to be increased. 'Why?' I asked. 'Because,' he answered, Count Persano was considered, till the fatal battle of Lissa, as the best and the most dashing officer in the Sardinian Navy. He distinguished himself at the siege of Ancona in I86o by sailing into the port and silencing the batteries which defended it. He would have done the same at the siege of Gaeta, in the same year, but for the interposition of the French Admiral. He was impeached before the Senate after the battle of Lissa, and while acquitted of cowardice was convicted of incapacity and dismissed the service. - ED. 1850.] Praise of Lords Minto and Palmerston. 325 'we wish to fight the Austrians by sea as well as on land.' War with Austria is the idea which possesses every Piedmontese mind. I returned home before 9, and found there Sauli, Marquis Cavour, Alfieri, and Sclopis. Sauli thinks that Cavour took up Farini's amendment too seriously. It was not a question on which the Ministry ought to have staked their existence. The Chamber requires more freedom of action than he seems to allow it, and objects to be reprimanded by a Minister of only four weeks' standing. Sauli, however, is in opposition, and rather inclined to be a frondeur. Alfieri spoke in high praise both of Lord Minto and Lord Palmerston. If the advice of either of them had been followed Piedmont would have escaped her misfortunes. They recommended internal reforms, and intimated that in those they might rely on the protection of England; but they both opposed strenuously the attack on Austria. To-day's news from Germany, as it comes through Brussels and Paris, is warlike. It is said that Austria has rejected the ultimatum of Prussia, and that the Prussian Landwehr is called out. The general opinion was that this news could not be true; that the terms proposed by Prussia were such as Austria must accept; and that, if true, it was bad news. Anxious as Piedmont is to see Austria attacked, she wishes the attack to be delayed till she can take part in it, which it would be madness to attempt at present. Wednesday, Nov. I3.-As we were at breakfast Marquis Arconati came to us. He attended the meeting of deputies of the ministerial side yesterday evening 326 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [i850. Farini supported vehemently his own view; said that in asking a vote of credit for the purpose of paying pensions which the Chamber had directed to be reduced, the Ministry proposed to violate the 'Statuto,' which declares that no money shall be paid without the consent of the deputies. Azeglio answered, in the first place, that the pensions were intended to be reduced according to the vote, and lower still; secondly, that though the Government meant to do this, yet as the pensions were payable in full under grants which under the old regime were valid, the reduction, in order to be regular, ought to be sanctioned by the Senate; and thirdly, that if, in matters of this kind, in which the public interest was not really concerned, the Government was opposed by its own friends, he despaired of carrying it on. Farini was obstinate, but the others acquiesced, and Arconati supposes that to-day the vote will pass without difficulty. He is very uneasy, however. In the present state of the country, just after two foreign wars and one civil war with despotic enemies all around them and republican enemies among their own citizens, with a stationary revenue and a doubled expenditure and 45,00o refugees, another change of Government might be fatal. The balance which sustains the existing constitutional monarchy is a very nice one; a slight shake might throw them into despotism or democracy; either the one or the other might bring on an Austrian intervention, perhaps followed by a French one, and Piedmont might be the field of battle. Great skill is necessary, and unhappily the experience which gives skill is wanting. I850.] Road to Genoa. 32 - We left Turin this afternoon,' and slept at Novi. Thursday, Nov. 14.-We left Novi at 7 in a thick fog which lasted till io, concealing, as I well recollect, from having travelled through it four years ago, very fine scenery. It cleared up as we approached Ronca, and we saw the difficulties which oppose the railway. For several miles the road winds along the side of a deep ravine, traversed by a rapid river; the hills on each side are precipitous, composed of argillaceous crumbling stone, worn into deep gullies by the torrents. There is scarcely room for the road and the river, and the railway must be cut out of the sides of these unstable banks, or built up on terraces across the chasms, and from time to time driven through the mountains in tunnels. The tunnel which is to pierce the Apennines immediately below the pass must be of enormous length. The posts, which at intervals of twenty or thirty yards point out the level and the direction of the railway, seemed placed in defiance of nature. I cannot believe that it will reach Genoa, or even Ronca, in two years. It is pushed on, however, with activity. The whole line is covered with workpeople, many of them women. We reached Genoa at about 2. As we entered we saw vestiges of the events of I849. Towards the sea several new batteries have been erected, rudely formed of gabions, and the The society at Turin at this time was most agreeable. It was small but not provincial, and there was a youth, and hope, and freshness about it, produced by the feeling that the deliverance of Italy was drawing near, and would be mainly effected by the rulers of Piedmont. Of all the brilliant group mentioned in these pages, only two or three members survive.-ED. 328 yournals kept in France and Italy. [x85o. forts in the interior, which commanded the town, are in course of demolition; in consequence, I suppose, of the jealousy of the townspeople. Saturday, Nov. I6.-The Princess San Cataldo and the Prince Butera, both Sicilians, called on us. She is the daughter of the Duke Serra di Falco, who went to offer the Sicilian crown to the Duke of Genoa. Her husband sided with his countrymen, and partly for his offences, and partly for her father's, she is forbidden to return. She complains of the dullness of Genoese society, and lives here only because it is the best climate in constitutional Europe. She is very pleasing, with soft, delicate features, and an expression of resigned sadness not unbecoming an exile. Prince Butera took an active part in the insurrection, and was one of those whom, probably in order to discredit them with the people, the King named as his Ministers when he offered terms of accommodation. He does not assent to Cordova's opinion that these terms ought to have been accepted if they had been supported by guarantees. In many important points they were studiously ambiguous, and the basis of them was unconstitutional. The Ministers were to receive their orders from the King, resident in Naples. Who, then, were to be the King's responsible advisers? 'We discussed,' he said, 'the King's propositions with Lord Minto at great length; we convinced him that they were inadmissible, and when he left us he expressed a strong hope that in forty-eight hours he would be able to bring us the King's acceptance of ours. We waited x850.] Piedmontese Ministry. 329 ten days and heard nothing, and then it was that we declared the throne vacant, and, as you wished us to have a king, we sent for one to Turin.' 'What,' I asked, 'were the additional terms which you proposed?' 'They were,' he answered, 'a Sicilian army in possession of the fortresses, and a viceroy with full powers.' I did not reply what occurred to me-that according to this plan the King was virtually required to surrender nearly all his authority. He would have retained only the power of appointing the viceroy. It would have resembled the connection between the Sultan and the Pasha of Egypt. Butera has no hope for his country during the King's life: he can neither be conciliated nor resisted. Sunday Nov. 17.-I sent for a horse to ride to Nervi. The Abercrombys have a pleasant house there, with a delicious garden, several acres in extent, running down to the sea; its orange-trees now loaded with fruit. He spoke of the present Piedmontese Ministry as the last hope of the country, the only mean between reaction and republican wildness. Alfieri, however, is the person whose knowledge and talents he rates highest; but he has a morbid fear of responsibility which makes him unwilling to take office. Still Abercromby hopes that his services may be obtained. Alfieri himself feels that he ought to offer them, and that with his powers of usefulness he is responsible for being useless. Monday, Nov. I8.-The Abercrombys called on us. He spoke with great pleasure of a convent on the side of the Alps above Biella, about 4,000 feet high, in which he spent ten days in the summer. As long as there is 330 Journals kept in Frazce and Italy. [1850. room all visitors are received there, and supplied gratis with beds and sheets, bringing their own food. On Sunday about 3,000 persons made a pilgrimage to the Shrine, almost all of whom slept in the convent. Their possessions are not large, but considerable offerings are made by the pilgrims. The Abercrombys had a large and comfortable apartment, which is occupied by the Royal Family in their visits. In the evening Minnie and I went to Madame San Cataldo's box at the opera. It is large, and serves as a sort of salon; the opera being the usual place of meeting. We found there, besides the Princess, Chevalier Rossi, the Belgian Consul; the Marquis Torrearsa, formerly President of the Sicilian Chamber of Deputies; another Sicilian, whose name we could not catch, and the Prince and Princess Butera. Little attention was paid to the stage. Louis Napoleon's Message was discussed, and great indignation expressed at his self-gratulation on the Roman expedition. If, they said, the French had secured liberal institutions, or even improved institutions, to Romagna, the crime of their invasion might have been forgiven; but they have done no more for the Romans than the Austrians have done for the Tuscans. They say that if they had not gone to Rome the Austrians would have done so. It is very probable; but in what respect would the Romans have been worse off? In one respect, and an important one, all Italy would have been much better off under an Austrian occupation, for then France would not have been an accomplice in the restoration of misgovernment. She would have been 1850.] Austrian rulepreferable to Neapolitan. 331 able to remonstrate, perhaps to act. Now she is committed by her Roman interference, and deserts us, even when Austria interposes in our favour. We know that Schwartzenberg has checked the tyranny of the King of Naples, and in our despair of doing anything for ourselves we are beginning to look for help to Vienna. 'It must be admitted, too,' said Madame San Cataldo, 'that in the general welfare of the masses Lombardy and Venice received some compensation for the oppression of the higher classes. Austria denies to her people moral and intellectual progress, but she gives to them railroads, and commerce, and material prosperity. The southern parts of Italy have no compensation. The peasantry of Romagna and of the Neapolitan dominions are as miserable as their superiors. Even in their oppressions, the Austrian officials are far less cruel than the Neapolitans. Many of my friends were imprisoned in the dungeons of St. Elmo. They were half-starved, half-clothed, beaten, and deprived of air and warmth. Some lost the use of their limbs, others their eyesight. Some have become mad. Tho.se who died were the most fortunate. Tuesday, Nov. I9.-We called on the Somervilles, Buteras, Madame San Cataldo and Chevalier Rossi. The Somervilles have a magnificent apartment on the Carignano Promontory, overlooking the sea on three sides, but very difficult of access. They are going to Turin for January and February-a preference for cold which it is difficult to understand. I remember, however, their doing what is almost worse-spending a 332 journals kept' in France and Italy. [1850. winter in Munich. Dr. Somerville spoke with delight of Sicily; the best climate, the finest scenery, and the gayest people that he had ever known. The Princess Putera told us that we should find at Palermo her eldest son, who is seventeen. He is educated at home. There is a University, but the Government has made it useless. 'They are resolved,' said the Princess, 'to keep us ignorant.' I asked the Prince whether he thought that Sicily and Naples would coalesce into one well-affected kingdom, supposing that to be a well-administered constitutional one. He said: ' No; besides their long-cherished mutual hatred, they differ too much in national character. The Moorish and Spanish blood in our population has made us a different race from the pure Italian of the Continent. What we wish is to be a constitutional kingdom, dynastically separated from Naples, but forming part of the great Italian confederacy.' 'Do you prefer,' I asked, 'a monarchical form?' ' Certainly,' he answered; 'we have not the elements of an aristocratic government, and still less those of a republican one. Perhaps we have not even those of a constitutional monarchy. If so, God help us, for I see no other hope. A despotism, even under a sovereign of our own, we shall not patiently endure, and no people can be well governed against their will.' In the evening we embarked for Leghorn. Pisa, Thursday, Nov. 2I.-We are well lodged at the Vittoria, one of the best hotels in Italy, in rooms overlooking the Arno, now swelled by three days' rain, a yellow rapid stream. 1850.] Government of the Grand Duke. 333 We passed the morning in the Piazza del Duomo, where the Pisans have grouped together three buildings in which all religious rites are to be performed-the Baptistry, the Cathedral, and the Cemetery. * * * * * — * Madame Arconati and Madame Collegno, who left Genoa a couple of days before us, came from Florence in the evening and tock us to drink tea with their sister, Madame Prini. She inhabits a palace on the Arno which two generations have been building, and have not yet completed. The two drawing-rooms on the firstfloor, in which we were received, are to form a part of the great reception rooms, but no other portion of that floor is furnished. The family live as yet on the secondfloor. They hope that the whole may be ready by the time that their son, now eighteen, is married. We found there, besides Madame Prini, two Professors of the University of Pisa, now the best in Italy. The Grand Duke seems to be less hated than is usually the case with Italian sovereigns, but more despised. His government, they said, until the Revolution was one of mere negligence. He did little harm and no good. When the King of Naples gave a Constitution he did the same, but on the first symptom of disturbance he fled. His people drove out the Republicans, and expected to enjoy under him a domestic Constitutional Government. He came back wearing the Austrian uniform and accompanied by Io,ooo Austrian soldiers, and then rewarded his subjects for having restored him by suspending the Constitution which he had framed 334 yournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. and granted himself. The Austrian occupation costs Tuscany 30 millions Tuscan, or 200,0001. sterling, a year, about a fifth of the whole expenditure, and the consequence is an annual deficit, which the Government takes no means to fill up. Friday, Nov. 22.-Before breakfast I mounted the Campanile. From the top one sees that the whole Pisan territory is formed by the receding of the sea, which once washed the Apennines about five miles to the north of Pisa. The sea is now five miles to the south. It recedes about thirteen yards a year, or about half a mile a century. At that rate it has taken two thousand years to form the present plain, and Pisa, 800 years ago, when the first stone of the Cathedral was laid, was not more than a mile from the sea. The channel of the Arno, now impassable except to mere boats, was then probably deep, as the Pisans were a maritime people. Such a plain might be expected to be unhealthy, but it is said not to be the case. Madame Arconati and Professor Giorgini, Manzoni's son-in-law, spent the evening with us. Manzoni, he told me, has been obliged to leave his villa on the Lago Maggiore, and return to Milan. His passport had expired, and the Government would not renew it. The Austrians are striving to bring back the higher classes of Milanese to the capital, but find it difficult. Those who took part against them fly from a place full of painful associations, and those who are supposed to have been favourable to them are ill-treated by their own countrymen. 'A relation of mine,' said Giorgini, 'the Duke of 1850.] Miilaary Ardour of the Students. 335 Melzi, could not avoid receiving in his house some of the Austrian officers. This, however, has made him so unpopular that even his friends have advised him to leave Milan.' Giorgini joined the Tuscan contingent in the Austrian war. As professor he commanded a company of the regiment of students. I asked whether such an employment of youths at that age was wise. 'Whether wise or not,' he answered, ' it was unavoidable. When the news of the Insurrection of Milan arrived, the students became absolutely unmanageable. There were meetings and speeches, and if we had not submitted to the movement we should have been carried away by it. They would have joined Charles Albert, whatever we had done, and it was better that they should join him with some degree of discipline and under some command than as a mere mob of volunteers.' The excuse for every Italian folly is the same-' We could not help it; the people would do it.' A bad prospect for a popular Government. Saturday, Nov. 23.-We left Pisa soon after breakfast. An Austrian hussar regiment was exercising in the Piazza between the Cathedral and the Baptistry. I never saw poorer horses; they looked like half-bred colts. The railway brought us to Florence by I. The road is interesting; hills white with villages and towns form the foreground, and the Apennines, now covered with snow, rise behind them. M. Salvagnoli drank tea with us. He unites characters which with us would not easily be combined: that of the 336 7ournals kept in France and Ittay. [1850. First Advocate in Florence and the editor of the leading liberal newspaper, ' I Costituzionale.' His estimate of the Grand Duke is very low. 'When the rebels were in possession of Leghorn,' said Salvagnoli, 'the Grand Duke sent to ask my advice. I proposed to him to retire to Sienna, where no danger was probable, and if any occurred, it would be easy to cross the frontier, to enter into a treaty of mutual guarantee with Piedmont, and to exchange 5,000 of our troops for 5,000 Piedmontese. We should thus have prevented any attempt on the part of Charles Albert to annex Tuscany; we should have sent away 5,000 of our worst affected soldiers, and with the 5,000 Piedmontese we should have driven the rebels out of Leghorn. The Grand Duke's scheme was to conciliate the rebels by taking Guerrazzi, their leader, into the Ministry, and he urged me to take office with him. I refused. "Guerrazzi," I said, "is a rascal; you can never be safe with such a man in your councils." After much discussion the Grand Duke agreed with me. Two days after, Mr. Hamilton came to tell me that Guerrazzi was Minister, and that the Duke hoped that I should join him. It was under the influence of Guerrazzi that the Grand Duke sent Commissioners to the Italian Constituent Assembly with unlimited powers; powers which would have enabled them to annex Tuscany to Piedmont or to Naples. I told him that in signing such powers he had signed his own deposition. "1 How could I help it? " he answered; " my Ministers would have it so." "I suppose," I said to Salvagnoli, "that you consider the Ministers responsible for the suspension of the I850.]' 4A Sicilian Exile. 337 Constitution." "Certainly," he answered; "we consider them guilty of high treason, and I have already drawn up the Act of Accusation."' He talked of the difficulty of writing Italian. 'It does not consist,' he said, 'merely in the prevalence of dialects, at least as far as we are concerned; for what was formerly called the Tuscan dialect is now recognised as the Italian language. But there are two Italian languages: the old, or written one, and the modern, or spoken one. In French or in English a man writes as he speaks. But if I were to speak the language of Machiavelli it would be ridiculous; if I were to write as I speak it would sound intolerably vulgar. Even to a Tuscan, therefore, written Italian is a dead language.' Sunday, Nov. 24.-A wet day and the galleries closed. We visited the Duomo and Santa Croce. The finest interiors that I have ever seen are the Cathedrals of Winchester, Rheims, Milan, and Florence; and I am not sure that I do not put Florence at the head of them. It is far more striking within than St. paul's. This arises partly from the small number and small size of its windows, and the depth and richness of the colours with which they are stained. They look like gold and crimson openings in the enormous vaults above you, and give light enough to enable you to conjecture the outline of the distant parts of the edifice, but not to estimate accurately their size or form. Vast as it is, it looks still vaster. The Duke Serra di Falco and the Marchioness Lajatico passed the evening with us. He is a cheerful, gay-look VOL. I. Z 338 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. ing man, appears about sixty, but is said to be seventy, with nothing of the rebel about him. He denied, indeed, that he had been guilty of rebellion. By the express words of the Sicilian Constitution, the King, if he violated it, forfeited his crown. The present King has violated it systematically, and the Chambers, therefore, were strictly justified in declaring that he had ceased to reign. They were not justified in declaring the throne vacant, or in offering it to the Duke of Genoa, for, by the Constitution, it devolved on the second son of the King of Naples. The Duke was President of the Chamber of Peers, and, therefore, could not vote, and nothing would have persuaded him to join in that vote. Nor is it true that he went to offer the crown; the offer had been previously sent, and he went merely to compliment the Duke of Genoa on his acceptance of it. He looks back with regret to the English occupation of Sicily, the last time when it enjoyed self-government. Though sister-in-law to the Duke of Cassigliano, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Marchioness Lajatico is a Liberal. Party spirit, she says, runs high, and interferes with society. Though the Austrians are here by the Grand Duke's invitation, though he is an Austrian Archduke, and though the conduct of both officers and men is unexceptionable, there is scarcely any house in which an Austrian is received, for to such house no Florentine will go. She is to take us to-morrow to a party at Count Pedrovitch's. It is really to be a ball; but, as he does not choose to have any Austrians, he calls it a small party, and keeps it as quiet as he can. I850.] Streets of Florence. 339 Monday, Nov. 25.-The Duke Serra di Falco took us to the Pitti Palace. -He is a man of great taste, and knows the collection well, so that we saw it, or rather ran through it, to advantage. We were there three hours; to examine it well would take three weeks. I dined with Scarlet, now Charge d'Affaires, at the Villa Galli, on a hill about a mile out of town. There is no comparison between Italian and English architecture. The house is not large, yet the principal room is a cube of about 40 feet square in every direction. Count Pedrovitch's house is within the walls, but on a hill so steep that it is approached by zigzags. If the Arno were as large and as quiet as the Thames the situation of Florence would be perfect. There is flat ground enough for the commercial city, and on both sides the hills rise up, presenting site after site for houses, or ranges of houses, each enjoying its own light and air. It has no trottoirs, however, and a town without trottoirs should have wide streets like Milan, or be untraversed by carriages like Genoa and Venice. Florence has narrow streets, full of carriages. Add to this the natural dirtiness of Italians, and it may be supposed what it is to walk there after rain. The whole of every street resembles an unswept London crossing. Tuesday, Nov. 26.-Count Joseph Arrivabene, my old friend's nephew, is an artist. He went with us to the Royal Gallery. He opened to us the gems and bronzes. The rest is accessible to everybody. In the tribune we saw some persons of the very humblest class. The Z 2 340 journals kept in France and Italy. [I850. number of visitors was small, probably not IOO in the whole building. On the whole, I think the union of pictures and statues objectionable. The means of imitation used by the two arts are not only different but opposed. The neighbourhood of a statue reminds you of the superficiality of a picture; that of a picture suggests the want of colour in a statue and of perspective in a bas-relief. Wednesday, Nov. 27.-Arrivabene took us to the Carmine, to see a chapel painted in fresco by Masaccio. In the evening we went to a ball at the Palace. Eight rooms, a part of the smaller apartments in the garden wing, were open. In the largest, about 60 feet square, the new visitors were ranged round the room for presentation. The Duke and the Duchess went slowly round. He is a heavy-looking man, with large, inexpressive features and a thick nose and lips, and seemed not much master of his business, often stopping for some time before one of his guests, apparently trying to think of something to say, and at last giving it up and passing on. He said to Mrs. Senior, 'Votre mari, je crois, est journaliste.' He asked me if I were an officer. The whole ceremony lasted about an hour and a half. Dancing began about a quarter past 10, and we left them busy at a quarter past 12. During the whole evening, the Grand Duke, unattended, was walking about, engaged in long tete-d-tete. It was the etiquette to turn one's back, to sit down near him; in short, in every way to appear unconscious of his presence. I had a long conversation with M. Buonarotti, the representative of the great artist, formerly a judge, and now Councillor of State. 1850.] Trial by 7ury unsuited to Italians. 341 He spoke with great but, perhaps, not undue bitterness of the Republican faction, which, by the assassination of Rossi, the Neapolitan revolt, the unjust attack on Austria, and the insurrections of Genoa, Leghorn, and Florence, has ruined the happiness of this generation, and thrown back Italy for a century. 'This little Duchy,' he said, 'is a specimen of Italian unity. Florence, Lucca, Sienna, and Pisa all hate one another, even more than they hate Austria.' Among the mischiefs which he feared from Republicanism was trial by jury. He could understand its use in ordinary criminal cases, but not in civil cases, and still less in political ones. No justice, he thought, could be expected from a jury when the decision affected a question or a person that interested the public. Thursday, Nov. 28.-A hopelessly wet day. It was nearly all taken up by a succession of visitors. First came the Duke Serra di Falco. 'I regret Sicily,' he said,' but yet I amuse myself here. Though I am a rebel and an exile, that was not my vocation. My favourite life is to employ myself with administrative business for an hour or two, then with literary and antiquarian researches for an hour or two more, then to ride till dinner time, to pass the evening in the theatre or in society, and to read " The Arabian Nights " for a: quarter of an hour before I go to bed. Politics, on a great scale, were forced on me, and I don't think that I shall ever take them up again. Men, at least my countrymen, are not worth the sacrifices which the attempt to serve them costs, and the attempt scarcely ever succeeds. Those 342 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [1850. who know what is right are too timid or too indolent to act on their convictions, and almost all the bold and active are ignorant and perverse. When the whole united force of all Italy was not more than was wanted to drive out the Austrians, we wasted our strength in civil war, and never were more thoroughly disunited, never feared and hated one another more deeply, than when we were proclaiming Italy united.' He stayed almost a couple of hours, and was followed by Salvagnoli. Salvagnoli described the judicial organisation as deplorable. 'The Judges,' he said, 'of the highest Court, the Court of Cassation, receive 8,oo00 lire, about 320/., a year, the others considerably less. The Bench, therefore, is filled by the idle, the poor, or the dull; by young men who either, dislike the labour of the Bar or cannot wait till its gains come in, or by old men who have failed. They are removable at will, and therefore the slaves of the Government. However absurd be the accusation, no one is acquitted whom the Government wishes to convict. A few days ago four young men were accused of a crime of which they were clearly innocent, but they were supposed to be "Rouges," and were therefore found guilty, and sentenced to sixty-four months' imprisonment. It is a mistake to suppose that Tuscany is prosperous. A great deal of work is done in the fields, but it is unskilfully done; fine palaces are built, but it is for ostentation, not for use. The builder lives in a corner of them. We have some ancient families, but not a real aristocracy uniting wealth and personal consideration. There is not a family with 200,000 lire 850.] Suspension of the ' Staluto.' 343 (about 6,ooo/.) a year.' After him came the Duchess of Cassigliano, the wife of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. She is a pleasing woman, with soft, quiet manners, devoted to the education of her son, a young man of fifteen. His different lessons, including fencing and riding, occupy him from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, which appears rather too long. I asked if she intended him to follow his father's career. ' No,' she said; ' I hope that he will marry and live quietly with us, among his friends, and educate his children. Political life has become very painful: those who ought to take part in it selfishly shut themselves up, and leave it to adventurers, who hope to get on by faction and dishonesty; by flattering sometimes the Court, and sometimes the mob.' Baldasserone, the Prime Minister, and Cassigliano are considered the most liberal members of the Cabinet. As they joined, however, in calling in the Austrians and in suspending the Constitution, they share the odium of their colleagues. Our last visitor was Leopold Galeotto, nephew of the Marquis Galeotto, and editor of the ' Statuto ' newspaper. The Government has just suspended for five days the publication of his journal. The other liberal paper, the 'Costituzionale,' censured Louis Napoleon's Message, the French Minister, Montessuy, complained, the Government reprimanded the 'Costituzionale,' and the 'Statuto' remarked on French intolerance of criticism; whereupon Montessuy complained again, and this suspension was the result. By an agreement between the ' Costituzionale' and the 'Statuto,' whenever one is 344 yournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. suspended the other is distributed in its place. Montessuy is very unpopular, both as a Jesuit and as a Legitimist, though sent by Lahitte. Galeotto was one of the five persons appointed to draw up the ' Statuto Fondamentale.' The present state of things fills him with anxiety. It is rapidly undermining the loyalty once felt to the House of Lorraine. When the Duke is seen surrounded by Austrians, guarded by an Austrian garrison, and announcing himself in all his proclamations as Imperial Prince of Austria and Royal Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, he begins to be looked on as a foreigner. In a short time new taxes must be imposed. The Austrians come here almost in rags, are clothed and partly paid by Tuscany, and the fortresses have been put into repair at an enormous expense, so that there is an annual deficit. The present taxes, though illegally exacted, are yet submitted to, because people are accustomed to them. And even new ones may not be resisted in the presence of Io,ooo foreign troops. But the moderate party will lose all its influence. Two years ago it was omnipotent. It returned the bulk of the deputies, and gave a constant majority to the Government. Now many of its members, disgusted with the anti-national conduct of the Court, are on the point of joining the Republicans, and those who remain faithful to the reigning house will find it difficult to give reasons for their loyalty. They cannot deny that the present Government is an usurpation supported by foreign bayonets. All that they can say for it is, that it is not wantonly oppressive. But if I850.] State of Venice. 345 times of difficulty come, what reliance can be placed in only such a negative merit? We drank tea with the Marchioness Lajatico. Her palace, a fine one, is in the new part of the town, near the Porta del Prato. When she married, her father-inlaw, the Prince Corsini, built it for her to ensure her a separate residence. We found there four or five Italian men, who, as is often the case on the Continent, talked only to one another. We ended the evening at a ball at Mrs. Trollope's, who has built, or rather altered, for herself a pretty house in the new quarter. The bedrooms are all on the ground floor, built round a hall and skylight. Friday, Nov. 29.-Phillips, the artist, called on us. He has just left Venice, and gives a deplorable account of it. The abolition of its privileges as a free port has destroyed its commerce, 200 of the first firms have left it or given up business, and the general exclamation is, that Venice is dead. The wickedness and folly of the Venetians in rebelling against the best Government which they have ever enjoyed-a Government under which the value of property, the surest test of prosperity, had doubled between I840 and I847-deserved some punishment; but it is impossible not to regret the severity of that which they are undergoing. Sir Frederick Adam and Count Serristori drank tea with us. Serristori was one of the Ministers under wvhose advice the Constitution was given, and when the Grand Duke was recalled in 1849, he appointed Serristori his Lieutenant-Governor of Tuscany, with full powers to 346 yournals ket in France and Italy. [1850. re-establish order and prepare the restoration of the Constitution. As both our guests were military men, the conversation turned on the Tuscan army. ' It costs per month,' said Serristori, 'forty Tuscan lire, equal to about thirty-four French francs, a man, including ordnance and every other expense, except pensions and half-pay. But it is impossible that the army of a small country can be a good one. The real military feeling which makes a soldier consider his flag as his country, and his military duty as his religion, is to be acquired only when he is separated from his relations and friends. The Lombard acquires it in Hungary, and the Hungarian in Lombardy. Our men live among their old associates and never lose their citizen habits.' The German news this morning indicated war; we speculated on its results. 'With equal numbers,' said Sir Frederick, ' and equally well commanded, I would bet on the Prussians, at least at first. But the Austrian army is, in one respect, superior to every army in the world-it is never broken down by a reverse, or even by a succession of reverses. After years of unsuccessful war it fights as well or even better than it did at first.' 'But,' said Serristori, 'it has no enterprise, no spirit; it never succeeds except by the weight of superior numbers: the Austrian soldier is a mere unintelligent machine.' 'The private is,' said Sir Frederick, 'but not the officer, or even the non-commissioned officer. Both are carefully trained, and it is to the officers that the Austrian army, and indeed the Austrian Empire, owes its cohesion. While everything else is heterogeneous, they form a separate and uniform 1850.] Law of Succession. 347 caste, governed by one law, subject to one authority; in short, welded together into one mass. In defying such powers as Austria in the foreground and Russia in the background, the King of Prussia is playing for enormous stakes.' 'It is remarkable,' I said,' that the existing alarm depresses the Austrian funds more than it does the Prussian ones. They are now lower than during the Hungarian war. Those of Prussia have fallen much less, and yet the chances of success seem to be in favour of Austria.' 'The fall of the Austrian funds,' said Serristori, 'does not depend on speculations as to the events of the war. It arises from the conviction of the Viennese capitalists that the ruin of the Austrian finances is now irretrievable. Ever since the subjugation of Lombardy and of Hungary, they have been expecting the reduction of the enormous army which occasions every year an increasing deficit. They now see the vanity of this hope: they see that the relations between Austria and Prussia are such that there is only a choice between war and armed peace, and the latter is almost as ruinous as the former, and more lasting.' We talked of the Tuscan law of succession. All entails were abolished during the last century, and a law of equal partition, not much differing fro/it the French, was introduced. It is popular, as indeed it appears to be wherever it prevails. I asked if much importance was attached to distinctions of birth. ' Not so much,' said Serristori, 'as in Germany, or indeed as is generally the case in Italy. Our republican ancestors have bequeathed to us a general feeling of equality; but though the nobles and roturiers live much together, 348 7ournals kept in France and Italy. [I850. they seldom intermarry, unless, indeed, the noble be very poor and the rotzrier or roturie'e very rich. A noble has scarcely any other means of making a fortune. He seldom adopts the church, the law, or medicine; trade is not open to a poor man, and the army is very small.' Sunday, Dec. I. —Duke Serra di Falco drank tea with us. He told us of an occurrence in Naples when he was there, about twenty years ago. The Dey of Algiers was living in the principal hotel. One day, Mustapha, his head servant, came into the kitchen, and asked for a large knife. One was given to him, but it was too small; and another, but it was still too small. They asked what he could want with one. 'I have to cut off,' he said, 'Ali's head.' The cook went to the master, to whom Mustapha repeated his business, and begged not to be kept waiting. They kept him, however, till the master had seen Caretto, the Minister of Police, who thought the matter deserved his presence at the hotel. The Dey received his visitor with Oriental politeness, and told him that it was quite true that he had ordered Mustapha to cut off Ali's head, and that he was surprised to find that it was not yet done. He yielded, of course, to the representations of Caretto, but left Naples next day for some country of freedom where a man can do what he will with his own. Monday, Dec. 2.-Minnie and I rode over the hills to the north of the town. In the evening, Marchioness Lajatico sent us the key of her sister-in-law's box at the Cocomero Theatre, to see Adelaide Ristori, the best Italian actress. We were much pleased with her. She 1850.] Country-house Life. 349 is effective without exaggeration, and very handsome. The whole play was well acted. Tuesday, Dec. 3.-Minnie and I rode to Fiesole. It was cool in the shade, for the wind continues northeast; but in the sun, as we mounted the southern exposure of the hill, almost too hot. Our road ran between villas, vineyards, and olive grounds, sometimes varied by ranges of cypresses twice as high as the houses; and every turn gave a new view of Florence, the Vale of the Arno, and the Tuscan mountains, over which peeped the Apennines, now covered with snow. The C.s drank tea with us. They complained of the predominance in Italian society of bores. In the town houses there are generally three or four habituzes who talk to one another, and do not seem to think that they have any conversational duties to perform. In country houses it is still worse; the notabilities of the village have the entree of the great man's house, and often abuse the privilege. The C.s spent a couple of months with the Duchess Melzi in her beautiful villa on the Lake of Como. The doctor, the attorney, and the priest of Bellagio used constantly to bestow their tediousness on the Duchess. Wednesday, Dec. 4.-Mr. Spence, an English artist settled in Florence; Phillips, Salvagnoli, the Duke Serra di Falco, Mdme. Lajatico, and M. Parlatore, Professor of Botany, drank tea with us. Parlatore and the Duke talked with enthusiasm of the vegetation of Sicily. 'At Syracuse,' they said, 'we shall see the banana and sugar cane in the open air. Etna will be inaccessible, but we may reach- the chesnuts, of which there are some even 350 yozurnals kept in France and Italy. [i850. finer than the celebrated one of the Cento Cavalli.' I find Parlatore a believer in the high antiquity of trees. He desired us to see one in the San Severino Convent in Naples, which is traced for 1,300 years. Spence and Phillips agreed with me in rating very highly the pictures at the Accademia. ' Nothing is more curious,' said Phillips, ' than to see on opposite sides of the same room the productions of the fourteenth and of the nineneeth century. In the first there is scarcely any art, in the second there is scarcely any nature.' Spence attributed much of the excellence of the great architects of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to their having been also great painters. Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michael Angelo were accustomed to study picturesque effect. They knew how to produce lights and shadows. Our architects flatten everything. Salvagnoli desired me in his name to call on Troja and Manna in Naples, but was afraid that a letter from him might expose them to the Neapolitan Government. Thursday, Dec. 5.-This was our last morning in Florence. After breakfast Sir F. Adam and the Duke Serra di Falco paid us a long parting visit. I asked the Duke if he agreed in Prince Butera's opinion that under no circumstances whatever, however liberal the Constitution, or however honest and intelligent the King, could Sicily and Naples live together comfortably under one sovereign. He answered, 'Perfectly; it is lamentable, but it is true; and you will be convinced of it after you have been a week in Sicily. It is a mistake to suppose that it is only a party in Sicily that is opposed to the Neapolitan dynasty. Hatred of Naples i850.] Condzct of the Neapolizan Government. 351 is almost the only feeling that belongs to every class and to every degree of education and intelligence. It governs the prince and the beggar, the professor and the clown. Centuries of good government, supposing it to be possible to govern well a hostile people, would not eradicate it. The experiment indeed has never been attempted. I am old enough to remember the early conduct of the Neapolitan Government when it took refuge in Sicily. We had our ancient Constitution, which prohibited taxation without the consent of the States. The King, of his own authority, imposed a tax of one per cent. on all property. Fifty of the peers met, drew up an exceedingly temperate remonstrance, anc presented it to the King by a deputation of five. They were all sent to the Islands, places where there are some miserable dungeons for the worst criminals. Soon after this Lord William Bentinck arrived; he interposed, found his remonstrances neglected, went home for further powers and instructions, and returned authorised to demand liberal government as the price of English protection. The King gave up the management of affairs to his son, the exiles were recalled, and the Constitution of 1812 followed.' 'I was present,' said Sir Frederick, 'at Lord William's first audience on his return, and never shall forget Queen Caroline's reception of him. Her countenance and manner were a concentration of spite, humiliation, and malignity. She revenged herself by intriguing to bring in'the French. I was a member of a court before which one of her agents was tried. We found him guilty, and she suffered him to be executed, when a slight interference on her 352 journals kept in France and Italy. [1850. part would have saved him.' ' A few words,' continued Serra di Falco,' in one of the protocols of the Congress of Vienna destroyed our independence. " The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies," it is there said, " is continued to the King of Naples." Till then the expression " The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" had never been used, any more than of the Kingdom of England and Hanover. They were separate, independent kingdoms, which had accidentally fallen to one person. Ever since that time the King of Naples, directing against us the power of a people four times as numerous as we are, and backed when necessary by Austria, has made us his slaves, and tries to keep us so by keeping us poor, ignorant, and defenceless.' As we were leaving Florence I observed on a marble tablet, built into the wall of the quay near the Ponte Della Grazia, this inscription:Hic jacent ossa equi legati Venetiae. Haud ingratus herus, sbnipes memorande, sepulchrum. Hoc tibi pro meritis, hec monumenta dedit. Urbe obsessa. MDXXXIII. It does credit to man and horse. The date is remarkable. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET IS THE FAT BANKERESS" `''' -~~~I I? iy: x~ Is ~: rsj i So laughingly did Henriette, the king's favorite, greet the arrival of his bride. Complacently contrasting her own charms with the more than pleasing plumpness of rich Marie de Medici, Henriette well knew that though her fortune might intrigue him, Marie'sfigure would find no favor in the eyes of Henry IV of France. THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. I 1 -- E,.-I DUE,j I i' 1997 / fi 'i i 'I /;! 0 DO NOT REMOVE OR MUTILATE CARD I