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A Provisional Government was now appointed, consisting of Dupont de l'Eure, Lamartine the poet, Arago the astronomer, Marie, Garnier Pagès, Ledru Rollin, and Crémieux. These names were received with acclamation by the members, and by the armed mob which filled the precincts of the Chamber. On the motion of Lamartine, the new Government resolved to fix itself at the Hôtel de Ville, in order to prevent the establishment there of a Republican Socialist Directory. Louis Blanc, Marrast, Bastide, Floçon, and other leaders of the Republicans and Socialists, had indeed already taken possession of that building, and would no doubt have opposed the Provisional Government, had not the latter deemed it expedient to coalesce with them. It is to the firmness of Lamartine that must be attributed the preservation of any degree of order among these discordant elements. allowed the Republic to be proclaimed only on condition of its future approval by the people, to whose newly-elected representatives was to be intrusted the settlement of the Constitution, Lamartine also caused a guard of young people to be formed for the protection of the Government, and thus eliminated one of the most dangerous elements of the revolt.

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Matters, however, still wore a threatening aspect. The mob had broken into the Tuileries, demolished all the furniture, and taken up their abode in the palace. The throne, after being carried in triumphal procession through the streets, was burnt in a bonfire. Lagrange, armed with a huge sabre, at the head of the most furious of the populace, endeavoured to drive Lamartine from the Hôtel de Ville, by threats, and by the stench of dead bodies piled up in the lower rooms and on the staircases. Lamartine resisted with admirable courage these attempts at intimidation, and calmed the minds of the people by his exhortations. The middle classes, alarmed at the prospect of a Red Republic, assembled, the National Guard appeared on the Place de Grève, and the mob with their red flag began gradually to disperse.

Louis Philippe, who was not pursued, fled towards the seacoast, and after a concealment of nine days procured a passage for England in the name of Mr. William Smith. He was accompanied by the Queen and a few attendants, while the Duke de Montpensier, with the other ladies, except the Duchess of Orleans, who proceeded to Germany, took a different route to the coast, in order to lessen the risk of detection. Louis Philippe landed in England March 3rd, and took up his residence at Claremont, the property of his son-in-law, the King of the Belgians.

436

SECOND FRENCH REPUBLIC.

[CHAP. LXX.

THE

CHAPTER LXX.

HE new French Government proceeded to consolidate itself. M. Louis Blanc was appointed "Minister of Progress," as a pledge for the furtherance of the "organization of labour." The Luxembourg, abandoned by the Peers, received a new senate in a committee of labourers and mechanics, who there discussed their interests and demands. At their head was Albert, a workman in a blouse, who had obtained a place in the Government next to M. Louis Blanc. The scheme adopted was to open large national workshops, where all who applied might find employment and wages. Thus the State was converted into manufacturing firm, to whose service, as the pay was good, and the superintendence not over strict, flocked all the lazy, skulking mechanics of Paris and its neighbourhood. They soon numbered 80,000, to be maintained at the public expense, to the ruin of private tradesmen. Thus the Revolution of 1848 was not like that of 1830, merely political, but social also, like the first Revolution, but based on such absurd, though less inhuman principles, that the speedy fall of the new system was inevitable.

The Provisional Government was recognized throughout France. Marshal Bugeaud acknowledged its authority, and was followed by the whole army. The Duke d'Aumale, who com manded in Algiers, surrendered his post to General Changarnier, and proceeded to England with his brother the Duke de Joinville. who had hitherto commanded the French fleet. The Provisional Government superseded Changarnier by Cavaignac, the brother of an influential republican. The priests also submitted, for the Church was not threatened with persecution. After the interval of a fortnight the prefect of police drove out the filthy crowd which had taken possession of the Tuileries, and that palace was converted into an hospital for old and infirm labourers. The same dangerous elements were, however, afloat as in the first Revolution, and if they did not gain the ascendency it was because the higher and middle classes, instructed by experience, actively opposed them. The inscriptions of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité,

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struck the eye on every side; the titles of Monsieur and Madame again gave place to those of Citoyen and Citoyenne; the Goddess of Liberty with her red cap appeared at every public festival, and trees of liberty were planted in all the public places. Low journals were published under the names of La Guillotine, La Carmagnole, &c., which adopted all the slang of sans-culottisme, and exhorted to plunder and murder in the style of Marat. The ultra-democrats Cabet, Blanqui, and Raspail formed a sort of triumvirate, and incited the Communist clubs to proceed to extremities. They attempted to put down Lamartine and the more moderate party, and to establish a Red Republic under Ledru Rollin. But the citizens and National Guards were on the alert. A mob having been collected, April 16th, to petition for an alteration in the relations between master and servant, 100,000 National Guards assembled to preserve the peace, and shouted, A bas Cabet! à bas le communisme! From this day the extreme party was defeated. The National Assembly met at Paris, May 4th. The majority of it were men of moderate opinions, some even desired a reaction; yet when Dupont de l'Eure, in the name of the Provisional Government, resigned its power into their hands, a Republic was voted by acclamation, and an Executive Commission was appointed to conduct the public business till the new Constitution should be established. The members of the Commission were Lamartine, Arago, Garnier Pagès, Marie, and Ledru Rollin; and Louis Blanc, Albert, and the Socialists were excluded. A mob of Socialists and Communists broke into the Assembly, May 15th, and endeavoured to enforce a government in conformity with their views, but the attempt failed. This party was entirely overawed by the force displayed at a grand review held on May 21st; after which, Barbès, Albert, and Hubert were indicted and sentenced to transportation, and Blanqui to seven years' imprisonment. Louis Blanc was also indicted, but escaped by flight.

When the news of the Revolution arrived in England, Prince Napoleon, who had, in May, 1846, succeeded in escaping to that country from his prison at Ham, immediately set off for Paris; but returned, in compliance with the wishes of the Provisional Government. On the 8th of June he was elected a representative for Paris, and he was also returned in the departments of Charente and Yonne. Two of his cousins, Napoleon, son of Jerôme, and Peter, son of Lucien, sat in the Assembly. These movements of the Bonaparte family excited the apprehension of Lamartine, who attempted to obtain with regard to Louis Napo

438

REACTION AGAINST SOCIALISM.

[CHAP. LXX. leon the enforcement of the old decree for the banishment of the Emperor Napoleon's posterity. Louis Napoleon, thinking that his opportunity was not yet arrived, thanked the electors who had returned him, and declared himself ready to discharge any duties which the people might intrust to him, but for the present he remained in London.

An attempt of the Government to dismiss part of the workmen from the ateliers nationaux produced one of the bloodiest battles Paris had yet seen. These workmen, who now numbered near 100,000, and were regularly drilled, threw up barricadesj more artificially constructed than any that had yet been made, and defended them with desperation. The battle began on the 23rd of June, and lasted four days; but the insurgents were at length subdued by the superior force of the troops of the line and the National Guards. Many of the latter had come up from the! provincial towns to aid in the suppression of Socialism. Some thousands of persons fell in this sanguinary affray, among them the venerable Monseigneur Affre, Archbishop of Paris, while exhorting the rioters to peace. General Cavaignac, who had been appointed Dictator during the struggle, now laid down his office, but was appointed chief of the Executive Commission with the title of President of the Council.

The fear which Socialism had inspired had produced among the more educated classes a reaction in favour of monarchy. The national workshops were now suppressed, as well as all clubs and the revolutionary press. Even Lamartine and Cavaignac lost their popularity, and persons like Thiers began to appear, and to give a different direction to affairs. Cavaignac, however, who now directed the Government of France, had little personal am bition; he aimed at preserving peace both abroad and at home, and avoiding the extremes either of Socialism or despotism. Besides the Republicans and Socialists, three parties were in the field-the Legitimists, or adherents of Charles X.'s dynasty, the Orleanists, and the Bonapartists. Louis Napoleon had remained quietly in London till he was again elected a representative for Paris, as well as for four departments-the Moselle, Yonne, Lower Charente, and Corsica. He now returned to France, and after making a short speech in the Assembly, September 26th. took no further part in the debates. Meanwhile the new Constitution was prepared-a Republic, headed by a President elected every four years, but almost entirely dependent on the National Assembly. For the Presidency became candidates Louis Napo

leon, Cavaignac, Lamartine, Ledru Rollin, and Raspail, the representative of the Socialists. In his address to the electors, Louis Napoleon promised order at home, peace abroad, a reduction of taxes, and a ministry chosen from the best and most able men of all parties. But the educated classes of Frenchmen entertained at this time a contempt for his abilities, and his pretensions were ridiculed by the newspapers. The peasantry and the common soldiers were his chief supporters. Thiers, however, and other intriguers of Louis Philippe's time, advocated his claims; but only in the expectation that he would display his incapacity, and serve as a stepping-stone to the restoration of the Orleans dynasty, while others supported him from envy and jealousy of Cavaignac. The election took place December 10th, when Napoleon obtained five-and-a-half million votes, while Cavaignac, who stood next, had only about one-and-a-half million, and the other candidates but very small numbers. Napoleon was installed in the office which he had thus triumphantly won, December 20th, and took up his residence in the Elysée. He appointed Odillon Barrot Minister of Justice, Drouyn de Lhuys to the Foreign Office, Malleville to the Home Office, General Rulhière to the War Department, De Tracy to the Navy, and Passy to the administration of the finances. To Marshal Bugeaud was intrusted the command of the army, and to Changarnier that of the National Guard; while Jerôme Bonaparte, ex-king of Westphalia, was made Governor of the Invalides.

The shock of the French Revolution of 1848, like that of the previous one, vibrated through Europe. The Germans were among the first to feel its influence. The affairs of Germany have claimed but a small part of our attention, for in fact there has been little to relate. While most of the nations of Europe were struggling for freedom or independence, the German mass remained inert. The subdivision of that people into a number of petty States seems to damp the feeling of nationality and patriotism, which is also cowed and subdued by the immense standing armies of the two great military German despotisms, supported in the background by the Russian autocrat.

Before we describe the effects of the French Revolution in Germany, we must briefly recapitulate a few events which had occurred there. The Imperial throne of Austria was now occupied by Ferdinand I. Francis, the last of the Romano-German and the first of the Austrian Emperors, after an eventful reign which had commenced almost contemporaneously with the first French Re

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