XIV. France. Before the night closed in on the 4th of CHAP. December, he was sheltered safe from ridicule by the ghastly heaps on the Boulevard. XIV. the pro The fate of the provinces resembled the fate of The fate of the capital. Whilst it was still dark on the morn- vinces. ing of the 2d, Morny, stealing into the Home Office, had entrusted his orders for instant and enthusiastic support to the zeal of every prefect, and had ordered that every mayor, every juge de paix, and every other public functionary who failed to give in his instant and written adhesion to the acts of the President should be dismissed.* In France the engine of State is so constructed as to give to the Home Office an almost irresistible power over the provinces, and the means which the Office had of coercing France were reinforced by an appeal to men's fears of anarchy, and their dread of the sect called 'Socialists.' Forty thousand communes were suddenly told that they must make swift choice between Socialism and anarchy and rapine on the one hand, and on the other a virtuous dictator and lawgiver, recom *You will immediately dismiss the juges de paix, the 'mayors, and the other functionaries, whose concurrence may 'not be assured, and appoint other men in their stead. To 'this end, you will call upon all the public functionaries to give you in writing their adhesion to the great measure which 'the Government has just adopted.' Morny's Circular to the Prefects. 'Annuaire,' Appendix, p. 67.—Note to 4th Edition, XIV. CHAP. mended and warranted by the authority of Monsieur de Morny. The gifted Montalembert himself was so effectually caught in this springe that he publicly represented the dilemma as giving no choice except between Louis Bonaparte and the 'ruin of France.' In the provinces, as in Paris, there were men whose love of right was stronger than their fears of the Executive Government, and stronger than their dread of the Socialists; but the Departments, being kept in utter darkness by the arrangements of the Home Office, were slower than Paris in finding out that the blow of the 2d of December had been struck by a small knot of associates without the concurrence of statesmen who were the friends of law and order; and it would seem that, although the proclamations were received at first with stupor and perplexity, they soon engendered a hope that the President (acting, as the country people imagined him to be, with the support of many eminent statesmen) might effect a wholesome change in the Constitution, and restore to France some of the tranquillity and freedom which she had enjoyed under the Government of her last King. There were risings; but every Department which seemed likely to move was put under martial law. Then followed slaughter, banishment, imprisonment, sequestration; and all this at the mere pleasure of generals raging with a cruel hatred of the people, and glowing with the glow of that motive -so hateful because so sordid—which in centralised States men call 'zeal.' Of these generals XIV. there were some who, in their fury, went beyond CHAP. all the bounds of what could be dictated by anything like policy, even though of the most ferocious kind. In the department of the Allier, for instance, it was decreed, not only that all who were 'known' to have taken up arms against the Government should be tried by Court-Martial, but that those whose Socialist opinions were noto'rious' should be transported by the mere order of the Administration, and have their property sequestered. The bare mental act of holding a given opinion was thus put into the category of black crimes; and either the prisoner was to have no trial at all, or else he was to be tried, as it were, by the hangman. This decree was issued by a man called General Eynard, and was at once adopted and promulgated by the Executive Government.* XV. the ferocity sures taken cutive. The violence with which the brethren of the Motives for Elysée were raging, took its origin, no doubt, of the meafrom their terror; but now that they were able by the Exeto draw breath, another motive began to govern them, and to drive them along the same road: for by this time, they were able to give to their actions a colour which tended to bring them the support and goodwill of whole multitudes-whole multitudes distracted with fear of the democrats, and only longing for safety. For more than three years people had lived in dread of the 'Socialists;' * 'Moniteur,' 28th Dec. VOL. I. U XIV. General Socialists. CHAP. and though the sect, taken alone, was never so formidable as to justify the alarm of a firm man, dread of the still it was more or less allied with the fierce species of democrat which men called 'Red,' and, the institutions of the Republic being new and weak, it was right for the nation to stand on its guard against anarchy; though many have judged that the defenders of order, being upheld by the voice of the millions no less than by the forces of intellect and of property, might have kept their watch without fear. But whether the thing from which people ran flying was a danger or only a phantom, the terror it spread brought numbers down into a state which was hardly other than abject. Of course, people thus unmanned would look up piteously to the Executive Government as their natural protectors, and would be willing to offer their freedom in exchange for a little more safety. So now, if not before, the this by the company of the Elysée saw the gain which would accrue to them if they could have it believed that their enterprise was a war against Socialism. After the subjugation of Paris, the scanty gatherings of people who took up arms against the Government were composed, no doubt, partly of Socialists, but partly also of men who had no motive for rising, except that they were of too high a spirit to be able to stand idle and see the law trampled down. But the brotherhood of the Elysée was master-sole master-of the power to speak in print; and by exaggerating the disturbances going on in some parts of France, as well The use made of plotters of the Elysée. XIV. tend to be war against thus ob as by fastening upon all who stood up against CHAP. them the name of the hated sect, they caused it to be believed by thousands, and perhaps by They premillions, that they were engaged in a valorous engaged in a and desperate struggle against Socialism. In Socialism. proportion as this pretence came to be believed, Support it brought hosts of people to the support of the tained. Executive Government; and there is reason to believe that, even among those of the upper classes who seemed to be standing proudly aloof from the Elysée, there were many who secretly rejoiced to be delivered from their fear of the Democrats at the price of having to see France handled for a time by persons like Morny and Maupas. The truth is, that in the success of this speculation of the Elysée many thought they saw how to escape from the vexations of democracy in a safe and indolent way. When an Arab decides that the burnous, which is his garment by day and by night, has become unduly populous, he lays it upon an ant-hill in order that the one kind of insect may be chased away by the other; and, as soon as this has been done, he easily brushes off the conquering genus with the stroke of a whip or a pipe-stick. In a lazy mood well-born men thought to do this with France; and the first part of the process was successful enough, for all the red sort were killed or crushed or hunted away; but when that was done it began to appear that those whose hungry energies had been made use of to do the work were altogether unwilling to be |