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XIV.

CHAP. 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 there were some who, in their fury, went beyond all

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the bounds of what could be dictated by anything CHAP. 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 notorious' 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."

*

for the of the

taken.

and after

The violence with which the brethren of the Motives Elysée were raging, took its origin, no doubt, from ferocity their terror; but now that they were able to draw measures 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 Terror, tended to bring them the support and goodwill of wards a whole multitudes-whole multitudes distracted with hope of fear of the democrats, and only longing for safety. For more than three years people had lived in dread of the 'Socialists;' and though the sect, taken alone, was never so formidable as to justify the alarm of a firm man, 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

* 'Moniteur,' 28th Dec.

gaining support

from men

afraid of anarchy.

General

dread of

the So

cialists.

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The bre

thren of

take ad

this.

CHAP. 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 the Elysée before, the company of the Elysée saw the gain vantage of 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 They pre- parts of France, as well as by fastening upon all who engaged in stood up against them the name of the hated sect, they caused it to be believed by thousands, and perhaps by millions, that they were engaged in a valorous and desperate struggle against Socialism. In proportion as this pretence came to be believed,

tend to be

a war

against Socialism.

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thus ob

it brought hosts of people to the support of the CHAP. Executive Government; and there is reason to believe that, even among those of the upper classes who Support seemed to be standing proudly aloof from the Elysée, tained. 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 anthill 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 brushed off. They clung: even now, after the lapse of years, they cling and feed.

*

saries sent

The army in the provinces closely imitated the Commisferocity of the army of Paris; but it was to be ap- into the prehended that soldiery, however fierce, might deal provinces. only with the surface of discontent, and not strike

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CHAP. deep enough into the heart of the country. They might kill people in streets and roads and fields; they might even send their musket-balls through windows into the houses, and shoot whole batches of prisoners; but they could not so well search out the indignant friends of law and order in their inner homes. Therefore Morny sent into the provinces men of dire repute, and armed them with terrible powers. These persons were called Commissaries. In every spot so visited the people shuddered; for they knew by their experience of 1848 that a man thus set over them by the terrible Home Office might be a ruffian well known to the police for his crimes as well as for his services, and that from a potentate of that quality it might cost them dear to buy their safety.

The
Church.

There have been times when the all but dying spark of a nation's life has been kept alive by the priests of her faith; and when this has happened, there has sprung up so deep a love between people and Church that the lapse of ages has not had strength to put the two asunder.* In France, it is true, the Church no longer wielded the authority which had belonged to her of old; but besides that the virtues of her humble and labouring priesthood had gained for her more means of guiding men's minds than Europe was accustomed to believe, she was a cohering and organised body. Therefore, at a moment when the whole temporal powers of the State had

*See Arthur Stanley's admirable account of the relations between Russia and her Church.

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