BOOK CHAPTER VII. THE THIRTEENTH OF JUNE. THE Constituent Assembly died in a storm of passion on June 26, having, as a parting thrust at the Government, abolished the duty on spirits, thereby creating an immense deficit in the revenue, embarrassing the Executive, and at the same time making a powerful appeal to the popularity of the wine-shops. Between the separation of the Constituent Assembly and the meeting of the newlyelected Legislative Body there was an interval of only a few hours; between the constituent elements of the two Parliaments, however, there was a radical difference. Nearly all the men of February had disappeared.1 Even M. Marrast, whose name was attached to the Constitution, had not been re-elected. The elections had been managed by the Electoral Union, an association that extended its influence throughout the country from the famous old address, 17 Rue de Poitiers. This union of all the Conservative forces had been formed in February to secure the return of a majority of the party of order. The friends of the President had rallied to it, and, through the skill of such chiefs as Berryer, Thiers, and De Broglie, they were absorbed in it. The electoral committee was composed of seventy-five members, thirty-six of whom were appointed by the 17 Rue de Poitiers club, and the Neither Lamartine, Garnier- Flocon, Bastide, Marie, nor Jules CHAP. VII. rest were taken from among the Moderates of all colours. The committee brought into one room MM. Berryer, de Broglie, Duvergier de Hauranne, Chambolle, de Persigny, Fould, Molé, General Piat, de Malleville, de Montalembert, Thiers, de Rémusat, de Noailles. These Legitimists, Orleanists, and Bonapartists drew together to do battle with the common enemy. The effect was disastrous to M. Ledru-Rollin's party; but it was also harmful to the cause of the President, as many of his followers had predicted it would be. Indeed, so strong had been the opposition of certain leading Bonapartists to a fusion with such tricksters as the old statesmen of the Monarchy of July that they held aloof in committees of their own. The scrutin de liste, and the mutilated suffrage which the Constituent Assembly had left, gave MM. Thiers and Berryer excellent opportunities of using the popularity of the Prince President to the advantage of their party. They actually succeeded in obtaining a Royalist majority from a nation that was anti-Bourbon to the backbone, through their alliance with the Bonapartists, who were allowed to return only a mere sprinkling of their candidates. M. Thiers never contrived a subtler political trick. He showed M. de Broglie sitting near M. Lucien Murat, and himself in consultation with M. de Persigny; and then made up his electoral lists in favour of his own party. So complete was the President's faith in the honour of his allies that he withdrew some of his friends in favour of M. Thiers's nominees. The Bonapartists, who saw the scheme and held aloof, were so enraged that they threatened to put up Prince Napoleon in twenty departments. So confident did the conspirators of the Rue de Poitiers become that both M. Guizot and M. Duchâtel presented themselves as candidates, the former addressing to the electors of the Calvados some crafty phrases, in which he intimated his adhesion to a Bonapartist régime BOO as one of order. But the electors who had within six months given power to Prince Louis Napoleon were not to be hoodwinked into the acceptance of a Guizot or a Duchâtel. The effect of the combination of the Bonapartists with the Royalists was, not what the Prince President had anticipated, a consolidation of order, but, on the contrary, a policy on the part of his false friends that made methodical and progressive government impossible. The Royalist parties, having obtained a majority through the popularity of the Prince, hastened to use it for his overthrow. He had imagined that in the Rue de Poitiers he was laying the foundations of a national party, since the Royalist leaders pretended that a Bourbon restoration had become impossible, and that he stood alone as the champion of order. But he was giving power to his cowardly enemies to drive him to that act of violence in December 1851 which he committed only after every effort had been made to govern a Republic with a Royalist and Socialist Parliament. When the Legislative Assembly met at the end of May 1849, the Government of France consisted of a Bonaparte, elected by five millions and a half of voters, a Royalist majority, and an imposing Socialist minority. This Assembly was elected on May 13; on June 13 the mob was in the streets and barricades were building. For when M. Ledru-Rollin found himself backed in the Assembly by 182 followers, and when he recollected that he had himself been elected in five departments, his ambition knew no bounds. He would listen to no 'moderate counsel. In a month,' he ex 1 'Le Consulat, l'Empire, la Restauration et 1830 ont été des gouvernements sérieux; les partisans de ces trois gouvernements, les hommes formés dans leurs cours et sous leur in fluence, sont des hommes d'ordre. Quand l'ordre est en péril leur alliance est nécessaire.'--Tarile Delord, vol. i. p. 156. claimed, I shall be Dictator-or shot.'1 And he set to work with a will. He appeared in his place in the Assembly on June 11 to make a formal declaration of war against the Executive. The Reds had been kept in a state of irritation by the artful uses their leaders had made of the expedition to Rome. On June 10 the Socialist electoral committee issued a proclamation to the Assembly, telling the newlyelected representatives that if the Constitution was violated it was for them to give the example of resistance. The members of the Mountain made a direct appeal to the people, telling them that Louis Bonaparte had audaciously violated the Constitution in attacking Rome, and assuring them that the Mountain would do its duty. The Democratic Association of the Friends of the Constitution protested before the nations' against France being regarded as an accomplice in the siege of Rome. There was insurrection in the air. The Parisians were in a gloomy mood; for cholera was sweeping with a heavy hand through their capital, and the highways to the cemeteries were crowded. They had just passed through the turmoil of a general election, only to be threatened with a renewal of civil war. The Prince President, while the Red clubs and committees were plotting his overthrow and the servants of Frohsdorf and Claremont were meditating in the Rue de Poitiers on the methods by which he could be made to forward their schemes, went quietly to the Hôtel Dieu and other great hospitals to visit and console those who were stricken by the modern plague. His sympathetic nature touched the sick deeply, according to contemporary accounts, and he left behind him in fever and cholera wards a real impression. With a few 1 Histoire complète du Prince M. Gallix et Guy. Paris: H. Louis-Napoléon, depuis sa naissance Morel, 1853. jusqu'au 2 décembre 1851. Par CHAP. VII. BOOK VII. well-chosen words about the humble and obscure heroism of the nurse, he placed the cross of the Legion of Honour upon the breast of a garde-malade. The patience with which the hostility of the Mountain and the treachery of the Royalist factions were met at the Élysée is exemplified in the steady endeavours after a national party and a national policy, from which the Prince would not be shaken. He met the Legislative Assembly, in which he could discern the elements of a fiercer opposition than that with which the Constituent Assembly had harassed him, with sober, conciliatory words, and with plans for domestic reforms on which his mind had been long set. The modification of the Ministry which he found it necessary to make to meet the new Corps Législatif, and to fill up the vacancy left by the retirement of M. Léon Faucher, was still in harmony with the principle of action. set forth in his electoral address to his fellow-citizens. M. Odilon Barrot remained Minister of Justice and VicePresident of the Council, Dufaure went to the Interior, De Tocqueville became Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Rulhières, De Falloux, Passy, and De Tracy remained in office. It was eminently a Ministry of conciliation, except in relation to the men of violence in principle and deed who still disturbed the under-currents of society, making necessary and justifying stringent measures for the preservation of public order. This Ministry appeared before the Deputies under cover of a message from the President to the Assembly. In this, we insist, the strong desire of the Prince to act in harmony with the national Legislative Body is once more expressed, and a national. policy, to be pursued by President and Deputies alike, is sketched. 6 The Constitution,' said the Prince, directs the President of the Republic to submit to you every year a gene |