'Three francs and half a day,' he said, 'during the harvest, with
food--which includes cider. In ordinary times one franc a day with food,
or a franc and a half without food.'
'It seems then,' I said, 'that you can feed a man for half a franc a
day?'
'He can feed himself,' said M. Roussell, 'for that, but I cannot, or for
double that money.'
The day labourer is generally hired only for one day. A new bargain is
made every day.
The house was not uncomfortable, but very untidy. There are no ricks,
everything is stored in large barns, where it is safe from weather, but
terribly exposed to vermin.
A bright-complexioned servant-girl was in the kitchen preparing an
enormous bowl of soup, of which bread, potatoes, and onions were the
chief solid ingredients.
'Roussell,' said Beaumont, 'is superior to his class. In general they are
bad politicians. It is seldom difficult to get their votes for the
nominee of the prefect. They dislike to vote for anyone whom they know,
especially if he be a gentleman, or be supported by the gentry. Such a
candidate excites their democratic envy and suspicion. But the prefect is
an abstraction. They have never seen him, they have seldom heard of his
name or of that of his candidate, and therefore they vote for him.
'Lately, however, in some of my communes, the peasants have adapted a new
practice, that of electing peasants. I suspect that the Government is not
displeased.
'The presence of such members will throw discredit on the _Conseils
généraux_, and, if they get there, on the _Corps législatif,_ much to the
pleasure of our democratic master, and they will be easily bribed or
frightened. Besides which the fifteen francs a day will be a fortune to
them, and they will be terrified by the threat of a dissolution. I do not
think that even yet we have seen the worst of universal suffrage.'
'What influence,' I asked, 'have the priests?'
'In some parts of France,' said Beaumont, 'where the people are
religious, as is the case here, much. Not much in the north-east, where
there is little religion; and in the towns, where there is generally no
religion, their patronage of a candidate would ruin him. I believe that
nothing has so much contributed to Louis Napoleon's popularity with the
_ouvriers_ as his quarrel with the Pope. You may infer the feelings of
the lower classes in Paris from his cousin's conduct.'
'I study Prince Napoleon,' said Ampère, 'with interest, for I believe
that he will be the successor.'
'If Louis Napoleon,' I said, 'were to be shot tomorrow, would not the
little prince be proclaimed?'
'Probably,' said Ampere, 'but with Jérôme for regent, and I doubt whether
the regency would end by the little Napoleon IV. assuming the sceptre.
'Louis Napoleon himself does not expect it. He often says that, in
France, it is more than two hundred years since a sovereign has been
succeeded by his son.
'On the whole,' continued Ampère, 'I had rather have Jérôme than Louis
Napoleon. He has more talent and less prudence. He would bring on the
crisis sooner.
'On the 31st of October, 1849,' said Madame de Tocqueville, 'I was in
Louis Napoleon's company, and he mentioned some matter on which he wished
to know my husband's opinion. I could not give it. "It does not much
signify," he answered, "for as I see M. de Tocqueville every day, I will
talk to him about it myself." At that very time, the _ordonnance_
dismissing M. de Tocqueville had been signed, and Louis Napoleon knew
that he would probably never see him again.'
'I do not,' said Ampere, 'give up the chance of a republic. I do not wish
for one. It must be a very bad constitutional monarchy which I should not
prefer to the best republic. My democratic illusions are gone. France and
America have dispelled them: but it must be a very bad republic which I
should not prefer to the best despotism. A republic is like a fever,
violent and frightful, but not necessarily productive of organic
mischief. A despotism is a consumption: it degrades and weakens, and
perverts all the vital functions.
'What is there now in France worth living for? I find people proud of our
Italian campaign. Why should the French be proud that their master's
soldiers have been successful in a war as to which they were not
consulted; which, in fact, they disapproved, which was not made for their
benefit, which was the most glaring proof of their servility and
degradation? We knew before that our troops were better than the
Austrians. What have we gained by the additional example of their
superiority?
'I fear,' I said, 'that a republic, at least such a republic as you are
likely to have, would begin by some gross economical enormities--by the
_droit au travail_, by the _impôt progressif sur la fortune présumtée_,
by a paper currency made a legal tender without limitation of its
amount.'
'The last republic,' said Ampere, 'did some of these things, but very
timidly and moderately. It gave to its paper a forced currency, but was
so cautious in its issue, that it was not depreciated. It created the
_ateliers nationaux,_ but it soon dissolved them, though at the expense
of a civil war. Its worst fault was more political than economical: it
was the 45 centimes, that is to say, the sudden increase by 45 per cent,
of the direct taxes. It never recovered that blow. Of all its acts it
is the one which is best recollected. The Provisional Government is known
in the provinces as "ces gredins des quarante-cinq centimes." The
business of a revolutionary government is to be popular. It ought to
reduce taxation, meet its expenditure by loans, abolish octrois and
prohibitions, and defer taxation until it has lasted long enough to be
submitted to as a _fait accompli_.'
'I fear,' said Madame de Tocqueville, 'that our working classes are in a
much worse frame of mind than they were in 1848. Socialist opinions--the
doctrine that the profits of capitalists are so much taken fraudulently
or oppressively from the wages of labourers, and that it is unjust that
one man should have more of the means of happiness than another--are
extending every day. The workpeople believe that the rich are their
enemies and that the Emperor is their friend, and that he will join them
in an attempt to get their fair share, that is, an equal share, of the
property of the country--and I am not sure that they are mistaken.'
'Nor am I,' said Beaumont '_Celui-ci_ fully sympathises with their
feelings, and I do not think that he has intelligence enough to see the
absurdity of their theories.'
'You do not deny him,' I said, 'intelligence?'
'Not,' said Beaumont, 'for some purposes, and to some extent, practical
intelligence. His ends are bad, but he is often skilful in inventing and
pertinacious in employing means for effecting those bad ends. But I
deny him theoretic intelligence. I do not think that he has comprehension
or patience to work out, or even to follow, a long train of reasoning;
such a train as that by which economical errors and fallacies are
detected.'
'Are there strikes,' I asked, 'among your workmen?'
'They are beginning,' said Beaumont. 'We have had one near us, and the
authorities were afraid to interfere.'
'I suppose,' I said, that they are illegal?'
'They are illegal,' he answered, 'and I think that they ought to be so.
They are always oppressive and tyrannical. The workman who does not join
in a strike is made miserable. They are generally mischievous to
the combined workmen themselves, and always to those of other trades.
Your toleration of them appears to me one of the worst symptoms of your
political state of health. It shows among your public men an ignorance or
a cowardice, or a desire of ill-earned popularity, which is generally a
precursor of a democratic revolution.'
'It is certain,' said Ampère, 'that the masters are becoming afraid of
their workmen. Péreire brings his from their residences to the Barrière
Malesherbes in carriages. You are not actually insulted in the streets
of Paris, but you are treated with rude neglect. A _fiacre_ likes to
splash you, a _paveur_ to scatter you with mud. Louis Napoleon began with
Chauvinism. He excited all the bad international passions of the
multitude. He has now taken up Sansculotteism. Repulsed with scorn and
disgust by the rich and the educated, he has thrown himself on the poor
and ignorant The passions with which he likes to work are envy,
malignity, and rapacity.
'I do not believe that he feels them. He is what is called a good-natured
man. That is to say, he likes to please everyone that he sees. But his
selfishness is indescribable.
'No public interest stands in the way of his slightest caprice. He often
puts me in mind of Nero. With the same indifference to the welfare of
others with which Nero amused himself by burning down Rome, he is amusing
himself by pulling down Paris.'