MONTALEMBERT'S speech was afterwards published in the _Moniteur_ but with
considerable alterations. In Mr. Senior's journal in 1854 (which has not
been published), he says, under the date of April 26, I called on
Montalembert and took him my report of his speech. He has promised to add
to it any notes that it may require. "The printed report," he said, "is
intentionally falsified. Before it was struck off I asked to see the
proofs. I was told that, as such an application was new, the President of
the Bureau would meet and decide on its admissibility. They decided that
it could not be granted."'
[The following is Mr. Senior's report, with M. de Montalembert's own
corrections and additions in French.--ED.]
At length Montalembert rose. He stood near the extreme right, with his
side towards the tribune, and his face towards the centre gallery, in
which I sat. His voice and delivery are so good, and the house was so
silent, that I did not lose a word. I believe that the following report
is a tolerably accurate abridgment of his speech.
'Gentlemen, I must begin by expressing to you my deep gratitude for the
attention which you have paid to this unhappy business. I am grieved at
having occasioned the waste of so much public time. I am still more
grieved at having been the occasion of division among my colleagues.'
[_Note by Montalember_.--'J'aurais voulu faire plus qu'exprimer le
regret: j'aurais voulu me prêter à tous les arrangements qui m'ont été
suggérés par des voix amies pour mettre un terme à cette discussion. Je
n'aurais reculé devant aucun sacrifice qui eût été compatible avec
l'honneur. Mais vous comprenez tous que sous le coup d'une poursuite,
d'un danger, je ne puis rien désavouer, rien rétracter, rien retirer de
ce que j'ai écrit, de ce que j'ai pensé. Si j'agissais autrement il vous
resterait un collègue absous, mais déshonoré et dont vous ne sauriez que
faire.']
'More than all I am grieved when I think of the time at which this has
occurred. A time when we are engaged in an honourable and serious war--a
war in which, with the great and faithful ally whom I have always
desired, and the sympathy of all Europe, we are defending civilisation
against an enemy, barbarous indeed, but so formidable as to require our
undivided energy and our undivided attention.
But you must recollect _when_ that letter was written. It was in last
September, in profound peace, when our whole thoughts were employed, and
were properly employed, on our internal affairs.
'Aujourd'hui il en est autrement; l'état de guerre impose à tous les
citoyens des devoirs spéciaux: il doit aussi imposer un certain frein à
l'esprit de critique. Aucun Français, quel que soit sa foi politique, ne
peut vouloir discréditer le pouvoir des dissidents, des mécontents, mais
il n'y a plus d'émigrés, ni à l'intérieur, ni à l'extérieur.'
[_Note by N.W. Senior._--This seems to be an allusion to a passage in
Thiers's celebrated speech of the 17th of February, 1851. 'I1 ne faut
émigrer, ni au dehors, ni au dedans.']
['J'aurais su contenir les sentiments les plus passionés de mon âme,
plutôt que de paraître affaiblir en quoi que ce soit la main qui porte
l'épée et le drapeau de la France. Ce n'est pas toutefois que j'admette
que toute liberté de parole ou de presse soit incompatible avec l'état de
guerre. L'Angleterre a conservé toutes ses libertés en faisant la guerre
aux plus redoutables ennemis: aujourd'hui encore l'opposition, d'accord
avec le gouvernement sur la question extérieure, maintient les
résistances et les critiques à l'intérieur. Et certes personne ne dira
que l'Angleterre, pour avoir conservé la liberté de discussion la plus
entière, n'ait pas déployé pour le moins autant de prévoyance et
d'énergie que nous dans la conduite de la guerre où nous entrons. Il n'y
a que les nations où la vie publique circule dans toutes les veines du
corps social, qui sachent résister aux épreuves et aux chances d'une
guerre prolongée. La liberté de la contradiction centuple le prix d'une
libre adhésion; et à force de mettre une sourdine à toutes les émotions
du pays, il faut prendre garde qu'on ne se trouve un jour dans
l'impossibilité de faire vibrer les cordes les plus essentielles quand le
moment des dangers et des sacrifices sera arrivé.']
'I deeply regret the publication of that letter. But with that
publication I repeat that I am utterly unconnected. I never sanctioned
it, I never wished for it, I never even thought it possible. There are
passages in the letter itself which I might modify if I were to re-write
it, but it would rather be by adding to them than by taking from them.
Two accusations have been directed against its substance. One that it is
hostile to the Emperor; the other that it is hostile to this assembly. No
one who knows my character, and knows my history, will believe that I can
have intended to injure the Emperor. Our relations have been such as to
make it impossible.
['J'ai eu l'occasion de défendre le chef actuel de l'État dans des
circonstances infiniment difficiles, et où rien n'était plus douteux que
le succès. Je ne prétends pas l'avoir constitué par cela mon débiteur,
car en le défendant, je ne voulais servir, comme toujours, que la
justice, l'intérêt du pays, la liberté modérée qui se personnifiaient en
lui à mes yeux, mais enfin, aux yeux du public il est mon obligé, et je
ne suis pas le sien. Si j'avais eu la pensée d'offenser publiquement
l'Empereur, et si j'y avais cédé, nous serions _quittes_. Or, je tiens
beaucoup à ce que nous ne le soyons pas. Il n'y aurait pour moi ni
honneur ni avantage à ce changement de position. Tous les hommes de bon
goût, tous les coeurs délicats, me comprendront.']
'It is equally impossible that I should have wished to offend this
assembly. It contains men by whose sides I have fought the great battles
of property and law. I love many of its members. I respect almost all. If
I have offended any, it was done unconsciously. Again, it is said that
the tone of my letter is violent. Expressions may be called violent by
some which would be only called _passionnés_ by others. Now I admit that
I am _passionné_. It is in my nature. I owe to that quality much of my
merit, whatever that merit may be. Were I not _passionné_, I should not
have been, during all my life, _la sentinelle perdue de la liberté_. I
should not have thrown myself into every breach: sometimes braving the
attacks of anarchy, sometimes heading the assault on tyranny, and
sometimes fighting against the worst of all despotisms, the despotism
that is based on democracy.'
['Allons plus au fond, et vous reconnaîtrez que les opinions énoncées
dans la lettre ne sont autres que celles toujours professées par moi.
Elles peuvent toutes se ramener à une seule, à mon éloignement pour le
pouvoir absolu. Je ne l'aime pas: je ne l'ai jamais aimé. Si j'ai tant
combattu l'anarchie avant et après 1848, si j'ai suscité contre moi dans
le parti démagogique ces haines virulentes qui durent encore et qui ne
perdent jamais une occasion d'éclater contre moi, c'est parce que j'ai
compris de bonne heure les affinités naturelles du despotisme et de la
démocratie; c'est parce que j'ai prévu et prédit que la démocratie nous
conduirait au pouvoir absolu. Oui, je crois, comme je l'ai dit, que le
despotisme abaisse les caractères, les intelligences, les consciences.
Oui, je déplore le système qui rend un seul homme tout-puissant et seul
responsable des destinées d'une nation de 36 millions d'hommes; et trouve
que cela ressemble trop au gouvernement russe, contre lequel nous allons
en guerre, et trop peu au gouvernement anglais, dont nous prisons si haut
l'alliance.']
'I am told again, and the accusation is sanctioned by the _réquisitoire_
of the Procureur-Général, that my letter is inconsistent with the
fidelity which I have sworn to the Emperor and to the constitution. When
a man swears fidelity to a sovereign and to a constitution, his oath
engages him only as to matters within his own power. He swears not to
conspire against them. He swears not to attempt to subvert them. He
cannot swear to approve the acts of the sovereign, or the working of the
constitution, for he cannot foresee what either of them will be. I have
kept, and I shall keep, my oath to the Emperor and my oath to the
constitution. I have not attempted, and I shall not attempt, to overthrow
either of them. But my approbation of either of them does not depend on
me. I accepted the _coup d'état_, comme vous l'avez tous fait, comme
notre seule chance de salut dans les circonstances d'alors. I expected
a Government _honnête et modéré_. I have been disappointed.'
Here a violent exclamation ran through the assembly. Baroche rose and
cried out, 'You hear him, gentlemen. He says that he expected honesty and
moderation from the Government, and that he has been disappointed. I
appeal to you, Mr. President, to decide whether we are to sit and listen
to such infamies.'
[Voix diverses:--'Expliquez vos paroles.' 'Retirez vos paroles.' M. de
Montalembert.--'Je les maintiens et je les explique.']
'I expected _un gouvernement honnête et modéré_. I have been
disappointed. Its _honnêté_ may be judged by the confiscation of the
Orleans property.'
Here was another hubbub, and another protest of Baroche's.
'What is going on before you,' continued Montalembert, 'is a sample of
its moderation. It is now attempting in my person to introduce into our
criminal law a new _délit_, "communication." Until now it was supposed
that nothing was criminal until it was published. It was believed that a
man might write his opinions and his reflections, and might exchange them
with his friends; that nothing was libellous that was confidential. _Now_
this Government holds a man responsible for every thought that an
indiscreet or an incautious friend, or a concealed enemy, or a tool of
power reveals. If it succeeds in this attempt, it will not rest satisfied
with this victory over the remnant of our freedom. It is not in the
nature of things that it should. A Government that will not tolerate
censure must forbid discussion. You are now asked to put down writing.
When that has been done, conversation will be attacked. Paris will
resemble Rome under the successors of Augustus. Already this prosecution
has produced a _malaise_ which I never felt or observed before. What will
be the feelings of the nation when all that is around it is concealed,
when every avenue by which light could penetrate is stopped; when we are
exposed to all the undefined terrors and exaggerated dangers that
accompany utter darkness? The misfortune of France, a national defect
which makes the happiness enjoyed by England unattainable by us, is, that
she is always oscillating between extremes; that she is constantly
swinging from universal conquest to _la paix à tout prix_, from the
desire of nothing but glory to the desire of nothing but wealth, from the
wildest democracy to the most abject servility. Every new Government
starts with a new principle. Every Government in a few years perishes by
carrying that principle to an extreme. The First Republic was destroyed
by the intemperance with which it trampled on every sort of tradition and
authority, the First Empire by its abuse of victory and war, the
Restoration by its exaggerated belief in divine right and legitimacy, the
Royalty of July by its exaggerated reliance on purchased voters and
Parliamentary majorities, the Second Republic by the conduct of its own
Republicans. The danger to the Second Empire--its only internal danger,
but I fear a fatal one--is its abuse of authority. With every phase of
our sixty years' long revolution, we have a new superstition, a new
_culte_. We are now required to become the worshippers of authority. I
lament that with the new religion we have not new priests. Our public men
would not be discredited by instantaneous apostasy from one political
faith to another. I am grieved, gentlemen, if I offend you; though many
of you are older in years than I am, not one probably is so old in public
life. I may be addressing you for the last time, and I feel that my last
words ought to contain all the warnings that I think will be useful to
you. This assembly will soon end, as all its predecessors have ended. Its
acts, its legislation, may perish with it, but its reputation, its fame,
for good or for evil, will survive. Within a few minutes you will do an
act by which that reputation will be seriously affected; by which it may
be raised, by which it may be deeply, perhaps irrevocably, sunk. Your
vote to-night will show whether you possess freedom, and whether you
deserve it. As for myself, I care but little. A few months, or even
years, of imprisonment are among the risks which every public man who
does his duty in revolutionary times must encounter, and which the first
men of the country have incurred, _soit en sortant des affaires, soit
avant d'y entrer_. But whatever may be the effect of your vote on _my_
person, whatever it may be on _your_ reputation, I trust that it is not
in your power to inflict permanent injury on my country. Among you are
some who lived through the Empire. They must remember that the soldiers
of our glorious army cherished as fondly the recollection of its defeats
as of its victories. They must see that the lessons which those defeats
taught, and the feelings which they inspired, are now among the sources
of our military strength. Your Emperor himself, in one of his earlier
addresses, talked hopefully of the period when France would be capable of
more liberty than he now thinks good for her, "Un jour," he exclaimed,
"mon oeuvre sera couronnée par la liberté." I join in that hope. I look
sanguinely towards the time when she will be worthy of the English
constitution, and she will obtain it. Vous tenez le corps de la France,
mais vous ne tenez pas son âme. Cette âme, aujourd'hui effrayée,
engourdie, endormie, cette âme c'est la liberté. Elle se réveillera un
jour et vous échappera. La certitude de ce réveil suffit pour consoler et
fortifier ses vieux et fidèles soldats à traverser la nuit de l'épreuve.
Cette liberté honnête et modérée, sage et sainte, j'y ai toujours cru, et
j'y crois encore. Je l'ai toujours servie, toujours aimée, toujours
invoquée, tantôt pour la religion, tantôt pour le pays; hier contre le
socialisme, aujourd'hui contre un commencement de despotisme; et, quelle
que soit votre décision, je me féliciterai toujours d'avoir eu cette
occasion solennelle de la confesser encore une fois devant vous, et, s'il
le faut, de souffrir un peu pour elle.'
These concluding words were drowned in universal murmurs.