which declares that the actual government of France is
republican, and that the nation will immediately be called on
to ratify by its votes this resolution of the government and
of the people of Paris. The 29th, which declares that Royalty,
under any name whatever, ... is abolished. ... And the 30th,
which directs the immediate establishment of national
workshops (ateliers natlonaux). We confess that, we agree with
Lamartine in thinking that they bear the stamp of instinct
much more than that of reason. ... The declaration that the
actual government of France was republican ... was palpably
untrue. The actual government of France at that time was as
far removed from republicanism as it was possible for a
government to be. It was a many-headed Dictatorship--a
despotic oligarchy. Eleven men--some appointed in the offices
of a newspaper, and the others by a mob which had broken into
the Chamber of Deputies--ruled France, during three months,
with an absoluteness of which there is no other example in
history. ... They dissolved the Chamber of Deputies; they
forbade the peers to meet; they added 200,000 men to the
regular army, and raised a new metropolitan army of 20,000
more at double the ordinary pay; to meet this expense they
added 45 centimes to the direct taxes; they restricted the
Bank from cash payments; they made its paper a legal tender,
and then required it to lend them fifty millions; ... they
altered the hours of labour throughout France, and, subjected
to heavy fines any master who should allow his operatives to
remain at work for the accustomed period. ...
{1373}
The necessary consequence of the 19th decree, promising
employment to all applicants, was the creation of the ateliers
nationaux by the 30th. These workshops were immediately opened
in the outskirts Of Paris. A person who wished to take
advantage of the offers of the Government took from the person
with whom he lodged a certificate that he was an inhabitant of
the Department de la Seine. This certificate he carried to the
mairie of his arrondissement, and obtained an order of
admission to an atelier. If he was received and employed
there, he obtained an order on his mairie for forty sous. If
he was not received, after having applied at all of them, and
found them all full, he received an order for thirty sous.
Thirty sous is not high pay; but it was to be had for doing
nothing; and hopes of advancement were held out. Every body of
eleven persons formed an escouade; and their head, the
escouadier, elected by his companions, got half a franc a day
extra. Five escouades formed a brigade; and the brigadier,
also elected by his subordinates, received three francs a day.
Above these again were the lieutenants, the chefs de
compagnie, the chefs de service, and the chefs
d'arrondissement, appointed by the Government, and receiving
progressively higher salaries. Besides this, bread was
distributed to their families in proportion to the number of
children. The hours supposed to be employed in labour were
nine and a half. ... This semi-military organisation, regular
payment, and nominal work produced results which we cannot
suppose to have been unexpected by the Government. M. Emile
Thomas tells us that in one mairie, that containing the
Faubourg St.-Antoine, a mere supplemental bureau enrolled,
from March 12 to 20, more than 1,000 new applicants every day.
We have before us a list of those who had been enrolled on May
19, and it amounts to 87,942. A month later it amounted to
125,000--representing, at 4 to a family, 600,000 persons--more
than one half of the population of Paris. To suppose that such
an army as this could be regularly organised, fed, and paid,
for months in idleness, and then quietly disbanded, was a
folly of which the Provisional Government was not long guilty.
They soon saw that the monster which they had created could
not be subdued, if it could be subdued at all, by any means
short of civil war. ... 'A thunder-cloud (says M. de
Lamartine) was always before our eyes. It was formed by the
ateliers nationaux; This army of 120,000 work-people, the
great part of whom were idlers and agitators, was the deposit
of the misery, the laziness, the vagrancy, the vice, and the
sedition which the flood of the revolution had cast up and
left on its shores.' ... As they were managed, the ateliers
nationaux, it is now admitted, produced or aggravated the very
evils which they professed to cure or to palliate. They
produced or continued the stagnation of business which they
were to remedy; and, when they became absolutely intolerable,
the attempt to put an end to them occasioned the civil war
which they were to prevent."
_N. W. Senior,
Journals kept in France and Italy, 1848-1852,
volume 1, pages 14-59._
ALSO IN:
_Marquis of Normandy,
A Year of Revolution,
chapters 8-11 (volume l)._
_L. Blanc,
Historical Revelations, 1848._
_A. de Lamartine,
History of the Revolution of 1848._
_J. P. Simpson,
Pictures from Revolutionary Paris._
FRANCE: A. D. 1848 (April-December).
The Constituent National Assembly, and the Constitution of the
Second Republic.
Savage and terrible insurrection of the workmen of the
Ateliers Nationaux.
Vigorous dictatorship of Cavaignac.
Appearance of Louis Napoleon.
His election to the Presidency of the Republic.
The election by universal suffrage of a Constituent National
Assembly, twice deferred on account of fears of popular
turbulence, took place on the 23d of April, and resulted in
the return of a very Conservative majority, largely composed
of Napoleonists, Legitimists and Orleanists. The meeting of
the Assembly was opened on the 7th of May. "The moderates were
anxious to invest M. de Lamartine with a dictatorial
authority," which he declined. "Eventually an executive
commission of five was appointed. ... The commission consisted
of Arago, Garnier Pagès, Marie, Lamartine, and Ledru Rollin.
... This conciliatory executive commission was elected by the
Assembly on the 10th of May. On the 15th, the 'concilliated'
mob broke into the chamber, insulted the deputies, turned them
out, proclaimed a provisional government, and then marched to
the Hôtel de Ville, where they were installed with due
revolutionary solemnity;" but the National Guard rallied to
the support of the government, and the insurrection was
promptly suppressed. "Eleven vacancies in the Assembly had to
be filled in the department of the Seine, on account of double
returns. These elections produced fresh uneasiness in Paris.
Eighth on the list stood Louis Napoleon Bonaparte; and among
the names mentioned as candidates was that of Prince de
Joinville, the most popular of the Orleans princes. The
executive commission appears to have been more afraid of the
latter than of the former; and to prevent the disagreeable
circumstance of France returning him to the Assembly as one of
her representatives, they thought themselves justified in
declaring the whole Orleans family incapable of serving France
in any capacity. ... Louis Napoleon, on the first proclamation
of the Republic, had at once offered his services; but was by
the Provisional Government requested to withdraw, as his great
name might trouble the republic. ... Two Bonapartes had been
elected members for Corsica, and three sat in the Assembly;
but, as the next heir of the Emperor, Louis Napoleon caused
them much uneasiness. ... Already mobs had gone about the
Boulevard crying 'Vive l'Empereur.' The name of Bonaparte was
not unpopular with the bourgeoisie; it was a guarantee of
united and strong government to all. On his election, Louis
Napoleon wrote to the President of the Assembly: a phrase in
his letter gave considerable offence. Some days before,
Lamartine had proposed his exclusion from the Assembly and the
country; but, as it appeared he was in no way implicated in
the seditious cries, they voted his admission by a large
majority. The phrase which gave umbrage was: 'If the country
imposes duties upon me, I shall know how to fulfill them.' ...
However, by a subsequent letter, dated the 15th, he restored
confidence by saying he would resign rather than be a cause of
tumult. But the real difficulties of the government arose from
a different cause.
{1374}
The National Assembly bore with impatience the expense of the
Ateliers Nationaux: It was enough to submit to the factious
spirit of those bodies; but it was too much to pay them for
keeping on foot an organized insurrection, ever ready to break
out and deluge the capital in blood. The executive commission
had been desirous of finding means gradually to lessen the
numbers receiving wages; and on the 12th of May, it was
resolved to close the lists. The commission foresaw that if
the Ateliers were at once abolished, it would produce a
rebellion in Paris; and they hoped, first, by preventing any
more being inscribed, and then by setting them to task-work,
that they should gradually get the numbers reduced. ... But
the Assembly would not wait; they ordered all the workmen
between 18 and 25 years old, and unmarried, to be drafted into
the army, or to be discharged; and they were breaking them up
so rapidly, that if the workmen wanted to fight it was evident
that it must be done at once or not at all. ... General
Cavaignac, who had been sent for from Africa, was on his
arrival in Paris named Minister at War, and had command of the
troops. ... Preparations for the conflict commenced on Thursday
the 22nd of June; but it was noon of the following day ere the
first shot was fired. It is said, that had the executive
commission known what they were about, the heads of the
insurrection might have been all arrested in the meantime, for
they were walking about all day, and at one time met in the
Jardin des Plantes. The fighting on the 23d continued all day,
with much slaughter, and little practical result. ... The
extent of the insurgent lines swallowed up the troops, so
that, though great numbers were in Paris, there appeared to be
a deficiency of them, and loud complaints were made against
the inefficiency of the executive commission. During the night
the fighting ceased, and both parties were occupied in
strengthening their positions. The Assembly was sitting in
permanence; they were highly incensed against the executive
commission, and wished them to send in their resignations; but
the latter refused, saying it was cowardly to do so in the face
of insurrection. The Assembly then formally deposed the
commission, and appointed Cavaignac dictator; to which
arrangement the executive commission at once assented. The
General instantly ordered the National Guards to prevent
assemblages in the streets, and that no one should go out
without a pass: anyone going about, out of uniform, without
permission, was walked home. In this manner many persons
carrying ammunition to the insurgents were arrested. At noon,
he sent a flag of truce with a proclamation, offering an
amnesty to the rebels, at the suggestion of the ex-prefect
Caussidière; but it was unhesitatingly rejected. This latter
personage, though he was not among the barricades, was by many
thought to be the head of the insurrection. The troops of the
insurgents were managed with great military skill, showing
that persons of military knowledge must have had the command;
though no one knew who were their leaders. ... During the
early part of the day, the fighting was mainly on the southern
side of the river. The church of St. Gervais and the bridges
were carried with great slaughter, as well as the church of
St. Severin, and their great head-quarters the Pantheon; and
by four o'clock, the troops had conquered the whole of the
south bank of the Seine. On the other side, a hot engagement
was going on in the Faubourgs Poissonnière and St. Denis:
these were carried with great loss at a late hour, whence the
insurrection was forced back to its great stronghold, the Clos
St. Lazare; which defied every effort of General Lamoricière
to take it on Saturday. An unfinished hospital served as a
citadel, and several churches and public buildings as
out-posts; while the old city wall, which they had loop-holed,
enabled them to fire on the troops in comparative security;
but the buildings were breached with cannon, and the
insurgents by four o'clock on Sunday were dispersed. ... A
desperate struggle was going on at a late hour in the Faubourg
du Temple; and on the Monday morning the insurgents made a
stand behind the Canal St. Martin, where they sent to treat on
condition of retaining their arms. But Cavaignac would hear of
no terms. It was thought, at one time, that they had
surrendered; when some soldiers, going within the lines, were
surprised and murdered. Hostilities at once began again, and
the insurgents were finally subdued by one o'clock on Monday
the 26th. The victory was dearly bought: 8,000 were
ascertained to have been killed or wounded; and, as many
bodies were thrown into the Seine unrecognised, this is much
under the number. Nearly 14,000 prisoners were taken, and
3,000 of these died of gaol fever. ... The excellent
Archbishop of Paris, Denis Auguste Affre, fell a sacrifice to
his Christian benevolence. Horrified at the slaughter, he,
attended by two of his vicars carrying the olive-branch of
peace, passed between the combatants. The firing ceased at his
appearance; but, from the discharge of a single musket, it
began again: he, nevertheless, mounted the barricade and
descended into the midst of the insurgents, and was, in the
act of addressing them, when some patriot, fearing the effect
of his exhortations, shot him from a window. ... General
Cavaignac, immediately after the pacification of Paris, laid
down the temporary dictatorship with which he had been
invested by the Assembly; but their gratitude for the
salvation of society led them to appoint him President of the
Council, with the power to name his own Ministry. He at once
sent adrift all the red republican party, and chose a Ministry
from among the moderate class of republicans; to which he
afterwards added some members of the old opposition. ...
Prince Louis Napoleon was again thrust upon the Assembly, by
being elected for Corsica; but he wrote a letter on the 8th of
July, saying, that though he did not renounce the honour of
one day sitting as a representative of the people, he would
wait till the time when his return to France could not in any
way serve as a pretext to the enemies of the republic. ... On
Tuesday, the 26th of September, shortly after the president
had taken his seat, Louis Napoleon appeared quietly in the
chamber, and placed himself on one of the back benches. ...
The discussion of the constitution, which had been referred to
a committee, was the only subject of interest, except the
important question of how the president should be elected. It
was proposed by some that the assembly itself should elect a
president, a proposition which was eventually negatived by a
large majority.
{1375}
The real object was to exclude Louis Napoleon, whose great
name gave him every chance of success, if an appeal were made
to the universal suffrage of the nation, which the republicans
distrusted. Another amendment was moved to exclude all
pretenders to the throne; on which, allusion being made to
Louis Napoleon, he mounted the rostrum, and denied that he was
a pretender. ... The red republicans were desirous of having
no president, and that the constituent assembly itself should
name the ministers. It was not the only constitutional point
in dispute: for weeks and months, the debate on the
constitution dragged its weary length along; amendments were
discussed, and the work when turned out was, as might have
been expected, a botch after all. ... It was eventually
agreed, that to give validity to the election of a president
it should be necessary that he should have more than a half of
all the votes given; that is to say, more votes than all the
other candidates put together; if not, the assembly was to
choose between the highest candidate on the list and his
competitors, by which means they hoped to be able to get rid
of Bonaparte. ... The constitution was proclaimed on the 10th
of November. ... The legitimist and Orleanist parties refused
to start a candidate for fear of weakening Bonaparte, and thus
throwing the choice into the hands of the assembly, who would
choose General Cavaignac. Both these parties gave the former
at least a negative support; and as M. Thiers declared that
nine-tenths of the country were opposed to the General as too
revolutionary, it was clear that in the country itself
reaction was going on faster than in the assembly. ... Louis
Napoleon's chief support was from the inhabitants of the
country districts, the peasantry. ... On the 10th of December,
5,534,520 votes were recorded for Louis Napoleon. General
Cavaignac had 1,448,302. Then came Ledru Rollin; then Raspail.
Lamartine got 17,914; 23,219 were disallowed, as being given
for some of the banished royal family. The total number of
voters was 7,449,471."
_E. S. Cayley,
The European Revolution of 1848,
volume 1, chapters 4-5._
ALSO IN:
_J. F. Corkran,
History of the Constituent
National Assembly from May, 1848._
_Marquis of Normanby,
A Year of Revolution,
chapters 13-15(volume 2)._
_H. C. Lockwood,
Constitutional History of France,
chapter 5, and appendix 8._
FRANCE: A. D. 1849.
Intervention at Rome, to crush the revolutionary republic and
restore the Pope.
French capture and occupation of the city.
See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.
FRANCE: A. D. 1849-1850.
Disagreement with England in Greece.
The Don Pacifico affair.
See GREECE: A. D.1846-1850.
FRANCE: A. D.1851.
The plot of the Coup d'État.