The Second Republic

THE SECOND REPUBLIC On this occasion, and in contrast to the July Days of 183o, the bourgeoisie were taken by surprise and, for want of time, failed to outmanoeuvre the revolution. Hence they were compelled to accept a "democratic and social" republic of a distinctly red char acter. Thus, along with a great enthusiasm, there were signs of a panic inspired by fear of the socialism which, under the July monarchy, had developed with the growth of industry and of the working class population.

Included in the provisional government installed in the Hotel de Ville, and not, as in 183o, in the Palais Bourbon, were moder ates like Lamartine, and advanced republicans like Ledru-Rollin, a socialist theorist, Louis Blanc, and a worker named Albert. What was to be their policy? The Socialists, declaring that 6o years of political change had not improved the condition of the people, demanded the reform of society itself and the abolition of the privilege of property, the sole obstacle to equality, and unfurled the red flag. The remaining parties wished to maintain society on its former foundation and rallied around the tricolour. Under the pressure of the Parisian clubs the provisional govern ment was forced to enact universal direct suffrage, to open the national guard, till then reserved to the middle classes, to all, and to guarantee work for all its citizens by creating national work shops (q.v.) and by setting up the Luxembourg commission to enquire into social reforms (see BLANC, J. J. Louis).

The Constituent Assembly.

The Constituent Assembly was elected on May 4, 1848. By paradox, universal suffrage had re sulted in the election of a majority of moderate republicans and these entrusted the Government to an executive commission from which the Socialists were excluded. From this instant, the attrac tion disappeared from this bloodless revolution which was to abolish poverty by the organization of labour, and which had at once awakened the fraternal solidarity of the people. On May the democrats under the leadership of Raspail, Blanqui and Barbes, attempted to overthrow the Government by an insurrec tion. This error brought together the Republicans and the Right. The republic became unpopular both with the peasants, who were irritated by the new land tax of 45 centimes, and the middle classes, who were terrorized by the omnipotent clubs and ruined by the general stagnation of trade. Would the republic retain the support of even the workers? Since the decree of Feb. 24 had pro claimed the right of every man to work, the provisional Govern ment had established national workshops; they were organized by Marie to prove the falsity of the theories of labour organiza tion of his colleague, Louis Blanc. Their sudden closure by the Assembly on June 21 caused the insurrection desired by the Legit imists under Falloux, and the Bonapartists led by Louis Napoleon who had just been elected a deputy. For the first time since 1789, the insurrection was confronted with a strong Government ready to defend itself. During June 24-26 the working-class east of Paris, under Pujol, fought with fury against those of the west, under the republican dictatorship of Cavaignac. Defeated, deci mated by executions, and later by deportations, the Socialist party was crushed. Fear of the "Reds," of the "partageux," opened the way to the Second Empire.

The road was swiftly traversed. In the new constitution of Nov. 4, the legislative power was given to a single assembly chosen by means of the scrutin de liste and the executive power to a president chosen by the people for four years and not eligible for re-election. Through inexperience, by omitting to declare the members of former ruling dynasties ineligible, despite the objec tions of Grevy, the assembly made the presidency an office dependent on popular enthusiasm.

The Presidency of Louis Napoleon.

The plebiscite was held on Dec. i o. A lively electoral battle was fought between Cavaignac, Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin and Prince Bonaparte. The name of Napoleon, with its halo of glory, won the election with more than 5,000,000 votes. Unknown in 1835, forgotten after Strasbourg, laughed at after Boulogne, Louis Napoleon had in eight years profited more by the state of feeling aroused by the July Government, which had stupidly awakened memories of the Empire, than by his own manifestoes that were conservative in spirit, but democratic in style. The monarchists, with Thiers and Montalembert, whose reactionary policy now passed beyond the saving dictatorship of the incorruptible Cavaignac, rallied round Louis Napoleon who had promised them freedom of education. Moreover, the peasants—ever friends of order—and even many of the working men themselves, had voted for the "nephew of the great Emperor." The ensuing three years were occupied with an indecisive battle between a legislative assembly that was not homogeneous, though elected on an anti-republican ticket and favouring the party of order, and the prince-president, who was timid and taciturn, but who was awaiting his time. At first he chose his ministers from among the moderate republicans, and to strengthen his own posi tion gave pledges to the reactionary party without allying himself to any of them. He gratified Catholic opinion by an expedition to Rome, designed to re-establish the pope who had been expelled by Garibaldi and Mazzini, and to commence that work of European reconstruction that he was already beginning to consider his mission. When, however, General Oudinot changed the character of the expedition, whose especial purpose was to prevent Austrian intervention, and attacked the Roman republic, the republicans of the Mountain, in answer to the summons of Ledru-Rollin, rose in revolt and were defeated (June 13, 1849).

The disappearance of the republican leaders assisted the Cath olic and monarchical majority. It already had "the republic with out the republicans." It only remained for Louis Napoleon to lay his hand upon the system of education—that medium for dissemi nation of socialist ideas—and then to restore the monarchy. The prince-president pretended to share in the fears aroused in the majority in consequence of the supplemental elections of March and April 1850, which had resulted in an unexpected victory for the advanced republicans.

The Falloux law of March 15, 185o, under guise of establishing liberty of education, in reality handed it over to the Catholics. For half a century the Church was destined to destroy the work of intellectual emancipation achieved by the 18th century and the Revolution. The majority next attacked universal suffrage. The Electoral law of May 31, in requiring of every voter a domiciliary qualification of three years, deprived of its vote the working class population, which was forced by its occupation to be migratory. The Press law of July 16, by re-establishing the "caution money" deposited by editors as a guarantee of good behaviour, aggravated the severity of the press laws.

After the Socialists, it was the turn of the republicans to be crushed. But the President only lent his aid to this campaign in the hope of obtaining the peaceable revision of the constitution. The monarchists, for their part, had only accepted his presidency as a stage in the return to monarchy. A conflict was inevitable. Louis Napoleon cleverly exploited their projects for a restoration which he knew to be unpopular with the country. He travelled through France discreetly posing the question of a revision of the constitution in speeches the tone of which varied according to the district in which he was speaking; he flattered and ingratiated him self with the army, while dismissing Changarnier, the general se lected for a monarchical coup d'etat. Finally he substituted for his Orleanist ministers unknown men who were devoted to him personally: Morny, Persigny, Fleury. It had now come to open warfare. In reply to the defiant motions of the assembly he at once scared the bourgeoisie by denouncing the existence of a vast communistic plot, and attacked the electoral law to win over the mass of the people. The assembly retorted by refusing either to abrogate the article of the constitution which forbade the re election of the president or to restore universal suffrage. All hopes of a peaceful issue to the quarrel disappeared. The Mountain, fearing a monarchical restoration, refused to the quaestors of the Chamber the right of calling on the troops and thus disarmed the legislative power. Louis Napoleon took advantage of this during the night of Dec. 2, 1851; he dissolved the assembly, re-estab lished universal suffrage, caused the party leaders to be arrested and had his powers prolonged for ten years by another assembly. The army dispersed the republican minority in Paris and the provinces, and the plebiscite of Dec. 20 sanctioned the coup d'etat by an enormous majority. The Second Empire was established.