The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 1, 1858.

made to weaken the influence of those by whom they
thought their cause was more especially represented.

Many will not hold Lord Normanby as cen-
surable for his insinuations on the point at
issue, when M. Louis Blanc bears his testi-
mony to the fact that at the time there were
suspicions about conduct "viewed in the light
of a manoeuvre;' dread of " underhand at-
tempts." Lord Normanby's journal, it is fair to
state, recorded only the feelings of the day. As
a specimen of the severity of tone which M.
Louis Blanc employs towards Lurd Normanby
we cite the following passage :

As to the spirit that breathes in every page of his book,
I will not stop to bring it under discussion. I leave to
those more closely acquainted than I am with diplomatic
usages and etiquette, to decide whether it be fit fur an
ambassador to speak in the following refined terms of a
fweign Government, whose members entertained with his
country through hie own medium the must amicable rela•
tions :

"It appears to be as easy to filch a share of a soi•disant
populdx dictatorship as to forge anacceptauce, or to pick a
pocket."

This is simply an insult levelled at the French nation,
and I trust every well-educated and true Englishman will
be ashamed to read any such lines in a book published by
an ambassador of England.
Moreover, in my humble opinion, to be appointed am-
bassador by a Prime Minister, owing to high family con-
nections, or, perhaps, to mere official intimacies, is some-
thing more easy than to become member of a Provisional
Government, by attracting the eyes and winning the
patriotic affection of about two hundred thousand men as
clever and keen as the Parisians are known to be. At all
events, the fact of coming forward in stormy hours, at the
peril of one's life, and with a certainty to have deadly
enmities to encounter, for no other purpose than to save a
great nation, both from the grasp of despotism and the
flood of anarchy, can hardly arise out of a low, vulgar
ambition; and a man is really to be pitied who was not
able to find iu his own heart a motive, if not for sympa-
thising with such as acted so, at least for doing them
justice. I will not insist. Nor do I feel inclined to retort
upon Lord Normanby the insulting expressions with
which he has thought proper to adorn his style. Being
neither a nobleman nor a diplomatist, I am sensible that
it is no privilege of mine to use language unbecoming a
gentleman.

Lord Normanby, of course, must encounter
the full responsibility of having printed in
1858 the impressions of 1848.
The opening page of this work is strikingly
singular, coming from so extreme a democrat
as M. Louis ,Blanc. He writes of Louis Phi-
lippe :

Louis Philippe was a prince gifted with many good
qualities. His domestic virtues were such as to command
respect. He was by no means wanting in enlightened
perceptions. Both from a disposition naturally merciful,
and from a philosophical notion of the value of human
life, he was so averse to shedding blood, that his Ministers
were sure to meet with an almost desperate resistance on
his part, whenever they asked him to affix his signature
to a sentence of death. Upon the whole, he was a man
of remarkably sober character. Nor did Liberty, under
his reign, receive any mortal wound. In times of foreign
and internal difficulties, he succeeded in warding off im-
minent dangers, and the middle classes were indebted to
him for the repose they so dearly prized.
And he thus continues :

Still, when the hour of his doom struck, no wish was
expressed for his crown's preservation ; no helping band
was held out to bun ; the moneyed classes kept aloof; the
soldiers either refused to fight or fought reluctantly ; for
the first time, the shopkeepers seemed to have forgotten
that revolutions are bad for trade ; the most active part of
the National Guard actually countenanced the insurrec-
tion ; the old King. looking around him, and seeing
nothing but a dreary wilitade, became disheartened, and
a Government which had lasted no less than seventeen
years was overthrown by a touch.
How i• such a phenomenon to be accounted for? In
my " History of Ten Years," the reader will find the
causes explained and the result foretold. Of these causes,
the most effective lay in Louis Philippe's utter inability
to comprehend all that there was of chivalrous and
elevated in the genius of France. To the meaner
principles of action he applied for support. Bribery was
his principal engine of government. He fostered the
blind fears of the bourgeoisie, and took pleasure in nursing
selfishness.

Some persons have affected to discover a kind
of parallel between the political policies of
Louis Philippe and the late Sir R. Peel, but
the comparison is too far-fetched. Neither,
however, believed in the power of principle.
They almost deified the force of circumstances,
and they did not appreciate the nature of poli-
tical passion acting upon masses of men. On
one point they both held the same opinion,
viz , that the safety of modern States consists
in keeping the middle classes prosperous, and
so that end was achieved they were nut vPry
scrupulous of the means; but they omitted
from their views the disturbing forces of poli-
tical ambition, and they also forgot that, in

415

this sublunary state, social prosperity can
never be long counted upon.
A great part of the literary vogue obtained
by this author's celebrated " History of Ten
Years " arose from the mass of small and
curious anecdotes of the times which he neatly
put together so as to produce striking descrip-
tive effects, and to suggest political induc-
tions. He carried this love for detail so far
us to lose his sense of the relative importance
of certain facts. We can cite au instance
fro►n this volume. He says :

When I left school, I was scarcely of an age to look fur
employment. Still I found tnyvelf obliged to do so, on
account of family circumstances which admitted of no
delay. Among the friends of my family was a man of
great merit, wno had been vice•ptes ident of the Legisla-
tive Body during the Cent Apure, in which capacity hip
uttered, when the intelligence of the defeat of Waterloo
reached the Assembly, these memorable words: "Ds
calme! Mes.ieurs, apris la bataille de Cannes, Pagitation
etait dana Rome et is tranquillite dans le Senat." The
gentleman I allude to was M. Flaugergues. He had not
much influence at that period, owing to his liberal views
and independent character; but I knew he was acquainted
with M. le duc Decazes, then grand referendary of the
House of Peers, and I applied to him. Of what took
place, I have preserved a vivid recollecticn. One fine
morning, M. Flaugergues took me to the palace of the
Luxembourg, where we were ushered into the duke's
bedroom. He was sitting up in bed, and reading the Con-
slit utionnel. AI. Flaagergues, after the usual forinalitiesoi
introduction, requested him to exercise his influence on
my behalf. AL Decazes turned round to me, and, tapping
my cheek with his hand, in a lofty patronizing way, said,
" We'll see what can be done for the lad." We parted,
nor did we meet again. Well, strange to say, on the First
of March, 1848, it was the lot of this lad to sleep in that
very bed on which, many years ago, he had seen the duke
sitting, and which the duke had just been obliged to vacate
for his use.

The transition thus described seems very
great to M. Louis Blanc, but any reader, even
moderately acquainted with the astounding
vicissitudes of modern French society, cannot
see any startling contrast in such a change.
On the political and personal pretensions
of M. Ledru Rollin, there is great difference
of sentiment amongst observers of French
politics. Lord Normanby wrote of him as
follows (the italics are M. Louis Blanc's) :
Leib-a Rollin is a man of no great capacity, and not
undoubted moral courage. but a regular mob orator, of
ruined fortune, who is desirous, as long as he can, to main-
tain his present power, and quite bold enough to attempt
anything, provided he feels himself backed by a multitude.
To which M. Louis Blanc replies :
If, before hazarding these odious insinuations, his lord-
ship had taken the trouble to make himself mastmr of the
facts, as the simplest notions of justice prescribed to him ,
he would have known that, far from being a man of ruined
fortune, M. Ledru Rollin was rich when the Revolution
broke out, that he had nothing to gain from it in a purely
personal point of view, bat, on the contrary, had every-
thing to luse; an•l that any idea of the derangement which
so violent a political crisis might bring down upon his
affairs, never induced him to hesitate a single instant.
Lord Normanoy is • romance writer; but I submit to him
that the evidence, or the want of evidence, which is suffi—
cient for a novel, is not sufficient for an historical work.
Lord Normanby wrote again :

M. Ledru Rollin said to the majority of Government,
"Do you know that your popularity is nothing, compared
to mine? I have but to open that window, and call upon
the people, and you would every one of you be tnrned into
the street. Do you wish me to try?" rising and moving
towards the window beneath which there were assembled
crowds. 31. Gamier Pages, who is a man of great nerve,
walked up to him, drew a pistol from his pocket, placed it
at Ledru Rollin's breast, and said, " If you make one step
towards tie window, it shall be your last !" Ledru Rollin
looked daggers, paused a moment, and sat down again.
And the statement is traversed thus by M.
Louis Blanc
Great must have been the astonishment of M. Gamier
Pages. and of 3f. Ledru Rollin, the first time these lines
met their eyes, if so be they have done his lordship's book
the honour of reading it. For myself, having attended the
meetings of the Council, while the Provisional Govern-
ment lasted, with the greatest punctuality, I declare, not
only that I never witnessed anything like it, but that
neither then nor since have I ever heard a whisper of any•
thing like it having happened; and I can assure Lord Nur-
manby that the members of the Provisional Government,
even when their disputes ran highest, never failed in that
mutual respect which is usual among gentlemen. As to
representing us as bravoes, going to the Council with
pistols in our pockets, ready to blow out each other's brains,
this is simply ridiculous ; and Lord Nortmanby, in accept-
ing such tittle-tattle, has not perceived, which is rather
awkward for a diplomatist, that some one or other has
made a dupa of him.

Here we hive assertion against assertion.
The Fnglish Ambassador at Paris wrote his
diary in an oilthand, easy manner, and put
down the general impressions left on his mind
from all that he was told. Of course, any one
could understand that several misstatements