The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-14 00:00:00

SECOND ACCUSATION.

I have conspired with Communism ; I have in-
toxicated the people with illusions by promising them
the organization of labour.
The very day after the Red Banner was rejected,
the Socialist workmen presented themselves in a
body at the Hotel de Ville, accusing the Government
Of having falsely guaranteed a complete social revo-
lution, and calling upon us in an imperative manner
to sign a proclamation, assuring the people of the
Ultimate organization of labour. They required us
to pronounce this ,‘ phrase," and their demand was
enforced by the terror of their armed hands. They
had doffed neither the crimson caps nor the blood-
coloured coats with which they evidenced their
devotion to the red banner. Their requisition
was peremptorily refused by the members of
the Government. The insurgents insisted upon
our compliance ; they even went so far as to utter
menaces. Then it was that I advanced in my turn
and commenced my reply to this summons in these
Nvorda—Behold, they are in the illoniteur :—" Citi-
lens! if you were to place me at the mouth of twenty
Pieces of cannon, you could never induce me to sub-
scribe to those two expressions when united together,
Organization of Labour ! and I am going to tell you
Wherefore. Firstly, it is because I believe myself to
he neither gifted with more nor less intelligence than
other men of my time and country, because I have
Passed fifteen years of my life in studying this ques-
tion of the organization of labour, as you call
Its and because I have found it utterly impos-
sible to reduce it to my comprehension. I will
'lever subscribe my name to that which I
(1° not understand. Secondly, it is because lam an
honest man, and do not wish to make any engage-
Merits to the people which I shall never be able to
fulfil. As to the inherent right of labour to fraternal
assistance, on such conditions as can in no measure
ibterfere with the freedom of industry, the only

BYstena of labour which can effectually lead to the
nourishment of many millions of men ; as to those
aeries of fraternal institutions which the Republic
°ught to organize in succession for the purpose of
elevating the condition of the artizans both in their
l'elation to posperity, to property, and to instruction
.."1 will subscribe my name to those assurances with

Profound pleasure, because they are among the
Promises which I myself spontaneously enunciated
before tii.,re was Lny attempt at a revolution."
Was that, I ask you, the language of a political
dreamer, of a dreamer who yielded to circumstances
by adjourning, and consequently by increasing, the
difficulty ?
On the sixth day (after the explosion of February)
a thought struck me, and the same inspiration de-
leended at the same time from Heaven into the souls

my colleagues. "Let us give a brilliant denial to
those who always wish to soil with blood the prin-
ciples of Republicanism; let us confound the fury
some, the panic of others ; let us break in twain
the weapons of reaction; let us abolish the scaffold;
tet us suppress for ever the punishment of Death !"
Never shall I forget the moment in which this
Proposition emanated from the hearts of all, and

Ras
voted by the enthusiasm of all, when we fell
into the arms of one another, and gave each other
the ki.s of life ! We had in that moment a sublime

Presentiment of the blood which we saved to huma-
nity, and of the crimes which we spared to the Re-

Public. I at once wrote out this proclamation and
read it to the people. And that people made the
edict their own by adopting it with their acclamations
and signing it with their tears.
AN as this, again I ask you, a concession to the
executioner, or a concession to God ?
On ' the following day another presentiment
caused_ me to propose to the Council the organi-
zation of twenty-four battalions of that Garde
mobile composed of the youth of Paris, snatched
from insurrection, and given to the law, to disci-
Pline, and to the country. On the 23d of June
this Garde Mobile saved Paris—it was the salvation
of Prance. And was this, I ask of you, an evidence
01 a want of prudence and foresight ?
Those beautiful and terrible days being passed,
the same subterranean faction which had raised aloft
the red flag renewed, under other pretexts, its attempts
at the usurpation and degredation of the Republic. On
the lath of March, the old National Guard had made
a very inopportune demonstration for the purpose of
Protesting against the suppression of certain insignia
In its uniform. On the same day the Provisional
Government had adopted a proclamation addressed by
myself to the French people. This proclamation had
for its object to specify the true principles of the Re-
Public, and to re-assure those who might have been
alarmed by that ill-considered language, the direct
meaning of which was disavowed by the hearts of us
411* I said in this proclamation—" that it did not
require either an eve or a morrow to indicate the
date of unanimous Republicanism; that the
614 parties passed through the experiences of
ti century in the lapse of three days;
that there was no necessity for the electors to have
)31 ade a deliberate acceptance of party, but rather to
have so acted towards light and patriotism; that, in
fine,
it by no means constituted a crime not to have
been a Republican before the establishment of the
:14ePublie." The entire Government associated itself
In putting its signature to these principles. On the
very day after this occurrence, about a hundred
thousand men, evidently obeying the word of com-
Thand uttered by the representatives of the ex-
treme factions, and acting in subservience to an
Occult organization, of the origin of which
they themselves had no certain knowledge, came
and surrounded the Hotel de Ville. Calm
at first,' this manifestation soon began to reveal its
hostility. The most daring of the chiefs of the differ-
ent clubs penetrated into the halls in which we were
deliberating. They summoned us in the name of the
!)enPle, of whom they called themselves the organs,
out by whom they were in reality disavowed,
to adjourn the period fixed for the elections,
t° prolong the dictatorship, to postpone the epoch
of the inauguration of the National Assembly,
to decree, without any reservation, a series of
Measures, such as would assure them of the
Continued domination of Paris. My colleagues
and myself, without one exception, replied to their
demand by a formal refusal to deliberate
under menaces. Thereupon the clubs, disconcerted
by this resistance, and by the cries of the people in
favour of the Provisional (13vernment, retired. Read
the language spoken by us all, for all of us spoke
with intrepidity, and say if there are there any evi-
dences in that language of shameful concessions to
numbers, and to the intimidation of the multitude ?
It was in the same week that the first temptation
Was held out by the Polish democrats. Abusing the
ienerous devotion of France for a cause which
Prance has always cherished in her heart, some
amongst these enthusiasts had determined to force
upon the Provisional Government the hour destined
for the liberation of Poland instead of the
hour destined for the liberation of France, and to
transform the favour of the public into a
sort of right to sedition. They came at night
to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. " If to-morrow
Morning," one of these orators said to me, " if to-
morrow morning the Government has not proclaimed
'war for the re-establishment of Poland, to-morrow at
two o'clock we will overthrow the Government by
attacking it at the head of sixteen thousand work-
Men, whom we have assembled for the purpose, and
whom we will direct upon the Hotel de rifle." " If
prance," said 1 to them in reply, if France were to
allow her Government to be subverted by an insur-
rection of foreigners to whom she has given hospitality
but not empire, it were necessary that France should
descend in degradation below even those nations who
are without a country !" The sensible and moderate
men of that noble country, reanimated by these words,
disavowed the person who had spoken. They came on
the morrow without any seditious procession. I ad-
dressed them then in the same terms in which I had ad-

dressed them already•—proclaiming our sympathy for
their cause, without (in obedience to their rash and
insensate wishes) lighting that torch which would
have inevitably resulted in the incendiarisrn of Europe
Was that, I ask you, a concession to the aspirants for
universal war ?

Besides these, there were some men from Ireland.
They came, in the name of the principles of demo
cracy, to ask of me encouragement and arms for the
carrying out of civil war. I said to them that the
brand of civil war, thrown from amongst us, among our
neighbours, should never be a weapon employed by
the administrators of the Republic. I recalled to
their recollection those supplies of arms and of money
by which the Britannic Government had promoted
the heroic but disastrous war in La Vendee, a species
of intervention which France would never imitate.
Was that, I ask you again, a concession to civil war?
It is said, however :—The concession was evidenced
in those attempts at armed propagandism, which you
consolidated, which you authorised, and which pos-
sibly you yourself directed against Belgium,
against Germany, and against Savoy, at the very
time in which you addressed the language of peace
to their respective Governments.
Citizens ! I reply to that accusation so characte-
rised by the distinctive marks of duplicity, through
the correspondence which was kept up with such
activity with the Commissaries of the Government
upon the frontiers ; I reply to it through the decrees
and the proclamations issued by the Provisional Go-
vernment; through the fact of the dispersion of those
assemblies wherever we happened to have sufficient
force to enable us to achieve their dissolution ;
through the cordial tokens of good fellowship
afforded to Germany, to Piedmont, and to
Belgium ; through the offer made directly to
the Sardinian Ambassador to dispatch ourselves a
corps of soldiers to Chanabery, in order ourselves to
prevent there, by an armed hand, an invasion pro-
moted by the refugees and by the agitators of Lyons.
I reply, moreover, through a medium still more
powerful, and one whose veracity you can under no
circumstances call in question—l reply through the
testimony of interested nations. Yes ! I appeal to all
those Republics, to all those courts, to all those
ministers, to all those ambassadors, to all those dif-
ferent nations whom I am accused of having
pretended to re-assure, while I only secretly deceived.
If one amongst them can charge the Minister of Fo-
reign Affairs with complicity, or even with negli-
gence in the repression of these endeavours ; if there
is one amongst them who does not attest the frankness
and the vigour of the foreign policy of the Provi-
sional Government, I declare myself to be convicted
of felony. The tribunes of Berlin, of Frankfort, of
London, and of America have already responded.
Hear how they speak of the diplomatic atti-
tude which we have maintained since February !
Would you wish to render a Minister of Foreign
Affairs and an entire Government—a Minister and a
Government who are alike actuated by sincerity and
patriotism would you wish to render this
Minister and this Government responsible for the
conspiracies of those Belgian Clubs and of those Clubs
of French auxiliaries, s hich they have never, in any
one instance, ceased from combatting and repressing?
This policy, loyal and firm, Republican and pacific,
I, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, was especially
charged with, for the purpose of causing its accept-
ance at once by France and by Europe. I had to
consult, if it was possible, the safety of France, the
dignity of her acts and the preservation of that peace
which was particularly requisite for a Republic
almost wholly disarmed, but which was above all
necessary for a Republic economical of human blood.
(To be continued.)