The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-15
KNOX AND PR0UDHON ON THE FRENCH
NATION


From the Pau kaH Gazette.
Some little time ago our pages contained
review of the life of the late Professor Robert
KneK, the anatomist. Though aggressive and
dognatic in his opinions, be was q bold,
original, and often sagacious thinker; and
some of hi = reflections and predictions on the
nature aDf lestiny of the Celtic race, and of
the Gallo Oelt in particular, are of interest
at the present moment, Writing about 1850,
he says:--
In my first lecture delivered Eve years ago, said
that the Celtic race does not and never could be
made to comprehend the meaning of the word
Tecent events bt was deduced from nast bstorT ~
the historic Of 92, OF 15 OF 32add now the events
OF 4s and 4s, ana say have erred In the estimate
supreme power has returned into the hands OF the
Celtic men OF France Never was the destruction Of
a. dynasty S, more complete what use have they made
dynasties, monarehies. and governments; ;
but this latter seems TO be the only suitable for
the Celtic man.
Again
Celtic liberty is now well comprehended by all
Europe. The world thought Celtic France great
and free people, but the world was wrong II they
did, for the world forgot the element Of race In its
calculation on the probable destnies OF the French
shown them thst race u being COMPOSED Of ndv
duals resembling each other must even In Its great
est efforts merely shadow forth the character Of the
Individual. When the French Celt drove out the
1nsupportable and paltry Orleans dynasty, they
were merely Sighting clan without chief:
without a leader2 That leader had not then
and has not yet appeared. The Celtic race
has had in its own hands, more than any other, its
own destinies. Chance placed at their head the
greatest OF men that ever appeared on earth. Him
they sold and betrayed. Still their poweris terrible
and quite an overmatch for any other single race.
Nothing could prevent them again marching to
Moscow and st. Petersburg were the contest to be
merely between the TIVE races. BY such q contest
mankind would be greatly benefited. Paris
is fortified, and were the territory again polluted by
more hoisted, sure to be pushed forward to Berlin
and Vienna--to-morTow st. Petersburg. To
There There burst burst forth that mighty Revolution which
shook the world, whose effects must
for sS and g
the land question on right footing? Not in the
least. He created merely another class OF landed
proprietors. He abolished the law Of primo
genture it is true but he had the soul to rise up
to the principle Of abstract justice. 1t ia not that
you are deficient In courage. No braver race exists
On the earth, but you have no industry, no self
esteem, confidence in your individual exertions.
Again, speaking of their former history, he
says
They sacked Rome, burst into Greece, and plum
Dloodshed and Violence in which the race delights,
was their object. From Brennus to Napoleon the
Rhine ~ This game, whScI stu engages their schole
attention, has now been played for nearly 1000 years.
do not blame them pretend not to censure any
rsce. merely state facts either quite obvious or
borne out by history.
The italics are our own; but it must be ad-
mitted that to the Professor it has been given
to frapper jatste, and that these predictions
have been singularly felicitous in their
results.
Again: Proudhon, whose intuition into the
passionate weakness sometimes betrayed in
the French nature was kind of instinct, ut
tered in 1S48 some remarkable words which
call them prophecy, inspiration, fore
boding, warning, what we will-are at this
very moment being carried out and accom-
plished to the letter. The extracts to which
we refer have been noticed by one of our
contemporaries, but as they may not have
met the eye of our readers we subjoin them
Let the first acts of the National Assembly but
disclose reactionary Intentions; let only one rash
vote infiame the anger OF the people; let the na-
tonal representation be violated, and. then under
the pressure Of another dictatorship, let the move
ment be suddenly stined-and France will be like
hive surrounded with flames, in which the choking,
burning bees sting each other to death. Then, when
the Government shall have exhausted all its re-
sources; when the nation shall have eaten up its
savings: when production and commerce are at an
end; when starving: Paris blocSaded by the depart
ments sending nothing out and no longer able
to pay, shall be deprived OF all country produce
when the workmen, demoralized by idleness and
the politics Of the clubs shall turn soldiers for the
sake of their pay and rations; when million OF
prOetaires (he ignorant poor, and dlsorderly, the
against property when the State shall 'requsition"
plate and jewelry to send them to the mint; when
d0miClary seizure snail the only IOue OF COlleCJ-
ing the taxes; when the peasants for want of money
shall pay their taxes in kind when famshed bands
scour the country and organize pillage; when the
peasant shall have to take up a gun to watch his
crops; when the workmen, driven by hunger,
shall all have given up their bodies
when prostitution, grief, and want shall have ma de
them mad; when bands of women, following troops
of National Guards, will celebrate the fees OF the
republic by horrible orgies: when the first stack OF
wheat has been plundered, the first church pro-
famed, the first torch lighted, the first woman out
ragged; when the first blood shall have been shed
when the first head shall have fallen; when the abo.
mination OF desolation shall have spread all over
France-then you will understand what is implied
by revolution brought about by avocats, accom-
pshed by artists [or perhaps, to give the real sgn
hcation OF the phrase by gems de Bohenlel and con-
Quoted by writers and poets.
The comparison of the hive of bees sur
rounded by flames and stinging each other to
death is fearfully appropriate, and no doubt
the dread of reactionary intentions gave the
first impulse to the Communists. If one
Government is at the point of exhaustion the
other is not far from it, besides being loaded
with frightful debt. Production and com
merce are dead; Paris is literally blockaded
by the departments; the Conciergerie is full
of priests; most of the churches are closed
the first murders have been committed on the
two generals weeks ago; and adventurers
dreamers, and Journalists rise to power like
bubbles, command like despots, and fall in
rapid succession.