74

FAILURE OF ATELIERS NATIONAUX.

1848

government, of whom Socialists formed a large proportion, the finances of France were rapidly falling into a condition which made bankruptcy imminent. Forty-five per cent. had been added to the direct taxes, loans had been raised, and extraordinary credits opened to enormous amounts. Still the deficit continued to grow, and the drain created by the Ateliers Nationaux showed no signs of abating. The burden had become intolerable, and when the Assembly met in May, the large proportion of moderate and experienced men who had been returned, showed that the people of France were bent on throwing off the tyranny of unpractical theorists, which was rapidly hurrying France to destruction. What the Ateliers Nationaux had done for the workmen themselves Victor Hugo declared in very emphatic language on the 10th of June in the Assembly, to which he had been returned as a member. Starting with the admission that they were necessary when first established-a concession which it might have been hard to justify-he proceeded: 'It is now high time to remedy an evil of which the least inconvenience is to squander uselessly the resources of the Republic. What have they produced in the course of four months? Nothing. They have deprived the hardy sons of toil of employment, given them a distaste for labour, and demoralised them to such a degree that they are no longer ashamed to beg on the streets. The Monarchy has its idlers, the Republic has its vagabonds. God forbid that the

enemies of the country should succeed in converting the Parisian workmen, formerly so virtuous, into lazzaroni or Prætorians!'

But the mischief was done. The men were demoralised, and they were in no mind to forego the advantages to which their leaders had told them they were entitled as of right. Force alone, it had now become plain, must decide whether rational principles of government were to be restored, or

1848

LETTER OF THE PRINCE.

75

France was to be delivered, no one might say how soon, to the tender mercies of a Red Republic.

Such was the posture of affairs in Europe when the Prince wrote to his stepmother the following letter, which, brief as it is, is most suggestive of the days and nights of anxiety which the crowded events of every day brought into the palace:

'I must tear myself for a moment from the whirl of business, of emotions, fatigues, &c., to thank you for a long, dear letter. I never remember to have been kept in the stocks to the same extent as I am just now. The mere reading of the English, French and German papers absorbs nearly all the spare hours of the day; and yet one can let nothing pass without losing the connection and coming in consequence to wrong conclusions.

'The welfare of Germany manifestly lies at this moment in the hands of Dr. Cucumus, Dr. Eisenstück, Messieurs Schlüssel and Grüneisen, Dr. Sonnenkalb, Professor Viehoff, and other equally trust-inspiring names in Frankfort. Berlin seems to be in a pitiable condition, and Vienna in utter chaos. At the outset there was a noble impulse in the German movement, but it has developed into an odious sickness, which will wear out the German body, unless speedy remedies be applied.

'In Italy much blood is being shed; the Austrians let themselves be beaten as they always do, and when the war is at an end, then the internal disruption will begin.

'France is on the eve of bankruptcy, and of a Parisian

massacre.

'Belgium and England stand up to the present time unshaken, and furnish useful standards of what constitutes real freedom. Yet even here we have to deal with a mass of artisans suffering hunger and privation through the complete

76

CHARTIST DISTURBANCES.

1848

stagnation of trade. There have been conflicts every night last week between Chartists and the police. The latter, thank God! have kept the upper hand without putting the military in requisition; still, one night, they had to break with their truncheons the heads of between three and four hundred people.

'We go to Osborne for a week, as on account of the deep mourning we can be of no use to society. Yesterday I attended the funeral of poor Princess Sophia.3

"The children are all well, and little Louise thrives visibly.

'Buckingham Palace, 7th June, 1848.'

Untaught by what had already occurred, the Chartists continued to make themselves obnoxious by disturbing the peace of the metropolis by mob meetings, and by hatching miserable conspiracies in secret, of all which the Government was kept well informed. On the 3rd and 4th of May they had given the police considerable trouble, and the nuisance created by their proceedings had become so intolerable, that the public heard with satisfaction, two days afterwards, that five of the most conspicuous Chartist leaders, Ernest Jones, Fussell, Williams, Sharpe, and Vernon, had been arrested on a charge of sedition, and committed for trial.' On this a great Chartist demonstration in the metropolis was announced for the 12th, but the measures taken by the Government to suppress it were so complete, that the courage of its projectors failed them, and the menaced display ended, to use the words of next day's Times, not in smoke, but in ruin. There is absolutely nothing to record,' the writer went

6

Youngest daughter of George III. She died at Kensington Palace, aged 71, on the 27th of May.

They were tried at the Old Bailey early in July, convicted, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment for sedition, with shorter terms for unlawful assembling, besides being bound in securities to keep the peace for five years.

1848

CRISIS IN PARIS.

77

on to say, 'nothing except the blankest expectation, the most miserable gaping, gossiping, and grumbling of disappointed listeners, the standing about, the roaming to and fro, the dispersing, and the sneaking home of poor simpletons who had wandered forth in the hope of some miraculous crisis in their affairs.'

6

It was impossible not to contrast this peaceable conclusion to designs, which, but for the energetic action of the Government, might have resulted in a great public calamity, with the terrible scenes which were enacted a few days afterwards in the streets of Paris. On the 22nd of June the Provisional Government there found itself face to face with the population, whom they had been feeding for months, demanding, in arms, an organisation of labour which should secure to them in permanence the privileges promised to them in the early days of the revolution. By the 23rd the whole north and east of Paris was covered with barricades, some of them of enormous strength. Do not deceive yourselves,' said M. Lamartine, addressing the other members of the Provisional Government: we do not advance to a strife with an émeute, but to a pitched battle with a confederacy of great factions. If the Republic, and with it society, is to be saved, it must have arms in its hands during the first years of its existence, and its forces should be disposed not only here, but over the whole surface of the empire, as for great wars which embrace not only the quarters of Paris, but the provinces.' To this pass had things been brought by the theories of MM. Proudhon, Blanc, Ledru Rollin, and others of their creed.

The events that followed furnish a terrible commentary on M. Lamartine's words. Three days of desperate streetfighting deluged the capital with blood, and desecrated it by atrocities before which humanity shudders! Every inch of ground was fought for; and struggles in which there could

78

FIGHTING IN PARIS.

1848

be no glory-bella nullos habitura triumphos-were protracted with a tenacity of valour which on a nobler field would have commanded the highest admiration. General Cavaignac, who had been proclaimed Dictator, showed by his masterly arrangements that the saving of Paris and of France could not have fallen into better hands. The officers and soldiers under him did their miserable work thoroughly. But their victory was dearly purchased. In achieving it France had lost many of her ablest generals, while more of her soldiers had fallen by the hands of their countrymen than on some of the battle-fields of the Empire of which she was most proud. The extent of the losses on the side of the insurgents has never been ascertained. They were counted, however, by many thousands of slain. No fewer than fifteen thousand prisoners were left in the hands of the Government. Of these many were shot, while of those who were spared three thousand subsequently died of jail fever, brought on by overcrowding of the prisons.

The Parisian massacre' which the Prince had anticipated in his letter of the 7th of June had indeed come,-and come in a form more appalling than any imagination could have conceived possible. It will be seen from a passage in the following letter to Baron Stockmar, how deeply he felt for those who had been led to destruction by trust in the mischievous doctrines of their leaders:

"... German affairs seem to me to have reached a turning point, at which things may possibly mend. If the Archduke John accepts, then unity is secured, and, I hope, monarchy as well. . . . Diplomacy here is somewhat disconcerted about the business, and Dietrichsen said to Bunsen, "I guess this is to be merely the John who is to prepare the way for your Messias."

The truce with Denmark is another fortunate incident,