XLVIII. frankly joined him. After breaking with the majority CHAP in October 1849, he recurred to it in the March following, and accepted their remedy for Socialism, although it was inimical to his own interests, as well as to his views, if he had any. The remedy proposed by the Monarchist chiefs was a restoration of three years' residence, instead of one of six months, as requisite for the enjoyment of the suffrage. As the lower orders in Paris form a very floating population, it was calculated that the new law would exclude the rabble from the faubourgs. Whether it did or not, it certainly swept away, not thousands, but millions, of those rural voters, who knew no other name than Napoleon. The The law was passed by a large majority on the 31st of May, from which date it took its name. Monarchists and Moderate Republicans did not, however, rally to the President, notwithstanding his appeal and obsequiousness to them. The increase of the dotation from 25,000l. a year to 124,000l., demanded by ministers, was only voted by a majority of four. And when the Assembly adjourned, it appointed a standing commission of Monarchists, Changarnier amongst them, to watch over the security of the Republic against any attempts of the executive. Flung by these acts back into his isolated position, and at the same time in antagonism to the Assembly, Louis-Napoleon resolved on a tour through the provinces. His first reception was at Lyons, where at a banquet he alluded to the rumour that he meditated a coup d'état. "He that has been elected by 6,000,000 of votes need make no coup d'état. He had but to execute the will of the people, not betray it. Should culpable pretensions, however, threaten to disturb the repose of the country, he should know how to render them powerless." This was an allusion to the new course adopted by the Monarchists. Instead of continuing to waive their old allegiance, they reproclaimed it by the XLVIII. CHAP. Legitimists going to do homage to Henry the Fifth at Wiesbaden, and the Orleanists taking advantage of the death of Louis-Philippe to pay their devoirs at Claremont. By these antagonistic movements, the chiefs of the parliamentary majority broke with the President so completely that the war between them, it was evident, would break out in a wider field than the four walls of the Assembly. They saw in the President's speeches the threat of dissolving and over-ruling them by an appeal to the people. They therefore rallied round General Changarnier, whom they engaged to defend them. He had authority for this in the command of the National Guard, and the troops around Paris, confided to him by the President. The first open symptom that he gave of his hostility was a prohibition to the troops to cry Vive Napoléon. They had done so frequently. The war minister, Hautpoul, did not disapprove of this manifestation; but General Changarnier conceived it as preluding to the Empire. He therefore forbade the troops to utter a word, and they marched past the President in ominous silence. He enquired the cause, learned it, and resolved to dismiss Changarnier. He took his time, and in the message which opened the session of 1851, some weeks previous to the commencement of that year, he demanded the revision of the constitution. One of its articles forbade the existing president to be re-elected. This he considered unfair at a moment when hostile parties were putting forward the candidature of the Prince de Joinville, and demanding the abrogation of the law of exile, in order to permit that prince to return to France, and to stand candidature for supreme power. The Orleans family was indeed not zealous or decided for such a step. The Duke of Nemours openly deprecated it, and preferred accomplishing a fusion with the Legitimists. But ere this question of the revision of the constitu tion could come under the consideration of the Assembly, a circumstance occurred which greatly aggravated the quarrel between the President and his ministers on one side, the Assembly and General Changarnier on the other. By this time had arisen something like an Imperialist party. The few members who at first formed it styled themselves the Société du 10 Décembre. A man named Allan, who had enrolled himself in the society, revealed to the questors that a certain number of the members had plotted or proposed to assassinate General Changarnier and M. Dufaure. The questors published this revelation in the newspapers. No one paid attention to so absurd a story save the questors, great enemies of Louis-Napoleon, and who demanded in consequence that the Assembly should have a police. force to protect it. No doubt, the story was got up by Allan for the sake of having this force organised, and himself attached to it or placed over it. On his side, the President of the Republic summoned to him on the 8th of January the chief of the Monarchists, Thiers, Berryer, De Broglie, Molé, Barrot, Dupin, and Montalembert. Louis-Napoleon communicated to them his determination to deprive Changarnier of the command of the troops and National Guard of Paris. He could no longer tolerate in such a position an officer who openly assumed the attitude of an enemy. He acquainted the parliamentary chiefs with his determination, adding that, if they would consent to it, he would allow them to form a ministry, and take any additional guarantee they pleaded on behalf of the Republic and its members. Half angry at being so consulted, they declined. Of course, they could not consent to sacrifice Changarnier, whom they had encouraged in his attitude of opposition. The Prince immediately formed another ministry, of which all the members consented to the dismissal of the general. They were Baroche, Rouher, Fould, Drouyn de l'Huys, Ducos. A decree of the next day, June 9, XLVIII. CHAP. XLVIII. 1851, dismissed General Changarnier, who was replaced by Baraguay d'Hilliers as general of the troops and guard of Paris, and by General Perrot as commander of the National Guard. Some of the naturally most moderate members of the Chamber were excited to rage by what they considered so unwarrantable a measure. M. de Remusat was especially passionate. He interpellated the government first, and proposed that, if the reply was unsatisfactory, the Assembly should separate into committees to take such measures as the gravity of the circumstance required. This led to fierce debates, not rendered more calm by the declaration of Thiers that, if the Assembly gave way, the Empire was already accomplished. In fact, it did give way by making no mention of the fallen Changarnier, but merely declaring that the new ministry had not its confidence. Had the Assembly and the political world been divided into compact parties, parliamentary censure inflicted on a ministry would have been an embarrassment. Politicians, however, were but puppets in the hands of the President, who appointed a new ministry, without any delay, of men little known to the Assembly. The names were Royer, Brenier, Randon, Germiny, Vaisse, Vaillant, Magnan, Giraud, and Schneider. This new government the President announced by a message, in which he said that, unable to form a ministry from a majority hostile to him, nor yet from the minority, he was driven to the necessity of making a government of special talent and acquirements without reference to politics. The Assembly replied by rejecting the 1,800,000 francs supplementary dotation for the expenditure of the President. He in rejoinder sold his horses, and assumed the attitude of a sovereign reduced to poverty by the niggardliness of the Assembly. The Imperialists throughout the country proposed subscriptions, which, however, the President declined. It was impossible not to see that the struggle between the majority of the Assembly and the President must terminate in violence.* It was not to be expected that the representative of the Bonapartes, owing his position to the suffrage of the people, would yield his place and prospects to any princely competitor. The Assembly was determined to force him to do so, and yet they had no competitor whom they could really oppose to him. The country evidently would not have a prince of either branch of the Bourbons. Neither would it have a civilian or a revolutionary celebrity. The people would infallibly re-elect Louis-Napoleon. But this the clause of the constitution forbade. The President besought the Assembly to revise it. He continually made appeals to the Monarchist chiefs to obtain their assent, promising to give any guarantee they required. They refused, and relied on General Changarnier to ward off any danger from violence or from the military. Changarnier himself promised to render the constitution triumphant over every attempt of the President. "No soldier could be got," exclaimed the general, "to march against the Assembly. Therefore ye, the representatives of France, may deliberate in all security." In April, the President made another appeal to the parties combined against him, and offered the presidency of the council to M. Odilon Barrot if that gentleman could form a ministry and suffer a révision. Barrot accepted, and tried, but the other members of the majority refused to listen to him. They demanded unconditional surrender on the part of the President. On this, the President named another ministry, consisting of Baroche and Léon Faucher, one foreign, The Annuaire historique quotes a passage from the Daily News of the time, and which plainly foreshadows the necessity of the Presi dent putting down the Assembly, or CHAP. XLVIII. |