Napoleon the Little Part 4

"I handed the letter back to the commandant, saying that it was a ridiculous and abortive affair."

Who speaks thus? General Magnan. Where? In the open Court of Peers.

Before whom? Who is the man seated on the prisoners' bench, the man whom Magnan covers with "scorn," the man towards whom Magnan turns his "indignant" face? Louis Bonaparte.

Money, and with money gross debauchery: such were his means of action in his three enterprises at Strasburg, at Boulogne, at Paris. Two failures and a success. Magnan, who refused at Boulogne, sold himself at Paris. If Louis Bonaparte had been defeated on the 2nd of December, just as there were found on him, at Boulogne, the 500,000 francs he had brought from London, so there would have been found at the elysee, the twenty-five millions taken from the Bank.

There has, then, been in France,--one must needs speak of these things coolly,--in France, that land of the sword, that land of cavaliers, the land of Hoche, of Drouot, and of Bayard--there has been a day, when a man, surrounded by five or six political sharpers, experts in ambuscades, and grooms of _coups d'etat_, lolling in a gilded office, his feet on the fire-dogs, a cigar in his mouth, placed a price upon military honour, weighed it in the scales like a commodity, a thing buyable and sellable, put down the general at a million, the private at a louis, and said of the conscience of the French army: "That is worth so much."

And this man is the nephew of the Emperor.

By the bye, this nephew is not proud: he accommodates himself, with great facility, to the necessities of his adventures; adapts himself readily and without reluctance, to every freak of destiny. Place him in London, and let it be his interest to please the English government, he would not hesitate, and with the very hand which now seeks to seize the sceptre of Charlemagne, he would grasp the truncheon of a policeman. If I were not Napoleon, I would be Vidocq.

And here thought pauses!

And such is the man by whom France is governed! governed, do I say?

possessed rather in full sovereignty!

And every day, and every moment, by his decrees, by his messages, by his harangues, by all these unprecedented imbecilities which he parades in the _Moniteur_, this _emigre_, so ignorant of France, gives lessons to France! and this knave tells France that he has saved her! From whom? from herself. Before he came, Providence did nothing but absurdities; G.o.d waited for him to put everything in order; and at length he came. For the last thirty-six years poor France had been afflicted with all sorts of pernicious things: that "sonority," the tribune; that hubbub, the press; that insolence, thought; that crying abuse, liberty: he came, and for the tribune, he subst.i.tuted the Senate; for the press, the censors.h.i.+p; for thought, imbecility; for liberty, the sabre; and by the sabre, the censors.h.i.+p, imbecility, and the Senate, France is saved! Saved! bravo! and from whom, I ask again?

from herself. For what was France before, if you please? a horde of pillagers, robbers, Jacquerie, a.s.sa.s.sins, demagogues! It was necessary to put fetters on this abominable villain, this France, and it was M.

Bonaparte Louis who applied the fetters. Now France is in prison, on bread and water, punished, humiliated, throttled and well guarded; be tranquil, everybody; Sieur Bonaparte, gendarme at the elysee, answers for her to Europe; this miserable France is in her strait waistcoat, and if she stirs!--

Ah! what spectacle is this? What dream is this? What nightmare is this?

On the one hand, a nation, first among nations, and on the other, a man, last among men--and see what that man does to that nation! G.o.d save the mark! He tramples her under foot, he laughs at her to her face, he flouts her, he denies her, he insults her, he scoffs at her!

How now! He says, there is none but I! What! in this land of France where no man's ears may be boxed with impunity, one may box the ears of the whole people! Oh! abominable shame! Each time that M. Bonaparte spits, every one must needs wipe his face! And this can last! And you tell me that it will last! No! No! No! By all the blood we have in our veins, no! this shall not last. Were it to last, it must be that there is no G.o.d in heaven, or no longer a France on earth!

BOOK II

I

THE CONSt.i.tUTION

A roll of the drums; clowns, attention!

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC,

"Considering that--all the restrictive laws on the liberty of the press having been repealed, all the laws against hand-bills and posting-bills having been abolished, the right of public a.s.semblage having been fully re-established, all the unconst.i.tutional laws, including martial law, having been suppressed, every citizen being empowered to say what he likes through every medium of publicity, whether newspaper, placard, or electoral meeting, all solemn engagements, especially the oath of the 20th of December, 1848, having been scrupulously kept, all facts having been investigated, all questions propounded and discussed, all candidacies publicly defeated, without the possibility of alleging that the slightest violence had been exercised against the meanest citizen,--in one word, in the fullest enjoyment of liberty. "The sovereign people being interrogated on this question:--

"'Do the French people mean to place themselves, tied neck and heels, at the discretion of M. Louis Bonaparte?'

"Have replied YES by 7,500,000 votes. (_Interruption by the author_:--We shall have more to say of these 7,500,000 votes.)

"PROMULGATES

"THE CONSt.i.tUTION IN MANNER FOLLOWING, THAT IS TO SAY:

"Article 1. The Const.i.tution recognises, confirms, and guarantees the great principles proclaimed in 1789, which are the foundation of the public law of the French people.

"Article 2 and following. The platform and the press, which impeded the march of progress, are superseded by the police and the censors.h.i.+p, and by the secret deliberations of the Senate, the Corps Legislatif and the Council of State.

"Article last. The thing commonly called human intelligence is suppressed.

"Done at the Palace of the Tuileries January 14, 1852.

"LOUIS NAPOLEON.

"Witnessed and sealed with the great seal.

"E. ROUHER.

"_Keeper of the Seals and Minister of Justice._"

This Const.i.tution, which loudly proclaims and confirms the Revolution of 1789 in its principles and its consequences, and which merely abolishes liberty, was evidently and happily inspired in M. Bonaparte, by an old provincial play-bill which it is well to recall at this time:

THIS DAY,

The Grand Representation

OF

LA DAME BLANCHE,

AN OPERA IN THREE ACTS.

Note. The _music_, which would embarra.s.s the progress of the plot, will be replaced by lively and piquant _dialogue_.

II

THE SENATE

This lively and piquant dialogue is carried on by the Council of State, the Corps Legislatif and the Senate.

Is there a Senate then? Certainly. This "great body," this "balancing power," this "supreme moderator," is in truth the princ.i.p.al glory of the Const.i.tution. Let us consider it for a moment.

The Senate! It is a senate. But of what Senate are you speaking? Is it the Senate whose duty it was to deliberate on the description of sauce with which the Emperor should eat his turbot? Is it the Senate of which Napoleon thus spoke on April 5, 1814: "A sign was an order for the Senate, and it always did more than was required of it?" Is it the Senate of which Napoleon said in 1805: "The poltroons were afraid of displeasing me?"[1] Is it the Senate which drew from Tiberius almost the same exclamation: "The base wretches! greater slaves than we require them to be!" Is it the Senate which caused Charles XII to say: "Send my boot to Stockholm."--"For what purpose, Sire?" demanded his minister.--"To preside over the Senate," was the reply.

[1] Thibaudeau. _History of the Consulate and the Empire._

But let us not trifle. This year they are eighty; they will be one hundred and fifty next year. They monopolise to themselves, in full plenitude, fourteen articles of the Const.i.tution, from Article 19 to Article 33. They are "guardians of the public liberties;" their functions are gratuitous by Article 22; consequently, they have from fifteen to thirty thousand francs per annum. They have the peculiar privilege of receiving their salary, and the prerogative of "not opposing" the promulgation of the laws. They are all ill.u.s.trious personages."[2] This is not an "abortive Senate,"[3] like that of Napoleon the uncle; this is a genuine Senate; the marshals are members, and the cardinals and M. Leboeuf.

[2] "All the ill.u.s.trious persons of the country." Louis Bonaparte's _Appeal to the people_. December 2, 1851.