A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 53

"ARTICLE I.--The National a.s.sembly is dissolved.

"II.--Universal suffrage is re-established. The law of May 31 is abrogated.

"III.--The French People are convoked in their electoral districts from the 14th December to the 21st December following.

"IV.--The State of Siege is decreed in the district of the first Military Division.

"V.--The Council of State is dissolved.

"VI.--The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution of this decree.

"Given at the Palace of the Elysee, 2d December, 1851.

"LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

"DE MORNY, Minister of the Interior."

[Sidenote: A Napoleonic address]

Together with this decree Louis Napoleon issued this appeal to the people:

"FRENCHMEN! The present situation can last no longer. Every day which pa.s.ses enhances the dangers of the country. The a.s.sembly, which ought to be the firmest support of order, has become a focus of conspiracies. The patriotism of three hundred of its members has been unable to check its fatal tendencies. Instead of making laws in the public interest it forges arms for civil war; it attacks the power which I hold directly from the People, it encourages all bad pa.s.sions, it compromises the tranquillity of France; I have dissolved it, and I const.i.tute the whole People a judge between it and me. The men who have ruined two monarchies wish to tie my hands in order to overthrow the Republic; my duty is to frustrate their treacherous schemes, to maintain the Republic, and to save the Country by appealing to the solemn judgment of France.

"Such is my firm conviction. If you share it, declare it by your votes. If, on the contrary, you prefer a government without strength, Monarchical or Republican, borrowed I know not from what past, or from what chimerical future, answer in the negative.

"But if you believe that the cause of which my name is the symbol--that is to say, France regenerated by the Revolution of '89, and organized by the Emperor, is to be still your own, proclaim it by sanctioning the powers which I ask from you.

"Then France and Europe will be preserved from anarchy, obstacles will be removed, rivalries will have disappeared, for all will respect, in the decision of the People, the decree of Providence.

"Given at the Palace of the Elysee, 2d December, 1851. LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."

[Sidenote: The Second December]

[Sidenote: Summary executions]

[Sidenote: Proscription]

During the same day the a.s.sembly was dissolved by troops. Attempts at public protests were roughly suppressed. A few barricades were thrown up, but the crowds were quickly dispersed, and those agitators who were caught were hurried off to prison. On December 4, the troops were ordered out in force, and proceeded to clear the streets. Nearly a thousand persons were shot during the course of the day. The insurrection was stamped out. A few days later, when the National a.s.sembly tried to meet again, a hundred and eighty members were arrested. Then appeared two parallel lists of names.

One contained the names of those who could be counted on for the purposes of Prince Napoleon. They were all created members of a consultative committee, which was to sit "until the reorganization of the legislative party." The other list contained the names of those who were proscribed from French territory, from Algeria, and from the colonies "for the sake of public safety." Among them were Victor Hugo, Thiers, Baune, Laboulaye, Theodore Bac, and Lamarque. Many hundreds of compromised Republicans fled before they were proscribed. Others were transported across the borders without any publication of the fact. Still others were summarily shot in the barrack courtyards.

[Sidenote: The plebiscite]

[Sidenote: Foreign congratulations]

[Sidenote: Palmerston dismissed]

On December 21, the result of the so-called popular plebiscite was announced. Louis Napoleon had been elected President for ten years by an alleged vote of 7,473,431 ays against 641,341 nays. He was clothed with monarchical power and was authorized to issue a const.i.tution for France.

Outside of France the results of the _coup d'etat_ were received with equanimity. Pope Pius IX. went to a review held by General Gemeau in Rome and begged him to congratulate Prince Louis Napoleon for him. Lord Palmerston in London, it was stated, told the French Amba.s.sador that he "entirely approved of what had been done, and thought the President of the French fully justified." The British Amba.s.sador at Paris was instructed to make no change in his relations with the French Government, and to do nothing that might wear the appearance of English interference. It appeared that Lord Palmerston had once more acted on his own initiative. He was requested to resign. Before long the dismissed Minister had an opportunity of showing the government how formidable an adversary he could be.

1852

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon in power]

[Sidenote: Empire foreshadowed]

On the first day of January, Louis Napoleon was reinstalled as President of France in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The day was made a public holiday.

On New Year's Eve the Diplomatic Corps had congratulated Prince Napoleon at the Palace of the Tuileries. A few days later some of the more prominent of the President's opponents, among them Changarnier and Lamorciere, were conducted to the Belgian frontier. On January 10, the President banished eighty-three members of the Legislative a.s.sembly. Some six hundred persons who had been arrested for resisting the _coup d'etat_ at the same time were taken to Havre for transportation to Cayenne. On January 14, the new const.i.tution was made public. All real powers were vested in the President.

He had the initiative for all new measures, as well as the veto on deliberations of both Senate and Legislative a.s.sembly. The Senators were to be appointed by him. The sessions of both bodies were to be held behind closed doors. The impotence of the legislators was offset by their princely salaries. Senators were to receive 30,000 francs per year, while the Deputies drew half that sum. The actual sessions of the Legislature were limited to three years. The President himself was to draw an annual salary of 12,000,000 francs. The money for these expenditures was raised by extraordinary means. A decree on January 22 confiscated all former crown lands and the estates of the Princes of Orleans. The press was gagged by a decree prohibiting the publication of any newspaper without the sanction of the government. All liberty poles were chopped down, and the motto of "Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite," was tabooed. On February 29, the elections for the Legislative a.s.sembly were held. The government nominated all the candidates, and practically all were elected. Late in March, Prince Louis Napoleon opened the Senate and Corps Legislatif. His address throughout was couched in the language of a monarch. While he conceded the intention of the republican reforms to be harmless, he suggested the possibility that he might be called upon "to demand from France in the interest of peace a new t.i.tle, by which the powers that have been conferred upon me may be confirmed once for all." A Cabinet was formed of the President's most devoted followers, under the nominal leaders.h.i.+p of Persigny. One of the first votes of the Legislature, after fixing the President's salary, was a grant of 80,000,000 francs for public works wherewith to occupy the laboring cla.s.ses. This done, the President made a triumphal tour of France.

The government officials saw to it that he received a magnificent welcome wherever he appeared.

[Sidenote: Death of Schwarzenberg]

[Sidenote: Buol Schauenstein, Austrian Minister]

In the neighboring countries the progress of events in France created less misgivings than had the doings of the Republic. In Austria, Emperor Francis Joseph further undid the work of the recent revolution by his total abolition of the rights of trial by jury on January 15. Shortly afterward, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, the Prime Minister, died in Vienna. He was a nephew of Charles Philippe, the famous Prince of Schwarzenberg who negotiated the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise, and later led the allied armies against Napoleon. In 1848, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg commanded a division in Italy. Later he joined Windischgratz in the military occupation of Jena, and soon took charge of the civil administration of the empire, in which he continued until his death. He was succeeded by Count Buol von Schauenstein.

[Sidenote: German affairs]

[Sidenote: The Danish succession]

[Sidenote: German fleet sold]

Throughout the year the affairs in Germany were tranquil. Shortly after the death of the old King of Hanover, a tariff union was established with Russia, while a postal and telegraph union was extended to all the German States. Early in the year the King of Prussia revived the old Council of State as it was before 1848. The Const.i.tution underwent new modifications.

In May, a conference of the great Powers met at London to treat of certain German affairs. An agreement was signed practically a.s.suring the independence of the Swiss district of Neuchatel, which had revolted from Prussia in 1848. Three days later, on May 8, a protocol was signed concerning the Danish succession. This intricate problem continued to vex the souls of diplomats. Lord Palmerston, when interrogated about it, said that there were only three persons who understood the Danish succession.

One was the Queen Dowager of Denmark, the second was G.o.d Almighty, and the third was a German professor, but he had gone mad. While attempting to settle the terms of the succession the five great Powers and Sweden signed a treaty guaranteeing the integrity of the Danish monarchy. The throne was granted to Christian of Sonderburg-Glucksburg. Christian, Duke of Augustenburg-Holstein, consented to surrender his rights for a money consideration. The treaty was not recognized by the German Confederation, but was accepted by Hanover, Saxony and Wurtemberg. In June, Germans had the humiliating experience of seeing their fleet, the formation of which was undertaken in 1848, sold at public auction. All aspirations for sea power had been abandoned by the Bund. In July, Prussia's representative at the Bund meetings, Baron Bismarck, was sent as envoy to Austria. Through his efforts at Vienna the Austrian Government was prevailed upon to join the German Zollverein and to sign commercial treaties.

[Sidenote: Death of Froebel]

During this year in Germany, Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel, the German educator, died at Marienthal on July 21, in his seventieth year. After an unsettled and aimless youth, he started teaching, and soon developed a system which has become famous under the name of Kindergarten (children's garden). It was intended to convert schooling into play, which, according to Froebel, is the child's most serious business. The first Kindergarten was opened in 1840 at Blankenburg, Prussia. Meeting at first with little encouragement, it gradually gained a footing in most civilized countries.

Froebel was largely a.s.sisted in the propagation of his ideas by the Baroness Marenholz-Buelow. He was the author of "Die Menschenerziehung"

(Human Education) and "Mutter und Koselieder," a book of nursery songs and pictures for children.

[Sidenote: "Prometheus" affair]

In England, the dismissal of Lord Palmerston left the Foreign Office in an embarra.s.sing position as regarded Louis Napoleon's government. Other embarra.s.sments were likewise bequeathed. Thus, on January 10, Lord Palmerston's successor, Lord Granville, had to disavow to the American Minister the act of the British man-of-war "Empress," which had fired into the American steamer "Prometheus." England offered an apology which was accepted.

[Sidenote: "The Third of February"]

The caustic comments of the English press on French affairs, together with the free utterances of Victor Hugo and other French exiles on English soil, gave great offence to Louis Napoleon. Count Valevski's diplomatic protests found support in the British House of Lords. It was then that Alfred Tennyson, undeterred by the supposed reserve of his Poet Laureates.h.i.+p, wrote the invective lines ent.i.tled "The Third of February."

[Sidenote: "Henry Esmond"]

About the same time Thackeray brought out his "History of Henry Esmond," a masterpiece of English historical fiction. In the dedication to Lord Ashburton, Thackeray thus announced his departure for America. "My volume will reach you when the author is on his voyage to a country where your name is as well known as here."