L'égalité devant l'instruction
Equality before Education
Alexis Bertrand
PROLOGUE TO A REVOLUTION
Session of the Chamber. — Mole Ministry. — Joy of the bourgeoisie. — Petition of the democratic electoral committee. — The people wish to complete their victory.
Massacre on the boulevard des Capucines. — Day of the 24th. — Defection of the troops. — The national guard swept into the movement. — Belated concession of the king. — Thiers Ministry. — Barrot Ministry. — Abdication of the king. — His flight.
Battle of the Chateau-d’Eau. — Capture of the Tuileries. — Probity of the People.
CHAPTER II.
Supreme efforts of the royalty. — The Duchess of Orleans at the Chamber. — Dupin speaks in favor of the regency. — Marie and Cremieux demand a provisional government. — Speech by Odilon Barrot. — Impotence of the opposition.
Invasion of the Chamber. — Speech by Ledru-Rollin against the regency. — Speech by Lamartine. — Attempt to form a provisional government.
CHAPTER IV.
First proclamation. — Distribution of Ministries. — The People imposes the Republic on the Provisional Government.
Heterogeneous composition of this government. — Three hostile parties. — The republican police.
Creation of the mobile guard. — Proscription of republican emblems. — Clemency of the People. — Abolition of the political scaffold.
CHAPTER V.
The scramble for positions. — Anxiety of the People. — Socialist proclamation dictated to the Provisional Government. — The social question posed by the People at the Hotel-de-Ville. — Creation of the Luxembourg commission. — Its services. — Its first decree.
Maneuvering of the Government against the newspapers.
Louis Menard
Development of the republican press. — Opening of the clubs. — Initiation of the People into democratic life.
CHAPTER VI.
Establishment of the Republic in the departments. — The Commissioners of Ledru-Rollin.
Lamartine’s circular. — General movement of the Peoples of Europe after the February Revolution. — Departure of republican bands toward the frontier. — Massacre of the Belgian columns.
Indecision of the Government. — False financial measures. — Patriotic gifts offered by the People. — The tax of 45 centimes.
Ledru-Rollin’s circular. — Conspiracy of the bearskins.
CHAPTER VII.
Day of March 17. — March of the People toward the Hotel-de-Ville. — Conference of the People’s delegates with the Provisional Government. — Lamartine promises the postponement of elections and the removal of the army. — The People withdraws.
The Provisional Government pushes aside the influence of Blanqui, then evades all its promises of March 17.
Intrigues of the reaction in the provinces. — Torpor of the workers at the time of the elections. — Centralization of the clubs.
CHAPTER VIII.
Reactionary plot of April 16. — The recall beaten throughout all Paris. — Death cries against the communists. — Enthusiasm of the bourgeoisie for Lamartine. — The workers received by Louis Blanc at the Hotel-de-Ville.
Threat of assassination against Cabet. — New parades of the national guard. — Recall of the army. — All-powerfulness of the reaction. — Its electoral maneuverings. — Universal suffrage falsified everywhere.
Troubles in the provinces on the occasion of elections. — Peaceful victory of the people of Limoges. — Massacres at Rouen.
CHAPTER IX.
Meeting of the National Assembly. — Unanimous acclamation of the Republic. — The Provisional Government renders its accounts. — A vote of thanks. — Protest by Barbes.
Creation of an executive commission. — Exclusion of the socialists. — Precautions taken by the Assembly against the People. — Impotence of the Mountain.
CHAPTER X.
General defeat of the revolution in Europe. — Massacre of the Polish Insurgents. — Huber organizes a demonstration in favor of Poland.
Day of May 15. — The People goes unarmed to the Assembly. — They bar its passage. — It penetrates to the Place Bellechasse.
Invasion of the galleries and the hall of sessions. — Efforts of Louis Blanc to contain the People. — Raspail reads a petition in favor of Poland. — Barbes urges the Assembly to deliberate and the People to withdraw.
CHAPTER XI.
Blanqui demands in the name of the People the restoration of Poland, an inquiry into the massacres at Rouen and laws in favor of labor. — Ledru-Rollin promises satisfaction to the People. — The club delegates seek to evacuate the hall. — Buchez gives the order to stop the recall. — Last efforts of Barbes and Louis Blanc to make the People leave. — Huber pronounces the dissolution of the National Assembly.
CHAPTER XII.
The Representatives leave the hall of sessions. — A provisional government is proposed. — Barbes and Albert are carried to the Hotel-de-Ville by the People. — The national guard opposes no obstacle to them.
The Hotel-de-Ville is invaded by the national guard. — Barbes and Albert are dragged to prison.
The Representatives return to the Assembly. — Attempted assassination of Courtais and Louis Blanc. — Louis Blanc at the tribune. — Clamors of the Representatives. — The Assembly tries in vain to deliberate.
CHAPTER XIII.
Arrest of Sobrier. — Pillage of his house and that of Cabet. — Four hundred arrests. — The leaders of the democracy imprisoned at Vincennes. — Festival of Concord and Fraternity. — Fury against the clubs. — The national guardsmen fire on one another at the Passage Moliere.
The Executive Commission places itself at the orders of the reaction. — Its insinuations against Caussidiere. — Report against Louis Blanc.
CHAPTER XIV.
Law against gatherings. — New elections. — Importance given to M. Louis Bonaparte by the blunders of the Executive Commission.
Efforts of the Republicans to prevent an insurrection. — Maneuvering of the royalists to make the struggle inevitable. — Equivocal role of the Executive Commission.
Poor organization of the national workshops. — Continual attacks by the Assembly against the workers. — The Executive Commission, through a violent measure, gives the signal for the insurrection.
CHAPTER XV.
Conference between Marie and the delegates of the national workshops. — Preparations of the Executive Commission. — Resistance of Cavaignac. — Resources of the government.
Day of June 23. — Extent of the insurrection. — Moderation of the People. — First combats at the Porte Saint-Denis, the Faubourg Poissonniere, and the approaches to the Cite.
CHAPTER XVI.
Day of June 24. — Proclamation of the state of siege and of the military dictatorship. — Suppression of newspapers.
Political character of the insurrection. — Moderation of the insurgents. — Calumnies spread against them. — Ferocity of their adversaries.
Attack and capture of the Pantheon. — Prisoners shot at the Luxembourg, etc. — Capture of the Place Maubert. — Prisoners shot at the Hotel de Cluny, etc.
CHAPTER XVII.
Proclamations promising amnesty. — Massacres of prisoners surrendered on these promises.
Day of the 25th. — General Brea at the Barriere de Fontainebleau. — Irritation of the insurgents at the news of the Pantheon massacres. — Death of Brea.
Assassination of two of the People’s parliamentarians during a truce. — Various representatives go to the insurgents’ quarters.
Attack on the Marais and the Faubourg du Temple. — Massacres during and after the victory. — Mass shootings in the Hotel-de-Ville quarter.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Attack and capture of the Clos Saint-Lazare. — Attack on the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. — Probity of the People. — The Reuilly barracks taken by the People and retaken by the troops. — Shooting of prisoners.
Drunkenness of the mobiles and rumor of poisoning. — Analysis of the brandy and the bullets by the chemists.
Peace proposals made by the workers. — Death of the Archbishop. — Proclamation of the People. — Day of the 26th. — Capitulation of the faubourg. — Massacre of prisoners. — Farewell of the insurgents to their dead brothers.
CHAPTER XIX.
Aftermath of the insurrection. — Rewards given to the victors. — Denunciations, searches and arrests. — Prisoners shot in houses, streets and barracks.
Federalism. — Invasion of provincial national guardsmen. — The prisoners in the cellars of the Tuileries. — Massacre at the Carrousel. — Transfer of prisoners to the forts. — Their sufferings. — Last massacres.
CHAPTER XX.
Punishment of the vanquished. — Annihilation of the Mountain. — Pierre Leroux and Caussidiere speak of clemency. — Article by Lamennais against the terror. — Article by Proudhon in favor of the insurgents.
All-powerfulness of the royalists. — Commission of inquiry. — Military commissions. — Courts-martial. — Transportation without trial. — The families of the transported.
Military dictatorship. — Vote on the Constitution under the state of siege. — Repercussions of the June days in Europe. — Election of the President. — Promises of amnesty. — State of France.
DANIEL HALEVY. — Annexes:
I. — Adrastee; poem by Louis Menard, written after the June 1848 insurrection; II. — The trial; serialized in le Peuple, by Proudhon; Saturday March 3, 1849, Menard and the manager Duchene summoned to appear; three offenses; in le Peuple of March 4, 1849, a letter from Louis Menard to the citizen secretary of the editorial staff of le Peuple; in Le Peuple of March 25, a letter from Louis Menard to the secretary of the editorial staff; in the supplement to Le Peuple of Monday April 2, 1849, a long article by Louis Menard, Prologue to a Revolution, supporting documents;
The year nineteen hundred and four, June twenty-fifth: summons of M. l’abbe Dissard, canon of the Cathedral resident at Laval, to monsieur Charles Peguy, to appear;
In the same cahier:
THE COUNTRY SQUIRES
— To the table, gentlemen, to the table!
The table of the cure of Villefaignes was famous in the country: four times a year, at the great fairs, he returned to the country squires, who came to sell their oxen, the dinners he had received from them.
The servant set before him three capons which he distributed, for carving, to his guests.
— To you, monsieur Dagoury… To you, Jean… To me this eunuch!
The birds, opened in a turn of the hand, spread into the plates the truffles that were about to burst their golden skins.
The country squires had left in the morning, early, on horseback; they had battled in the inns with the butchers; it was past two o’clock: the capons were just right, they ate.
— Thank God, said the ecclesiastic, all fear of war is set aside.
— Upon my word, I regret it, replied Jean de Vivans. The Prussians deserved a lesson… Have you read the Conservateur?…
Du Landier was astonished to hear talk of war. He lived thirty kilometers from the town, like a wolf, in a hovel where neither a newspaper nor a letter ever arrived.
— Really… the Emperor?
He shook his head covered with grizzled hair, though he was young, with a nervous movement to chase the sounds from his throat, for he stammered.
— The Emperor wanted to declare war?…
The guests burst out laughing:
— But all the peasants know that… And your wolf?…
Du Landier adored animals: he had trained a wolf cub that he had put in his pack.
— His wolf! replied des Borgnes. We were hunting together, Thursday morning. We start up… We have a fault. We come upon the dogs. Du Landier drops his coat… his wolf throws himself on it and tears it to pieces.