1850.] Discontent of Tocqueville. 73 CONVERSATIONS. Paris, May 1850.-The law called afterwards 'The law of the 31st of May,' which restricted the suffrage, was at this time under discussion in the Assembly. The foul copy of this journal was shown to M. de Tocqueville immediately after it had been written; and it was returned by him without alteration. Some months afterwards I sent to him a fair copy, on which he made numerous notes, which are inserted after the conversations to which they refer. Tuesday, May 14-After breakfast I sat for half an hour with Tocqueville. He utterly disapproves of what is going on, and, if he is to be ill, is glad to be ill now and to have nothing to do with it. His object, he says, has always been to make the best of the Constitution for the time being, and he believes that that which now exists might be made to work tolerably,' and this he thinks is the wish of the majority 1 Tuesday, May 14.-Ceci demande quelques développements pour que ma pensée soit bien comprise. Je doute très-fort qu'une constitution républicaine, ou, pour parler plus clairement encore, un pouvoir exécutif électif, convienne, quant à présent, à la France. Je pense de plus, que la constitution républicaine de 1848 est extrême-* ment défectueuse, et j'ai prouvé que telle était mon opinion en votant contre plusieurs de ses principaux articles. Je crois qu'il est très-nécessaire qu'on arrive à la modifier, mais en même temps j'ai toujours été convaincu, et je le suis encore, que les périls qui naissent de l'exécution de la constitution, toute imparfaite qu'elle est, sont infiniment moindres que ceux qu'on ferait courir au pays en voulant briser cette constitution par la force, et en faisant of the majority in the Assembly. They are not men of much experience, or of much knowledge, or, perhaps, of much talent-but they are honest. They have no leader, however. Odillon Barrot keeps retired, Dufaure is gone on some inquiry to Toulon, and the reactionary, or, as we now call them, the revolutionary party have it all their own way. They believe that the next Chamber must at all events be Montagnard. He does not know what rashness and folly on the part of the Government prendre au parti modéré la responsabilité d'une révolution nouvelle. Je n'ai point de doute, comme je le disais dans la conversation ci-dessus rapportée, que cette manière de voir ne fût et ne soit encore partagée par ce que j'ai appelé la majorité de la majorité de l'Assemblée, c'est-à-dire, par cette masse d'hommes que les passions de parti, les calculs, ou les regrets de l'ambition, ou enfin la peur, ne conduisent pas. Il me serait facile de dire pourquoi les dangers qui naîtraient d'un renversement violent de la constitution seraient plus grands que ceux qui naissent de son maintien, mais je n'ai voulu ici qu'éclaircir les idées que j'ai déjà exprimées à M. Senior et non en produire de nouvelles.-A. de Tocqueville. This passage requires development in order that my meaning may be perfectly understood. I much doubt whether a republican constitution, and, to speak still more plainly, an elective executive, is suitable to France in her present condition. I think, likewise, that the Republican Constitution of 1848 is extremely faulty, and I have proved that such is my opinion by voting against many of its principal articles. I believe that it is quite necessary to modify them, but at the same time I have always been convinced, and I am so still, that the dangers which arise from enforcing the constitution even in its present imperfect state would be infinitely less than those which the country would incur if it were to be overturned by violent means, and the responsibility of a new revolution laid upon the moderate party. As I said in the above conversation, I have no doubt but that this opinion was and is shared by the majority of the majority in the Assembly; that is to say, by all those who are moved neither by party spirit, by interest, by ambition, nor by fear. It would be easy for me to show how it is that the perils occasioned by a violent overthrow of the constitution would be greater than those which arise from its maintenance; but I wished here only to clear up the ideas which I have already expressed, not to add new ones. 1850.] Plans of the Conservative Party. 75 may do; but he is sure that, with tolerable prudence, it would not be so. These recent Parisian elections are mere protests against counter-revolution. The people see that the Government is conspiring against the Republic, and try to warn it. I mentioned Z.'s parallel of the present state of things to that which preceded the election of the Con vention. 'I wish,' answered Tocqueville, 'that all our history could be burnt, if this is the use that is made of it. The next Assembly will be no Convention unless they make it one. No one is deceived by the protests of the reactionary, or, as they call themselves, the Conservative party. No one believes that they really care about improving the constituencies. Their real objects are two. One is to engage the whole majority of the Assembly in a counter-revolutionary course, to bring them gradually, by a series of measures each a little more unconstitutional than the previous one, into an anti-republican position. The other is to produce a revolt, a victory, and an anti-republican Constitution, probably a presidency for ten years, surrounded by monarchical institutions. In the first attempt they probably will succeed. The really moderate portion of the Assembly will find itself counter-revolutionary before it is aware of what it has done. In the latter they will probably fail. The adverse chances are too many. In the first place an émeute is improbable. The leaders of the Montagne are perfectly satisfied with their position. The twenty-five francs a day, though they are obliged to surrender much of it to the public purse of the party, is still a great deal to men who had nothing before they were deputies, and will have nothing after they cease to be so. They are afraid too of their followers-they know that they will themselves be the first victims of a "rouge" republic. They will strive to prevent a revolt, and I think will prevent one. In the second place, if there be a fight, the émeutiers may succeed. The reactionists are very confident, but I have seen too many confident parties beaten to be sanguine. The 10,000 gracies have nothing to lose. They have a fair pretext to fight for. If the Government was unpopular before it brought in this law,' what will it be afterwards? I hope that the National Guard will be stanch; but 125,000 of its members voted for Sue. Many thousands of them will be among the disenfranchised. If they side with the émeute, the soldiers can no longer be relied on. Thirdly, suppose the battle fought and won. I am not sure that the majority of the present Assembly would vote an anti-republican constitution. They might the day after the victory, but I doubt whether they would three weeks after. And what sort of an anti-republican constitution would work? I foresee no prospect of alteration in our present situation, unless accident should offer one; and as for its ending, that seems as far off as it was in 1789." 1 The law, then under discussion, passed on May 31, 1850, restricting the suffrage.-ED. * Ceci demande encore un développement pour être bien compris. J'entends par the ending of the present situation' un état stable et définitif, devenant la manière d'exister pour la société pendant un long 1850.] Tocqueville puzzled by the Greek Affair. 77 Thursday, May 16.—I drank tea with the Tocquevilles. As he does not admit the usual explanation that the whole matter was a scheme to insult France, he is as much puzzled by the Greek affair as I am. His intercourse with Lord Palmerston led him to believe him faithful to his engagements, though troublesome, litigious, and unscrupulous. He has the esprit d'un procureur (which was also Beaumont's expression), but also of an honest attorney-so far, at least, as an attorney can be honest!1 espace de temps; comme la monarchie administrative et sans contrôle politique qui a suivi chez nous les guerres civiles des 16m et 17me siècles, ou la monarchie représentative qui a achevé de se fonder en Angleterre après les révolutions de 1640 et de 1688. Je ne parle point d'un établissement transitoire qui impose momentanément la paix aux partis, laisse respirer la nation et lui permette de se jeter de nouveau avec ardeur à la recherche du bien-être matériel par des voies irrégulières. Une solution de cette espèce ne peut pas beaucoup tarder, mais c'est de la solution dont j'ai d'abord parlé, que nous sommes encore, à mon avis, très-loin.-A. de Tocqueville. This again demands some explanation to be perfectly understood. By the 'ending of the present situation,' I mean a stable, definitive condition, into which society might settle for a considerable period, such as the administrative and unfettered monarchy which followed with us the civil wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or the representative monarchy which was ultimately founded in England after the revolutions of 1640 and of 1688. I am not speaking of a transitory government which imposes only a temporary peace on the different parties, and, after a breathing time, leaves the nation to plunge itself once more with eagerness into schemes for acquiring wealth by irregular means. Such a solution as this cannot be long in coming, but the solution which I first mentioned is, in my opinion, still very distant. 1 Lord Palmerston est un homme d'État de premier ordre, dont la politique appelle quelquefois à son aide les petites ruses et les expédients d'un 'attorney.'-A. de Tocqueville. Lord Palmerston is a statesman of the first class, whose policy sometimes calls to its assistance the cunning and petty expedients of an attorney. |