2981. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 187–189.
138 Avenue des Ch. Elysées.
Decr 11– [1851] [1]
To show how alive I am, dearest Mrs Martin, I will tell you that I have just come home from a long walk to the Tuilleries. We took a carriage to return—that’s true. Then yesterday I was out besides—and last saturday, the 6th, we drove down the boulevards to see the field of action on the terrible thursday, (the only day on which there was any fighting of consequence, ..) counting the holes in the walls bored by the cannon, & looking at the windows smashed in. Even then, though the asphalte was black with crowds, the quiet was absolute, & most of the shops re-opened. On sunday the theatres were as full as usual, & our Champs Elysées had quite its complement of promenaders. Wiedeman’s prophecy had not been carried out, any more than the prophecies of the wiser may:—the soldiers had not shot Punch.
And now I do beg you not to be down-hearted. See, if French blood runs in your veins, that you dont take a pedantic view of this question like an Englishwoman. Constitutional forms & essential principles of liberty are so associated in England that they are apt to be confounded & are, in fact, constantly confounded. For my part, I am too good a democrat to be afraid of being thrown back upon the primitive popular element, from impossible paper constitutions & unrepresenting representative assemblies. The situation was in a dead-lock, & all the conflicting parties were full of dangerous hope of taking advantage of it; and I dont see for my part, what better could be done for the French nation than to sweep the board clear & bid them begin again. With no sort of prejudice in favor of Louis Napoleon .. (except, I confess to you, some artistical admiration for the consummate ability & courage shown in his coup d’etat) … with no particular faith in the purity of his patriotism, I yet hold him justified so far .. that is, I hold, that a pure patriot would be perfectly justifiable in taking the same steps which up to this moment he has taken. He has broken certainly the husk of an oath—but fidelity to the intention of it seems to me reconcileable with the breach—and if he had not felt that he had the great mass of the people to back him, he is at least too able a man, be certain, if not too honest a man, to have dared what he has dared. You will see the result of the elections. As to Paris .. dont believe that Paris suffers violence from Louis Napoleon. The result of my own impressions, is a conviction that from the beginning, he had the sympathy of the whole population here with him, to speak generally,—& exclusively, of particular parties. All our tradespeople, for instance, milkman, breadman, wine-merchant, & the rest, yes, even the shrewd old washerwoman, and the concierge, & our little lively servant, were in a glow of sympathy & admiration, … “mais, c’est le vrai neveu de son oncle! il est admirable!—enfin le patrie sera sauvée.” [2] The bourgeoisie has now accepted the situation, it is admitted on all hands. “Scandalous adhesion” say some! “Dreadful apathy” say others. Dont you say either one or the other, or I think you will be unjust to Paris & France.
The french people are very democratical in their tendencies, but they must have a visible type of hero-worship, & they find it in the bearer of that name Napoleon. That name is the only tradition dear to them, & it is deeply dear. That a man bearing it, & appealing at the same time to the whole people, upon democratical principles, should be answered from the heart of the people, should neither astonish nor shame nor enrage anybody.
An editor of the National, [3] a friend of ours, feels this so much that he gnashes his teeth over the imprudence of the extreme Red, who did not set themselves to trample out the fires of Buonapartism while they had some possibility of doing it. “Ce peuple a la tête dure” [4] said he vehemently.
As to military despotism, [5] —would France bear that, do you think? Is the French army, besides, made after the fashion of standing armies, such as we see in other countries? Are they not eminently civic, flesh of the people’s flesh? I fear no military despotism for France—oh, none. Every soldier is a citizen—and every citizen is or has been a soldier.
Altogether, instead of despairing, I am full of hope. It seems to me probable that the door is open to a wider & calmer political liberty, than France has yet enjoyed. Let us wait.
The American forms of republicanism are most uncongenial to this artistic people—but democratical institutions will deepen & broaden I think, even if we should soon all be talking of the ‘empire’.
As to the repressive measures [6] ——why, grant the righteousness of the movement, & you must accept its conditions. Dont believe the tremendous exaggerations you are likely to hear on all sides—dont, I beseech you.
The president rode under our windows on the second of December through a shout extending from the Carrousel to the Arc de l’etoile. The troops poured in, as we stood & looked. No sight could be grander, and I would not have missed it .. not for the Alps, I say!–
You say nothing specific. How I should like to know why exactly you are out of spirits .. & whether dear Mr Martin is sad too. Robert & I have had some domestic émeutes, because he hates some imperial names—yet he confessed to me last night that the excessive & contradictory nonsense he had heard among Legitimists, Orleanists, & English against the movement, inclined him almost to a revulsion of feeling.
I would have written to you today even if I had not received your letter——you will forgive that what I have written should have been scratched in the utmost haste to save the post– I cant even read it over– There’s the effect of going out to walk the first thing in the morning!
The weather is exquisite. It has been mild indeed for a fortnight past, but now it is warm. The fire is out—& some of our friends sit with the windows open,—a glorious sunshine covering everything.
The Hedleys are well, & have not been in the least alarmed. Aunt Jane groans for the comte de Chambord, & uncle Hedley claps hands for Louis Napoleon. Arabel has returned from Kinnersley to London, not quite so rurally minded, I think, as usual. She looks very well, they say. I had a letter from George a few days since.
Your ever affectionate Ba .. to both of you.
Dearest Mrs Martin, how kind of you to remember me with the medicated cotton. Thank you. I used it directly. My cough yielded to the milder weather, & I am well. Robert’s warm regards[.] I feel so happy to have seen you, loving you dearly, indeed. Give my love to your little charge. [7]
Publication: LEBB, II, 34–37 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the recent coup d’état.
2. “But, he is the true nephew of his uncle! he is admirable!—at last the country will be saved.”
3. Probably Émile Forgues.
4. “These people are hard-headed.”
5. See the preceding letter, note 3.
6. “Over twenty-six thousand people were arrested for resisting the coup d’état, the largest wave of mass political arrests that France had ever witnessed. The coup was followed by an intensified political repression that destroyed opposition parties. The new regime expanded police powers, centralized policing activities, and imprisoned suspected republican opponents of the regime rather than waiting to arrest them for specific political actions. … New press laws were implemented that eliminated jury trials for political offenses, raised the stamp tax, granted prefects the power to suspend newspapers without authorization from Paris, and prohibited any discussion of ‘the political or social economy’” (Ronald Aminzade, Ballots and Barricades, Princeton, 1993, pp. 56–57).
7. Unidentified.
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