2991. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 222–225.
138 Avenue des Champs Elysées
Jany 2. [1852] [1]
Somebody tells Madame Mohl who tells Robert who tells me, that you, dearest friend, are waiting anxiously to hear from me. Can it be possible that you have not received my long letter written by return of post after receiving yours—a long letter full of impressions, first feelings, & the like, & all relating to the second of December? [2] If you have not received it, I wonder you have not wiped me out with a spunge by this time, I must have seemed to you so supremely unkind, heartless & thankless altogether! I have been expecting, on the other hand, to hear from you. I wanted an interpretation of the specific cause of your being out of spirits—& I particularly wanted Mr Martin’s coup d’œil on the coup d’etat, as being very interesting to me. Shall I have another Englishman to agree with me, I wonder, .. except Lord Palmerston? Or must we two “go out” together? [3]
Now if my first letter is lost, I cant bring it back to you of course. But I should have liked you to observe what a strong impression I had at the beginning, before passion & prejudice had time to froth up & stiffen. Just now, I am so furious with the English generally, & with their Times & Examiner newspapers in particular, that I cant pretend to deal in colourless abstract reasonings—the blood of one’s heart colours one’s thoughts whether one will or no.
But at the beginning, looking calmly at the situation, without the slightest leaning to Louis Napoleon, (as all the saints of the Buonaparte family know well) watching quietly the intentions of the Assembly, & seeing plainly, as everybody in Paris, & perhaps Europe did, that a continuance of such a state of things was utterly impossible, I could tell you from my conscience & with all calmness that nothing better seemed to me “upon the cards” than what was played out by the president, with a promptitude of combination & an extraordinary courage which would have been artistically admirable under any circumstances. My impression has been from the beginning, that as far as the coup d’état is concerned, a Washington might have acted precisely so, .. & would, in a like position, if his intellect had admitted of it. Not that I call Louis Napoleon a Washington by any manner of means—he may (or he may not .. I dont presume to decide) want the American’s disinterested patriotism altogether. He may be defective in public virtue—or he may not. But, so far, I for my own part (being not a make-believe democrat)—hold him to be absolutely justified in not persisting to choke France into mortal convulsions with the husk of an oath, & faithful to the full interior sacred meaning of that oath by his appeal to the people over the heads of the unrepresenting Assembly—he who made oath to the people. Also, I do maintain that the people by their vote, have justified him magnificently, & that they have a right to their choice & their experiment.
For the rest, you see we must wait. Certainly, it would be imprudent to answer for the president’s virtue in the long run. In three months he may deserve the curses of all of us .. I do not pretend to say otherwise. But I, for my own part, am full of hope in the event. He is too able a man not to see that he stands by democratical ideas, & that if he abuses his actual position, he forfeits it at once. The talk about “military despotism” does very well for England & the readers of the Times newspaper [4] .. but here, where the army is an essentially popular element, flesh of the people’s flesh, the thing is absolutely impossible, we must look round & see.
The Assembly was plotting against the people—that was a fact. Every party of it, had the especial scheme for tearing up the constitution .. long ways or broad ways .. for the interests of the Count de Paris, the Count de Chambord,—or for the abolition of the presidency altogether. “But how horrible, that Louis Napoleon should tear it up!– That’s immoral! that’s perjury”– Oh yes .. “that’s perjury”, repeat, with re-iterant horror, the very men who broke oath to Louis Philippe & around whom the purest of our moralists clapped hands–
We have been in the midst of the frenzy & able to judge of it .. for, of course, all the parties, Orleanists Legitimists, & Reds of the socialistic cast are frenzied .. for instance, the ex-journalists, of whom we know several, .. ex-journalists of the Presse & of the National .. & daily correspondents of English newspapers, besides. [5] Poor Madme Mohl (Orleanist) has made up her mind to see nobody holding different opinions from herself & to read nothing on the other side of the question .. which is a way I suppose, of getting at truth. She is under the delusion of the barricades having been some three inches high, & of the cannonade taking place for the private pleasure of the Elysée. One hears her talk like somebody talking in a fever, & soothes her with a “Really– Is it so bad.” A great favorite she is of mine after all, and I respect an earnest grief in public things, in a woman .. dont you?
The frenzy of the ex journalists there is no describing. Such a gnashing of teeth through black beards as we have had in this room—such outcry against “ce scelerat atroce,” the first Napoleon .. such vehemence against “ces homme[s] sans conscience” the bourgeoisie, & “ces animaux” [6] the agriculturalists .. What strikes me as peculiarly curious is, that politicians who have been living & dying by the flag of universal suffrage for at least these four years, now talk of the “intelligent minority” and the “minority which is France” just like a conservative countrygentleman in a remote English county. M. de Girardin, & one of the editors of the National, were going off to England at once, giving up France for ever—but they have thought better of it, and Emile has even resumed the Presse. By the way there was a good story told of the Girardins. A lady visiting Madame, was bewailing the state of public affairs .. “Il n’y a que Celui qui est en haut,” said she plaintively, “qui peut nous en tirer.” “C’est vrai,” replied Madame de Girardin, (casting up her eyes to the second floor where Emile was at work on a feuilleton) .. “il le peut, lui!” [7]
We were not .. I mean I [8] was not .. in the least alarmed—there was no room for any fear. On the thursday, the only day on which there was fighting to signify, Wiedeman was taken out to walk as usual. Still, I could not go to bed quietly that night. I sate up in my dressing gown with Robert who had some writing to do, till nearly one in the morning—but that was from the emotion of the situation, & not from the least apprehension. We could hear the distant firing—& had watched the cannons, as they were gallopped by in the dusk in answer to signals from the trumpets!–
Observe—my belief is that every moderation was used. The infamous falsifications in the English newspapers make me ashamed. Also, the sympathy of the people of Paris was with the president from the first moment——and he knew it.
I tell you a little of this, as if I had not told you much of it before. I shall be very vexed if you did not really get my letter though, because first impressions have their value & are not recallable, & also because you must have thought me so very unkind– On the saturday (the 8th) [9] Robert & I went out in a close carriage to the boulevards to examine the great sockets left in the walls of houses by the cannon balls,—& the staring, dashed-in windows. The asphalte was black with men, but everything was perfectly tranquil, & no trace left of a barricade– Now, Paris is in the bloom of the “jour de l’an” [10] —brilliant & joyous as ever– Robert could scarcely get along the boulevard two days since, for the fair-booths & the crowd.
He & I are not as one as we are accustomed to be on this subject, I must confess to you. I accuse him of being sucked a little into a vortex of sympathy with our intimates—but, also, he never liked the Buonapartes & expects no good from that “galére”. [11] We have many domestic émeutes accordingly, we who agreeing on first principles, ought to agree on the manner of carrying them out.
I was out on the 8th of December & on the tenth again—it was very mild. But, since then, we have had severe cold for several days together, & even, there was fog mixed with the frost once or twice—the consequence of which is that my cough siezed me like a wolf, & I am feeling languid & uncomfortable. For instance, my voice is completely gone,—I cant speak above my breath. There is nothing for it but patience—and today it is warm & sunshiney, which brings more hope.
Arabel has returned to Wimpole Street & looks very well, they all say. Henrietta is effectually <***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; the only January in which the Brownings resided at 138 Avenue des Champs Élysées occurred in 1852.
2. See letter 2981.
3. Cf. Amos 3:3. While foreign secretary, Palmerston expressed his approval of the coup d’état “in unofficial conversation” with the French ambassador, “and for this he was curtly dismissed from office” on 19 December by Lord John Russell, the prime minister (DNB).
4. See letter 2988, note 16.
5. EBB refers to Pelletan of La Presse, Forgues of Le National, Morton of The Daily News, and Corkran of The Morning Herald.
6. “That atrocious scoundrel … those men without conscience … & those animals.”
7. “There is no one but He who is above … who can pull us out of it. … That is true … he can do it, he!”
8. Underscored twice.
9. Sic, for 6 December; see the preceding letter, note 23.
10. “New year’s day.”
11. “Galley.” Cf. Molière, Les Fourberies de Scapin, II, vii.
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