France Revolution

10 Pages 2416 Words

Modern History Sourcebook:
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869):
History of the Revolution of 1848 in France

Lamartine was a Romantic poet, a member of the provisional government, and a one-time presidential candidate. Here he recounts events in France in 1848. Initial demands were for liberal political reforms. Soon social and economic issues came quickly to the fore as an organized working class began to make demands.
The 12th arrondissement [note: district]of Paris had arranged a banquet. The opposition had promised to verify the right by its presence, and the banquet was to take place on the 20th of February. The ministry did not oppose it by force. They merely proposed to certify the offence by a commissary of police, and to try the question by the courts of law. The opposition was unanimous for accepting the judicial debate on this ground. Everything was prepared for this peaceable demonstration.
On the eve of it, the ministry, disturbed by a summons addressed to the National Guards, without arms, by the impatient republicans, declared at the tribune that they retracted their concessions, and would disperse the manifestation by force.
M. Barrot summoned the constitutional opposition to his house to deliberate.
It was proposed to keep aloof from the extreme resolution of the government, and M. Barrot and his friends yielded to this counsel.
On the next day a second deliberation took place at a restorator's in the Place de la Madeleine, and M. de Lamartine, M. Berryer, and M. de Laroche-jacquelein were invited to attend. They went thither.
About two hundred deputies of all complexions of moderate opposition were present. The course to be pursued was discussed. The discussion was long, varied and embarrassing, and no firm or worthy decision was reached in any quarter. If the opposition receded, it would destroy itself, dishonor its name, and lose its moral influence over the nation. It would pass under the Caudine yoke of t...