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Special pages :
Marrast and Thiers
First published: in Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 33, July 3, 1848.
We have continuously drawn the attention of the readers of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung to the intrigues of the party of the National[1], personified by Marrast. We have investigated the underhanded means by which this party strives to seize the dictatorship. At the same time we have pointed out how the dictatorship of Marrast conjures up the dictatorship of Thiers.
Several facts strikingly illustrate how much the party of the National, due to its victory, has already succumbed to the party of Thiers[2] which is now closely fused with the dynastic opposition[3].
The appointment of Carnot, a man of the National, as Minister has stirred up a violent uproar in the National Assembly. Marie’s candidature for the presidency of the National Assembly was rivalled by Dufaure’s candidature and, as the Débats reports, was only approved because he was known as “the wisest and most moderate man of the old Executive Committee”, i.e. because he made the most concessions to the old dynastic party and because he drafted the Bill on gatherings, the continuation of the September Laws, [4] and sponsored and defended it in the National Assembly! The fact ‘remains that “Marrast” and “Thiers” threw dice for the presidency of the National Assembly.
This does not satisfy, however, the “dynastic opposition”. One of the first laws that it is preparing is a law concerning the municipal councils, a law which is directly aimed against the autocracy and influence of Marrast, the Mayor of Paris. And he will fall.
In a few days the entire National Assembly will tear itself apart.
The reaction will proceed until the party of the National is excluded from all exercise of power. “Republic” and “dynastic opposition” will confront each other once more, but the republic will no longer win on the terms of February.
The people will no longer indulge in fancies. It will no longer “hide its revenge under a bushel” as Caussidière puts it and it will no longer “fling its wrath into the torrents of Styx”. [From Caussidière’s speech in the National Assembly on June 27, 1848, Neue Rheinische Zeitung, July 1, 1848] Qui vivra verra.
- ↑ The party which formed around the daily paper Le National in the 1840s was composed of moderate republicans headed by Armand Marrast; it was supported by the industrial bourgeoisie and a section of the liberal intellectuals.
The party that supported the French daily La Réforme consisted of democrats and republicans headed by Ledru-Rollin; petty-bourgeois socialists led by Louis Blanc were also associated with it. - ↑ The Party of Thiers united bourgeois politicians with royalist tendencies supporting the Orléans dynasty and voicing their opinions in the newspaper La Constitutionnel. Before February 1848, they upheld a monarchy with republican institutions and thereafter a republic with monarchical institutions.
- ↑ The dynastic opposition — an oppositional group in the French Chamber of Deputies during the July monarchy (1830-48). The group headed by Odilon Barrot represented the views of the liberal industrial and commercial bourgeoisie, and favoured a moderate electoral reform, which they regarded as a means of preventing revolution and preserving the Orléans dynasty.
- ↑ The Executive Committee (the Commission of the Executive Government) — the Government of the French Republic set up by the Constituent Assembly on May 10, 1848, to replace the Provisional Government which had resigned. It survived until June 24, 1848, when Cavaignac’s dictatorship was established.. The September Laws, promulgated by the French Government in September 1835, restricted the rights of jury courts and introduced severe measures against the press. They provided for increased money deposits (caution money) for periodical publications and introduced imprisonment and large fines for publication of attacks on private property and the existing political system.