Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849Various
Science
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
agitation and over-zealous movements excited suspicion; and, by the
way, in the general summing up, arrest, imprisonment, restriction of
liberty, may also take their place in the row as another little figure
in the total.
The conspiracy, however, was suppressed; the insurrection failed
entirely for the time; and Paris was told that it might be perfectly
reassured, and doze quietly again upon its pillow, without any fear
that Red-republicanism should again "murder sleep." But Paris, which
has not learned yet to recover its old quiet habit of sleeping calmly,
and has got too much fever in its system to close its eyes at will, is
not to be lulled by such mere sedatives of ministerial assurance. Once
roused in startled hurry from its bed again, and seeing the opiate of
confidence which was beginning to work its effect in very small doses
snatched from its grasp, it cannot calm its nerves at once. It will
not be persuaded that the crisis is over, and has passed away for
ever; like a child awakened by a nightmare, it looks into all sorts of
dark holes and corners, thinking to see the spectre lurking there. It
knows what it had to expect from the tender mercies of its pitiless
enemies, had they succeeded in their will; what was the _programme_ of
a new Red-republican rule--a _comité du salut public_, the _régime_ of
the _guillotine_, the _épuration_ of suspected aristocrats, the
confiscation of the property of emigrants, a tax of three _milliards_
upon the rich, a spoliation of all who "possess," the dissolution of
the national guard, the exclusive possession of all arms by the
_soi-disant_ people, and--but the list of such new-old measures of
ultra-republican government would be too long; it is an old tale often
told, and, after all, only a free translation from the measures of
other times. Paris, then, knows all this; it knows the fanatic and
inexpressible rage of its antagonist, to which the fever of madness
lends strength; it allows itself to be told all sorts of fearful
tales--how Socialists, in imitation of their London brethren, have
hired some thousand apartments in different quarters of the capital,
in order to light a thousand fires at once upon a given signal. It
goes about repeating the old vague cry--"_Nous allons avoir quelque
chose_;" and, however foolishly exaggerated its alarm, the results it
experiences are the same--again want of confidence arising from
anxiety, again suspension of trade, again a renewal of misery. The
fresh want of confidence, then, with all the attendant evils in its
train, may again, as the year of republicanism approaches to its
close, be taken as another figure in the sum-total that is sought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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