it could not fail to have good results, because it would demonstrate to the laborers the emptiness and falseness of these inapplicable theories and cause them to perceive the disastrous consequences flowing therefrom for themselves, and would so discredit Louis Blanc in their eyes that he should forever cease to be a danger.”[95] The false reports which were continually being circulated concerning the _ateliers nationaux_, especially their unjust attribution to him, were a constant source of annoyance to Louis Blanc. It is probable, however, that these falsehoods have done more harm to the defenders of law and order than to the socialists. The true state of the case is now generally known, and adds bitterness to the minds of French and German laborers. The continual circulation of the falsehood that Louis Blanc had tried his _ateliers sociaux_ and they had failed, enabled Lassalle to begin an account of them with the startling phrase: “Die Lüge ist eine europäische Macht”—“Lying is one of the great powers of Europe.”[96] Louis Blanc’s power was of short duration. Although he sacrificed his popularity with the laborers in his endeavors to maintain peace and order, he was accused of participation in their rising of May 15, and fled to Belgium, thence to England, where he lived until the overthrow of Napoleon III., in 1870. Louis Blanc was, on the whole, well received in England, and maintained himself by literary work of various kinds. He wrote an account of the Revolution of 1848, which was published in two volumes, in 1870, in Paris. He was the English correspondent for the great French newspaper _Le Temps_. His letters, interesting and valuable essays on life in England, were published in four volumes in 1866 and 1867, in Paris, and in an English translation in London in the same years.[97] The 8th of September, 1870, witnessed his return to France, where he labored for the Government of the National Defence. He was elected to the National Assembly, February 8, 1871, and took his place on the extreme Left. During the rising of the Commune of Paris he again lost popularity with laborers of revolutionary sympathies, by opposing the insurrection and taking the part of the Government of Versailles. The law of March 14, 1872, directed against the International Workingmen’s Association, even found in him a supporter, although its severity is certainly extreme. It was under this law that Prince Krapotkine was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. After his return to Paris Louis Blanc published a work on questions of the time, entitled “Questions d’Aujourd’hui et de Demain.”[98] He continued to advocate quietly his doctrines in behalf of oppressed humanity, and had so gained in public estimation that upon his death, on the 6th of December, 1882, in Cannes, France, the Chamber of Deputies voted him the honor of a state funeral.[99]