The political justification of Louis Napoleon is, as I apprehend, to be found in the state of the public mind which immediately preceded the _coup d’état_. It is very rarely that a country expects a revolution at a given time; indeed, it is perhaps not common for ordinary persons in any country to anticipate a revolution at all; though profound people may speculate, the mass will ever expect to-morrow to be as this day at least, if not more abundant. But once name the day, and all this is quite altered. As a general rule the very people who would be most likely to neglect general anticipation are exactly those most likely to exaggerate the proximate consequences of a certain impending event. At any rate, in France five weeks ago, the tradespeople talked of May, ’52, as if it were the end of the world. Civilisation and Socialism might probably endure, but buying and selling would surely come to an end; in fact, they anticipated a worse era than February, ’48, when trade was at a standstill so long that it has hardly yet recovered, and when the Government stocks fell 40 per cent. It is hardly to be imagined upon what petty details the dread of political dissolution at a fixed and not distant time will condescend to intrude itself. I was present when a huge _Flamande_, in appearance so intrepid that I respectfully pitied her husband, came to ask the character of a _bonne_. I was amazed to hear her say, ‘I hope the girl is strong, for when the revolution comes next May, and I have to turn off my helper, she will have enough to do.’ It seemed to me that a political apprehension must be pretty general, when it affected that most non-speculative of speculations, the _reckoning_ of a housewife. With this feeling, everybody saved their money: who would spend in luxuries that which might so soon be necessary and invaluable! This economy made commerce,—especially the peculiarly Parisian trade, which is almost wholly in articles that _can_ be spared—worse and worse; the more depressed trade became, the more the traders feared, and the more they feared, the worse all trade inevitably grew.