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French Newspapers and Ephemera from the 1848 Revolution

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French Newspapers and Ephemera from the 1848 Revolution FRENCH NEWSPAPERS AND EPHEMERA FROM THE 1848 REVOLUTION MORNA DANIELS THE British Library has exceptionally fine holdings relating to the French Revolution of 1789. The three collections purchased from or on the recommendation of John Wilson Croker comprise 48,579 pieces and have been briefly listed with some indication of subject, but not all have been catalogued.^ The 'R* set, the last to be purchased in 1856, includes a few items from the revolution of 1830. In 1898 Francois Chevremont, Marat's biographer, presented seventy volumes of works by or about Marat. ^ Croker himself lived to see the French Revolution of 1848. This event sparked off uprisings thoughout Europe, in Milan, Hanover, Munich, Prague, Vienna, Hungary, Prussia and Poland, and encouraged the Chartist movement in London. It swept away the 'bourgeois' King Louis-Philippe, and ushered in a period of political instability in France which led to the rise to power of Louis-Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I. It is represented in the British Library by an interesting small collection of newspapers, prints, election material and other ephemera, placed at shelfmark HS.74/1217. Who formed this collection is not entirely clear. Included among the ephemera is a registration form to vote in the plebiscite of 1852 filled in by Charles Viennot, an 'employe' (clerk) born in i8i8, and hving at 9 rue des Mathurins, noted as being in the ist arrondissement (fig. i). The rue des Mathurins, now in the 8th and 9th arrondissements, was named after a farm belonging to the Mathurin order."^ On maps of the time it is marked as rue neuve des Mathurins, as there was another rue des Mathurins near the Roman baths (now the Cluny Museum), which has since been destroyed. In the early nineteenth century the arrondissements were numbered across Paris from top left to lower right, so the rue neuve des Mathurins was indeed in ist arrondissement.* In i860 the suburbs were incorporated and the present pattern established. Furthermore, a poster among the ephemera is addressed in ink to 'Theodore Vienot' [sic]. Presumably, therefore, a Viennot assembled the collection, but as the items were not stamped with an acquisition date, it has not been possible to discover when they arrived in the British Museum. To set the collection in its historical context, the third French Revolution began in February 1848.^ Harvests had been bad in 1845 and 1846 and potato blight had also struck in 1846. The drop in demand for goods produced in Paris had lead to half of the Parisian workforce being unemployed. During 1847 public banquets had been held to 219 D^partcmcnt de la Seine. (!e Paris. " Arrondissement, SUR LE PLEBISCITE SOUMiS AU PEUPLE Conform I? ment au tiiifrct du 7 novfrnbrc fS52. Diin'c du 21 it 22 iiovcmlire, do 8 heures du matin & 6 heurcs du soir. scniLin. Exlruil ih in Lisle, Eleciorale. Fait a Paris, lo 15 novenibre 1852. Le'lUaire, Les tlfcleursriiiinrtrrciil Ifnrs luiilrlinspii'ijniV's cmiclioisde lusscniblt!'?. Cos bulletins cotilienrlroii! sculcm le nioi Oil on le n;al MON; c'cst-&-(lire racccpiaiion ou la non accci)iaiioii du PIt-biseitc. res biilltiir.E -proiU Iniprimi^'; cii mniiu?criis, .'^ur papier hlnnr, (*t sans sifjiie esK'ricur. Fig. I. Registration certificate entitling Charles Viennot to vote in the plebiscite of 1852. HS.74/1217 220 call for universal suffrage, but Louis-Philippe and his chief minister Guizot resisted reform. A ban was placed on a banquet and a huge procession of workers scheduled for 22 February, but the procession and demonstrations took place. Attempts by soldiers and police to clear the streets lead to street fighting, an attack on Guizot's mansion, and the erection of barricades. That evening, a gun was fired at the municipal guards, perhaps by accident, perhaps as provocation, and the guards fired on the crowd, killing fifty-two of the demonstrators. The dead were dragged on carts through the poor districts. Fighting and destruction ensued. On the 24th King Louis-Philippe, who lost hope on the defection of the National Guard, abdicated. The Palais Royal and the Tuileries were sacked (though not burned down as in 1870). The King's eldest son had been killed in a carriage accident in 1842. His widow failed to persuade the National Assembly to accept her young son as King, and the Paris mob who swept her out of the Chamber ensured the election of a Provisional government which included the poet Alphonse de Lamartine, the physicist and astronomer Francois Arago, Pierre Marie, Adolphe Cremieux, Alexandre Ledru- RoUin, one of the founders and the chief financial supporter of La Reforme^ Flocon, its chief editor, the sociahst Louis Blanc, Marrast, editor of Le National, and Albert, a Parisian workman. They were installed in the Hotel de Ville. The red flag had so far been the emblem of the insurgents. In 1791 the National Guard had fired on a demonstration after martial law had been declared and indicated by a small red flag. From then on the red flag became the symbol of protest, and was flown in 1830 and 1848, together with black flags, to symbolize readiness to die.^ The Provisional government voted to retain the tricouleur^ and Lamartine (though personally in favour of the red flag) made a stirring speech in its defence in front of the Hotel de Ville. The French Republic was proclaimed on the 27th and French funds fell in London. Reforms included universal suffrage, a ten-hour day for Paris (eleven hours for the provinces), the abolition of slavery in the colonies, and the establishment of National Workshops for the unemployed. The Luxembourg Commission was set up to debate social reforms. Unfortunately nothing much practical resulted, and the collapse of the economy due to loss of confidence made it impossible for the government to subsidize the workshops for long. Taxes were still collected, and a 45% tax was imposed on land, which alienated the peasantry, who felt they were subsidizing the urban poor. Stamp duties on newspapers were suspended, as was the deposit of caution money for the duration of the elections. Nearly 400 newspapers appeared, many with titles recalhng the Revolution of 1789, and others supporting the monarchy. The papers were cheap, or even free. Collectors sought out the most ephemeral.'^ Political clubs sprang up, demanding more reforms and nationalization of financial institutions. The more ardent socialists were called Montagnards after the radicals of 1789 who had sat in the highest part of the Assembly. A communist manifesto was issued by the Club of the Rights of Man. The fiery leader of workers' demonstrations was Louis Auguste Blanqui who 221 denounced the weakness and trickery of the government, and demanded bread, freedom from taxation and the right of association for the workers. The well-organized conservatives did surprisingly well in the April elections to the National Assembly, provoking Radical anger, and violence in the provinces. On May 2 General Cavaignac was recalled from Algeria to restore order. On 15 May another huge Radical procession invaded the National Assembly and attempted to overthrow the government, but the hall was cleared by the National Guard. Blanqui, Sobrier, Raspail, Cabet-Barbes and Albert the workman were arrested and sent to the fortress of Vincennes. Louis Blanc fled into exile. When half the working population of Paris had enrolled in the workshops, the government decided to run them down gradually while trying to create work on the railways, although lack of finance made this difficult. On hearing of the decision the workers took to the streets and on 21 June fighting broke out. Next day barricades were erected in the east of the city, along the Faubourg St Antoine and at the Portes St Denis and St Martin. The battle raged all day with heavy casualties. General Cavaignac directing the government forces. The insurgents were defeated on the 24th, after about 10,000 had been killed or seriously injured. The Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur Affre, who tried to mediate, was shot through the back and died on the 27th. Another mediator. General Brea, was also killed. La Presse and ten other journals were banned. Most were allowed to reappear ten or eleven days later, except the Presse which had to wait till 6 August.' Cavaignac formed a new government and a reaction began. The insurgents were rounded up, the workshops closed and the National Guard disarmed. Caution money was again demanded for political newpapers. Though some in the National Assembly tried to amend the constitution so that the Assembly elected the leader of the country, which would have favoured Cavaignac, who had strong support in the Assembly, this amendment was defeated, and on 11 December Louis-Napoleon was elected President by universal male suffrage, the first such election in any country in the world (fig. 2). The Illustrated London News ridiculed women's political clubs which proposed that, as women were not able to vote for the President, they should choose a President's wife, since both Cavaignac and Louis-Napoleon were single. 1849 saw a continuation of the ferment of debate in Paris, fuelled by ultra-Republican and Bonapartist newspapers, but in January political clubs were gradually closed down, only six remaining at the end of the month out of thirty-seven which had existed in July 1848. The Left protested at Napoleon's use of French troops to suppress the Roman Republic. In March the imprisoned insurgents were tried at Bourges to avoid demonstrations in the capital, and by May 1,220 had been sentenced to transportation. The rest were gradually released. Large numbers of troops in the capital controlled anti- government demonstrations and foiled an attempted coup d'etat by radicals, including Ledru-Rollin, on 13 June.
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