第30章

While six of its remaining parliamentary representatives had voted against, the others in a body voting for, the rejection of the bill of impeachment, while Cavaignac placed his saber at the disposal of the party of Order, the larger, extraparliamentary part of the coterie greedily seized the opportunity to emerge from its position of a political pariah and to press into the ranks of the democratic party.Did they not appear as the natural shield bearers of this party, which hid itself behind their shield, behind their principles, behind the constitution? it Till break of day the "Mountain"was in labor.It gave birth to a proclamation to the people," which on the morning of June occupied a more or less shamefaced place in two socialist journals.It declared the President, the ministers, and the majority of the Legislative Assembly "outside the constitution" and summoned the National Guard, the army, and finally also the people "to arise." "Long live the Constitution!" was the slogan it put forward, a slogan that signified nothing other than "Down with the revolution!"In conformity with the constitutional proclamation of the Mountain, there was a so-called peaceful demonstration of the petty bourgeois on June I3, that is, a street procession from the Chateau d'Eau through the Boulevards, 30,000 strong, mainly National Guardsmen, unarmed, with an admixture of members of the secret workers' sections, moving along with the cry: "Long live the Constitution!" which was uttered mechanically, icily, and with a bad conscience by the members of the procession itself, and thrown back ironically by the echo of the people that surged along the sidewalks, instead of swelling up like thunder.From the many-voiced song the chest notes were missing.And when the procession swung by the meeting hall of the "Friends of the Constitution" and a hired herald of the constitution appeared on the housetop, violently cleaving the air with his claquer hat and from tremendous lungs letting the catch -- cry "Long live the Constitution !" fall like hail on the heads of the pilgrims, they themselves seemed overcome for a moment by the comedy of the situation.

It is known how the procession, having arrived at the termination of the Rue de la Paix, was received in the Boulevards by the dragoons and chasseurs of Changarnier in an altogether unparliamentary way, how in a trice it scattered in all directions, and how it threw behind it a few shouts of "To arms" only in order that the parliamentary call to arms of June 11might be fulfilled.

The majority of the Montagne assembled in the Rue du Hasard scattered when this violent dispersion of the peaceful procession, the muffled rumors of murder of unarmed citizens on the Boulevards, and the growing tumult in the streets seemed to herald the approach of a rising.Ledru-Rollin at the head of a small band of deputies saved the honor of the Mountain.

Under the protection of the Paris Artillery, which had assembled in the Palais National, they betook themselves to the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, where the fifth and sixth legions of the National Guard were to arrive.But the Montagnards waited in vain for the fifth and sixth legions;these discreet National Guards left their representatives in the lurch;the Paris Artillery itself prevented the people from throwing up barricades;chaotic disorder made any decision impossible; the troops of the line advanced with fixed bayonets; some of the representatives were taken prisoner, while others escaped.Thus ended June 13.

If June 23, 1848, was the insurrection of the revolutionary proletariat, June 13, I849, was the insurrection of the democratic petty bourgeois, each of these two insurrections being the classically pure expression of the class which had been its vehicle.

Only in Lyon did it come to an obstinate, bloody conflict.Here, where the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat stand directly opposed to one another, where the workers' movement is not, as in Paris, included in and determined by the general movement, June 13, in its repercussion, lost its original character.Wherever else it broke out in the provinces it did not kindle fire -- a cold lightning flash.

June 13 closes the first period in the life of the constitutional republic, which had attained its normal existence on May 28, i849, with the meeting of the Legislative Assembly.The whole period of this prologue is filled with vociferous struggle between the party of Order and the Montagne, between the big bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie, which strove in vain against the consolidation of the bourgeois republic, for which it had itself continuously conspired in the Provisional Government and in the Executive Commission, and for which, during the June days, it had fought fanatically against the proletariat.The thirteenth of June breaks its resistance and makes the legislative dictatorship of the united royalists a fait accompli.From this moment the National Assembly is only a Committee of Public Safety of the party of Order.

Paris had put the President, the ministers, and the majority of the National Assembly in a "state of impeachment"; they put Paris in a state of siege." The Mountain had declared the majority of the Legislative Assembly "outside the constitution"; for violation of the constitution the majority handed over the Mountain to the haute cour and proscribed everything in it that still had vital force.It was decimated to a rump without head or heart.The minority had gone so far as to attempt a parliamentary insurrection -- the majority elevated its parliamentary despotism to law.