THE MAN OF AFFAIRSpass, I am sure, without European society feeling our powerful
influence,’ the influence of the radicals was to be felt in 1848 only
as a reflection o f a general movement within European society.
It was characteristic of Proudhon’s paradoxical nature that in
the same letter as he declared himself a unifying agent, he also
complained against those with whom he hoped to ally himself.
The republicans had little use for him because he was not ‘a
blind partisan of war.’ The Communists regarded him almost as a
man of the centre. ‘I am in the most unfortunate position; I must
be right against everybody at once; otherwise I am lost.’
In such circumstances it was inevitable that the truce between
Proudhon and his fellow socialists should have been temporary.
Already in March, 1845, he remarked indignantly in his diary that
the republicans and Cabet had done ‘an immense wrong to
progress’ by pressing for the re-arming o f the Paris forts, which
he justly regarded as a dangerous piece o f sentimental Jacobin
bellicosity, and round about the same time he noted his specific
distrust of Cabet. ‘He is religious, dictatorial, intolerant, haughty,
intriguing... Beware!’ In the suspicion of this remark were
embodied all those individualist factors which prevented Proudhon
from ever collaborating satisfactorily with his fellow revolu
tionaries, but which also preserved the independence and origin
ality of his own thought.
4
A t the end of February, 1844, Proudhon was again in Paris.
He met Pauthier, Tissot and other old friends, continued his
fruitless negotiations with Cabet and, perhaps most important,
made the acquaintance o f a number o f orthodox political econo
mists.
This he achieved through Joseph Garnier, a celebrated econo
mist with whom he began to exchange letters during 1843. Early
in this correspondence he defended his non-academic status with
almost aggressive fervour. ‘For my part, I dare to say that, with
my turn of imagination, I see more things from my office than a
professor from his chair.’ Evidently this approach did not
alienate Garnier, who wrote for the Revue des Economistes a
sympathetic review o f The Creation of Order. ‘I do not meet such
justice among the radicals and independents, who call me
brother and citizen Proudhon,’ said the author in gratitude. But he