THE PRISONER
collapse, and he thought it possible that, by returning to the
tedious process o f gathering subscriptions, the editors might soon
be able to bring out a weekly publication, and perhaps eventually
build up again to a daily. But such slowness was eminently dis
advantageous. ‘Time is precious, and events happen quickly...
We know that the surest way to resume the position which Le
Peuple had conquered in the Press is to return immediately to
daily publication.’ So he set out to find some person who would
provide the means for a regular newspaper. After two months he
encountered this sponsor in Alexander Herzen.
Having left his own country in 1847, Herzen had watched the
revolutions of 1848-9 with growing disillusionment, and Proud
hon’s single-minded defiance o f the mounting reaction had been
one of his few consolations. ‘Have you been able to follow
Proudhon?’ he wrote to Granovsky. ‘What a powerful voice! His
war with that imbecile Louis Napoleon has been the very poetry
o f anger and contempt.’ Herzen and Proudhon had met in Baku
nin’s lodgings during 1847, but they had not become intimate,
and when the question of journalistic collaboration arose in 1849,
the first negotiations were conducted by Charles Edmond and
the Russian, Sazonov, both of whom knew Proudhon well.
‘I owed a great deal to Proudhon in my intellectual development,’
Herzen remarked years later, ‘and, after a little consideration, I
consented, though I knew the fund would soon be gone.’ In
August Guillemin went to Geneva, where Herzen was living, to
complete the negotiations, and finally, ten days later, Proudhon
wrote to his new collaborator defining their respective positions.
‘It is understood that, under my general direction, you shall
share in editing La V oix du Peuple, that your articles shall be
accepted without any censorship other than that imposed on the
editor of a paper by a respect for his own principles and a fear of
the law. You know, Monsieur, that, being in agreement on ideas,
we can hardly differ on deductions, and as for the appreciation of
foreign events, we shall always be obliged to yield to you. You
and we are missionaries o f one idea... We must raise the demo
cratic and social question to the level of a European league.’
Herzen agreed, and immediately sent the money he had pro
mised, but his active collaboration in La V oix du Peuple, as the
new paper was called, never became close, though he contributed
a few articles on Russia. His share in the editorial responsibility
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