Proudhon - A Biography

THE PRISONER
regime into La V oix du Peuple, and in a few days Proudhon was
declaring to Darimon, with delighted ‘Bravos,’ that ‘the anti-
governmental idea is being unfolded with an irresistible lucidity
and power.... Another six weeks and the State is finished.’
The State survived, but it was certainly a little disturbed by
Proudhon’s onslaught, and during the next three weeks La V oix
du Peuple was seized twice. On the second of these occasions
Proudhon had given, in an article entitled Vive UEmpereur, a
prophetic revelation o f Napoleon’s ambitions, as well as a call to
the people not to neglect their own interests when the ruling class
quarrelled among itself. ‘It is now an assured fact,’ he warned,
‘that we shall have a coup d’itat.... A t the first signal of the
coup d’itat we should put our bailiffs into the Bank, we should
burn the Great Book, throw the registers o f mortgages into the
river, destroy (to cries o f “ Long Live the Emperor”) the files of
the notaries, solicitors and registrars and all the titles o f credit
and property.’
The coup d’etat which Proudhon prophesied took place a year
and a half later; his augury o f a popular rising accompanying it
was less exact. But the authorities did not hesitate to proceed
against him for a too knowledgeable revelation of the intentions
o f the head o f the state, and on the day following the appearance
o f his article he was confined to his room and all communication
with his wife or his friends was forbidden. He managed never­
theless to inform Euphrasie surreptitiously of his situation, and
told her to be ‘calm and firm.’ ‘The wife o f citizen Proudhon
should not show any weakness.’
On the x 3 th February he was taken back to the Conciergerie;
he bore his transfer stoically, and his thought was more for
Euphrasie than for himself. ‘Remember, my child,’ he wrote to
her, ‘that in some circumstances misfortune is good. I have the
feeling that this little misfortune will be the only sorrow I shall
cause you in my life, and that from today onwards we shall be
happier than before. Have a little trust in my word, and believe
that, while accomplishing what I regard as a sacred duty, I shall
find the means to make you happy.’
On the 14th February he was called before the examining
magistrate, but remained undisturbed at the prospect of a new
trial. ‘What is happening to me,’ he told Darimon, ‘is only an
isolated fact in this vast system o f provocation and arbitrariness