THE PRISONERpartly by public subscription and partly by funds set aside for
the penal colony o f Guiana. The proposal was evidently regarded
by the ministry as an occasion for sounding out Proudhon’s
position regarding the coup d’etat, and a few days later the
Comte de Morny invited him to call. A t the meeting he put
forward some highly controversial theses on the historic function
of Louis Bonaparte. The first two, as he reported them to
Edmond, were as follows: T. The government of L. B. is con
demned, by the 7,500,000 votes which absolve it, to do great
things towards realising, in one way or another, the reforms
sought by socialism. 2. L. B. comes, not to close, but to continue
the revolutionary series.’ These points are important anticipations
of Proudhon’s later thoughts on the Empire.
Morny, he claimed, admitted both his propositions, and there
then ensued an even more curious exchange. ‘Replying to various
advances from the Minister, I said to him: “ I will forgive you the
first third of your coup d’etat, if you will let me make war on the
Jesuits.” “ What Jesuits ?” “ Montalembert, Veuillot and all the
successors o f those who attacked Pascal.” “ That,” said the Min
ister, laughing, “ can be arranged.’”
Proudhon was clearly suffering from his old illusions that the
men of power might somehow be persuaded to help him dig the
grave of their own authority. But, however naive we may regard
this assumption, it must be emphasised that, while Proudhon
thought the Bonapartists might be forced by circumstances or
by his own Machiavellian arts into a policy that would expedite
social revolutionary changes, he never regarded Louis Napoleon
or his administration as active participants in the Revolution.
Bonaparte would only serve the Revolution in spite of himself,
because, having destroyed the old parties, he would be unable to
create a new society after his own image and would let the
country slide into a chaos resulting in the almost imperceptible
decay o f government and the re-edification of liberty. Anything
that might hasten this process Proudhon felt himself justified in
attempting.
10
If the outer world has grown more insecure and more puzzling
than ever, Proudhon’s personal life seemed at this time to become
an even stronger source o f balance. In January, 1852, Euphrasie