Proudhon - A Biography

THE EXILE
even more convinced of the necessity o f proceeding to an ex­
tended examination of the question o f nationalities. He felt the
danger was acute. ‘Once United Italy is constituted,’ he told
Buzon in August, ‘the reaction will make itself felt throughout
Europe, and the social question, the real question o f emancipa­
tion, will be adjourned for several generations.’ Accordingly, he
returned to the subject in a second article, on “ Garibaldi and
Italian Unity,” which appeared on the 7th September.
This time the uproar was greater than ever, for the Italian
nationalists were joined by the aggrieved chorus of Belgian
patriots. In order to illustrate the dangers of the unionist prin­
ciple, Proudhon pointed out that the corollary o f an Italian unifi­
cation might be an expansion of France to embrace the outlying
fragments of Charlemagne’s empire, including Belgium. This
argument was embodied in an ironic exhortation to Napoleon III:
‘Dare, Sire, as Mazzini said to Victor Emmanuel, dare, and the
Rhine, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, all that Teutonic France,
the ancient patrimony of Charlemagne, is yours.’ What Proudhon
meant was that the annexation o f the Low Countries by France
was no more absurd than the unification o f Italy as a single state.
But the Belgians chose to regard it as a direct incitement to
invade their country, and the Press burst into a chorus o f denuncia­
tion, not only in Brussels, but also in every little town in Bel­
gium and Luxembourg that supported a newspaper. Pamphlets
attacking Proudhon were published, and notes passed busily
between government officials as to whether he should be asked
to explain his statements. Such a mass misunderstanding is diffi­
cult to comprehend, and it seems all the more ironical since
Proudhon was in fact one of the few French democrats unre­
servedly opposed to annexation.
This formidable Press campaign robbed Proudhon’s position
in Belgium o f all semblance o f security, and his danger was
dramatically confirmed when a group o f Belgian nationalists
demonstrated outside his house on the evening of the 16th Sep­
tember, beating drums, singing the Brabanconne, and shouting
‘Down with the annexationists!’ A couple of policemen dispersed
the crowd and put three o f its leaders in the cells for a few hours.
Next evening the demonstrators returned, but they found the
street barred, police on duty and their quarry gone.
During the previous weeks Proudhon had been thinking of