Proudhon - A Biography

THE STRICKEN YEARS
in the name o f a revolutionary conception o f Justice such as he
himself had already advocated in 1858.
Proudhon had hoped that Federation and Unity in Italy might,
with luck, pay for the costs o f his journey to Paris, but it attained
a quite unexpected popularity, and in February had sold more
than twelve thousand copies. Materially it was an auspicious
beginning for his return from exile, and it brought him back to
the very centre o f public discussion. The Liberal press attacked
him in strength, and he suspected it was instigated by the Pied­
montese embassy. The dynastic and clerical journalists, on the
other hand, sought to turn to their own purposes his exposure of
the fallacy o f Italian unity, and he complained that the true spirit
o f his federalist idea was being ignored. It was because o f this
confusion about his theory that he accepted the suggestion of
Dentu to write a further book to expound in detail his general
federal principles.
But before he could begin this work he had to arrange for his
family’s return. With the help o f Madame Gauthier, he had dis­
covered a suitable set o f rooms at No. 10, Grande Rue, Passy. ‘It
is very pretty, but dear— 800 francs,’ he told Euphrasie on the
10th October, and a few days later he left for Brussels. Finally, on
the 25 th October, the Proudhon family departed from Belgium,
arriving in the evening at the Hotel du Saxe in the Boulevard
Magenta. Here they stayed for three days, ‘more concerned with
medication than with business,’ since Catherine and Stephanie
were both unwell, Euphrasie was completely exhausted by the
efforts o f removal and travel, and Proudhon’s own affliction of
the head had returned with great intensity. By the 27th, however,
the whole family was sufficiently recovered to move into the
apartment at Passy.
The constant upheavals which*: his life had involved since the
Revolution were beginning to tell on Proudhon. His chronic
illness, whose periodical returns made him feel certain that no
final cure was possible and that his health must worsen pro­
gressively as he grew older, rendered the complications o f his
present life all the more unendurable, even though his restless
character made them hard to avoid. It was not until November
that he was able to start work again, and even at this time the
appearance o f returning healtlTwas deceptive, for by January,
1863, before he had been able to finish his treatise on federalism,