254 WIOSNA
Polish disappointments in Prague were reflected in France and Germany. In
Paris, the socialist opposition was the only French party to pay anything more
than lip-service to the Polish cause. On 15 May, Blanqui's attempt to seize con-
trol of the National Assembly was attended by shouts of 'Vive la Pologne'. But
Blanqui was arrested, and his supporters dispersed by the National Guard. The
wordy declarations of the French liberals were devoid of any serious commit-
ment to Poland. Like Guizot eighteen years before, Lamartine made suitable
gestures in the direction of the Poles so long as he held no responsible position.
But from the moment that his own regime was recognized, he categorically
refused to raise the Polish Question. The Poles are the ferment of Europe,' he
said; 'they want a crusade for the conquest of a sepulchre.' 'We love Poland,' he
declared; 'we love Italy... but most of all we love France.' There can be no
doubt that in Lamartine's view French and Polish interests did not necessarily
coincide.^6
In the German Parliament in Frankfurt, the Polish Question received a thor-
ough airing. Yet here again, only the extreme Left, in the speeches of Leisler,
Blum, and Ruge, was prepared to pay any serious consideration to Polish argu-
ments. As soon as a conflict of interest between the Germans and Poles in
Posnania was identified, the great majority of the German delegates adopted
extreme chauvinist positions. Wilhelm Jordan, an East Prussian, asked whether
it was right that in the Grand Duchy of Posen 'half a million Germans should
live as naturalized foreigners under people of lesser cultural content'. Junghan
and Schelka raised the ominous concept of German Lebensraum in the East. A
Historical Committee advocated that the Polish area of Posnania should be
restricted to a rump 'Duchy of Gnesen' containing scarcely one-quarter of the
population. On 2 May, the Parliament voted 342 to 31 for the full incorporation
of the existing Duchy of Posen into Germany. The lines of antagonism were
clearly drawn. The Polish reaction was understandably bitter. Jan Chryzostom
Janiszewski (1818-91), a delegate from Upper Silesia, was moved to utter some
of the classic pronouncements on German - Polish relations. 'Culture which
withholds freedom', he said, 'is more despicable than barbarism'; or again,
echoing Rousseau, 'The Poles have been swallowed, but by God you won't
digest them.'^7
As the summer advanced, the revolutionary fervour of the previous months
burned itself out. The forces of Reaction revived. In June, General Cavaignac
initiated a military dictatorship in Paris after a bloody confrontation with the
radicals. In Britain, Mitchel, Meagher, and O'Brien were convicted of high trea-
son, and were transported to Australia. The Chartist Petition collapsed. The
King of Prussia was already back in Berlin. Radetzky's victory at Custozza in
July prepared the way for the recovery of Austria, and in October the Emperor
Francis Joseph returned to Vienna. By the end of the year, the Austrian army
was beginning to eliminate the pockets of resistance in the Italian states, and
was bracing itself for the final assaults on Lombardy and Hungary. The Prussian
army was undertaking a similar campaign in Germany on behalf of those