THE PRISONER9
The political crisis which destroyed the Second Republic had
long been foreseen by Proudhon. The articles for which he was
imprisoned, and for which his newspapers were prosecuted, had
revealed the imperialistic ambitions of Louis Bonaparte, and in
the months that followed the latter’s election, he had watched the
deepening antagonism between the President and the Assembly
with an uneasy understanding of its implications. As early as
January, 1851, he had told Marc Dufraisse: ‘The old parties are
done for— they are nothing to fear. A ll the danger is from the
side o f the Elysee.’
By November the rift between the executive and legislative
branches o f the government had become wide and evident, and
Louis Bonaparte, who had already bullied the Assembly into
amending the Constitution to allow him to stand for re-election,
was now making a bid for popular favour by demanding the
revocation o f the discriminatory election law of the 31st May,
- By this means he not only annoyed the Right, but also
embarrassed the Left, whose representatives were themselves
pledged to put an end to this law.
As the conflict developed, Proudhon saw bad faith and
intrigue on every side. No party, he thought, was sincerely
concerned for the cause it pretended to represent; all acted from
reasons o f policy. ‘The strained situation is the result o f the
Machiavellianism o f the extreme parties,’ he noted on the 23 rd
November, and two days later he added, ‘The representatives
of the people are no longer mandatories; they are gladiators.’
Though he had long anticipated the Bonapartist coup, Proud
hon did not foresee that it would emerge as a result o f the dispute
over the law o f the 31st May. The President struck for power on
the 2nd December, and early that morning, before the news of
what was happening in Paris had penetrated into Sainte-Pelagie,
Proudhon had actually expressed in his diary an opinion that the
accord between the Mountain and the President was durable and
might be the means of averting conflict. It was not until ten a.m.
that he learnt what was afoot in the city; upon hearing the news,
he immediately asked leave to go out of the prison, diplomatically
giving his wife’s indisposition as the reason for his request.
‘I... walked through the capital and observed the population.