truths which they themselves make and in terms o f their own
choosing.’ The idea had already occurred to him on the eve of
his departure from prison, and during the months that followed
release his scheme proliferated widely into the fields of economics,
philosophy, morals, science, history and literature, until it seemed
to him that his review would become a great machine of war
against the forces of authority, capital and the Church.
But he was not always optimistic about the possibility of
launching these great plans; he did not forget the difficulty with
which his last book had been produced, and he was aware that its
success had displeased the traditionally reactionary elements
among the Bonapartist entourage. ‘There is a veritable con
spiracy against human knowledge and understanding,’ he told
Guillemin. Yet he went ahead with his plans, and by mid-
December announced that he hoped to publish his first issue (‘un
less there are unexpected obstacles’) on the 15th January, 1853.
‘From that day,’ he promised Madier-Montjau, ‘I shall lead you,
as in ’48, by unknown paths where the censorship and the
prosecutors will not, I hope, be able to reach me.’
It was his gloomier apprehensions that were justified. The
regime had grown steadily more severe during 1852, consolida
tion had brought an end to its need for ‘democratic gestures,’
and Louis Napoleon’s ministers knew enough o f Proudhon to
see through his na'ive Machiavellianism and realise that his
pretence o f ‘pure science’ was not likely to be preserved for long.
On the 28th December, the application for authority was
rejected by de Maupas, the Minister of Police. ‘Let M. Proudhon
go and make his request to the Emperor,’ de Maupas was
reported to have said, and Proudhon interpreted this to mean
that now there would be no intervention in his favour from
above. ‘I can only attribute the refusal to the clerical spirit,’ he
remarked. But he was so anxious to find a means o f returning to
journalism that a ministerial refusal was not enough to make him
abandon his plans; he talked o f publishing his review abroad,
and he was not entirely without hope that Jerome Bonaparte,
the reputedly liberal son o f the ex-King of Westphalia, might
give him discreet assistance.
His alternating hopes and disappointments continued for more
than a year. During this time he pulled such strings as still hung
near his hands, he used what meagre backstairs influence he
THE PALADIN OF JUSTICE