were not likely to retreat from their position, and it seemed
clear to all but Proudhon that whatever the public conscience
might decide, his case could not succeed before the courts. ‘A ll
the lawyers tell me to expect a sentence o f five years in prison,’
he noted on the ist May, and a few days later complained that he
received condolences on every side. ‘It seems indeed as if they
were coming to my burial, as if people would like to see me dead!’
But even in such a grave situation he found reason for satis
faction. Since the seizure o f Justice, its black-market price had
risen to 200 francs, and Proudhon felt sure that, if only they had
been available, 30,000 copies might have been sold. A German
translation was being printed in Leipzig, while the authorities in
Hamburg and Prussia had decided to ban the book. ‘I have not
failed,’ Proudhon exulted. ‘Justice exists at last; the Revolution
is up and the old society is down. N ow they speak o f nothing
else in Paris, even in the girls’ schools!’ His very trial had become
in his eyes a battle where he was ‘fighting for revolutionary
justice and human rights,’ rather than for his own acquittal.
The process o f prosecution went on its ordered course. On
the 6th May Proudhon was questioned by the examining magi
strate, and on the n th he presented a petition to the Senate. This
appeal was ignored by the senators, and when he published it to
bring his case before the public, the police interpreted this as an
aggravation o f his offence and confiscated copies on the grounds
that it was calculated to ‘agitate public opinion.’ The trial before
the Correctional Court on the 6th June was a suspiciously hasty
affair. Neither Proudhon nor his friend Gustave Chaudey, who
acted as his counsel, was allowed by the President to conduct the
case in the way they had planned and, after a hearing that lasted
less than a day, Proudhon was sentenced to three years’ imprison
ment and a fine o f 4,000 francs. Garnier, the publisher, received
a month in prison and a fine o f 1,000 francs, and Bourdier, the
printer, 15 days and 1,000 francs. Clearly the case was being used,
not merely to attack radical opinions, but also to scare printers
and publishers out o f giving assistance to the writers who
expressed them.
Proudhon accepted his position with an impressive appearance
o f resignation. ‘My health,’ he assured Maurice, ‘is passable and
my tranquillity so great that it astonishes everybody.’ Indeed, it
is particularly noticeable that all through the tension and activity
THE PALADIN OF JUSTICE