Pass J/C3^Z 
 
 Book 
 
 -8 
 
Some Recollections of the 
 
 LATE EDOUARD LABOULAYE 
 
 BY John Bigelow 
 
 ->:,•> -i •> 
 
 -3 tioo -'•-' -■ ) 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 
 ^•e,n. 
 

 A portion of these "Recollections" was read before the New 
 York Historical Society at the Celebration of its Eighty-Fourth 
 Anniversary, November 20, 1888. 
 
 
 ! .. 
 
 
 Press 
 
 G. P. PUTN^ 
 
 New^ 
 
 of 
 
 m's 
 rork 
 
 Sons 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First Interview with Laboui^aye— His First 
 ARTICI.E ON THE American Civii. War— 
 
 SUPPI.ANTS MiCHEIv ChEVAIvIER — PARIS EN 
 
 Amerique 
 
 II. 
 
 IvABoui^AYE Appointed Professor of History 
 AND Comparative Legisi^ation in the 
 Coi.i,EGE of France — Lectures on the 
 Constitution of the United States— His 
 Career as a Professor .... 8 
 
 III. 
 
 IvABOUI^AYE'S PaRTIAI^ITY FOR THE POIylTICAI, 
 
 System of the United States— A P11.1.AR 
 OF THE French Anti-Si,avery Society— Its 
 Address on the Appearance of President 
 IviNCOiyN's Emancipation Proci^amation — 
 Speech at the Funerai. of Wm. L. Dayton, 17 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TiRE^ OF Ever Tkaching History and Making 
 None— Discontented with the Tendencies 
 OF THE Empire— Discovers the Hiding- 
 PivACE OF Dr. Benjamin Franki^in's Auto- 
 biography — Wii^iviAM H. Huntington's Ac- 
 count OF its Acquisition .... 24 
 
 V. 
 
 Is BEGU11.ED BY THE Emperor into a Support 
 
 OF THE PI^EBISCITE OF 1870 — HiS DEFENCE OF 
 
 THAT Measure — His Version of the Bene- 
 DETTi Incident and his Semi-Officiai, 
 Defence of the Emperor's Course in 
 Deci^aring War 46 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Feei<ing in France towards the Prus- 
 sians, and Especiai.i<y towards Bismarck 
 
 — IMPOSSIBI^E TO IvIVE PEACEABI^Y WITH THE 
 
 Prussians for Neighbors — The Defeat at 
 Sedan 60 
 
 VII. 
 
 IvAboui^aye's Views of Gambetta — Of Other 
 Dynastic Pretenders — CouIvD Reconcii^e 
 HiMSEi^F TO No Other than the American 
 Constitution for France— His Character 
 —List of his Writings 72 
 
First Interview with Ivaboulaye— His First Article on the American 
 Civil War — Supplants Michel Chevalier — Paris en Amerique. 
 
 WHEN I arrived in Paris, in September, 1861, W. L. 
 Dayton, our minister at the French court, H, S. 
 Sanford, our minister to Belgium, and David Fuller, the 
 colored messenger at the Paris consulate, were the only 
 loyal representatives of our government, so far as I knew, 
 at the Continental courts. The diplomatic agents of the 
 United States under the administration of President 
 Buchanan, were mostly pronounced Secessionists, and 
 of those who were not, none, I believe, were in sympathy 
 with the new administration. They had also been rein- 
 forced by a considerable number of active and plausible 
 emissaries sent out months before Mr. Lincoln's inaugu- 
 ration, to prepare the public mind of Europe to believe 
 that the insurgent States had consecrated themselves to a 
 holy cause ; that they represented the true spirit, states- 
 manship, and intelligence of the country, and that the 
 most important industries of Europe were dependent 
 
2 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Upon the establisliment of their political independence. 
 The general distrust in Europe of the growing power of 
 the United States made her statesmen and press lend but 
 too willing ears to these delusive tales, so that when the 
 diplomatic agents commissioned by President Lincoln 
 arrived in Europe in 1861, the public sympathy, so far as 
 it received expression at court, in the press, in the clubs, 
 and in general society, was very largely with the insur- 
 gents. Even such an unprejudiced judge of the American 
 situation as the late Mr. Cobden had his mind so unsettled 
 by the stories of the confederate agents that he did not 
 hesitate to recommend us at that day to concede to the 
 Confederates their independence rather than prolong the 
 struggle with them, believing it to be the lesser of two 
 great evils. 
 
 It was obviously the first and most difficult duty of 
 those who were charged with the representation of the 
 new administration, to correct as fast as possible, through 
 the press and otherwise, the delusions into which 
 European society had thus been beguiled in reference 
 to the transatlantic convulsion. It was to this task 
 I was instructed by Mr. Seward, at our last interview 
 before I left the United States, to particularly address 
 myself. 
 
 On the last Sunday and Monday of September, and 
 very shortly after I reached Paris, I read, in the Journal 
 des Dibats, two elaborate papers, written in a spirit of 
 cordial sympathy with the North, and, what surprised me 
 more, with a singularly correct appreciation of the mat- 
 ters at issue between the two antagonized sections of our 
 Union. They were signed * ' E. Laboulaye^ de VInstUuty 
 
HIS APPEARANCE. 3 
 
 Knowing already something of M. Laboulaye as a writer 
 on jurisprudence, as a professor in the College of France, 
 and lecturer on the constitutional history of the United 
 States, I recognized at once the value of his alliance and 
 lost no time in addressing him a note acknowledging my 
 country's obligations to him for what he had written, and 
 begging him to allow me an opportunity of waiting upon 
 him to pay my respects in person. By return of post I 
 received from him a very cordial note, in the course 
 of which he said he would '*be happy to serve in any 
 way a cause which is the cause of liberty and justice," 
 and added : 
 
 * ' It will be very agreeable to me to make your ac- 
 quaintance, and to enter into such relations with you as 
 I formerly enjoyed \\'ith the regretted Mr. R. Walsh. I 
 am residing at present in the country, but shall return to 
 Paris the 20th October. If it should please you to come 
 to see me on Thursday, between one and five o'clock, 
 you will always be sure to find me. 
 
 "In any event, on my arrival in town I shall have the 
 honor to inform you by making the first visit, for I owe 
 you thanks," etc. 
 
 Soon after his return we exchanged visits. When I 
 called I was conducted into one of a suite of spacious 
 rooms, crowded with books and numerous tables groan- 
 ing under all the apparatus and teeming with the con- 
 fusion of active and prolific authorship. The walls were 
 decorated sparely with curious and rare engravings. I 
 found in Mr. Laboulaye, who presently entered, a gentle- 
 man of apparently middle age — he was then, in fact, in 
 his fiftieth year — with a fine, compact figure, about five 
 
4 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 feet seven inches high, of pleasing address, and altogether 
 an attractive-looking man. He wore no beard, nor had 
 he much occasion for the razor; he had the rich olive 
 complexion which prevails among the Latin race ; his 
 voice was gentle and low, though clear and admirably 
 modulated ; his hair, thin and brown, was brushed 
 smoothly to the head, which, with his black frock-coat 
 buttoned close to the chin — I never saw him dressed 
 otherwise except at dinner — gave him a slightly clerical 
 appearance. 
 
 Before we separated I managed to come to a perfect 
 understanding with him in regard to our American affairs, 
 and from that time forth his pen and his influence were 
 always at our service, and that too without any fee or 
 promise of reward other than that which he might hope 
 to realize from the triumph of institutions which for near 
 twenty years he had been annually commending to the 
 civilized world. 
 
 The article which thus brought me into personal rela- 
 tions with M. Laboulaye was, an elaborate review of 
 Gasparin's " Iv'Amerique devant I'Burope." I felt the 
 more grateful to him for the brave and imposing tone 
 of this paper, because it marked a most important change 
 in the course of the most influential journal then pub- 
 lished in France. The Dtbats had been vacillating on 
 the American question, with a tendency to accept Michel 
 Chevalier, an ardent imperialist, as its guide, and to give 
 prominence to aspects of our controversy calculated to 
 stimulate the prejudices of European states against the 
 government at Washington. 
 
 Partly to secure the circulation of M. Laboulaye's paper 
 
M. CASPAR IN. 5 
 
 in some quarters, both within and outside of France 
 where the Dibats was not frequently seen, but more to 
 encourage him to persist in supporting the cause he had 
 shown an inclination to espouse, I asked his permission 
 to reprint it in a pamphlet. * ' I am completely at your 
 disposal," he promptly replied. " I shall be charmed to 
 serve a cause which is the cause of all the friends of lib- 
 erty." The articles in question were designed to give a 
 popular expression and currency to the three proposi- 
 tions which M. Gasparin had sought to establish in his 
 book. 
 
 First — That the desire of perpetuating and propagat- 
 ing slavery, and of making it the corner-stone of a 
 new public policy, was the true cause of the revolt of the 
 South. 
 
 Second — That, constitutionally, the South had no right 
 to separate from the Union. It could not offer in de- 
 fense of this extreme measure any right violated or men- 
 aced. 
 
 Third — That the commercial interests of France coun- 
 sel neutrality on her part as the promptest and surest 
 means at her disposal for ending a desolating and frat- 
 ricidal war. The political interests of France required 
 her to remain faithful to the grand traditions of lyouis 
 XVI. and of Napoleon. The unity and independence of 
 the United States — that is say, of the only maritime 
 power which can balance that of Great Britain — is for 
 Europe the only guaranty of the freedom of the seas and 
 of the world. 
 
 In a few days M. Laboulaye forwarded to me the re- 
 vised copy of his articles, enriched by important addi- 
 tions 
 
6 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 tions to the text and an instructive introduction, and for 
 its epigraph the following prophetic language of the 
 First Napoleon on signing the treaty of 1803, which 
 doubled the territorial area of the United States : 
 
 "To emancipate the world from the commercial tyran- 
 ny of E)ngland, it is necessary to give her for a counter- 
 poise a maritime power that shall become her rival. Such 
 are the United States. The English aspire to dispose of 
 the wealth of the v^rorld. I can be useful to the universe 
 if I can prevent their ruling America as they rule Asia. 
 . . . In ceding lyouisiana, I strengthen forever the 
 power of the United States, and give to England a rival 
 upon the sea, which sooner or later shall abase her pride. ' ' 
 
 This pamphlet, when printed, was sent to the two hun- 
 dred members of the Institute, to most of the Paris bar, 
 to the diplomatic representatives residing at Paris, and 
 most of the prominent statesmen and journals of Europe. 
 The effect of it was far greater than I had ventured to 
 anticipate. It was the most thorough, comprehensive, and 
 dispassionate statement of the real issue between the 
 North and the South, and of the bearings of our struggle 
 upon continental Europe from a perfectly disinterested 
 source that had reached the parties it was most important 
 to undeceive. It led them to study the other side of the 
 American question, and to frequent the resorts of loyal 
 Americans. Friends of the Union multiplied, and those 
 who had been discouraged and silent before, were now 
 emboldened to come forward and confess their sympathy 
 
 and 
 
PARIS EN AMERIQUE. 7 
 
 and their hopes. Even the Dibats was so strengthened 
 by the response its course received that it never faltered 
 again in its defence of the Union cause, nor did M. 
 Chevalier ever appear again in the columns of that jour- 
 nal as a writer on the domestic troubles of our people. 
 
 It was about this time that M. Laboulaye brought me 
 an advance copy of his Paris en Atnkrique^ which was to 
 appear the following week. This book was a remarkable 
 literary and financial success, and was happily the means 
 of making extensively known to the American people, 
 by whom it was immediately translated and widely read, 
 one of their most efficient and timely benefactors. 
 
 Though it betrayed about as much ignorance as knowl- 
 edge of social life in the United States — the author never 
 crossed the Atlantic — it nevertheless abounded in so much 
 just and sound criticism of many French ideas, habits, 
 and institutions ; it showed such a lively appreciation of 
 much that was and more that ought to have been charac- 
 teristic of American life, and withal was animated 
 throughout with so much wit and amiable satire, that of 
 all the publications emanating from European sources 
 during our war, none had more effect than this, in weak- 
 ening the prejudice against the "Yankee," which pre- 
 vailed among what it was the fashion to call ** the better 
 classes in Europe. ' ' ' 
 
 1 Referring to this book, a copy " I have had leisure to look into 
 of which I sent him, Mr. Seward, Dr. I^^febre's dream, and am in- 
 in an unofficial note, wrote : finitely pleased with its humor as 
 
 well as its spirit." 
 
11. 
 
 lyaboulaye Appointed Professor of History and Comparative lyegis- 
 lation in the College of France— lyectures on the Constitution 
 of the United States— His Career as a Professor. 
 
 LET me here recall some of the circumstances which 
 conspired to make M. Ivaboulaye such-an earnest and 
 effective champion of American Republicanism. Shortly 
 after the Revolution of July, and on the 12th of March, 
 1831, three new lectureships were founded in the College 
 of France, one oiArchcsology, for the young Champollion, 
 one oi Political Economy, for J. B. Say, and a third of Gen- 
 eral and Philosophical History of Comparative Legisla- 
 tion^ for Eugene Lerminier. I/crminier was not a success 
 in this chair, as all know who chanced to look through 
 his lectures, which appeared in a small volume some fifty 
 years ago. He was neither a philosopher nor a histo- 
 rian, nor a jurisprudent, though he pretended to be all 
 three, and his lectures consisted of a series of vague and 
 declamatory generalities, from which nothing could be 
 extracted of real value by the most patient student. 
 
 During 
 
FIRST LECTURE. 9 
 
 During the Revolution of 1848, Lerminier resigned his 
 chair, in which, by the way, he had been represented 
 for some years by a suppliant, and lyaboulaye was desig- 
 nated as his successor by the unanimous vote of the 
 College of France, and of the Academy of Moral and 
 Political Sciences. The new professor was then but 
 thirty-eight years of age, but he was well equipped as 
 to scholarship, and the eminence of the bodies to which 
 he owed his selection, was of itself evidence of no 
 mean reputation already established. Indeed, before 
 his appointment, he had been three times crowned 
 by the Institute, of which illustrious society he became 
 a member as early as 1845. Laboulaye gave his first 
 lecture in his new chair on the 5th of May, 1849. But two 
 months remained before the vacation. He devoted them 
 to outlining the philosophy of law as he understood it, 
 and showing the necessity of seeking in history the 
 rationale of a nation's laws and institutions. He was 
 a strong partisan and champion of the historic school 
 of Savigny. 
 
 The manner in which a man makes his dSbut in a 
 new profession is always characteristic and significant. 
 It is interesting therefore to glance over the few intro- 
 ductory paragraphs of his first discourse from the profes- 
 sorial chair. It should be borne in mind that a year had not 
 elapsed since I^ouis Philippe had abandoned his throne and 
 taken refuge in a foreign land ; the provisional government 
 which succeeded had proved unsuccessful, and lyouis Na- 
 poleon had been already five months President of France. 
 
 '* In taking this chair, to which the excessive amia- 
 bility of the gentlemen who are the honor of this institu- 
 tion 
 
lO EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 tion and the glory of French science has called me, I feel 
 how great and delicate is the task, and how much, even 
 before I have merited it, I have need of all your indulgence. 
 
 *' A stranger to the functions of a teacher, without the 
 habit of public speaking, past the time of life when the 
 facility of speech is acquired, I must discuss before you a 
 subject doubly difficult — the History and the Philosophy 
 of IvCgislation. 
 
 ' ' On the one hand, the doctrine is quite new and 
 almost unknown in France which undertakes to with- 
 draw legislation from the region of metaphysics, where it 
 has been too long astray, to make of it a positive science, 
 the output of experience rather than of ratiocination. 
 
 *' On the other hand, it is a doctrine to which our pres- 
 ent situation gives an altogether exceptional gravity, and 
 which, however prudent the master, must encounter num- 
 berless difficulties, for it is impossible that this doctrine 
 should not transform itself into a rule of action. 
 
 " In effect, gentlemen, the questions which for a year 
 past have shaken Europe to her secular foundations, the 
 questions which have so recently torn up the pavements 
 of our ensanguined streets and still rumble under our feet 
 like a subterranean fire : The sovereignty of the people ; 
 the distribution of political powers ; the popular liberties, 
 and, going down still deeper, the right to property ; the 
 right to labor, i^idustry and pauperism ; all these politi- 
 cal, or, as they call them nowadays, social questions, and 
 which I could multiply to infinity, what are they but the 
 external problem of all legislation under new names. At 
 the same time, what else is the necessary and exclusive 
 object of this teaching ? 
 
 *' Take 
 
HISTORICAL EMPIRICISM. II 
 
 "Take laws apparently the most simple, those which 
 for centuries the sanction of experience and universal 
 respect have lifted above all debate. 
 
 " Ask by what right the lender receives from the bor- 
 rower more than he has given him. 
 
 ' ' Ask why society transmits and guarantees to the son 
 the heritage of the father. And as soon as you begin to 
 question you will see opening before you, in every direc- 
 tion, perspectives of infinite extent. In approaching the 
 most insignificant question of private law you will en- 
 counter the most difiacult problems of political economy, 
 of philosophy, and of history. On the very surface, even 
 at your feet, you will touch questions which reach to the 
 very foundations of society, and as soon as you rise above 
 mere usage or custom, and begin to look into the history 
 and the philosophy of laws, you will perceive that what 
 is called " legislation " is nothing but politics. 
 
 '' What should be done in such a case ? Close our eyes 
 before unexpected light ? Accept facts without disquiet- 
 ing ourselves about the reason of them ? Reduce science 
 to endless statistics ? Presume to compare the laws of 
 different people without assuring ourselves of a legitimate 
 and common measure? in fine, judge them not by a rule 
 approved by the reason, but by their contingent and vari- 
 able effects, and with an appreciation which passion will 
 always interpret cL son gr^ ? 
 
 " Gentlemen, such empiricism, a study so truncated, 
 would be unworthy of you and of me. I shall never per- 
 mit myself to forget that I have the distinguished honor 
 of addressing the intellect of France, men who, to-mor- 
 row, as citizens, as magistrates, as legislators, perhaps, 
 
 will 
 
12 EDOUARD LABOULAYE, 
 
 will have great weight in determining the destinies of our 
 country, of a country which no longer recognizes any 
 sovereign but opinion, which, of course, does not mean 
 the sovereignty of passion or error, but of justice and 
 reason. 
 
 " Cost what it may, it is upon this still-smoking soil we 
 must advance. Our end is truth ; we must march through 
 these ruins of yesterday without terror of the burning 
 ashes grinding under our feet. 
 
 " This enigma, which for sixty years the Sphinx of 
 Revolutions has been putting to Europe, it is now our 
 turn to meet and solve, if we wish to arrest the genera- 
 tions which follow us on the brink of the abysses in 
 which, every fifteen years, are periodically swallov>7ed up 
 the greatness and wealth of France and its most noble 
 and generous blood. 
 
 "To become masters of our destinies, to conquer this 
 durable peace, this confidence in the future, this secu- 
 rity without which a country no more belongs to itself 
 than an individual, there is, gentlemen, only one means : 
 that is, to found, or rather to re-establish, on its true 
 foundations, the science of legislation — social science par 
 excellence. It is to assure ourselves by study and experi- 
 ence of the solidity of the principles on which society 
 reposes ; it is to yield an enlightened obedience ; it is to 
 replace habit and fault by reason. 
 
 "Tradition, worship of the past, love of ancient cus- 
 toms, these virtues of other days which Europe has for 
 so many centuries exalted as the basis of social order, 
 have disappeared with the old monarchy. Since 1786 it 
 is not from France we must ask for that enlightened 
 
 respect 
 
FRANCE SINCE 1786. 1 3 
 
 respect for the past, which, instead of obstructing reform 
 assures it, by modifying and controlling it ; a country 
 where revolutions, accumulating ruins upon ruins, have 
 always had for their object to make a tabula rasa, and to 
 break with the past. It is not on tradition ; it is on 
 science, and science alone, that society must repose. 
 Every institution that is not made legitimate by its actual 
 justice, by its present or prospective utility is a dead in- 
 stitution. Whatever be the majesty of the associations 
 which protect it, its past will not defend it for a single 
 day." 
 
 In opening his winter course, in December, 1849, ^^- 
 boulaye proceeded to apply the principles which in the 
 spring he had outlined to his pupils, by an analysis of the 
 history and principles of the Constitution of the United 
 States. There was already some talk of revising the 
 French constitution of 1848, which was generally con- 
 ceded to be defective and unsatisfactory. I^aboulaye 
 wished the American constitution taken for a model, and 
 this motive no doubt determined him in making that 
 instrument the theme of his course. De Tocqueville's 
 book, then only about ten years old, had produced a pro- 
 found impression on the educated classes in France, but 
 he had confined himself to the domain of generalities. 
 It remained for some one to make an analysis of our con- 
 stitutional system, and to study the operation of its 
 several provisions in detail. Laboulaye thought the time 
 for such a study of practical politics had arrived, and that 
 he was the man to deal with it. He resolved to devote 
 the winter of 1849 to this subject. He discovered, how- 
 ever, before the season was over, that France was not ripe 
 
 for 
 
14 
 
 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 for sucli doctrine ; that Bonapartism, just restored, was 
 not in sympathy with it ; that the United States were too 
 far off, and, perhaps, that the liberty enjoyed in America 
 cost more than it seemed to his countrymen to be worth. 
 Whatever the reason, the course was discontinued with 
 the season, and for the succeeding twelve years he devoted 
 himself almost exclusively to the illustration of the his- 
 tory of Roman jurisprudence. He did resume his lectures 
 on the American Constitution, however, in 1862, and in 
 the course of that and the succeeding year completed the 
 course, which was subsequently printed, and which may 
 be found now in many languages and in almost any well 
 selected statesman's library.^ 
 
 ^ On the 26th of January, 1863, 
 I invited the late Richard Hoe, 
 a name now almost as indissol- 
 ubly associated with the art of 
 printing as that of Guttenberg, 
 to accompany me to hear one of 
 M. I^aboulaye's lectures at the 
 College of France. It chanced 
 that the subject of his discourse 
 was that period of our colonial 
 history which embraced " the 
 old French war." His room 
 was full without being crowded. 
 His manner at a lecture was 
 dignified without being austere 
 or airy, which is more than can 
 be said of some of the professors 
 of note in the I,atin Quarter. 
 He spoke with unfaltering flu- 
 ency, as if thoroughly imbued 
 with his subject, while his 
 
 humor, which was refined, fre- 
 quently wreathed the features 
 of his audience in smiles. He 
 was occasionally interrupted 
 with mild applause. I re- 
 member that he gave us an 
 opportunity of observing how 
 difierently the history of one's 
 own country sounds when ex- 
 pounded by a foreigner, espe- 
 cially if the national prejudices 
 of the parties are involved. He 
 said, in the course of his re- 
 marks, that in consequence of 
 firing upon and killing M. 
 Creve-Coeur, Washington was 
 obliged to sign a most humiliat- 
 ing capitulation to the French 
 commander, after having been 
 sorely beaten, " a fact," said M. 
 I^aboulaye, ' ' which has always 
 proved 
 
ROBERT HOE. 
 
 15 
 
 While lecturing on the American Constitution, Labou- 
 laye delivered a concurrent course on the " Politics of 
 Aristotle," and another on the " Criminal Procedure of 
 England," Of the former not a trace has been found 
 among his MSS. This is a loss greatly to be regretted, 
 for he had expended much thought and study upon it, 
 and there is little doubt that he expected it to survive 
 him. Perhaps there is no occasion yet to despair of its 
 ultimate recovery. During the seven succeeding years 
 to 1871, I^aboulaye took for the subjects of his lectures, 
 ''The History of French Legislation and Administration 
 Under the Reign of Louis XVL," and the ''Esprit des 
 Lois of Montesquieu." 
 
 The first of these courses was reported in the Revue des 
 
 strength of his sympathies and 
 the fervorof his patriotism, that 
 they would have been esteemed 
 liberal anywhere, and must 
 have seemed lavish in a com- 
 munity where contributions of 
 ten francs from a princess of the 
 blood imperial was considered 
 worthy of a separate announce- 
 ment in the Moniteur. On the 
 following morning each of us 
 received a note of most cordial 
 thanks from the professor, in 
 which he gave us to understand 
 that it was through our generos- 
 ity that his collection had proved 
 a success, — "a new reason," he 
 added in his note to me, for 
 loving Americans and America, 
 which I regard as a second 
 country." 
 
 Cours 
 
 proved a thorn in the side of 
 American historians." 
 
 At the close of his lecture he 
 observed to his audience that he 
 had been requested, in common 
 with all the faculties of the sev- 
 eral institutions of learning in 
 Paris, to invite his audience to 
 contribute towards the relief of 
 the poor who had suffered from 
 extraordinary floods in some of 
 the southern departments. The 
 papers of the morning had pre- 
 pared us for this collection, and 
 we had provided ourselves with 
 checks, which we handed to 
 him before leaving. The amount 
 of our contributions surprised 
 him. How much Mr. Hoe's was 
 I do not know, though I need 
 not say to those who knew the 
 
l6 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Cours at the time, and I understand will be soon repub- 
 lished. Of the second, nothing remains but what the 
 lecturer incorporated into his notes to an edition of 
 Montesquieu's works, published in 1875-1879. 
 
 At the close of the year 1871, and of the Franco-Ger- 
 man war, Laboulaye was chosen a member of the French 
 Parliament. His new duties compelled him to suspend 
 his lessons at the College of France, which he did not 
 resume until December, 1877. He then commenced a 
 course on Constitutional Law, but his health compelled 
 him to suspend them in 1879. He resumed his chair in 
 1881, but only for a brief period. His last lecture was 
 delivered on the 15th of May, 1882, and he died on the 
 25th of May, 1883, in the seventy-third year of his age. 
 
III. 
 
 I^aboulaye's Partiality for the Political System of the United 
 States— A Pillar of the French Anti-Slavery Society— Its Ad- 
 dress on the Appearance of President I^incoln's ^mancipation 
 Proclamation— Speech at the Funeral of Wm. 1,. Dayton. 
 
 MR. LABOUIvAYK'S value as a friend of the Union, 
 and of representative government was not long in 
 being recognized in the United States. The press pro- 
 claimed his sympathetic utterances wherever the Federal 
 mails could carry them ; the Union I^eague Club, of New 
 York, ordered his portrait by Fagnani, which now adorns 
 its walls, a bronze bust of him was placed in the Union 
 League Club in Philadelphia, and at the close of our 
 war, his name was more widely and more generally 
 known in the United States than in Europe. At the 
 funeral of our minister, Mr. Dayton, in 1865, I invited 
 him to be present and address a few words to the mourn- 
 ing assembly — an ofiS.ce which he executed with great 
 delicacy and feeling.' From that time forth until his 
 death he was a feature of pretty much every solemn 
 
 1 His discourse on this occa- as a part of the history of the 
 sion is entitled to be preserved Civil War, even if it were not an 
 
 assemblage 
 
i8 
 
 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 assemblage of our country people, in which foreigners 
 participated. He was also a prominent figure in the 
 organization of a French anti-slavery society in 1865 — a 
 society designed to concentrate the anti-slavery sentiment 
 of the French people against the Imperial government, 
 which had been detected intriguing with the Confeder- 
 ates, in behalf of the dynasty it was trjnng to impose upon 
 Mexico. Guizot, De Broglie, Cochin, Montalembert, and, 
 I think, St. Hilaire, were associated in the scheme. Its 
 active life, I believe, terminated with our war. 
 affecting and impressive tribute ttk moins fiddle ^ cette alliance ; 
 
 to the memory of an eminent 
 public servant. 
 
 Remarks oj Mr. Laboulaye at 
 the funeral of Hon. Wm. L. 
 Dayton, at the American Chapel 
 in Paris, 1864 : 
 
 Je cede &, I'invitationde I'hon- 
 orable M. Bigelow U est bon 
 qu'une voix frangaise et amie 
 rende un dernier homage S. un 
 homme qui laisse en France les 
 plus honorables souvenirs et les 
 plus sinceres regrets. 
 
 Messieurs, il y a bientdt cent 
 ans que, au milieu d'une crise 
 terrible, 1' Am^rique et la France 
 se sont li^es d'une amiti^ irrevo- 
 cable. II y a eu quelquefois des 
 nuages entre les gouvernements, 
 il n'y en a jamais eu entre les 
 peuples. Pour un concitoyen de 
 lya Fayette, le compatriote de 
 Washington ne sera jamais un 
 stranger. I^'Am^rique n'a pas 
 
 et pour I'entretenir elle nous 
 a toujours envoys comme min- 
 istres des politiques les plus 
 habiles, et les plus sages. C'est 
 Franklin qui a fond4 et ciment^ 
 cette amiti^ ; et ^pres lui sont 
 venus Jefferson qui donnait des 
 si sages conseils a nos constitu- 
 ants ; Gouverneur Morris, cet 
 esprit si fin et ingenieux ; :^d- 
 ward Ivivingston le r^formateur 
 des lois p^nales qui figurent 
 dignement sur cette liste de 
 noms glorieux. 
 
 Messieurs, rappelez vous dans 
 quelles circonstances, M. Day- 
 ton est venu en 1861 r^presenter 
 les F)tats Unis pres de la France ? 
 Je ne veux blesser personne ; 
 dans un pareil jour, en un tel 
 lieu il n'y a de place que pour 
 I'amiti^ et pour regrets. Mais, 
 je puis dire, que le grand mal- 
 heur de la guerre civile c'est 
 a la fois d'aflfaiblir un peuple 
 
 This 
 
DA VTON'S FUNERAL. 
 
 19 
 
 This body held a meeting in February, 1866, at which 
 the most conspicuous notabilities of France assisted, to 
 take formal note of President Ivincoln's proclamation, 
 announcing the abolition of slavery in the United States, 
 of which I had sent a copy to the president of the society. 
 An address was prepared by M. Laboulaye in behalf of 
 that body, and sent to me, to be transmitted to the presi- 
 dent. Time has increased, rather than diminished, the 
 interest of the address, and of the reply to it, which in 
 due time I received from Mr. Seward. 
 
 au dedans et de ramoindrir au 
 dehors. %u pareil cas, il y a 
 pour un ministre une inquie- 
 tude, une susceptibility plus 
 grande que de coutume ; on 
 defend la dignity de son pays. 
 
 M. Dayton fut S. la hauteur de 
 cette tache delicate. Grace a sa 
 franchise, a sa loyant^, a sa 
 courtoisie,— J'en appelle a I'hon- 
 orable ministre que J'apergois 
 ici,'— il sut maintenir les rela- 
 tions des deux pays sur le meil- 
 leur pied, a des conditions ^gales, 
 c'est a dire 4galement honora- 
 bles pour les deux pays. 
 
 C'est la un service rendu a la 
 France non moins qu a I'Ani^r- 
 ique, et qui gardera dans I'ave- 
 nir le nom de M. Dayton. 
 
 Parler d'avenir ! J'oublie que 
 je suis en face de la mort, que 
 
 reste-t-il de nous qu'un peu de 
 poussi^re bientot evanouie ; un 
 souvenir qui s'eflFace et s'eteint 
 avec le dernier de ceux qui nous 
 ont aim^s. Et cependant pour 
 ceux qui survivent, c'est une 
 consolation, c'est un besoin que 
 de parler des m^rites et des 
 vertus de ceux qu'on a perdus. 
 Ce sont ces m^rites qui les ac- 
 compagnerent au pied du tribu- 
 nal supreme, et leur rendront, 
 nous esperons, I'^ternelle mis- 
 ^ricorde. EJt heureux peut gtre 
 celui qui, comme M. Dayton 
 peut se presenter avec les ser- 
 vices qu'il a rendus a la patrie, 
 et peut dire qu'il a to uj ours 
 soutenu la cause qu'il a cru (et 
 que je crois comme lui) la cause 
 de la Justice, de I'humanit^, et 
 de liberty." 
 
 » Mr. Drouyn de I,huys, 
 I^rance. 
 
 Ministre des affaires ^trangeres of 
 
20 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 ( Translation. ) 
 
 Paris, January 20, 1866. 
 
 Mr. Ambassador : — The members of the French 
 Emancipation Society have received with emotion and 
 sympathy, the proclamation announcing the abolition of 
 slavery, which you instructed me to communicate to 
 them. 
 
 In a numerous meeting assembled to consider the 
 future fate of the freedmen of your country, I read your 
 letter. It transformed our gathering, in a measure, into 
 a thanksgiving festival. 
 
 This century has witnessed the abolition of serfdom in 
 Russia, and of slavery in the United States. That is 
 glory enough for it. 
 
 We entertain the hope that the illustrious successor of 
 lyincoln and the statesmen and Christians of America 
 will know how to make citizens of those whom they have 
 made freedmen. The civilized world expects from them 
 the success of this grand experiment. 
 
 We shall watch the steps of its progress with the most 
 untiring interest ; and we beg you to thank the President 
 of the United States, in the name of our Committee, for 
 the measures which he has heretofore taken, and for the 
 noble instrument to which his name shall remain at- 
 tached, as we thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for having 
 communicated it to us. 
 
 Please accept the expression of our high consideration. 
 The President of the Committee, 
 
 The Secretary, Edward Laboui^aye. 
 
 A Cochin. Member of the French Institute, 
 
em a nci pa tion procla ma tion. 2 1 
 
 Department of State, \ 
 Washington, March 5, 1866. J 
 
 Sir : — Your despatch of the 7th ultimo, and its accom- 
 paniments, relative to the communication which Mr. 
 Laboulaye, the acting President of the French Commit- 
 tee of Emancipation, has addressed to you upon the sub- 
 ject of the president's proclamation announcing the 
 abolition of slavery in the United States, have been 
 received. In reply to Mr. Laboulaye, I will thank you to 
 inform him that the congratulations of the society upon 
 the auspicious event are gratefully received and highly 
 appreciated ; that this government entertains no appre- 
 hensions for the future of a race physically qualified to 
 obtain for itself, by industry and application, prosperity 
 and happiness, under our free and equal Constitution of 
 government ; and therefore we feel assured that this 
 desirable result will be peacefully and creditably accom- 
 plished. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Wii.i,iAM H. Seward. 
 John Bigelow, Esq., etc., etc., etc. 
 
 There is no doubt that M. I^aboulaye's sympathy with 
 the Federalists in our Civil War was largely due to his 
 anti-slavery sentiments, but whoever attributed it all or 
 mainly to that source, would fall into a great error. He 
 deprecated a failure of the great republican experiment 
 in America more than the perpetuation of slavery for a 
 few years, more or less, but as it seemed to be a question of 
 life and death between popular sovereignty and slavery, 
 he was also uncompromising in his treatment of slavery. 
 
 Having been appointed professor of Comparative Legis- 
 lation 
 
22 EDOUARD LABOULAYE, 
 
 lation as early as 1845, and since then a diligent and 
 sympathetic student of tlie constitutional history and 
 polity of the United States, he had thoroughly imbued 
 himself with the theoretic principles of our government, 
 and no American probably was more utterly convinced 
 than he, that nowhere in this world, outside of the United 
 States, could be found such durable guaranties to the 
 people, of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. He thought it, therefore, a matter of world- 
 wide concern that our republic should prove its capacity 
 to deal with the enemies of its own household. He was 
 one of the very few conspicuous Frenchmen — perhaps, 
 beside M. de Tocqueville, it would be dif&cult to name a 
 third — who knew so nearly where the sovereignty of the 
 State properly terminated, and where the sovereignty of 
 the People began, and he never ceased to deplore the 
 inability of his countrymen to recognize the limitations 
 of the powers of the State as taught by the fathers of 
 the republic. 
 
 " God knows," he says in his preface to V Etat et ses 
 Lintites, "that our ignorance on this subject has cost 
 us dear. When we look back over the long series of our 
 revolutions since 1789 we find that parties, though divided 
 on every thing else, are always in accord on one point. 
 They regard power and liberty as irreconcilable enemies. 
 With the liberals of the old school to weaken power was 
 to fortify liberty. With the partisans of order-at-any- 
 price, to crush liberty was to fortify power ; double and 
 fatal illusions yielding only anarchy and despotism. 
 When authority is disarmed liberty degenerates into 
 license and perishes by its own excesses. 
 
 ** ' What 
 
LIMITS OF POWER AND LIBERTY. 23 
 
 " * What is too feeble to oppress,' says wisely Bossuet, 
 ' is powerless to protect.' On the contrary, when liberty 
 is sacrificed you will have a power which is neither sus- 
 tained nor contained. . . . We must learn that au- 
 thority and liberty are not two hostile powers made to 
 devour each other eternally ; they are two distinct ele- 
 ments making part of one and the same organism. lyib- 
 erty represents the individual life, the state represents the 
 common interests of society ; they are two circles of ac- 
 tion which have neither the same centre nor the same 
 circumference. They touch at more than one point, but 
 they should never be confounded." 
 
 It is not surprising that the professor of such doctrines 
 and the writer who displaced Chevalier in the DSbats re- 
 ceived no official recognition from the imperial govern- 
 ment. He was several times put in nomination for the 
 Corps lycgislatif, but the government was always strong 
 enough and foolish enough to defeat him. He once 
 showed me a silver inkstand presented to him by his 
 political admirers at Strasbourg, who in a note proclaimed 
 him their perpetual candidate for the Corps lyCgislatif. 
 
IV. 
 
 Tires of ever Teaching History and Making None— Discontented 
 with the Tendencies of the Empire — Discovers the Hiding- 
 Place of Dr. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography— William H. 
 Huntington's Account of its Acquisition. 
 
 THK frequent disappointment of his hopes of political 
 advancement preyed upon Laboulaye's spirits more 
 than he was willing to confess. He thought he was too 
 much of a philosopher to esteem any political power or 
 distinction necessary to his happiness, but in this he de- 
 ceived himself, as many others had done before him and 
 many more have done and will continue to do after him. 
 He saw men in ever so many ways his inferiors occupying 
 positions of influence ; their speeches quoted ; their ante- 
 chambers thronged, and their sentiments discussed in 
 cabinets and in the press, while his career was threatened 
 with sterility, for in France a professor's chair is com- 
 monly coveted as a stepping-stone rather than as a finality. 
 He did not see that literature and science had any more 
 rewards for him, and he could not reconcile himself to 
 
 the 
 
FRA NKLIN'S A UTOBIOGRA PHY. 25 
 
 the idea of living and dying only a professor ; of always 
 teaching history and never making any. How profound- 
 ly this apprehension disturbed him, he unconsciously 
 betrayed in a letter written to me in October, 1868. 
 
 To make the introductory portion of this letter more 
 intelligible, and this record of our obligations to M. I/a- 
 boulaye more complete, it is proper that I should say 
 here that it was to him that I was indebted mainly for 
 the discovery and repatriation of Dr. Franklin's Auto- 
 biography. How this happened is a curious chapter in 
 the history of a remarkable book,' 
 
 Mr. Laboulaye was my guest one day at dinner in Paris 
 in the summer of 1866. He had just translated and pub- 
 lished a compendious selection from the writings of 
 Franklin, and as he had amiably sent me a copy, it nat- 
 urally became one of the topics of our conversation. In 
 the course of the entertainment I asked my guests, who, 
 as far as I remember, were all French gentlemen of let- 
 ters, if they had ever heard, or if they had any reason to 
 suspect, that the original manuscript of Franklin's "Au- 
 tobiography " was in France. All answered in the nega- 
 tive. I then assigned some reasons for thinking that, 
 unless it had been destroyed, which was in the highest 
 degree improbable, it was somewhere within the limits 
 of the empire. 
 
 1 The statement which follows lin, published in 1887-1888, but as 
 
 was transferred to, and made a only 600 copies of that work were 
 
 part of, the introduction to the printed, I need offer no apology 
 
 Autobiography of Franklin forretainingitin this chronicle, 
 
 which appeared in Bigelow's for which it was originally pre- 
 
 edition of the works of Frank- pared, 
 
 ISt. 
 
26 EDOUARD LABOULAYE, 
 
 ist. I said I had received the impression, some years 
 previous, from the late Henry Stevens, a professional 
 book collector in London, that he had seen the MS. in 
 the hands of a gentleman residing in France. I had an 
 indistinct impression that he said Amiens, and that he 
 had only been discouraged from buying it by the price. 
 
 2d. Romilly (Sir Samuel) in his diary speaks of having 
 looked through the " Autobiography of Franklin " at the 
 house of a friend whom he was visiting in Paris in 1802.^ 
 
 3d. If, as this record authorized the belief, the original 
 MS. was ever in France, there was every reason to pre- 
 sume it was there still. 
 
 4th. It was in the highest degree improbable that a 
 MS. of that character could be in the United States, with- 
 out its lodging-place being a matter of common notoriety, 
 whereas none of Franklin's numerous biographers pro- 
 fess to have had any trace of it after the death of Wm. 
 Temple Franklin in 1823. 
 
 5th. As Wm. Temple Franklin embarked for Europe 
 within a few weeks after the death of his grandfather, 
 whose papers he inherited, and never returned to the 
 United States, the presumptions were that this MS. was 
 in Europe, and that it was not in the United States. 
 
 M. Laboulaye seemed struck by the force of these con- 
 siderations ; said he had a friend at Amiens who would 
 be sure to l^now if any literary treasure of that nature 
 was concealed in the neighborhood ; and if in France, 
 whether at Amiens or not, he felt confident of being able to 
 ascertain through some of his friends in the Academy ; and 
 he very kindly volunteered to look into the matter at once. 
 
 1 " lyife of Romilly." vol. i., p. 408. 
 
 Weeks 
 
FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 27 
 
 Weeks and montlis rolled on, but I heard nothing fur- 
 ther of the MS. 
 
 When about leaving for England on my way to the 
 United States, in the winter of 1866-7, and after sending 
 my family and personal baggage to the railway station, 
 I set out in a cab to make two or three farewell calls 
 upon some friends whose residences were not much off 
 of my route to the station. Among them was Mr. Labou- 
 laye, whom I was fortunate enough to find at home. 
 During our half-hour's interview I asked him if he had 
 ever thought to make any inquiries about the "Autobi- 
 ography." He replied that he had, but that his friend 
 upon whom he specially relied had not been able to 
 throw any light upon the subject. He added, how- 
 ever, that he meant to institute some further inquiries 
 among his confreres of the Academy, and if, as cer- 
 tainly seemed probable, it was in France, he said he 
 did not despair of finding it. I thanked him, gave him 
 my lyondon and New York addresses, and went on my 
 way. 
 
 I had spent nearly a month in London, was about to sail 
 in a few days for the United States, and had quite aban- 
 doned all expectation of hearing any thing from the " Au- 
 tobiography," when, on the 19th of January, a letter from 
 M. Laboulaye was handed me by the postman, which in- 
 formed me not only that the habitat of the MS. had been 
 discovered, but that it, with several other precious relics 
 of our illustrious countryman, could be bought for a 
 price, a large price it is true, but a price which did not 
 seem beyond their value to an American. M. I^abou- 
 laye's letter ran as follows : 
 
28 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 12 Janvier, 1867, 34 RuE Taitbout. 
 
 Cher Monsieur Bigei^ow : 
 
 Eureka ! J'ai trouv^, grace a un ami, le manuscrit de 
 Franklin et son possesseur. 
 
 M. de S6narmont, heritier de la famille I^e Veillard, et 
 qui demeure a Paris, me de Varennes, No. 98, nous ^crit 
 qu' il possede : 
 
 1. Le MS. originel autographe complet (?) des memoires 
 de Franklin. 
 
 2. Une collection considerable de lettres de Franklin, 
 formant un ensemble de correspondance. 
 
 3. Un portrait en pastel de Franklin, donne par lui a 
 M. Le Veillard. 
 
 Kt il demande en tout la somme de vingt cinq mille 
 francs. Vous voici sur la voie. C'est d vous maintenant 
 d faire ce qui vous conviendra. Adieu recevez encore 
 tons mes voeux pour votre bonheur en ce monde et dans 
 Vautre (je parle du Nouveau Monde). Votre bien 
 devout. 
 
 Bd. LABOUI.AYE. 
 
 The next mail took from me a letter to my cherished 
 friend, the late William H. Huntington, in Paris, enclos- 
 ing Laboulaye's note, asking him to go to No. 98 Rue de 
 Varennes, and examine the articles referred to, and, if 
 satisfied of their genuineness, I authorized him to offer 
 fifteen thousand francs for them. In two or three days 
 I received from him the following most characteristic 
 letter : 
 
W. H. HUNTINGTON. ^9 
 
 21 Janvier, '67. 
 High private and fiducial. 
 
 Dkar Mr. B1GE1.OW : 
 
 Yours of no date whatsoever reached me Saturday, and 
 that of Laboulaye,' the same afternoon. Mr. ly. knows 
 nothing more of the MSS. and portrait than that he wrote 
 you; gave me letter of presentation to M. Senarmont, 
 whom he does not know, in the which he mentioned 
 your name with full titles, and addressed it 78 Rue de 
 Verneuil. 
 
 It was late to go there that day. A "glance at the 
 map " will show you that it is the \ St. Germain, and so 
 I did not go. 
 
 Fytte Second. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 After breakfast and " girding myself up "—(how much 
 easier one feels after it), I took the letter in my hand on 
 this blessed day and got myself up to the highest num- 
 ber in the Rue de Verneuil, which I found, like Frank- 
 lin's Memoirs, broken off some time before 78. Where- 
 upon " I fetched a compass," as St. Paul would say, and 
 ran for Rue de Varennes, where I presently made No. 98, 
 and hailing a concierge, found I had reached port this 
 time. O such a concierge— '(io'Co. he and his female! 
 reputable, civil, in a comfortable room. While getting 
 up a broad, clean staircase, did hear bell ringing in the 
 court. By the time I reached the door au 2me, a gentle 
 domestic aperient was already there, by whom my pas- 
 sage through ante-room to dining-room was lubricated, if 
 
 1 A letter of introduction to M. I^aboulaye, which I had sent him 
 by a subsequent post. 
 
30 EDOUARD LABOULAYE, 
 
 I may so speak, and I was eased of my card and letter in 
 the most soothing manner. The dining-room was thor- 
 oughly warmed : — through the open door into the salon ; 
 a carpet continuous with the parquet, and comfortable 
 chairs, and other quietly, not newly rich furnishing, and 
 still another fire, offered so many peaceful indications 
 that here was not a shop to buy things cheap in. M. de 
 S. presently appeared from up-stairs (occupy two floors, 
 then !). Handsome (not pretty) 33 a 37 of age, courteous, 
 shrewd I guess, but really a gentle-man. He said that 
 the MSS. were : 
 
 I. The original Autobiography, with interlinings, 
 erasures, etc., from which the copy was made that was 
 sent to W. T. Franklin, and the first French translation : 
 It is in folio, bound, complete, 
 
 II. Letters, mostly, he thinks, to M. Veillard, not re- 
 lating to politics, at least not specially political — friendly 
 letters — and not, he thinks, ever communicated to Mr. 
 Sparks or other book-making person. The portrait is by 
 Duplessis, and, according to " a tradition in the family," 
 the original, not the replica ; it was given by B. F. to M. 
 Veillard. 
 
 He had neither MSS. nor portrait in the house ; they 
 are at his cousin's (who is, as I understand, part owner 
 of them). On Wednesday I am to go to No. 98 Rue de 
 V. again, when he will have them there or will accom- 
 pany me to his cousin to see them. He did reside 
 formerly in Amiens, where he or his father had these 
 things. An American, he thinks, did come some years 
 ago to see the portrait there ; name of that stranger un. 
 known ; also his quality, whether merely an inquisitive 
 
JV. H. HUNTINGTON. 31 
 
 or an acquisitive traveller ; is ready but not eager to sell 
 (if he knows himself) at 25,000 francs the lot ; does not 
 want to sell any one of the three articles separately. 
 Does not know that they are mercantilely worth 25,000 
 francs, but intimates that he shall run the risk of waiting 
 for or provoking the chance of that price being given. 
 Has been applied to by a photographer (this some time 
 ago) to photograph the portrait : declined proposition at 
 the time, but now conceives that it might gratify curios- 
 ity of Americans coming to Exposition next May to see 
 copies of it, or the original hung up there ! 
 
 I fancy that this universal French-Exposition idea 
 stands more in the way of reducing the price than any 
 thing else. . . . 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 W. H. Huntington. 
 
 On the 24th of January, I received a second letter 
 from Huntington, giving the results of his first view of 
 what he terms the Franklinienacs. 
 
 Paris (8 Ru:^ de Boursai^t), 23 January, 1867. 
 
 DEAR Mr. B1GE1.0W : 
 
 I have seen the Frankliniseries (say Franklinienacs). 
 The autobiography is writ on large foolscap, bound very 
 simply, but without the slightest lesion of the pages. 
 This is undoubtedly the original manuscript, with inter- 
 lining, erasures, marginal notes, and blots (of which one 
 smasher, that was smatched thin nearly over one whole 
 page) of B. F. of the period. It is complete in both 
 parts. The French publication of 1791 stops with the 
 
 first 
 
32 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 first part, you recollect — and more complete than the 
 ''clean copy," from which W. T. Franklin printed the 
 two parts : i. e. it has several more pages after the 
 arrival in lyondon in 1757, where W. T. F.'s print stops. 
 I should think there are other passages in this MS. omit- 
 ted by W. T. F. or by the writer of the clean copy. The 
 MS. closes with these words : " They were never put in 
 execution." 
 
 Of the letters only two or three are from B. F. — one 
 dated Philadelphia, 1787, an other, ditto, 1788, 16 or 14 
 are from W. Temple Franklin, 2 from Sarah Bache, 2 
 from B. F. Bache : all addressed to M. Veillard. I judge, 
 from what M. Paul de Senarmont said, that they do not 
 relate to political subjects. I had not time to read any 
 of them, having to go to M. George de Senarmont, the 
 cousin, to see the portrait. 
 
 It is nearly a half-length, life-size pastel, perfectly well 
 preserved, under glass, not a franc of additional value 
 from the frame. It is not signed. A labelled black and 
 gilt statement, which is undoubtedly true, is attached to 
 the bottom of the frame, and reads nearly as follows : 
 '^Portrait de Be?ijafnin Franklin, agi yy, donni par lui 
 fnime ct M. Veillard Peint par J. S. Duplessis, 178^.''^ I 
 have no doubt of the genuineness of the portrait. M. S. 
 says that the family tradition is that this was the original, 
 and that the other one, which was in the possession of 
 W. T. Franklin (?), the replica. Duplessis has a good 
 reputation as a portrait painter. The Biographie Nou- 
 velle cites, among twelve of his most esteemed portraits, 
 one of Franklin in the " Galerie Pamard a Avignon." 
 The one that M. Edward Brooks bought of J. de Mancy, 
 
FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 33 
 
 or his heirs, a few years ago, was claimed to be by Du- 
 plessis. This was in oils — it was offered to me by old de 
 Mancy, in 1852, for 2,000 francs. There was a break in 
 his history of it, that led me to suspect that it might be 
 a copy. 
 
 M. de Senarmont holds firmly to the fixed price of 
 25,000 francs : agrees that it may be an extravagant one, 
 but will not set any other till after the Exposition. He 
 means to advertise Americans here of the manuscripts and 
 portrait, and where they may be seen — depositing them 
 for that end with some bookseller or other party. Mean- 
 time he is quite willing to keep ray address, and in case 
 he does not sell at Exposition season, to talk further about 
 the matter. The manuscripts and portrait are, as I under- 
 stand him, an undivided family property. . . . 
 
 Immediately upon the receipt of the foregoing I sent 
 Mr. Huntington a check on John Monroe & Co., in Paris, 
 for 25,000 francs, and told him to buy the collection on 
 as favorable terms as possible, but not to leave without it, 
 and when bought, to forward it by first conveyance to Lon- 
 don, that it might be sure to reach me before I sailed. 
 
 To this I received, on the 28th, the following letter : 
 
 Paris (8 Rue dk Boursai^t), 27 January, 1867. 
 Ever Honored : 
 
 My passage out from apartment in search of breakfast 
 this morning was obstructed by the concierge handing 
 your letter of the 24th. Yours of the 22d, leaving all to 
 my discretion, I thought it discreetest not to spend so 
 large a sum as 25 m. frs. without positive orders. These 
 last instructions being decisive, I gat myself; 
 
 Onely 
 
34 ED GUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Onely, to Munroe & Co.'s, where I showed Mr, Rich- 
 ards ^ (who had his hat on) your enabling act to them for 
 my drawing of Pactolian draughts to the amount of 25 
 m. frs. 
 
 Twoly, to Legoupy, a printseller of my acquaintance, 
 on Blvd. de la Madeleine, to ask how best the portrait of 
 B. F. could be safely packed, with or without the glass. 
 " With," quoth he decidedly. Then I asked if he would 
 charge himself with the packing, he being much in the 
 way of sending large framed and glazed engravings out 
 of the city ; and he said he would. 
 
 Threely^ to the S. B. R. way and package express 
 office, to ask at what latest minute they would receive 
 and forward packages to London, which proved to be 5 
 o'clock P.M. 
 
 Four mostly to breakfast. Present after that refection 
 and its consequence I girded up my loins and took 
 voiture for 98 Rue de Varennes, where, coming into the 
 presence of M. Paul de Senarmont, I spake, saying : "I 
 will take the Franklineaments and MSS. on these three 
 conditions : I. That I take them immediately ; II. That 
 you deduct 200 francs from the 25,000 frs. to pay my 
 expenses for going with them to London ; III. That you 
 furnish — sending it to me hereafter for Mr. Bigelow, — ^the 
 history of the transitions of the three Franklinienacs 
 from M. Veillard'sto your hands." 
 
 All of which being agreed to, I wrote then and there an 
 
 order, draught, draft, or whatever the name of the paper 
 
 may be, on J. M. & Co. for 24,800 francs in his favor at 3 
 
 days' vision. Then P. de S. and the literary remains of 
 
 * The senior partner of the firm of John Munroe & Co. 
 
 B. F., 
 
IV. H. HUNTINGTON. 35 
 
 B. F., and self with cane, being bestowed in the voiture 
 (No. of the same not preserved), we careered away to 
 cousin Georges de Senarmont, No. 23 Rue de Sevres. 
 While Paul went in unto Georges, to the bedroom of him 
 — for Georges was poorly, it seems, this morning, and 
 late abed; leastway, late to breakfast — I ventured to 
 relieve B. F. from the state of suspense he was in on the 
 wall of the salon, screwed out of his frame the iron ring, 
 and, in the distraction of the moment, gave it to Cousin 
 George's housekeeper. That was what B. F. calls an 
 erratum^ for I have often use for that sort of screw — which 
 the housekeeper, let us hope, could not care for. Re- 
 packing, now, Paul de S., the MSS., umbrella, cane, and 
 B. F. his eidolon, which I sustained ever with one hand, 
 into the carriage, I bade cocker drive to 7 Rue Scribe, 
 where I presented M. P. de S. to Mr. J. Munroe, to whom 
 I committed your enabling note and identified Paul. 
 Then P. de S. wished good voyage to London, and the 
 cocker a.sk.edi, as I was delicately handling B. F.'s portrait 
 if that was the Franklin who perished in the Northern 
 seas. Queer but disappointing. Cocker evidently took a 
 lively interest in the frozen party, and but a cold, indif- 
 ferent one in the to him unheard-of philosopher. Now 
 straight to Legoupy's, whose packer declared he could 
 have all ready by 4 o'clock. I did not believe him, but 
 by way of encouragement pretended to, and held out to 
 him as reward, in case of success, that I would gladly 
 contribute ... to the Washington Monument, which, 
 let us hope, will never be completed. 
 
 There was time enough between this and five o'clock 
 to go to the Legation, but small chance of finding Mr. 
 
 Dix 
 
36 EDOUARD LABOULAYE, 
 
 Dix there. So I went to the consulate and offered David ^ 
 to pay his passage and expenses if he would go with B. 
 F. to London to-night. David would gladly but could 
 not ; had infrangible pre-engagements for this evening ; I 
 almost found but missed another man, who would, it was 
 thought take charge of the box and surely deliver it 
 Sunday, for 50 francs. During these entre fails, four 
 o'clock sounded. At % past, the caisse was on the back 
 of Legoupy's boy following your servant up the Boule- 
 vard. The very best I could do at the R. and express 
 office was to obtain the most positive assurance, that a 
 special messenger should take the box from Cannon 
 Street to Cleveland Square ^ before noon on Monday. 
 There is no delivery at any price on Sunday. I was on 
 the point of deciding — what I had been debating ever since 
 morning — to take a go and return ticket and carry box 
 and baggage to London myself. But you know how I 
 hate travelling at all times. On leaving the express 
 office, I passed a brief telegrammatic sentence to your 
 address, through the window of Grand Hotel T. bureau. 
 The gentleman who counted its letters estimated them at 
 6 francs, which is more, proportionately, than what you 
 paid for B. F.'s MSS. and flattering to me. If I am ever 
 able, I shall set up a telegraph wire, and dance on to 
 fortune. The very click, click of the machines has a 
 pleasant money promise to the ear. 
 
 Although my way along the quais and other marts 
 where books do congregate, are not as they were when 
 
 1 The trusty messenger at the Consulate and now the Dean of the 
 representatives of the U. S. in foreign parts. 
 * Where I was staying with friends. 
 
 you 
 
FRANKLIN'S PORTRAIT. 37 
 
 you were my fellow pilgrim, yet are they still not all with- 
 out pleasantness. Thus, coming away from my annual 
 visit to the netcvainefite of St. Genevieve three weeks ago, 
 I fell upon the rummest bronze medallion of B. Franklin 
 (hitherto quite unheard of by this subscriber) that ever you 
 could conceive of. And yet another day, one of those 
 days lapsed last week from the polar circles into the more 
 temperate society of our Paris time, I clutched with numb 
 fingers a diminutive little 4to of pp. 48 with this title : ^'La 
 Science du Bonhomme Richard par M. Franklin : suivie 
 des commandemetits de V HonnHe Homme, par M. Fin- 
 try^priz quatre sols. Se vend d Paris, chez Renault, 
 Libraire, Riie dela Harpe. — ///c?." So another day, was 
 all my homeward walk a path of exceeding peace by 
 reason of the primary, pre-adamite, genuine, juvenile 
 original Eloge de Franklin hugged under my arm, like 
 healing in the wing. But the half of the enjoyment of 
 these good gifts of fortune fails me, in that I have now 
 no one to congratulate me or hate me for their acquisi- 
 tion. 
 
 M. de S6narmont promises me a letter giving the His- 
 torique of the triad of Franklin treasures, from the time 
 of M. de Veillard to his possession of them. It will not 
 amount to much — not from lack of willingness on his 
 part, but because the special sense in the case is wanting 
 in him. A dry, authenticating certificate, however, I 
 will insist on having, and will forward it to your Ameri- 
 can address, which do not forget to advertise me of from 
 Liverpool or London. M. de S. asks me to ask you, if 
 you have the Duplessis photographed, to send him two 
 or three cards ; please add one other or two for me, since 
 
 you 
 
38 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 you will be apt to send them to my address. I shall be 
 glad to have word from you, though in your flitting hurry 
 it must be brief, from Ivondon, and much gladder to have 
 news from America that you and yours are all safely and 
 soundly arrived there. 
 
 With best regards and good wishes to all your house, I 
 rest Yours truly, W. H. Huntington. 
 
 Here followeth an accoimt of ye expenditures, out- 
 lays, and disbursements of ye Franki^yn Expedition. 
 
 FRANCS. 
 
 To a chariot and ye horseman thereof. Hire of the 
 vehicle and pourboire, as it were oats to the 
 driver for the greater speed .... 5 
 
 To packing B. Franklin under glass and ye MSS. 
 with extra haste and yet care . . . . 9 
 
 To the binding of B. F. on a boy his back and por- 
 terage of the same i 
 
 To studiously brief telegrammatic phrase sent to 
 London 6 
 
 To arduous sperrits (with water) taken for susten- 
 
 tation of the body thys day . . . .0.50 
 
 Condamned tottle . . .21.50 
 
 On the day following the receipt of the last recited note 
 from Huntington I received the following from M. de 
 S^narmont : 
 
 Paris, 27 Janvier, 1867. 
 Monsieur : 
 
 J'ai I'honneur de vous remettre ci-contre une note de 
 tous les renseignements que j'ai pu recueillir sur le manu- 
 
 scrit 
 
FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 39 
 
 sent de Franklin dont M. Huntington s'est rendu hier 
 acquereur en votre nom. 
 
 Je suis heureux de vous voir possesseur de ces precieux 
 souvenirs, et du beau portrait du fondateur de la liberte 
 de votre patrie. 
 
 La rapidite avec laquelle j'ai ^te oblige de remettre le 
 portrait i M. Huntington m'a empeclie de le faire repro- 
 duire par la photographic comme j'en avais I'intention. 
 Dans le cas o^ vous ferez faire cette reproduction je vous 
 serais bien reconnaissant de vouloir bien m'en envoyer 
 trois exemplaircs. — ^J'ai I'honneur de vous temoigner, 
 Monsieur, I'expression de ma plus haute consideration. 
 
 P. DE Senarmont. 
 
 98 Rue de Varennes. 
 
 Monsieur John Bigelow, 
 
 Ancien Ministre des Etats-Unis. 
 
 Notice stir le nianuscrit autographe des mtmoires de 
 Be7ijamin Franklin. Les manuscrits de memoires de 
 Franklin est uu in-folio de 220 pages ecrit a uni-marge, 
 sur papier dont tous les cahiers ne sont pas uuiformes. 
 
 M. Le Veillard, gentilhonime ordinaire du Roi, Maire 
 de Passy, etait intime ami du Docteur Franklin. II avait 
 v^cu avec lui a Passy (pres Paris) dans une societe de 
 tous les jours, pendant le temps de Franklin en France a 
 r^poque de la guerre de I'independance Am^ricaine, et 
 c'est de sa patrie que le docteur lui envoya, comme gage 
 d'amitie, la ccpie de ses memoires echang^ depuis contre 
 ^original. 
 
 Le nianuscrit original est unique. 
 
 M. William Temple Franklin, petit fils de Benjamin 
 
 Franklin, 
 
40 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Franklin, I'a recueilli au deces de son aieul qui lui avait 
 legud tons ses Merits. Ivorsque M. Temple vient en 
 France pour y faire Tedition qu'il a public, il demanda a 
 M. Le Veillard sa copie pour la faire imprimer, parce- 
 qu'elle lui pamt plus commode pour le travail typogra- 
 phique, a cause de sa nettet^. II donna a M. Veillard en 
 ^change de sa copie, le manuscrit original enti^rement 
 ^crit de la main de Franklin. 
 
 ^'original ^tait cependant plus complet que la copies 
 ce que M. Temple n'avait pas verifie. On en trouve la 
 preuve au 2d volume de la petite edition des Memoires 
 en 2 volumes, en i8mo, donnee par Jules Renouard, ^ 
 Paris, en 1828. On y lit, en tete d'une suite qu'il fait 
 paraitre pour la premiere fois, une note (page 21), ou il 
 declare devoir cette suite a la communication que la 
 famille Le Veillard lui a donne du manuscrit. 
 
 Iv'inspection seule en demontre I'authenticite a I'appui 
 de laquelle vieunent d'ailleurs des preuves positives 
 tiroes de dififerentes pieces ; telles que : 3 lettres du Dr. 
 Franklin a M. Le Veillard, 11 lettres de M, William 
 Temple Fraukliu et di verses lettres de Benjamin Frank- 
 lin Bache, de Sarah Bache, sa femme, d'un libraire qui 
 voulait acqu^rir le manuscrit de M. Le Veillard en 1791, 
 etc. 
 
 M. Le Veillard, qui est I'auteur de la traduction Fran- 
 faise des Memoires de Franklin, a conserve le manuscrit 
 autographe avec le meme sentiment qui avait determine 
 son ami a lui envoyer ses memoires encore inedits. 
 
 Apres la mort de M. Le Veillard, qui peritsur I'ecliafaud 
 Rdvolutionnaire en 1794, le manuscrit a pass6 a sa fille : 
 au deces de celle-ci, en 1834, il est devenu la propriete de 
 
 son 
 
TAMPERINGS WITH THE MS. 41 
 
 son cousin M. de Seuarmont, dont le petit-fils a ced6 la 
 26 Janvier, 1867, a Mr. John Bigelow, ancien Ministre des 
 Etats-Unis ^ Paris. 
 
 Le manuscrit est accompagne d'un beau portrait en 
 pastel par Duplessis : Franklin avait pose pour ce portrait 
 pendant son sejour a Passy et en avait fait cadeau a M. 
 Le Veillard. 
 
 P. de SejnarmonT. 
 
 Paris, le 26 Janvier, 1867. 
 
 Several months elapsed after my return to the United 
 States before a propitious occasion presented itself for me 
 to verify the importance of the statement in M. de S^nar- 
 mont's note, that my manuscript was more complete than 
 the copy which had been used in preparing the edition 
 published by William Temple Franklin and copied by 
 Dr. Sparks. It never occurred to me that the text had 
 been tampered with in England after it had left the 
 writer's hand. A very cursory examination of it, how- 
 ever, awakened my suspicions that it had been, and I 
 availed myself of my earliest leisure to subject the Mem- 
 oirs to a careful collation with the edition which appeared 
 in London in 1817, and which was the first and only 
 edition that ever purported to have been printed from 
 the manuscript. The results of this collation revealed 
 the curious fact that more than twelve hundred separate 
 and distinct changes had been made in the text, and, 
 what is more remarkable, that the last eight pages of the 
 manuscript were omitted entirely. 
 
 Many of these changes are mere modernizations of 
 style ; such as would measure some of the modifications 
 
 which 
 
42 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 which English prose had undergone between the days of 
 Goldsmith and South ey. Some, Franklin might have 
 approved of ; others he might have tolerated ; but it is 
 safe to presume that very many he would have rejected 
 without ceremony. 
 
 I immediately prepared a correct edition of the Auto- 
 biography for the press, in 1867, when, after an interval 
 of more than seventy years since its author's death, it was 
 for the first time given to the public as it was written. 
 
 Of course I addressed to Mr. Laboulaye a copy of this 
 volume, of which the first part of the following letter was 
 in acknowledgment : 
 
 Gi<ATiGNY, VERSAiivi^ES, 23 Octobre, 1868. 
 Cher Monsieur Bigelow : 
 
 Je vous dois mille remerciments et mille excuses pour 
 les Memoires de Franklin. II y a six mois que, de jour 
 en jour, je me propose de vous ecrire, et le temps passe 
 sans que je fasse rien. Franklin s' excuse quelque part 
 de sa negligence, et dit que I'age rend paresseux, veuillez 
 recevoir avec bont6 cette mediocre justification qui ne 
 pent avoir cours que dans la patrie de Franklin. 
 
 J'ai lu avec grand int^ret la nouvelle edition des 
 Memoires, et je vous suis fort oblige pour la faveur hon- 
 orable dont vous me traitez dans la Preface. Votre 
 texte sera le texte definitif, et quoique les changements ne 
 soient pas considerables au fond, ils donnent un autre 
 aspect au livre, car ce sont justement les expressions les 
 plus originales et les plus americaines de Franklin qu'un 
 maladroit correctem: a efiac^es pour les remplacer par 
 ses platitudes. 
 
 Voici 
 
THE RE VOL UTION IN SPA IN. 43 
 
 Voici la revolution arrivee en Bspagne mais en France, 
 on se fait une assez triste idee de I'avenir de la pdninsule. 
 Personne ne plaint la Reine Isabelle, qui ne merite 
 aucun interet, mais dans sa chute on ne voit que le suc- 
 ces d'une conspiration militaire. Le peuple est reste in- 
 different jusqu'au lendemain de la victoire, et ne parait 
 pas avoir grand desir de reprendre possession de ses droits. 
 Pourmoi qui connais I'Espagne, j'ai grand peur que ce 
 changement de regne ne soit qu'un changement de per- 
 sonnes, et que I'Espagne ne continue a etre la proie de ses 
 g^neraux ambitieux comme elle I'aete depuis trente ans. 
 
 Cette revolution a ddrange je crois, les projets de I'Bm- 
 pereur ; I'Espagne etait pour lui un secours et une force. 
 Bile pent devenir un danger. Aussi commence-t'-on 
 a proclamer sur tons les toits qu'on veut maintenir la 
 paix. La paix sera pour toute 1' Europe un bienfait mais 
 je ne sais si la liberty en profitera beaucoup cliez nous. 
 La revolution d'Espagne n'apas agit6 beaucoup I'opinion 
 en France. Nous sommes habitues a ces coups d'etat mili- 
 taires chez nos voisins ; le pays est toujours fort endormi 
 ou plutot fort degoute. On n'a pas la moindre confiance 
 dans le gouvernement actuel. On n'a qu'une tres mediocre 
 estime pour ceux qui le conduisent mais a part les gens qui 
 reflechissent, le grand nombre des habitants des villes n'a 
 pas confiance dans la liberty ; les essais de libre gouverne- 
 ment ont tant de fois ^chou^ ; on a si grand peur de I'an- 
 archie qu'au fond on aimeautant rester comme on est par 
 peur d'une plus mauvaise situation. Quant aux cam- 
 pagnes elles sont toujours dans la main de I'administra- 
 tion ; le paysan a peur et votera pour le gouvernement 
 presque en tous pays. 
 
 Je 
 
44 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Je ne crois done pas que les prochaines elections chang- 
 ent la situation. Suivant toute apparauce ces elections se 
 feront avec autant de passion et aussi pen de sincerite que 
 les autres ; le resultat ne sera pas sensiblement different ; 
 le gouvernement aura la victoire a moins d'un ciiange- 
 ment d'opinion que je ne pr^vois pas, mais cette victoire 
 emportee par des moyens pen respectables ne lui donnera 
 ni force ni duree. Depuis six ans il perd chaque jour de sa 
 puissance sur I'esprit publique et sans que rien le menace 
 il s'affaiblit. C'est un singulier spectacle que cette veine 
 de pouvoir absolu qui ce trouve toute puissante dans les 
 chambres et qui est sans force contre la resistance des 
 interets et des idees. Des qu'il veut faire un pas en avant 
 ou en arriere il sent qu'il n'est pas soutenu, il hesite et 
 met toute sa politique a ne pas bouger. L'Bmpereur 
 est dit'on, fort vieilli ; sa volonte a souffert, et il ne veut 
 changer ni d'hommes ni de systeme, ce qui, selon moi, 
 compromet singulierement I'avenir de la dynastie. 
 
 Ouant a moi je ne crois pas qu'on songe ^ moi pour 
 les Elections. Ma situation est singuliere. Les idees que 
 je defends font leur chemin parmi les jeunes gens et les 
 ouvriers, mais n'appartenant a aucun parti je ne suis pas 
 enregiment6. II en resulte que pas un parti organise ne 
 se soucie de moi. Les Democrates out I'horreur de toute 
 croyance religieuse et ils adorent Robespierre et Danton. 
 J'ai un profond mepris pour ces demagogues que n'ont 
 rien etabli que la guillotine, et je sais que sans une re- 
 ligion les hommes ne peuvent pas etre libres ; en voila 
 assez pour qu'on ait peu de confiance en moi. Les 
 liberaux de la vieille ecole mettent toute la politique dans 
 romnipotence des chambres, je suis de I'ecole americaine 
 
 et 
 
AN A MERICA N ASTRA Y IN OLD EUROPE. 45 
 
 et j'enseigne que les chambres n'ont que des pouvoirs 
 delegu^s, et que le citoyen a des droits auxquels un par- 
 lement ne peut pas toucher. Vous voyez que je suis un 
 Americain egare au milieu de la vieille Burope. J'ai ce- 
 pendant mes partisans qui grossissent en nombre tons les 
 jours, mais quand ils feront la majorite, il y aura long- 
 temps que je me reposerai des fatigues de ce monde. Je 
 travaille pour I'avenir avec la confiance d' avoir raison et la 
 tranquillity d'un homme qui a renonce a toute ambition 
 personelle. Cen'estpasunemauvaisesituation. J'ytrouve 
 ce grand avantage que je vis paisible et que je n'ai pas a 
 me reprocher un repos egoiste ; mon pays ne veut pas de 
 moi il n'a de gout que pour les declamateurs et les 
 farceurs. Adieu ! La place me manque pour vous dire que 
 je pense souvent a vous, qu'on se souvient de vous et que 
 je regrette beaucoup que vous nous ayez quitte. Vivez 
 heureux, et pensez quelques fois a moi comme a un ami. 
 Mes respects ^ Madame Bigelow. 
 
 Votre bien devout 
 
 Ed. Laboui^aye. 
 
 J'apprendrai avec bien grand plaisir I'election du Gene- 
 ral Grant ; je crois comme vous que ce sera I'inaugura- 
 tion d'une ^re nouvelle ; il n'y aura plus de place pour 
 la politique Sudiste et les partis seront obliges de se 
 transformer. Republicains ou Democrats, on n'aura plus 
 d se combattre sur le terrain des State Rights. La 
 nationalite Americaine ne sera plus contestee. 
 
V. 
 
 Is Beguiled by the Kmperor into a Support of the Plebiscite of 1870— 
 His Defence of that Measure— His Version of the Benedetti Inci- 
 dent and Semi-oflficial Defence of the Emperor's Course in 
 Declaring War. 
 
 WHBN in contemplation of the invasion of Germany 
 the Bmperor of France sought to conciliate the 
 opposition by promises of introducing the parliamentary 
 responsibility of ministers and emancipating the press, 
 Mr. Laboulaye was one of the ingenuous and single-minded 
 men of influence who swallowed the bait and the hook 
 with it. Prevost Paradol, Bmile Olivier, and Clement 
 Duvernois were the other conspicuous members of the 
 opposition who were victims of the same misplaced con- 
 fidence. All were formidable with their pens, all were 
 conspicuous lights upon the headlands of politics, and all 
 had to be disarmed before the Bmperor cared to venture 
 upon a foreign war, at least while his humiliation in 
 Mexico was fresh in the public mind. They all listened 
 to his proposals, and at length they all struck hands with 
 
 him, 
 
BETRA YED BUT NOT BOUGHT. 47 
 
 him, but swift repentance overtook them. Paradol 
 accepted the mission at Washington and committed 
 suicide. Duvernois accepted a place in the cabinet, fell 
 into temptations which cost him his character and finally 
 his life. Olivier accepted the ministry of foreign affairs ; 
 in a few months was a refugee and his master a captive. 
 From the obscurity which he then courted he has never 
 found it practicable if desirable to emerge. I^aboulaye 
 trusting in the good faith of the Kmperor publicly and 
 cordially advocated the plebiscite of 1870, by which the 
 people were called upon to renew the expression of their 
 confidence in the Napoleonic rvde. He thus so completely 
 committed himself to the imperial regime, that, fortu- 
 nately for him, it was not thought worth while to waste 
 upon him any of those imperial favors which were sup- 
 posed to have had their weight in seducing the other 
 gentlemen from the ranks of the opposition, and which, 
 if tendered, he could hardly have declined had he 
 been so disposed. This was fortunate, for the worst that 
 can now be said of Mr. lyaboulaye is, that he allowed him- 
 self to be deceived and betrayed, but no one can say that 
 he was bought. That he expected a place in the ministry 
 there is no doubt ; that he received none, is his best 
 defence against the shafts of calumny and detraction 
 which were trained upon him by the party he had for- 
 saken. When he found he had been a dupe he was 
 greatly chagrined, nor did he attempt to disguise it. 
 From the political flood that followed he took refuge in 
 the high places of philosophy, whence he contemplated 
 with not entirely silent contempt those whom he left 
 behind him in the surging currents of partisanship. 
 
 In 
 
48 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 In June, 1870, I received from him a letter in which he 
 sought to defend his vote for the plebiscite. 
 
 At the date of this letter I was residing in Berlin. 
 
 G1.ATIGNY, VERSAii.i,e;s, 7 Juin, 1870. 
 
 Cher Monsieur : 
 
 J'apprends avec grand plaisir votre retour en Europe ; 
 j'espere bien que vous n'approcherez pas de la France 
 sans veuir voir vos anciens et fideles amis. On dit que 
 tout chemin niene cL Rome; je crois qu'il est plus vrai 
 de dire aujourd'hui que tout chemin mene a Paris. Je 
 serais bien charme de vous faire les honneurs de mon 
 jardin qui a beaucoup grandi, depuis le jour ou vous 
 etes venu me voir en 1864. 
 
 Vous m'excuserez si je ne vous ai pas repondu pi us tot ; 
 les journaux qui ne s'occupent que trop de moi, vous 
 auront appris comment j'ai soutenu le plebiscite, com- 
 ment j'ai manque d'etre ministre, et comment je suistout 
 simplement professeur insult^ et outrage par des fous. 
 Toutes ces vicissitudes n'ont en rien altere ma tranquil- 
 lity d'esprit ; I'age rend philosophe, et mes adversaires 
 ne meritent que le mepris ; mais ma situation a beaucoup 
 change en France, et grace a mes ennemis, je suis en ce 
 moment un homme considerable dans mon pays. Depuis 
 dix jours je ne puis suffire a repondre aux temoignages 
 d'estime et de sympathie qui m'arrivent de tons cotes ; et 
 si j'^taisplus jeune je serais le chef du parti constitu- 
 tionnel aux prochaines elections. Mais avec mon peude 
 sant6, j'ai bien plus envie de me reposer dans mon jardin, 
 que de jouer un role actif dans un pays qui ne comprend 
 
 rien 
 
A PLEA FOR THE PLEBISCITE. 49 
 
 rien ^ la liberte, et qui fait de la politique avec des 
 passions et des appetits. 
 
 J'ai vote le plebiscite et conseille de le voter pour 
 deux raisons. La premiere c'est qu' il est toujours plus 
 sage d'accepter la liberte presente que de courir les 
 chances de I'inconnu, quand cet inconnu est une revolu- 
 tion ; la seconde parceque le plebiscite, en restituant le 
 pouvoir constituant au peuple, et en declarant qu'on ne 
 pourrait plus modifier la constitution que de I'aveu de la 
 nation, m'a paru conforme aux vrais principes democra- 
 tiques, tels qu'ils sont entendus et pratiques en Suisse 
 et aux Btats-Unis. J'ai repete vingt fois a mon cours que 
 nos assemblees constituantes qui s'attribuent le droit de 
 donner au peuple une constitution qui ne les convient 
 pas, etaient des assemblees usurpatrices, et que toujours 
 cette usurpation avait ete fatale a la liberty. Cette idee 
 si simple, est etrangere a nos Fran9ais qui ne vivent que 
 des souvenirs de 1789 et qui en 1848 ont recommence 
 toutes les fautes de leurs peres pour rester dans le meme 
 abime. Au lieu d'essayer de me comprendre, on 
 m'a calomnie, on m'a voue d la haine et au 
 m^pris public, mais avec peu de succes. La lumiere 
 commence a se faire ; on finira par comprendre que le 
 systeme Americain est le seul qui respecte la souve- 
 rainete populaire, et que j'ai eu raison de la defendre. 
 Dans tons les cas les Americains me doivent cette justice 
 que j'ai souffert pour soutenir les doctrines que j'ai 
 apprises a leur ecole. 
 
 L'eflfet du plebiscite est considerable ; le pays 
 (j'entends par la la grande masse des bourgeois et des 
 paysans) est heureux d'avoir vote pour I'Bmpire liberal, 
 
 et 
 
50 EDOUARD LABOULAYE 
 
 et d'avoir ecrase les reaction naires et les jacobins ; le 
 parti extreme est desoriente ; en ce moment il se divise, et 
 nesera bientota la cbambre qu'uneinfinieminorite, sans 
 racine autre-part que parmi les ouvriers des villes dont 
 on irrite les convoitises. I^a cliambre elle meme ne sait 
 plus que faire, et une dissolution prochaine me parait in- 
 evitable. On dit que I'Bmpereur n'en veut pas ; il a 
 tort, car en ce moment le pays est aux idees de 
 moderation, et lui enverrait d'honnetes gens. Mais 
 quant a des gens capables c'est autre chose. Dix-huit ans 
 de gouvemement personnel ont tout sterilise ; il faudra 
 du temps pour ressusciter des hommes habitues aux 
 affaires, et moderes par la situation. Dans tons les cas la 
 situation de I'Bmpereur a singulierement grandi ; le 
 passe est efface, on ne parle plus ni du Mexique, ni de 
 Sadowa, ni du 2 Decembre ; il a regu un bapteme popu- 
 laire qui efface la tache originelle. Admirable position 
 s'il sait en profiter. 
 
 J'ai lu avec grand plaisir vos recherches sur Beaumar- 
 chais ; c'est cependant une figure suspecte, etj'estime 
 plus son esprit que son caractere. Cela n'empeche pas 
 qu'il n'ait pas rendu de grands services d I'Amerique 
 emancipee. 
 
 Si vous voyez M. Bancroft, faites lui bien mes compli- 
 ments, et amenez le quelque jour en France que je 
 puisse lui temoigner toute mon admiration et toute mon 
 amitie. 
 
 Adieu, et puissiez vous bientot venir d Glatigny pour 
 causer avec un ami, et de I'Amerique, et de la France, et 
 de omne re scibile. Votre tout devoue, 
 
 Ed. IvAboui^aye. 
 
VI N Die A TION OF THE EMPEROR. 5 1 
 
 Deplorable illusions from which a wider commerce 
 with the political world, and especially with the political 
 world of France, might have protected him. As if Bona- 
 partism ever was or ever could be a permanence ; as if 
 it was not from its very nature and essence as certain to 
 end sooner or later in revolution as the mountain brook 
 to descend to the river, and the river to the sea. 
 
 Soon after the receipt of the foregoing, in a letter which 
 I addressed him from Berlin, I alluded to the Benedetti 
 incident as throwing upon France the grave responsibility 
 of commencing a war which was liable to assume uncon- 
 trollable proportions. In reply he sent me a letter in- 
 tended to present the Kmperor's side of the controversy 
 fully and in the most favorable light of which it was 
 susceptible. It was written with the avowed expectation 
 that I would give it to the press, a privilege of which, 
 however, I did not avail myself, for I had just returned 
 from a tour through nearly every province both of 
 northern and southern Germany, and had quite made up 
 my mind that no soldier of Napoleon's army would put a 
 foot upon German soil except as a prisoner. For this 
 reason I thought I was then doing him a kindness by 
 withholding it. 
 
 G1.ATIGNY, Ve;rsaii,i,Es, igjuillet, 1870. 
 Cher Monsieur : 
 
 Je reponds tout de suite a votre lettre, car je ne vou- 
 drais pas vous laisser concevoir une fausse idee sur la con- 
 duite de notre gouvernement. Si je ne connais pas le 
 fond des choses, au moins puis-je dire que je suis dans 
 les conditions d'impartialite des plus completes, car je 
 
52 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 ne compte que des amis de 1' autre cot6 du Rhin et je re- 
 garde une guerre entre les Fran^ais et les Allemands 
 comme une guerre fratricide, comme un grand malheur 
 pour I'Kurope et pour la civilization. 
 
 Je ne crois pas a I'insulte premeditee de M. Benedetti ; 
 on n'en sait rien en France et les causes de la guerre sont 
 tellement connues que je ne puis voir dans tout ce r^cit 
 qu'une invention pour surexciter le patriotisme germa- 
 nique, aux depens de la verite. 
 
 I/'irritation de la France contre la Prusse qu'il ne faut 
 pas confondre avec I'Allemagne, date de la guerre contre 
 le Danemark, a propos du Schleswig. Vous savez que, 
 malgre les instances de I'Angleterre, rBmpereur aban- 
 donna ce petit pays d une lutte inegale. Ce fut un grand 
 creve-coeur pour les Fran9ais. I^es Dauois avaient et6 
 nos allies constants dans la mauvaise fortune ; on vit 
 avec indignation I'Autriche reunie ^ la Prusse pour 
 ^eraser un peuple digne d'une meilleure fortune. 
 
 Vint ensuite la guerre de 1866. Cette guerre avait ^te 
 preparee par la visite de M. de Bismark a Biarritz. II 
 etait venu acheter, disait on, la neutralite de la France. 
 On assurait qu'il avait offert la Belgique a I'Empereur. On 
 lui pretait cette parole : " que le drapeau Franfais ferait 
 aussi bien sur la citadel le d' An vers que le drapeau Prus- 
 sien sur rhotel de ville d' Amsterdam." On avait affirm^ 
 qu'il avait offert a I'Bmpereur un aggrandissement de 
 territoire du cote du Rhin, et que I'Bmpereur avait re- 
 fuse d'expliquer, ce que g^nait singulidrement M. de 
 Bismark. 
 
 I^e desastre de Sadowa prit la France au depourvu. La 
 victoire etait complete pour la Prusse ; elle en usa non 
 
 seulement 
 
DA NGER FR OM PR USSIA N PREPONDERA NCE. 5 3 
 
 seulement pour mettre rAutriche a la porte de I'Alle- 
 magne mais pour^tendre la suzerainete Prussienne jusqu' 
 aux bords du Rhin. Mayence et Rastadt furent occu- 
 pies par des garnisons Prussiennes, la Prusse etait en 
 face de Strasbourg et nous mena^ait. On nous faisait 
 sentir qu'avec le fusil-a-aiguille et le landwehr, on pouvait 
 en quelques jours se jeter sur la France, et marcher droit 
 sur Paris. 
 
 L'efTet de cette jactance prussienne fut de nous faire 
 considerer la victoire de Sadowa comme une defaite pour 
 la France. II nous fallait depenser des sommes ^normes 
 pour renouveler notre armement ; entretenir une armde 
 formidable, et nous preparer a une guerre qui eclaterait 
 au premier jour. C'est ainsi que nous avons vecu depuis 
 quatre ans, bien convaincus qu' a la premiere occasion, 
 M. de Bismark essaierait d'abbatre la France, et d'etablir 
 en Europe la preponderance prussienne. Etait-ce cbez 
 M. de Bismark un projet arrete ou n'^tait ce qu'une vaine 
 rodomontade, calculee pour se rendre populaire dans son 
 pays, il importe pen de le savoir. Iv'effet produit a ^t^ 
 des plus regrettables, la France s'est crue menacee par le 
 voisinage d'un gouvernement qui a toujours eu pour de- 
 vise le mot de Frederic II. modifie par Voltaire : Suuni 
 cuique — rapuit. 
 
 Pour calmer les esprits et desarmer 1' opposition, I'Em- 
 pereur negocia avec le roi de Hollande la cession du 
 grand duche de Luxembourg. II est probable que ce 
 faible accroissement de territoire, accepte par la Prusse 
 eut change le cours de I'opinion en France. Vous savez 
 que la Prusse nous repondit par des menaces de guerre ; 
 qu'un plan d' invasion fut dresse par M. de Moltke, plan 
 
 qui 
 
54 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 qui va sans doute etre suivi dans la guerre presente et 
 qu'il fallut 1' intervention de 1' Angle terre pour amener une 
 transaction qui ne satisfit personne. 
 
 ly' Affaire en etait la. Le temps pouvait adoucir I'irri- 
 tation Franfaise, on ne songeait pas a une guerre pro- 
 chaine lorsqu'on apprit tout a coup que le Prince de 
 Holienzollern allait etre appele a la couronned'Bspagne. 
 lya France n'avait pas ete prevenue, non plus que lereste 
 de I'Burope ; c'etait une intrigue secrete nouee entre le 
 roi de Prusse et le Marechal Prim, qui avait tout prepare. 
 Je crois meme etre sur que la chose etait tellement 
 secrete que le Marechal Prim avait trompe notre Ambas- 
 sadeur en Espagne, en lui afiSrmant ^ plusieurs reprises 
 qu'il n' etait question que de Due d'Aoste. 
 
 Selon moi dans cette circoustance, tous les partis 
 dtaient du cote du roi de Prusse. La France a un interet de 
 premier ordre a ce que I'Bspagne soit son alliee, car c'est 
 le cote par lequel elle est le plus vulnerable, Sa puis- 
 sance est affaiblie, s'il faut qu'elle se defende a la fois sur 
 le Rhin et sur les Pyrenees ; nous I'avons vu sous le pre- 
 mier Empire. Un prince prussien d Madrid n'est pas 
 plus admissible qu'un Napoleon sur le trone de Saxe. 
 
 I^a France pouvait reclamer par les voies diploma- 
 tiques. On pouvait charger M. Benedetti de dire confi- 
 dentiellement au roi de Prusse qu'il y avait la un cas de 
 guerre. On eut evite ainsi de placer le roi de Prusse 
 entre une humiliation ou la guerre. Ce ne fut pas cette 
 marche qu'on suivit. M. de Grammont lut aux Chambres 
 une declaration qui annon^ait que la France ne soufFrirait 
 pas un Prince prussien d Madrid. C'etait la reponse a 
 I'iutrigue Hohenzollern ; cette reponse etait un defi. 
 
 En 
 
THE BEN ED E TTI INCIDENT. 5 5 
 
 En meme temps la France se plaignait ^ Berlin. I,e 
 Ministre des Affaires Ktrangeres, M. de Thiele, declarait 
 quHl ne savait pas ce qit'on voiilait lid dire, quHl n'avatt 
 auame connaissance de P affaire ; le roi repondit qu'il 
 avait autorise le prince de Hohenzollern mais seulement 
 comme chef de famille, tout en avouant quHl en avait 
 parli CL M. de Bismark. 
 
 Sur les instances de I'Angleterre le Prince de Hohen- 
 zollern se desista, on du moins laissa ecrire a son pere 
 qu'il se desistait ; ce desistement fut accepte par le roi. 
 Mais rien ne nous repondait que le Prince Leopold ue 
 ferait pas comme son fr^re le prince Charies de Rou- 
 manie, et qu'il ne se viendrait pas en Espagne pour y 
 prendre la couronne. C'est alors que M. Beuedetti de- 
 manda au roi, non pas de se lier indefiniment, mais de 
 promettre qu'en aucun cas il n'autoriserait le Pnnce 
 Leopold a etre roi d'Espagne. On voulait obliger la 
 Prusse a s'engager a rester neutre si nous avions des 
 diffilcultes avec 1' Espagne. Je ne crois pas que cette de- 
 mande depassat la limite de nos droits. 
 
 Mais, en Allemagne, 1' opinion surexcitee se pronon§a 
 contre la reculade de la Prusse, les passions ^taient 
 dechainees, et le roi de Prusse epousant la passion popu- 
 laire, refusa de recevoir M. Benedetti, en lui faisant 
 declarer par un aide de camp qu'il n' avait plus rien a 
 lui dire. 
 
 C'est ici que se placerait la pr^tendue insulte de M. 
 Benedetti, mais elle est inadmissible. 
 
 I. Parceque le roi de Prusse ne dit rien de semblable 
 dans la note qu'il a fait remettre immediatement aux 
 
 puissances etrangeres. 
 
 2. Parceque 
 
56 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 2. Parceque si M. Benedetti avait manque aux con- 
 venances, c'est ^ la France qu'il fallait s'adresser pour 
 lui demander si elle acceptait ou si elle desavouait la 
 conduite de son ministre. 
 
 3. Bnfin, parceque le jour meme de cette soi-disant in- 
 sulte, unredacteurdu Figaro, present a Ems, telegraphiait 
 qu'il avait vu M. Benedetti s'approcher du roi a la prom- 
 enade, que le roi lui avait tourne le dos, et qu'un prince de 
 Prusse (le prince Albrecht) s'etait aussitot approche de 
 M. Benedetti pour lui parler avec la plus grande bienveil- 
 lance et lui faire oublier la grossierete du roi. Cette 
 depeche aete imprimee dans le Figaro^ avaut qu' on eut 
 parle de I'afFaire, c'est par consequent un t^moignage 
 considerable, donne par un spectateur desinteresse. 
 
 Ajoutez que s'il y avait rien eu de semblable nous en 
 aurions ete informes par le gouvernement Fran^ais et 
 qu'il n'y a pas meme d'allusion a la demarche personnelle 
 de M. Benedetti. Le gouvernement Frangais n'a pas 
 cite autre cbose que la communication du roi de Prusse 
 aux puissances etrangeres, communication qui constata : 
 (i) que M. Benedetti a demande au roi de le recevoir et 
 de lui donner I'assurance qu'il n'approuverait en aucun 
 cas la candidature du prince Leopold ; (2) que le roi a 
 fait repondre par un aide de camp qu'il n'avait plus rien 
 a dire a M. Benedetti. 
 
 Voila cber Monsieur, ce que je crois etre la verite, il 
 n'est pas vrai que tout a coup, sans cause, la France ait 
 declare la guerre ; il est certain que la Prusse a, depuis 
 quatre ans, cherche toutes les occasions de nous faire sen- 
 tir qu'il fallait compter desormais avec elle, et qu'au 
 besoin elle saurait nous faire plier. Y a t'il eu des fautes 
 
 commises 
 
INSOLENCE OF PR USSIA . 5 7 
 
 commises par le gouvernement franjais, cela se peut ; 
 mais assurement les premiers torts ne sont pas de notre 
 cote. Bt je crois que la Prusse a voulu la guerre avant 
 nous et s'y est preparee depuis lougtemps. 
 
 Cette insolence de la Prusse a blesse la nation fran- 
 5:aise, la guerre est acceptee par I'opiuion coimne une 
 nicessitS, et on ira jusqu'au bout. A Paris et a Berlin la 
 foule salue avec joie la guerre, c'est un spectacle qui 
 I'amuse en commengant ; nos soldats sont plus serieux ; 
 ils partent a la frontiere avec la ferme resolution d'en 
 finir ; ils savent que la lutte sera rude, ils estiment le 
 courage et le talent de I'ennemi, mais ils ont confiance 
 dans leur energie, et de plus ils se croient plus habitues, 
 a la guerre, et mieux armes. Je crois que le choc sera 
 terrible, et qu'on se battra de part et d' autre avec un 
 acharnement semblable a celui du Nord et du Sud. II y 
 a de vieilles rancunes contre les Prussiens. En 1814 et 
 en 1815 ils se sont distingues en France par leur inso- 
 lence et leur rapacite ; nos paysansneles ont pas oublies, 
 pas plus que nos soldats n'ont oublie Jena et Waterloo. 
 Iv'opinion generale est qu'il faudra plus d'uue bataille, et 
 que la guerre ne finira qu'aux portes de Berlin ou de 
 Paris. 
 
 On dit I'Kmpereur anime d'intentions plus conciliantes 
 et satisfait s'il peut eloigner la Prusse du Rhin, en 
 mettant comme autrefois de petits royaumes entre les 
 deux peuples ; mais si nous sommes vainqueurs, I'opin- 
 ion sera plus exigeante, et TEmpereur sera deborde. Nous 
 n'avons pas encore vu le sang couler, mais une foi que 
 I'ivresse du sang aura commence, il faudra plus d'un jour 
 pour revenir a la raison. 
 
 Voila, 
 
58 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Voila, selon moi, I'expose fidele de cette triste situation. 
 Personne en France n'en veut a I'Allemagne on ne con- 
 nait que la Prusse et son ambition insatiable. Si elle 
 reussit, si elle abat la France, la monarchie universelle 
 est reconstituee, I'Autriche sera bientot la vassale des 
 Hobenzollem, et Vienne deviendra une ville pnissienne ; 
 si la Prusse est vaincue, la France sera, je crois, tr^s 
 moderee pour 1' AUemagne, tres exigeante pour la Prusse. 
 Nous voulons une paix assuree et non pas la conquete, 
 ce qui ne veut pas dire que la possession des bords du 
 Rhin ne paraisse a beaucoup de gens une condition de 
 la paix. 
 
 La guerre restera t'elle limitee entre les deux peuples ? 
 j'en doute. II me parait impossible que le Danemark ne 
 saisisse pas cette occasion d'obtenir justice et qu'il 
 restera neutre si nos flottes paraissent a I'embouchure de 
 I'Klbe ou dans la Baltique. Quant a la Russie, a I'Au- 
 triche et a I'Angleterre, je ne veux rien dire, n'ayant que 
 mes propres conjectures a vous soumettre, mais si la 
 guerre n'estpaspromptement achevee, je crains quetoute 
 r Europe ne s'en mele. Puissiez vous alors sentir le bon- 
 heur de votre isolement et vous d^velopper en paix 
 tandisque la vieille Europe s'enfoncera de plus en plus 
 dans la barbarie. Westward the Empire takes its way ; 
 I'avenir, et un avenir prochain le montrera. 
 
 Adieu, cher Monsieur, croyez moi en toute circon- 
 stance, Votre tout devoue, 
 
 Ed. LABOUI.AYE. 
 
 P. S. — ^Je suis libre echangiste et je fais partie d'une 
 societe Americaine libre echangiste, mais non pas du 
 Club Cobden. D'dilleurs mon peu de sante me retient 
 
 d 
 
PRE A CHES PEA CE. 59 
 
 k la maison. Je n'aurai done pas le plaisir de vous voir 
 a lyondres au diner de 23. 
 
 Si par hasard vous publiez tout ou une partie de ma 
 lettre en Angleterre ou aux Btats-Unis obligez moi de ne 
 pas mettre raon nom. En ce moment tout Fran^ais 
 comme tout Prussien est tenu a la plus grand reserve et 
 je ne voudrais prendre un role actif dans ce terrible 
 proces a main armee. Tout au contraire je voudrais 
 precher la paix a tout le monde, aussitot que ma voix 
 aura chance d'etre ecoutee. Malheureusement nous 
 n'en trouvons pas la et il ne me reste qu'a faire des voeux 
 pour la triomphe du mon pays. 
 
VI. 
 
 The Feeling in France towards the Prussians and ^specially 
 towards Bismarck— Impossible to L,ive Peaceably with the 
 Prussians for Neighbors— The Defeat at Sedan. 
 
 SOON after the war between France and Germany had 
 been declared, but before the armies of the respec- 
 tive nations had taken the field, I wrote M. Laboulaye 
 from Berlin to caution him against putting too much of 
 his limited means in the new loan to which his country- 
 men had been invited to subscribe, assigning as a reason 
 for presuming to advise him upon such a matter, that I 
 had just been through Germany from one end to the 
 other, and had satisfied myself that the result of the war 
 was likely to disappoint him, and that if France did not 
 sustain a prompt defeat she would have to sustain a pro- 
 tracted and wasting war. In a few days I received the 
 following reply. It proved another illustration of the 
 unprofitableness, to say nothing of the danger, of a 
 disinterested party stepping between inflamed com- 
 batants. I might as well have expressed a hope that 
 
 France 
 
THE NE W MA CEDONIA NS. 6 1 
 
 France would be defeated, as a doubt that she would 
 triumph. 
 
 Paris, 27 Aout, 1870, 34 Rue Taitbout. 
 
 Cher Monsieur : 
 
 Je vous remercie de I'int^ret que vous me temoignez, 
 je reconnais la, votre constante amitie mais nous sommes 
 moins emus que vousne pensez. J'ai ete une fois aborde 
 en mer et pres de faire naufrage ; j'ai appris la par ex- 
 perience qu'en face de la mort et du danger on eprouve 
 une serenite plus grande qu'on n'imagine ; les dangers 
 qui nous menacent m'ont rendu cette serenite. Ce que 
 nous prepare I'avenir, je I'ignore ; mais je suis pret a tout 
 sacrifier, ma fortune et ma vie pour aider a la defense de 
 mon pays. Si les Prussiens sont vainqueurs, ils peuvent 
 s'attendre a payer cher leur succes, et a moins qu'ils ne 
 tuent le dernier Frangais, leur victoire ne sera pas de 
 longue duree. lis ne se doutent pas de la haine et de la 
 vengeance qu'ils sement dans nos cceurs. 
 
 Ce que vous me dites de leurs projets ne m'etonne 
 pas ; les journaux anglais nous dounent tous les matins 
 les memes nouvelles. Je connais de longue date les 
 convoitises et les jalousies de ces nouveaux Macedoniens ; 
 personne sur ce point ne se fait d'illusion en France, et 
 c'est pourquoi nous rdsisterons jusqu'au bout. Vous 
 croyez que Paris ne pent se defendre. Politiquement 
 cela est possible, les fautes de I'Bmpereur ont re volte 
 tout le monde, nous pouvons craindre une revolution qui 
 nous livrent a I'ennemi. J'espere cependant qu'il n'en 
 sera rien car le patriotisme gagne tous les jours et 
 viendra a bout de nos difficultes interieures. 
 
 Militairement 
 
62 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Militairement je crois Paris tres facile a defendre pen- 
 dant deux mois au moins. Une armee de cent mille 
 hommes (et nous avons deja plus que cela) qui pent 
 servir par tons les points de 1' horizon equivaut a une 
 armee de quatre cent mille hommes ranges a quelques 
 lieues de Paris. Et les Prussiens n'ont pas encore quatre 
 cent mille hommes a amener contre nous. Quand ils 
 auront ecrase Bazaine et MacMahon il sera temps pour 
 eux de marcher sur Paris. Mais d'ici la, ce n'est pas 
 cent mille mais trois cent mille hommes que nous aurons 
 a leur opposer. 
 
 II y a dans votre lettre un passage qui m'^tonne. Nous 
 accuser d' avoir provoque la guerre est un enfantillage. 
 Comment voulez vous qu'il nous fut possible de vivre 
 paisiblement a cote d'un peuple qui, suivant vous pent 
 mobiliser 800,000 hommes en quinze jours? Supposez 
 au Canada une telle puissance, quelle serait votre situa- 
 tion aux Ktats-Unis ? La guerre a ete sottement declar^e 
 par un gouvemement incapable ; nous avons ete surpris, 
 mais la guerre etait fatale depuis Sadowa. Quand a la 
 superiorite de cette armee ou tout le monde sait lire ou 
 les plus nobles se font soldats, permettez moi de vous dire 
 qu'aujourd'hui nos regiments sont remplis de nos plus 
 nobles citoyens. Nous ne sommes pas inferieurs a la 
 Prusse et si nous devons succomber devant le nombre et 
 I'organisation au moins aurons nous verse le plus pur de 
 notre sang. 
 
 Quant a moi, vieux et infirme je m'occupe des devoirs 
 aux blesses mais si mon pays doit subir I'humiliation 
 d'une defaite, je ne demande qu'a partir de la vie ; ruin^, 
 vole ou tue par les soldats de Bismark, c'est pour moi 
 
 chose 
 
THE DEFEA T AT SEDAN. 63 
 
 chose indifferente. Si je vis je trouverai bien un coin 
 pour finir obscuremeut nies jours, mais jusqu'a mon 
 dernier moment je preclierai a mescoucitoyens la resist- 
 ance et au besoin la vengeance. M. Bismark pent nous 
 ecraser mais il ne trouvera chez nous que le mepris de la 
 force et la haine de I'etranger. 
 
 Adieu cher Monsieur Bigelow ; souvenez vous qu'on 
 disait le Nord perdu quand nous combattions ensemble 
 pour le soutenir et I'encourager ; et permettez moi de 
 ne pas desesperer malgre la jactance de nos ennemis. 
 
 Votre bien devoue, 
 
 Bd. I^aboui^aye. 
 
 . The defeat at Sedan, the captivity of the Emperor, and 
 the establishment of a provisional government under the 
 auspices of the half-dozen avowed republicans in the 
 Chamber, presented a situation with which I^aboulaye's 
 training and experience wholly unfitted him to cope, and 
 revealed to others his utter disqualifications for leader- 
 ship in the storm which had then set in. He was a little 
 uncertain which was worse for France, the government 
 of the Hotel de Ville or of the Germans. It was in the 
 immediate presence of those startling changes that he 
 addressed to me the following letter. 
 
 Paris, 6 Septembre, 1870. 
 Cher Monsieur BigeIvOw : 
 
 La defaite de MacMahon et la perte de son armee ne 
 vous donnera que trop raison ; mais cela ne pent rien 
 changer ni a ma position ni a mes resolutions. Si j'etais 
 
 passager 
 
64 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 passager dans un navire de commerce je pourrais songer 
 a fuir des dangers trop certains, mais je suis embarque 
 dans un navire de guerre, sur le vaisseau de la patrie ; 
 il vaut mieux sombrer que d'amener notre drapeau. 
 Qu'auriez vous fait si le Sud victorieux etait venu assieger 
 New York. Auriez vous pense a desarmer I'ennemi par 
 votre condescendance ? Bt croyez vous qu'il n'eut pas 
 abuse de votre faiblesse aussi bien que de la victoire ? Si 
 la Prusse I'emporte, qu'elle fasse tout ce qu'elle voudra, 
 seulement qu'elle ne compte pas sur une paix durable ; 
 elle a seme la haine et la guerre pour cinquante ans. Ive 
 bombardement de Strasbourg est une chose horrible, 
 celui de Paris indigne le monde entier et avant deux ou 
 trois ans vous aurez une coalition. 
 
 Ce qui se passe a Paris depuis trois jours est fort 
 triste. Iva chambre envahie par un coup de main, soig- 
 neusement prepare, la republique proclamee a 1' Hotel 
 de Ville au profit des seuls deputes de Paris et d'un 
 seul parti politique, celui du Steele, c'est le retour de 
 Fevrier 1848 ; ce n'est pas le moyen d'amener cette unite 
 supreme qui seul eut pu nous sauver ou rallentir notre 
 perte. Aussi faut il nous attendre a des troubles inte- 
 rieurs autant qu'aux perils du dehors. Les socialistes et 
 les ouvriers qui meurent de faim voudront prendre en 
 main le pouvoir ; je ne suis pas sur qu'ils echoueront. 
 Nous aurons alors une crise interieure, qui ne nous lais- 
 sera pas meme la liberte de nous defendre. Terrible de- 
 struction qui ne pent profiter qu' a I'ennemi. 
 
 ly'etablissement de la Republique en France, c'est dans 
 un temps prochain, la Republique en Italic et en Bspagne. 
 II y a la pour la Prusse un danger qu'elle ne soup^onne 
 
 peut-etre 
 
PERILS OF VICTORY TO PRUSSIA. 65 
 
 peut-etre pas. Les socialistes republicains sont nombreux 
 en AUemagne et la victoire de M. de Bismark (si victoire 
 il y a) pourra bien u'etre pas sans melange. Toutes les 
 fois qu'on bouleversera un pays par la revolution ou par 
 la guerre on recolte des fruits enipoisonnes, aux quels on 
 n'avait pas songe. 
 
 lya revolution de Dimancbe s'est faite du reste comme 
 un prononciamento Bspagnol ; soldats et gardes nationaux 
 se sont embrasses ; ou a chante, on a bu, comme si I'en- 
 nemi n'etait pas aux portes ; on eutdit que la Republique 
 nous donnait la victoire. Au fonds on etait heureux de 
 voir I'Bmpire s'ecrouler. On ne lui pardonnait pas son 
 origine, et encore moins sa defaite. 
 
 Iv'Imperatrice est partie sans que personne songeat a 
 rinquieter ; la princesse Clotilde a ete entouree de 
 marques de respect jusqu'a la voiture qui I'emmenait. 
 On n'a meme pas beaucoup crie d. das V Empire, Depuis 
 un mois il n'existait plus. 
 
 Adieu, cher Monsieur Bigelow ; dans quelques jours je 
 ue pourrai plus vous ecrire. Quand I'orage aura passe 
 nous nous retrouverons peut-etre, mais si jedoisrester dans 
 le [illegible] croyez que je ne suis pas a plaindre ; car le 
 malheur de mon pays me navre, et je trouve que j'ai trop 
 vecu. I,' humiliation et la mine de la France ne seront 
 du reste un bienfait pour personne ; la Prusse perdra en 
 puissance morale tout ce qu'elle gagnera en puissance 
 materielle ; ce sera son tour d'etre un objet de jalousie 
 pour I'Burope, et malheur a elle, le jour ou nous pourrons 
 nous relever. 
 
 Tout a vous en vous remerciant de votre amitie. 
 
 B. I.. 
 If 
 
66 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 If M. Laboulaye talked of the new government as he 
 wrote to me, it is not surprising that he found it advisable 
 to withdraw from Paris and from public notice. During 
 the whole year of the Commune he was a voluntary exile 
 in the obscure village of Bolbec. Upon the establishment 
 of the Thiers government he was elected to the Assemblee 
 Nationale. Shortly after which I received from him the 
 following letter. 
 
 GI.ATIGNY, VERSAir,i,^s, 28 Juillet, 1871. 
 Cher Monsieur Bigei^ow : 
 
 II 5^ a bien lougtemps que j'aurais du vous ecrire. Les 
 terribles evenements que nous avons traverses sont la 
 cause de mon silence ; il faut pardonner beaucoup de 
 choses a des naufrages. 
 
 Je vous avals ecrit apres le 4 Septembre en vous disant 
 que je resterais a Paris pour faire mon devoir d'infirmier. 
 Mais je n'ai pu donner suite a cette resolution. Menace 
 des le 6 Septembre par les hommes de la Commune qui 
 deja se croyaient surs de reussir et qui comptaient sur le 
 siege pour s'emparer du pouvoir, j'ai cru prudent de 
 m'eloigner de Paris durant quelques jours, et je suis parti 
 pour organiser des ambulances en Normandie. La 
 prompte arrivee des Prussiens m'a ferme les portes de 
 Paris et, separe d'une partie de ma famille je suis reste 
 a Bolbec pres du Havre et, depuis le mois de Decembre 
 jusqu'a I'armistice, j'ai vecu au milieu de la guerre et de 
 I'invasion. J'ai vu de pres la civilization Prussienne, et 
 j'espere que le jour se fera prochainement sur la conduite 
 d'un peuple qui, au mepris du droit des gens modernes, 
 s'est conduit avec toute la barbaric et la rapacite des 
 
 lansquenets 
 
BARBARITY OF THE PRUSSIANS. 67 
 
 lansquenets de la guerre de Trente Ans. On vous trompe 
 en Allemagne comme aux Btats-Unis ; mais le mensonge 
 n'a qu'un jour et I'histoire le dissipera. J'ai xu de nies 
 yeux, I'incendie systematique, la ranjon de villes et 
 villages qui ne se defendaient pas, la prise des otages, le 
 vol des ofl&ciers et des soldats, I'ivrognerie et la debauche 
 des chefs, tous les crimes reunis, hormis un seul (I'atten- 
 tat centre la pudeur des femmes) et j'ai congu une haine 
 profonde centre cette race hypocrite et perverse, incapa- 
 ble de noblesse et de generosite. Ne croyez pas qu'a 
 mon age je cede a I'orgueil blesse, a un faux patriotisme, 
 non c'est comme homme et non pas comme fran^ais, que 
 j'eprouve autant d' indignation que de mepris centre de 
 pareils brigands, 
 
 Rentre a Paris le 15 Mars, j'en suis parti le 26 pour me 
 retirer a Versailles dans ma maison que les Prussiens 
 avaient quitte le 12. Je n'avais ete que nioderhnent 
 pille par comparaison avec mes voisins ; il est vrai que 
 j'avais eu I'heureuse chance de n'avoir point d'officiers 
 chez moi. I^e jardinier avait fourni aux soldats le vin et 
 le beis qu'ils demandaient, aussi s'etaient ils contentes 
 de piller ma cave et de prendre quelques petits objets qui 
 leur faisaient en vie. De plus c'etaient des catholiques 
 et ils avaient respecte le crucifix de ma femme qu'ils 
 avaient pose avec veneration sur un meuble et entoure de 
 buis. A cote de moi une maison beaucoup plus impor- 
 tante, celle de Madame la Marquise de la Tour Dupin a 
 ^te entierement pillee et les tableaux de famille soigneuse- 
 ment emballes pour Berlin avec les pianos et les pendules. 
 Mais qu'est ce que cela a cote de Saint Cloud, brule au 
 petrole, le lendemain de 1' armistice ? Six cents maisons 
 
 ont 
 
68 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 ont ^te detruites froidement par calmly pour montrer 
 aux Pran^ais que les Prussiens font la guerre strieuse- 
 me?it et sans romantisme. Vous aurez peine a croire 
 cela mais un jour viendra o^^. la verite vous frappera, et 
 si vous pouviez voir St. Cloud un seul jour vous sauriez 
 £l quoi vous en tenir sur la vertu Prussienne ; elle ressem- 
 ble k celle de vos aristocrates du Sud. C'est en deux mots 
 the sum of all villanies. Je lirai avec interet votre bro- 
 chure mais je doute que loin de la France on puisse se 
 faire une idee juste de notre situation. Nous sommes 
 fort malades, et la sagesse des dernieres elections ne 
 pent pas nous faire illusion. L/es villes et les campagnes 
 sont travaill^es par le communisme et, avec le gouverne- 
 ment provisoire que nous avons, il est possible qu'on voie 
 eclat er un beau jour ou vin pro?iujiciame7ito militaire ou 
 une guerre sociale. II faudrait pour sauver la France un 
 coeur genereux et un bras de fer. Monsieur Thiers n'est 
 qu'un politique habile, mais peu habitue a gouverner. 
 II aura la majority dans la chambre qui est fort sage, 
 mais I'aura t'il dans le pays ? 
 
 Vous aviez raison de dire qu'il vaudrait mieux que 
 I'assemblee nationale fut une assemblee constituante. 
 Nous avons grand besoin d'avoir une constitution, un 
 governement d^finitif. Mais nos hommes d'Etat igno- 
 rent que la securite est le grand besoin des peuples : ils 
 ont fait I'opposition toute leur vie, au cri de vive la Li- 
 bertb^ et ils supposent trop ais^ment qu'une assemblee 
 donne a un pays toutes les garanties dont la society a 
 besoin pour travailler, pour vivre. Je ne sais pas encore 
 quel role je pourrai jouer dans 1 'Assemblee ; je suis vieux, 
 fatigu^, sans ambition, et n'ai rien de ce qu'il faut pour 
 
 conduire 
 
VICTOR EMMANUEL AND M. THIERS. 69 
 
 conduire un parti, ou aider ^ le couduire. Je ferai de 
 mon mieux quand j'aurai un peu etudie le temperament 
 de I'assemblee. Bile est certainement tres honnete et 
 tres moderee, mais elle est fort ignoraute et facile a 
 tromper avec de belles paroles et de lieux communs. 
 
 Je ne crois pas que Mr. Thiers se compromette avec 
 ritalie ; il est fort decide a reparer les maux de la guerre, 
 et a remettre I'arm^e en etat ; mais la conduite du roi 
 d'ltalie a notre egard n'est pas de nature a fortifier 
 I'amitie des deux nations. Nous ne pouvons oublier que 
 Victor Emmanuel a viole le traite qu'il avait sign^ le 
 jour ou nous etions hors d'etat de le faire respecter. Des 
 voisins qui sont prets a profiter de nos malhenrs pour 
 manquer a leur parole nesont pas du gofit Frangais. Ce ne 
 sont pas seulement les catholiques qui sont blesses de 
 cette mauvaise foi. Du reste je me suis explique sur ce 
 point avec mes amis d'ltalie. Je crois I'union des deux 
 pays utile et necessaire, mais a la condition que le pape 
 ne soit pas la victime de cette union. 
 
 Quant a 1' attitude de la Prusse et de 1' Autriclie vis a vis 
 du pape et du dogme de I'infaillibilite, je n'ai rien k re- 
 dire. Je souhaite que M. de Bismark s' en gage dans cette 
 voie ou assurement il apprendra que la force ne pent rien 
 contre les consciences, (egarees on non, peu importe). 
 Le m^rite de la France depuis 1789 c'est d'avoir toujours 
 respecte les scrupules catholiques et de n' avoir rompu 
 avec la vieille politique gallicane. Que M. de Bismark 
 ramene concordataire de Louis XIV. comme il a ramen^ 
 le droit des gens au temps de la guerre du palatinat, 
 c'est son affaire. Un avenir prochain dira qu'il s'est 
 trompe en religion comme en politique, et qu'il n'a fait 
 
 que 
 
70 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 que semer partout les gertnes d'une guerre qui sera le 
 fleau et rabaissement de I'Burope pendant un espace de 
 temps qu'il ne m'appartient pas de fixer. II a declare 
 pardessus les toits que le Frangais etait V Erhfeind de 
 1' Allemagne. II vabientot declarer que le Protestantisme 
 Germanique doit en finir avec le Catholicisme Romain. 
 Nous verrons oii menent toutes ces theories de haine 
 et de vengeance. Pour tnoi Tissue n'est pas douteuse, 
 c'est le reveil de toutes les haines de culte et de race, et 
 dans un temps donne une guerre dont la guerre de 1870 
 n'aura ete que le faible prelude. Ces idees vous etonner- 
 ont sans doute et vous me croirez fort misanthrope et fort 
 melancolique. Vous etes assez jeune pour voir un jour 
 que je n'avais que trop raison. 
 
 Adieu, mes respects a Madame Bigelow, et mille re- 
 merciments de votre bon souvenir. 
 
 Votre bien devoue, 
 
 Bd. LABOUI.AYE. 
 
 The result of the war was no less a surprise than an af- 
 fliction to M. Laboulaye, for, in common with most of his 
 countrymen in those days, he believed in the invincibil- 
 ity of the French armies and in the supremacy of the 
 Napoleonic star. It filled his heart with inexpressible 
 bitterness toward the German people in general — though 
 with some of them he had, since his university days, held 
 the most cordial relations — and toward Bismarck in par- 
 ticular as the incarnation of barbarism. I am told that 
 he even went so far as to indite a sort of circular-letter to 
 his German friends in 1870, formally breaking off and 
 terminating all connection with them. 
 
 How 
 
SENA TOR FOR LIFE. 71 
 
 How true was Bismarck's reply to the almost pathetic 
 inquiry of Theirs : 
 
 " Mais qui combattez vous done ? " 
 
 " Ivouis XIV.," was the reply. 
 
 It never seemed to have occurred to M. Laboulaye, that 
 the overthrow of the Empire, though it necessarily hu- 
 miliated France, gave to himself a prominence in public 
 affairs for which he had sighed in vain under the empire. 
 Not only was he chosen a member of the new assembly 
 in 1871, and made chairman of the committee on the reor- 
 ganization of Public Instruction in France, but in 1873 ^^ 
 was appointed Director of the College of France, and sub- 
 sequently elevated to the highly remunerative dignity of 
 senator for life. He filled the position of a representa- 
 tive always with dignity and ability, but he never became 
 the focus of any considerable popular influence. His 
 standards were for the most part too high for effective 
 partisanship. Though imbued with liberal opinions, he 
 was too exclusively in sympathy with the comparatively 
 restricted class with which, in books or in society, he had 
 always lived, and among whom he had always found his 
 models. His health, too, was always delicate — a circum- 
 stance which aided to diminish his by no means numer- 
 ous points of contact with the world at large. 
 
VII. 
 
 I^aboulaye's Views of Gambetta— Of Other Dynastic Pretenders— 
 — Could Reconcile Himself to No Other than the American Con- 
 stitution for France — His Character — I^ist of His Writings. 
 
 T NEVER saw M. Laboulaye again but once. Being 
 1 casually in Paris for a few days in September, 1872, 
 I went out to Glatigny to call upon him. He bad just 
 risen from breakfast, and we strolled together through 
 the garden for an hour or more. He did not seem in 
 good spirits, nor satisfied with the way the world had 
 been using France or himself. He seemed anxious to dis- 
 cuss with me the political situation of his country, but 
 his conversation, from the beginning, betrayed the man 
 who was taking counsel of his feelings rather than of his 
 judgment. Nothing had turned out exactly as he had 
 predicted in his correspondence, and my presence put 
 him entirely on the defensive. He said the future of 
 France lay between Gambetta and the late Emperor, He 
 thought Gambetta would prevail for a while, but he 
 would not last, and his government, if he should accept 
 
 power 
 
GAMBETTA. 73 
 
 power, would soon be succeeded by the Empire again. 
 He then broke out into an elaborate invective against 
 Gambetta himself, which, I having already some ac- 
 quaintance with this famous tribune of the people and 
 having spent a couple of hours with him only two days 
 before, discussing the same topics, struck me as being 
 both undiscriminating, indiscreet, and unjust. He said 
 Gambetta was an ignoramus ; that he was no statesman ; 
 that he wanted a republic without a constitution, because 
 he wished to be at its head, and to have no restrictions 
 upon his power ; ' that he had no idea of a government 
 that was practicable, or of a popular government that 
 could endure. He spoke of him as I had heard him 
 spoken of by Imperialists and Ultramontanists, and as 
 the same classes are accustomed nowadays to speak 
 of M. Bismarck. When he had finished his indict- 
 ment, I asked him if Gambetta was not on the whole 
 the greatest single political force in France ; if there was 
 any other man in the nation who wielded as much politi- 
 cal influence. He answered promptly that there was not. 
 "But," said I, "there are always a great many clever 
 men, very clever men in France ; how do 3^ou explain 
 this extraordinary preference for Gambetta, if he is the 
 sort of man you describe? " He replied that Gambetta 
 was the only man in France except Theirs that since the 
 war was universally known. His name signed to all the 
 decrees of the provisional government had made it famil- 
 
 1 It is a significant coramen- was defeated was subsequently 
 
 taryupon this objurgation of L,a- the shibboleth of the faction, 
 
 boulaye, that the question upon that defeated him. 
 which the Gambetta ministry 
 
 iar 
 
74 EDOUARD LABOULAYE, 
 
 iar to every Frenchman. The notoriety thus obtained 
 had given him the same advantage as an agitator that the 
 late emperor had inherited with the name of Napoleon. 
 
 M. Laboulaye did not see how very unsatisfactory was 
 this explanation ; how it failed to account for the fact 
 that while this obscure attorney was lifted to the head of 
 the provisional government, issuing its decrees and trav- 
 elling in balloons at the imminent peril of his life to 
 maintain communications between the different armies 
 and provinces of France and the central government, M. 
 Ivaboulaye, with all the prestige and notoriety of a pro- 
 fessor at the College of France of twenty-five years' stand- 
 ing, was permitted to live in idleness and obscurity on 
 the coast of Normandy. 
 
 I alluded to the other dynastic pretenders. He spoke 
 slightingly, even contemptuously, of them all. He did 
 not consider the chance of any one of them coming to 
 power in France worth discussing. He then went back 
 again to Gambetta, and while admitting that he had the 
 largest following, took care to add that it consisted of the 
 most miserable creatures in France : the dregs of the pop- 
 ulation, the desperate classes, etc. He then proceeded to 
 say that he thought the return of Bonaparte not at all 
 improbable, nor under the circumstances to be regretted. 
 The choice lying between the despotism of a mob led by 
 Gambetta and the despotism of a soldiery led by Bona- 
 parte, he could not disguise his preference for the latter. 
 He was still, unconsciously to himself, defending his 
 vote for the plebiscite. 
 
 M. Laboulaye had, in the proportion of his talents, the 
 usual disqualification of the student, for public life. He 
 
 had 
 
AN AMERICAN CONSTITUTION OR IMPERIALISM. 75 
 
 had studied politics in the closet, he had taught politics to 
 young men from the professor's chair ; he had never sat 
 in a representative body until within a few months, and 
 then too late in life to represent any one's opinions but 
 his own ; he had no idea of becoming the resultant of 
 the varied political forces of a community which chose 
 him to represent them, but was anchored by his preju- 
 dices or prepossessions in a stream which was rush- 
 ing by him like a mill tail, and to which he scorned to 
 make any concession. Then he had preached the peculi- 
 arities of the American constitution and its two legislative 
 chambers to his classes so long and so unreservedly that 
 he had got his mind in such a state that he could not 
 accept nor even patiently consider any other issue out of 
 the political troubles of his country. The fact that very few 
 people in France knew any thing about our constitution 
 or about the working processes of a popular government ; 
 the fact that the reasons by which he was in the habit of 
 commending our constitution to his pupils would have 
 been perfectly unintelligible to nine tenths of the people 
 of France, made no difference with him. If he could not 
 have a constitution according to his ideal, he saw no bet- 
 ter alternative than the Empire again and despotism. ^ 
 
 ^ When Laboulaye resumed his tions, he there insisted, had two 
 chair at the College of France functions: (i) providing for the 
 in 1877, he took for his theme, organization of the public pow- 
 " Constitutional Law," Droit ers and their relations with each 
 Constitutionnel, mainly, as I other : (2) guaranteeing the pub- 
 think, to degambettize his lie liberties. He said the French 
 countrymen of what he regarded constitution of 1875 provided for 
 as their delusions about consti- the first, but not for the second, 
 tutional guaranties. Constitu- Hence the question : Is the au- 
 thority 
 
76 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Because Gambetta was content to give France the best 
 securities that he could, rather than such as he would ; 
 the fact that he took his political inspirations from the 
 people at large rather than from the learned members 
 of the Academy, seemed to M. Laboulaye not an evidence 
 of broad statesmanship nor of political sagacity, but of 
 low tastes and degrading purposes. He insisted that an- 
 other thirty years' war was impending ; that France had 
 no frontier, and could neither do any thing nor be any 
 thing till she had. I remarked that I thought President 
 Theirs was making a mistake in paying off the German 
 debt so rapidly. " Until that is paid," he replied, " the 
 Germans will not leave our territory ; until they leave 
 our territory we cannot fortify our frontiers, and until our 
 frontiers are fortified we have no country." I tried to 
 make him take a less gloomy view of France and of her 
 future, but I do not think I was very successful. He 
 rather cultivated his despondency, and did not seem to 
 wish it cured. 
 
 I took my leave of him, not without emotion. Besides 
 so much in his talents and character to admire, he had 
 been to us Americans a most timely and useful friend. In 
 what he did for us, let me add, I never saw the trace of an 
 ignoble or selfish motive. This, too, at a time when 
 motives the most selfish and ignoble ruled in court and 
 camp throughout Europe, and when a price of some sort 
 was placed upon every service of which we had need. 
 
 thority of a constitution or of the constitution should be su- 
 those who make it, absolute, or preme and absolute as the high- 
 has the individual still rights re- est and most solemn expression 
 served? I^aboulaye insisted that of the sovereign will. 
 
 This 
 
HIS DBA TH. 77 
 
 This in itself was a great distinction, and disposed me to 
 judge with diffidence and with charity any of his actions 
 or opinions that failed to commend themselves to my 
 judgment. 
 
 I never saw M. Laboulaye again. He died in the month 
 of September, 1882.' He did not live to see the emperor 
 restored, nor a thirty years' war begun, nor the new con- 
 stitution upon which his heart was so firmly fixed, 
 adopted by his countrymen, but he did live to see the 
 Gambetta he despised, recognized by Europe generally as 
 the most conservative and sagacious statesman in France ; 
 he did live to see the emperor and his only son cease to 
 be factors in the politics of this world ; and he lived to see 
 the Napoleonic legend, once the insane root of which no 
 Frenchman could partake and preserve his reason, be- 
 come in France almost the synonym for fatuous selfish- 
 ness and brigandage, and finally he lived to see the 
 republic in which he had so little faith, attain a longer 
 life than the average of the governments with which 
 France had been afflicted for the previous 200 years. 
 
 Ivaboulaye was a man of most exemplary character and 
 life. He had no frailties for which his friends had to 
 apologize. His name was never associated with any 
 cause, business, or enterprise which did not reflect back 
 upon him faithfully all the dignity he conferred upon it. 
 Hence his name and pen were often in demand and freely 
 bestowed for the promotion of works of beneficence. 
 Though for the greater part of his life so much of an 
 invalid as to partake but with great caution of the 
 pleasures of the table or of general society, he was so 
 ^ Ivaboulaye was born in 181 1. 
 
 industrious 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
78 EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 industrious and so systematic that he accomplished a 
 prodigious amount of literary work. 
 
 The reader may form some notion of its amount and 
 quality from the annexed list of his writings — enough to 
 appal a Benedictine — which remain to testify of his learn- 
 ing, his talents, and his usefulness. 
 
 The notes alone which he made for his lectures fill 
 about thirty volumes. 
 
 In the course of our history as a nation we have been 
 greatly beholden to many citizens of the old world for 
 important services, to some of whom we cannot help 
 feeling that we owe more gratitude than respect, but there 
 have been three Frenchmen whose names are so inti- 
 mately and so honorably associated with the two most 
 critical periods of our national history, and who were so 
 eminent for their virtues, as well as for their services, that 
 they should never be pronounced by any American with- 
 out emotions of respect as well as gratitude. Those names 
 are Lafayette, Berryer, and L/aboulaye. 
 
 IvIST OF THE PRINCIPAIv PUBI^ISHED WRITINGS OK 
 I,ABOUI.AYE. 
 
 La chaire d'histoire du droit et le concours. In-8 de 38 
 pp. (Extrait de la Revue de Legislation.) 
 
 Considerations sur la Constitution. 1848, in-12. (Ex- 
 trait de la Revue de Legislation.) 
 
 Contes bleus, dessins, par Yan' Dargent. 1864, in-8, 
 fig. et vignettes. 
 
 Droit frangais. Des obligations qui naissent du ma- 
 nage, des droits et des devoirs respectifs des epoux. 1866, 
 in-8 de 78 pp. 
 
 De 
 
PUBLISHED WRITINGS. 79 
 
 De r:feglise catholique et de I'fetat. 1845, in-8 de 35 
 pp. (Bxtrait de la Revue de Legislation et de Juris- 
 prudence. ) 
 
 De I'enseignement du droit en France et des reformes 
 dont il a besoin. 1839, in-8 de 70 pp. 
 
 Bssais sur les Ivois criminelles des Romains concernant 
 la responsabilite des magistrats. 1845, in-8. 
 
 i^tudes contemporaines sur I'Allemagne et les pays 
 Slaves. 1856, in-i2. 
 
 !^tudes sur la propriete litteraire en France et en Angle- 
 terre, suivies des trois discours prononces au Parlement 
 d' Angleterre, par sir T. Noon Talfourd, traduits de 1' anglais 
 par M. Kd. Laboulaye. 1858, in-8. 
 
 Histoire politique des Btats-Unis, depuis les premiers 
 essais de colonisation jusqu'a I'adoption de la Constitu- 
 tion federale, 1620-1789. 1855-1866, 3 vol. in-8. 
 
 Histoire des E)tats-Unis. Paris, Charpentier, 1868, 
 in-i2. 
 
 Questions constitutionnelles. Paris, Charpentier, 1872, 
 in-i2. 
 
 Considerations sur la Constitution. — Le droit de re- 
 vision. — Le Plebiscite de 1870. — La Republique constitu- 
 tionnelle. — La Question des deux Chambres. — Du Pouvoir 
 constituant. — De la Souverainete. — Separation de I'EgHse 
 et de I'E^tat. 
 
 These pour la licence : Des servitudes. Paris, Rignoux, 
 1833, in-8 de 25 pp. 
 
 Des Impositions de la Gaule dans les derniers temps de 
 I'Kmpire romain, par le chevalier Charles Baudi di Vesme, 
 traduit de I'italien par Bd. Laboulaye, 68 pp. 
 
 Travaux 
 
8o EDOUARD LABOULAYE. 
 
 Travaux sur I'histoire du Droit fran^ais d' Henri Klim- 
 rath, compte rendu par M. Bd. Laboulaye, 13 pp. 
 
 De I'Bglise et de I'Etat, a I'occasion des attaques 
 dirigees centre les articles organiques du Concordat de 
 1801. 1845, 55 pp. 
 
 Quelques Reflexions sur I'enseignement du Droit en 
 France, a I'occasion des reponses faites par les Facultes 
 proposees parle ministre del 'instruction publique, 82 pp. 
 
 De I'Bnseignement et du Noviciat administratif en 
 Allemagne. 1843, 99 pp. 
 
 Histoire de la procedure civile chez les Romains par 
 Ferd. Walter, traduite de I'Allemand par Ed. lyaboulaye. 
 Paris, 1 841. 
 
 Seance publique annuelle des cinq Academies du Ven- 
 dredi, 25 Oct., 1878. Discours de M. Bd. Laboulaye. 
 
 3725. — Channing. CBuvres sociales, traduction fran- 
 9aise pr^cedee d'un essai sur sa vie et sa doctrine, par M. 
 Bdouard Laboulaye. Paris, Charpentier, 1869, i vol. — 
 Traites religieux, precedes d'une introduction par M. 
 Bdouard lyaboulaye. Paris, Lacroix, 1857, i vol. 
 
 Chotteau (L.). La Guerre de I'lndependance, 1775- 
 1783. Les Frangais les Amerique avec une preface par 
 M. Bd. Laboulaye. Paris, 1876. 
 
 4084. — Propriete (la) litteraire au xviii^ siecle, recueil 
 de pieces et documents, public par le comity de 1' associa- 
 tion pour la defense de la propriete litteraire et artistique, 
 avec une introduction par MM. Bd. Laboulaye et G. 
 Guifirey. Paris, L, Hachette, 1859, in-8, demi-rel. v. f. 
 6barb6. 
 
 Histoire 
 
PUBLISHED WRITINGS. 8 1 
 
 Histoire du droit de propriete fonciere en Europe de- 
 puis Constantiu jusqu'a nos jours. 8vo. Paris. (1839.) 
 
 Bssai sur la vie et les doctrines de Frederic Charles de 
 Savigny. (1842.) 
 
 Recherches sur la condition civile et politique des 
 femmes depuis les Romains jusqu'a nos jours. (1843.) 
 
 Iv' Etat et ses Limites. ( 1 863. ) 
 
 Paris en Amerique. (1863.) 
 
 Les Memoires et la Correspondance de Franklin. 
 (1866.) 
 
 Ivettres Politiques. (1872.) 
 
 Dupin et Ed. Laboulaye. Glossaire de I'ancien Droit 
 fraufais contenant I'explication des mots vieillis ou bors 
 d'usage. Paris, 1846, in-12. 
 
 Revue historique de droit fran9ais et etranger, publiee 
 sous la direction de MM. Ed. Laboulaye, R. Dareste, E. 
 de Roziere, C. Ginouilhiac. Paris, 1855-1869, 15 vol. 
 in-8. 
 
 Revue de legislation ancienne et moderue fran5aise et 
 etraugere, publiee sous la direction de MM. Ed. Labou- 
 laye, Eug. de Roziere, P. Gide, Rod. Dareste, Gust. 
 Boissonade, J. Flach. Paris, 1877, a Avril, 1883. 
 
 Claude Fleury. Institution au droit fran^ais, publiee 
 par M. Ed. Laboulaye et M. Rod. Dareste. Paris, 1858, 
 2 vol. 
 
 Catherinot. Les axiomes du droit fran9ais avec une 
 notice sur la vie et les ecrits de I'auteur par Ed. Labou- 
 laye, &c. Paris, 1883, in-8. 
 
OCT 7 1901 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MJ^ 
 
 019 625 075 A