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The French Second Republic (or simply the '''Second Republic''') was the Republic an government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire . See Also: Mid-nineteenth century France Revolution of 1848 The industrial population of the Faubourgs on its way towards the centre of Paris was welcomed by the National Guard. Barricades were raised after the shooting of protestors outside the Guizot manor by soldiers. On 23 February 1848 Guizot 's cabinet resigned, abandoned by the Petite Bourgeoisie , on whose support they thought they could depend. The heads of the Left Centre and the dynastic Left, Molé and Thiers , declined the offered leadership. Odilon Barrot accepted it, and Bugeaud , commander-in-chief of the first military division, who had begun to attack the barricades, was recalled. But it was too late. In face of the insurrection which had now taken possession of the whole capital, Louis-Philippe decided to abdicate in favour of his grandson, Philippe, Comte De Paris . But it was too late also to be content with the regency of the duchess of Orléans. Formation of the Republic It was now the turn of the Republic, and it was proclaimed by Lamartine in the name of the provisional government elected by the Chamber under the pressure of the mob. This Provisional Government with Dupont De L'Eure as its president, consisted of Lamartine for foreign affairs, Crémieux for justice, Ledru-Rollin for the interior, Carnot for public instruction, Goudchaux for finance, Arago for the navy, and Burdeau for war. Garnier-Pages was mayor of Paris. But, as in 1830 , the republican-socialist party had set up a rival government at the Hotel De Ville (city hall), including Louis Blanc , Armand Marrast , Ferdinand Flocon , and the Workman Albert , which bid fair to involve discord and civil war. But this time the Palais Bourbon was not victorious over the Hotel de Ville. It had to consent to a fusion of the two bodies, in which, however, the predominating elements were the moderate republicans. It was doubtful what would eventually be the policy of the new government. One party, seeing that in spite of the changes in the last sixty years of all political institutions, the position of the people had not been improved, demanded a reform of society itself, the abolition of the privileged position of property, the only obstacle to equality, and as an emblem hoisted the Red Flag . The other party wished to maintain society on the basis of its ancient institutions, and rallied round the Tricolore . The first collision took place as to the form which the 1848 Revolution was to take. Were they to remain faithful to their original principles, as Lamartine wished, and accept the decision of the country as supreme, or were they, as the revolutionaries under Ledru-Rollin claimed, to declare the republic of Paris superior to the Universal Suffrage of an insufficiently educated people? On March 5 the government, under the pressure of the Parisian clubs, decided in favour of an immediate reference to the people, and direct universal suffrage, and adjourned it till April 26 . In this fateful and unexpected decision, which instead of adding to the electorate the educated classes, refused by Guizot, admitted to it the unqualified masses, originated the Constituent Assembly of May 4 , 1848 . The provisional government having resigned, the republican and anti-socialist majority on the 9th of May entrusted the supreme power to an executive. The commission consisting of five members: Arago, Executive Marie, Garnier-Pages, Lamartine and Ledru-Rollin. Conimis. But the spell was already broken. This revolution which had been peacefully effected with the most generous aspirations, in the hope of abolishing poverty by organizing industry on other bases than those of competition and capitalism, and which had at once aroused the fraternal sympathy of the nations, was doomed to be abortive. The result of the general election, the return of a constituent assembly predominantly moderate if not monarchical, dashed the hopes of those who had looked for the establishment, by a peaceful revolution, of their ideal socialist state; but they were not prepared to yield without a struggle, and in Paris itself they commanded a formidable force. In spite of the preponderance of the "tricolour" party in the provisional government, so long as the voice of France had not spoken, the socialists, supported by the Parisian proletariat, had exercised an influence on policy out of all proportion to their relative numbers or personal weight. By the decree of February 24 , the provisional government had solemnly accepted the principle of the "right to work," and decided to establish "national workshops" for the unemployed; at the same time a sort of industrial parliament was established at the Luxembourg Palace , under the presidency of Louis Blanc , with the object of preparing a scheme for the organization of labour; and, lastly, by the decree of March 8 , the property qualification for enrolment in the National Guard had been abolished and the workmen were supplied with arms. The socialists thus formed, in some sort, a state within the state, with a government, an organization and an armed force. In the circumstances a conflict was inevitable; and on May 15, an armed mob, headed by Raspail , Blanqui and Barbès , and assisted by the proletariat Guard, attempted to overwhelm the Assembly. They were defeated by the bourgeois battalions of the National Guard; but the situation nonetheless remained highly critical. The national workshops were producing the results that might have been foreseen. It was impossible to provide remunerative work even for the genuine unemployed, and of the thousands who applied the greater number were employed in perfectly useless digging and refilling; soon even this expedient failed, and those for whom work could not be invented were given a half wage of 1 Franc a day. Even this pitiful dole, with no obligation to work, proved attractive, and all over France workmen threw up their jobs and streamed to Paris, where they swelled the ranks of the army under the red flag. It was soon clear that the continuance of this experiment would mean financial ruin; it had been proved by the émeute of May 15, that it constituted a perpetual menace to the state; and the government decided to end it. The method chosen was scarcely a happy one. On June 21 , M. De Falloux decided in the name of the parliamentary commission on labour that the workmen should be discharged within three days and such as were able-bodied should be forced to enlist. A furious insurrection at once broke out, The June Days Uprising . Throughout the whole of the 24th, 25th and 26th of June, the eastern industrial quarter of Paris, led by Pujol , carried on a furious struggle against the western quarter, led by Louis Eugène Cavaignac , who had been appointed Dictator . Vanquished and decimated, first by fighting and afterwards by deportation, the socialist party was crushed. But they dragged down the Republic in their ruin. This had already become unpopular with the peasants, exasperated by the newland tax of 45 centimes imposed in order to fill the empty treasury, and with the bourgeois, in terror of the power of the revolutionary clubs and hard hit by the stagnation of business. By the "massacres" of the June Days the working classes were also alienated from it; and abiding fear of the "Reds" did the rest. "France," wrote the Duke Of Wellington at this time, "needs a Napoleon ! I cannot yet see him . . . Where is he?" France indeed needed, or thought she needed, a Napoleon; and the demand was soon to be supplied. The granting of universal suffrage to a society with Imperialist sympathies, and unfitted to reconcile the principles of order with the consequences of liberty, was indeed bound, now that the political balance in France was so radically changed, to prove a formidable instrument of reaction; and this was proved by the election of the president of the Republic. Constitution On the November 4 , 1848 was promulgated the new Constitution , obviously the work of inexperienced hands, proclaiming a democratic republic, direct universal suffrage and the separation of powers; there was to be a single permanent assembly of 750 members elected for a term of three years by the scrutin de liste, which was to vote on the laws prepared by a council of state elected by the Assembly for six years; the executive power was delegated to a president elected for four years by direct universal suffrage, i.e. on a broader basis than that of the chamber, and not eligible for re-election; he was to choose his ministers, who, like him, would be responsible. Finally, all revision was made impossible since it involved obtaining three times in succession a majority of three-quarters of the deputies in a special assembly. It was in vain that M. Grévy , in the name of those who perceived the obvious and inevitable risk of creating, under the name of a president, a monarch and more than a king, proposed that the head of the state should be no more than a removable president of the ministerial council. Lamartine, thinking that he was sure to be the choice of the electors under universal suffrage, won over the support of the Chamber, which did not even take the precaution of rendering ineligible the members of families which had reigned over France. It made the presidency an office dependent upon popular acclamation. |
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