Correspondence Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to | Page 7

and thus he succeeded.
'Two days after, came a long remonstrance from Lord Palmerston,
which Lord Bloomfield was desired to read to Nesselrode, and leave
with him. A man of the world, seeing that the thing was done, would
have withheld an irritating document. But Bloomfield went with it to
Nesselrode. Nesselrode would have nothing to say to it. "Mon Dieu!"
he said, "we have given up all our demands; why tease us by trying to
prove that we ought not to have made them?" Bloomfield said that his
orders were precise. "Lisez donc," cried Nesselrode, "mais il sera
très-ennuyeux." Before he had got half through Nesselrode interrupted
him. "I have heard all this," he said, "from Lamoricière, only in half the
number of words. Cannot you consider it as read?" Bloomfield,
however, was inexorable.'
I recurred to a subject on which I had talked to both of them before--the
tumult of January 29, 1849.
'George Sumner,' I said, 'assures me that it was a plot, concocted by
Faucher and the President, to force the Assembly to fix a day for its

dissolution, instead of continuing to sit until it should have completed
the Constitution by framing the organic laws which, even on December
2 last, were incomplete. He affirms that it was the model which was
followed on December 2; that during the night the Palais Bourbon was
surrounded by troops; that the members were allowed to enter, but were
informed, not publicly, but one by one, that they were not to be allowed
to separate until they had fixed, or agreed to fix, the day of their
dissolution; and that under the pressure of military intimidation, the
majority, which was opposed to such a dissolution, gave way and
consented to the vote, which was actually carried two days after.'
'No such proposition was made to me,' said Tocqueville, 'nor, as far as I
know, to anybody else; but I own that I never understood January 29. It
is certain that the Palais Bourbon, or at least its avenues, were taken
possession of during the night; that there was a vast display of military
force, and also of democratic force; that the two bodies remained en
face for some time, and that the crowd dispersed under the influence of
a cold rain.'
'I too,' said Corcelle, 'disbelieve Sumner's story. The question as to the
time of dissolution depended on only a few votes, and though it is true
that it was voted two days after, I never heard that the military
demonstration of January 29 accelerated the vote. The explanation
which has been made to me is one which I mentioned the other day,
namely, that the President complained to Changarnier, who at that time
commanded the army of Paris, that due weight seemed not to be given
to his 6,000,000 votes, and that the Assembly appeared inclined to
consider him a subordinate power, instead of the _Chef d'État_, to
whom, not to the Assembly, the nation had confided its destinies. In
short, that the President indicated an intention to make a _coup d'etat_,
and that the troops were assembled by Changarnier for the purpose of
resisting it, if attempted, and at all events of intimidating the President
by showing him how quickly a force could be collected for the defence
of the Assembly.'
_Sunday, January_ 4.--I dined with the Tocquevilles alone. The only
guest, Mrs. Grote, who was to have accompanied me, being unwell.
'So enormous,' said Tocqueville, 'are the advantages of Louis
Napoleon's situation, that he may defy any ordinary enemy. He has,
however, a most formidable one in himself. He is essentially a copyist.

He can originate nothing; his opinions, his theories, his maxims, even
his plots, all are borrowed, and from the most dangerous of
models--from a man who, though he possessed genius and industry
such as are not seen coupled, or indeed single, once in a thousand years,
yet ruined himself by the extravagance of his attempts. It would be well
for him if he would utterly forget all his uncle's history. He might then
trust to his own sense, and to that of his advisers. It is true that neither
the one nor the other would be a good guide, but either would probably
lead him into fewer dangers than a blind imitation of what was done
fifty years ago by a man very unlike himself, and in a state of society
both in France and in the rest of Europe, very unlike that which now
exists.'
Lanjuinais and Madame B., a relation of the family, came in.
Lanjuinais had been dining with Kissileff the Russian Minister. Louis
Napoleon builds on Russian support, in consequence of the marriage of
his cousin, the Prince de Lichtenstein, to the Emperor's daughter. He
calls it an _alliance de