Part 78 (1/2)
”Well, then, war!” cried John; ”Long live the Republic.”
”Someone to see you, sir,” announced a servant.
”These are the delegates of our friends, come for the word. Ask the gentlemen in.”
The servant showed into the room three workmen, in their laboring clothes. One of them, a man still young, and with a face full of fire, addressed John Lebrenn: ”Are we to fight, or not to fight, in this quarter, sir? They say it is warming up in St. Antoine, and that they are building barricades. Our St. Denis Street is behind-hand; that will be humiliating for the quarter.”
”My men, you have asked my advice--” began Lebrenn.
”We felt the need of getting in touch with things, Monsieur Lebrenn.
Yes, for indeed we said to each other from the first, Ordinances, coups d'etat--what has all that to do with us? Our misery is great, our wages hardly buy bread for our children and ourselves; will our distress be any greater after the coup d'etat than before? And still we said that these Bourbons, these 'whites,' are the enemies of the people, and that we should seize the occasion to turn them out. But after all, what will it bring us? The same misery as in the past.”
”What will we have gained by driving out Charles, Polignac, and the skull-cap bands?” added the other two workingmen.
”My men, here in two words is the meat of the matter. To-day, in 1830, the proletarians of the towns and the country, in other words the immense majority of the people, produce, almost by their labor alone, the riches of the country; and yet they live in misery. Why is it thus?
Because you have no political rights.”
”And what help would political rights be to us?”
”Suppose you were all electors, as you were under the great Republic.
You would elect your representatives; these representatives would make the laws. So that, if you chose for representatives friends of the people, is it not clear that the laws they made would be favorable to the people? The law could decree, for example, as in the time of the Republic, the education of children, instructed and maintained by the state, from the age of five to twelve. The law could decree a.s.sistance for disabled proletarians, for widows with children. The law could decree the abolition of slavery in the colonies, equality of civic rights between man and woman. The law could a.s.sure work to citizens in times of unemployment, and sustain them against the exploitation of capital. The law, in short, could change your condition completely, for the law is sovereign. The law can perform everything within the limits of the possible; so then, by their number, the proletarians composing the great majority of the citizens, they would be a.s.sured of having a majority in the elections; whence it follows that if they had well chosen their representatives, all the laws made by these would be in favor of the proletariat. Do you follow me, friends?”
”In virtue of our political rights we would choose the representatives who make the laws, and they would make them in our interests,” answered the first workingman. The other two also added: ”That is easy to understand.”
”That is why,” continued John Lebrenn, ”as long as you remain without political rights, your condition will continue precarious and miserable.”
”But how can we obtain these political rights?” asked one of the workingmen.
”By combatting all governments which refuse to recognize your rights or which pluck you of them, as did Napoleon, the accursed Corsican, and as the Bourbons have done.”
”It stiffens one's spine,” returned the artisan, ”to know that by fighting against Charles X and Polignac we will obtain rights which will permit us to choose the representatives who will make laws in our favor.
On to the barricades, then! Let us strike a blow that will count, against the gendarmes, and the officers of the troops.”
”To the barricades! Death to the gendarmes!” repeated the other two artisans.
”In conclusion, my men,” resumed Lebrenn, ”I tell you in all sincerity, it is possible, although doubtful, that we may with this one blow reconquer the Republic, which alone can free you in mind and body, and restore to you the exercise of your sovereignty. Now, my men, decide.”
With ringing enthusiasm the three workingmen shouted:
”To the barricades!”
”Down with Charles X and Polignac!”
”Down with all the Jesuits and skull-caps!”
And all present joined in the battle-cry: