The Arcades Project - Operi

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From Robert (du Var) l Ilistoire de la classe Olwrii'n'e (1845-1848): "'You have seen it witnessed in this history,
o worker! When, as slave, you embraced the gospel, you became, unhesitatingly,
a serf; when, as serf, you embraced the eighteenth-century philosophes, you became
a proletarian. Well, today you have taken up socialism, . . . What is to
prevent you from becoming a partner? You are king, pope, and emperoryour
fate, in this regard, is in your own hands." Cited in Charles Benoist,
"L'Homme de 1848," part 2, Revue des deux mondes (February 1, 1914), p. 668.
[a13,1]
A comment by Tocqueville on the spirit of the 1840s: "'Wealthy proprietors liked to
recall that they had always been enemies of the bourgeois class and always been
friends of the people. The bourgeoisie themselves recalled wit.h a certain pride that
their fathers had been lahorers, and if they could not trace their lineage . .. to a
worker .. " they would at least contrive to descend from some uncouth person
who had made his fortune on his own.?? Cited in Charles Benoist, "L'Homme de
1848," part 2, Revue des deux monde, (February 1, 1914), p. 669. [a13,2]
" The question of poverty . .. has, in a few years, passed through extremely varied
phases. Toward the end of the Restoration, the debate turns entirely on the extinction
of mendicancy, and society tries less to alleviate poverty than to . .. forget it
hy relegating it to the shadows. At the time of' the July Revolution, the situation is
reversed hy means of politics. The repuhlican party seizes on pauperism and
transforms it into the proletariat. ... The workers take up the pen . ... Tailors,
shoemakers, and typographers, who at that time constituted the revolutionary
trades, march in the extreme avant-garde . ... Around 1835, the debate is suspended
in consequence of the numerous defeats dealt the repuhliean party.
Around 1840, it resumes, . .. and bifurcates . .. int.o two schools, culminating, on
t.he one hand, in communism and, on the other, in the associations deriving from
the mutual interests of workers and employers." Charles Louandre, "Statistique
liUerail'e: De In Production intelleetuelle en France dupuis ({uinze ans," Revue des
deux monde, (October 15, 1847), p. 279. [a13,3]
The Blanquist Tridon: '''0 Might, queen of t.he barricades, . .. you who flash in the
lightning and the riot, ... it is toward you that prisoners stretch their manacled
hands." Cit.ed in Charles Benoist, " I .. e 'My the' de la classe ouvriere," Revue des
deux monde, (Marcb 1, 1914), p. 105. [a13,4]
Against workhouses, and in favor of lowering the tax on the poor: F.-M.-L.
Navillc, De La Charite legale et specialmnent des maisons de travail et de la proscription
de la mendicite. 2 volumes (Paris, 1836). [a13,5]
A coinage of 1848: "God is a worker." [a13a,1]