Up to the 14th of January 1858 the oppression under which
thirty-four millions of people within twenty-four miles of your coast,
with whom you are in constant intercourse, was unknown to you. Their
ruler insults you, and you instantly discover that he is an usurper and a
tyrant. This looks as if the insult, and the insult alone, opened your
eyes.'
'What opened our eyes,' I answered, 'was not the insult but the _loi de
surete publique_. It was the first public act which showed to England the
nature of your Government.
'When we found, erected in every department, a revolutionary tribunal,
empowered to banish and transport without trial; when we found a rude
soldier made Home Minister, and the country divided into five districts
to be each governed by a marshal, we saw at once that France was under a
violent military despotism. Until that law was passed the surface was
smooth. There was nothing in the appearance of France to show to a
stranger that she was not governed by a Monarch, practically, indeed,
absolute, but governing as many absolute Monarchs have done, mildly and
usefully.
'Of course we might have found out the truth sooner if we had inquired.
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