Prev | Current Page 246 | Next

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859

"Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859, Volume 2"

As for the number
_expulses_ and _internes_ there are no data.'
'In the Department of Var, a man was found guilty in 1848 of joining in
one of the revolutionary movements of that time. His complete innocence
was soon proved; he was released, and has lived quietly on his little
estate ever since. He was arrested under the new law and ordered to be
_deporte_ to Algeria. His friends, in fact all his neighbours,
remonstrated, and sent to Paris the proof that the original conviction
was a mistake. "Qu'il aille tout de meme," was Espinasse's answer.
'In Calvados the Prefet, finding no one whom he could conscientiously
arrest, took hold of one of the most respectable men in the department.
"If," he said, "I had arrested a man against whom there was plausible
ground for suspicion, he might have been transported. This man _must_ be
released."'
'Has he been released?' I asked.
'I have not heard,' was the answer. 'In all probability he has been.'
'In my department,' said Tocqueville, 'the _sous-prefet_, ordered by the
Prefet to arrest somebody in the arrondissement, was in the same
perplexity as the Prefet of Calvados. "I can find no fit person," he said
to me.


Pages:
234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258