REVOLT OF A LIBERAL ROTTEN-BOROUGH
Though 1839 is, politically speaking, very distant from 1847, we can still remember the elections produced by the Coalition, an ephemeral effort of the Chamber of Deputies to realize the threat of parliamentary government,--a threat a la Cromwell, which without a Cromwell could only end, under a prince "the enemy of fraud," in the triumph of the present system, by which the Chambers and the ministers are like the wooden puppets which the proprietor of the Guignolet shows exhibits to the great satisfaction of wonder-stricken idlers in the streets.
The arrondissement of Arcis-sur-Aube then found itself in a singular position.It supposed itself free to choose its deputy.From 1816 to 1836 it had always elected one of the heaviest orators of the Left, belonging to the famous seventeen who were called "Great Citizens" by the liberal party,--namely, Francois Keller, of the house of Keller Bros., the son-in-law of the Comte de Gondreville.Gondreville, one of the most magnificent estates in France, is situated about a mile from Arcis.
This banker, recently made count and peer of France, expected, no doubt, to transfer to his son, then thirty years of age, his electoral succession, in order to make him some day eligible for the peerage.
Already a major on the staff and a great favorite of the prince-royal, Charles Keller, now a viscount, belonged to the court party of the citizen-king.The most brilliant future seemed pledged to a young man enormously rich, full of energy, already remarkable for his devotion to the new dynasty, the grandson of the Comte de Gondreville, and nephew of the Marechal de Carigliano; but this election, so necessary to his future prospects, presented suddenly certain difficulties to overcome.
Since the accession to power of the bourgeois class, Arcis had felt a vague desire to show itself independent.Consequently, the last election of Francois Keller had been disturbed by certain republicans, whose red caps and long beards had not, however, seriously alarmed the bourgeois of Arcis.By canvassing the country carefully the radical candidate would be able to secure some thirty or forty votes.A few of the townspeople, humiliated at seeing their town always treated as a rotten borough, joined the democrats, though enemies to democracy.In France, under the system of balloting, politico-chemical products are formed in which the laws of affinity are reversed.
Now, to elect young Keller in 1839, after having elected his father for twenty years, would show a monstrous electoral servitude, against which the pride of the newly enriched bourgeoisie revolved, for they felt themselves to be fully worth either Monsieur Malin, otherwise called Comte de Gondreville, the Keller Bros., the Cinq-Cygnes, or even, the King of the French.
The numerous partisans of old Gondreville, the king of the department of the Aube, were therefore awaiting some fresh proof of his ability, already so thoroughly tested, to circumvent this rising revolt.In order not to compromise the influence of his family in the arrondissement of Arcis, that old statesman would doubtless propose for candidate some young man who could be induced to accept an official function and then yield his place to Charles Keller,--a parliamentary arrangement which renders the elect of the people subject to re-election.
When Simon Giguet sounded the old notary Grevin, the faithful friend of the Comte de Gondreville, on the subject of the elections, the old man replied that, while he did not know the intentions of the Comte de Gondreville, he should himself vote for Charles Keller and employ his influence for that election.
As soon as this answer of old Grevin had circulated through Arcis, a reaction against him set in.Although for thirty years this provincial Aristides possessed the confidence of the whole town,--having been mayor of Arcis from 1804 to 1814 and again during the Hundred Days,--and although the Opposition had accepted him as their leader until the triumph of 1830, at which period he refused the honors of the mayoralty on the ground of his great age, and finally, although the town, in order to manifest its affection for him, elected his son-in-law, Monsieur Beauvisage, mayor in his stead, it now revolted against him and some young striplings went so far as to talk of his dotage.
The partisans of Simon Giguet then turned to Phileas Beauvisage, the mayor, and won him over the more easily to their side because, without having quarrelled with his father-in-law, he assumed an independence of him which had ended in coldness,--an independence that the sly old notary allowed him to maintain, seeing in it an excellent means of action on the town of Arcis.
The mayor, questioned the evening before in the open street, declared positively that he should cast his vote for the first-comer on the list of eligibles rather than give it to Charles Keller, for whom, however, he had a high esteem.
"Arcis shall be no longer a rotten borough!" he said, "or I'll emigrate to Paris."Flatter the passions of the moment and you will always be a hero, even at Arcis-sur-Aube.
"Monsieur le maire," said everybody, "gives noble proof of his firmness of character."Nothing progresses so rapidly as a legal revolt.That evening Madame Marion and her friends organized for the morrow a meeting of "independent electors" in the interests of Simon Giguet, the colonel's son.The morrow had now come and had turned the house topsy-turvy to receive the friends on whose independence the leaders of the movement counted.Simon Giguet, the native-born candidate of a little town jealously desirous to elect a son of its own, had, as we have seen, put to profit this desire; and yet, the whole prosperity and fortune of the Giguet family were the work of the Comte de Gondreville.But when it comes to an election, what are sentiments!