r 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.
And perhaps we ought to have inquired. We busy ourselves about our own
affairs, and neglect too much those of other countries. In that sense
you have a right to say that we chose to be ignorant, since our conduct
was such as necessarily to make us ignorant. But it was not because Louis
Napoleon was our ally that we chose to be ignorant, but because we
habitually turn our eyes from the domestic affairs of the Continent, as
things in which we have seldom a right to interfere, and in which, when
we do interfere, we do more harm than good.'

We talked of the manner in which the _loi de surete publique_ has been
carried out. And I mentioned 600 as the number of those who had suffered
under it, as acknowledged to me by Blanchard in the beginning of March.

'It is much greater now,' said Lanjuinais. 'Berryer on his return from
Italy, a week ago, slept in Marseilles. He was informed that more than
900 persons had passed through Marseilles, _deportes_ under the new law
to Algeria. They were of all classes: artisans and labourers mixed with
men of the higher and middle classes. To these must be added those
transported to Cayenne, who were sent by way of Havre. 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