Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/348

 30G ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1S53 CHAP, and though the sect, taken alone, was never so xiv. . ! formidable as to justify the alarm of a firm man, dreTaoV the still it was more or less allied with the fierce ocwis. S p ec j es f democrat which men called 'Red,' and, the institutions of the Republic being new and weak, it was right for the nation to stand on its guard against anarchy ; though many have judged that the defenders of order, being upheld by the voice of the millions no less than by the forces of intellect and of property, might have kept their watch without fear. But whether the thing from which people ran flying was a clanger or only a phantom, the terror it spread brought numbers down into a state which was hardly other than abject. Of course, people thus un- manned would look up piteously to the Executive Government as their natural protectors, and would be willing to offer their freedom in exchange for The use a little more safety. So now, if not before, the this by the company of the Elysee saw the gain which would the Eiyso'e. accrue to them if they could have it believed that their enterprise was a war against Socialism. After the subjugation of Paris, the scanty gath- erings of people who took up arms against the Government were composed, no doubt, partly of Socialists, but partly also of men who had no motive for rising, except that they were of too high a spirit to be able to stand idle and see the law trampled down. But the brotherhood of the Elysde was master — sole master — of the power to speak in print ; and by exaggerating the disturb- ances going on in some parts of France, as well