oclamation." "I will
print anything," answered he, "as long as it is not an appeal to arms."

He added, addressing himself to me, "I know your Proclamation. It is a
war-cry, I cannot print that."

They remonstrated at this. He then declared that he for his part made
Proclamations, but in a different sense from ours. That according to him
Louis Bonaparte should not be combated by force of arms, but by creating
a vacuum. By an armed conflict he would be the conqueror, by a vacuum he
would be conquered. He urged us to aid him in isolating the "deposed of
the Second December." "Let us bring about a vacuum around him!" cried
Emile de Girardin, "let us proclaim an universal strike. Let the merchant
cease to sell, let the consumer cease from buying, let the workman cease
from working, let the butcher cease from killing, let the baker cease
from baking, let everything keep holiday, even to the National Printing
Office, so that Louis Bonaparte may not find a compositor to compose the
_Moniteur_, not a pressman to machine it, not a bill-sticker to placard
it! Isolation, solitude, a void space round this man! Let the nation
withdraw from him. Every power from which the nation withdraws falls like
a tree from which the roots are divided. Louis Bonaparte abandoned by all
in his crime will vanish away. By simply folding our arms as we stand
around him he will fall. On the other hand, fire on him and you will
consolidate him. The army is intoxicated, the people are dazed and do not
interfere, the middle classes are afraid of the President, of the people,
of you, of every one! No victory is possible. You will go straight before
you, like brave men, you risk your heads, very good; you will carry with
you two or three thousand daring men, whose blood mingled with yours,
already flows. It is heroic, I grant you. It is not politic. As for me,
I will not print an appeal to arms, and I reject the combat. Let us
organize an universal strike."

This point of view was haughty and superb, but unfortunately I felt it
to be unattainable. Two aspects of the truth seized Girardin, the
logical side and the practical side. Here, in my opinion, the practical
side was wanting.

Michel de Bourges answered him. Michel de Bourges with his sound logic
and quick reasoning put his finger on what was for us the immediate
question; the crime of Louis Bonaparte, the necessity to rise up erect
before this crime. It was rather a conversation than a debate, but