274 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 CHAP. Morny, and Fleury, and Maupas, and St Arnaud l__ formerly Le Boy. * The Elysee derived great advantage from this stratagem, because for many precious hours, and even days, it kept the country from knowing what was the number and what was the quality of the persons who were really abetting the President ; but Magnan of course knew the truth, and when he found, on the morn- ing of the 4th of December, that even the com- plete success of all the arrangements of the fore- going Tuesday had not been hitherto puissant enough to bring to the Elysee the support of men of weight and character, he had grounds for the alarm which seems to have been the cause of his inaction. For, regarded in connection with the state of isolation in which the plotters still remained, the insurrection, feeble as it was, became a source of grave danger to the General in command of the troops. It would have been no new thing to have to act against insurgents in vindication of the law, and under the orders of what had been com-
- Several of their letters to this effect appeared from time to
time in the English journals ; but M. Leon Faucher (who had been a few weeks before a member of the Cabinet) addressed his indignant protest straight to the President : — 'Monsieur le President, — It is with a painful surprioe ' that I see my name figuring amongst those of the members oi ' a Consultative Commission which you have just been institut- ' ing. I did not think I had given you any right to offer me ' this insult [de me f aire cette injure]. The services I have ' rendered to you in the belief that they were services rendered 4 to the country, entitled me perhaps to expect from you a very ' different treatment. At all events my character deserved ' more respect.' • Recueil,' p. 24. — Note to 4th Edition, 1863.
