of Monnier, who would enlist the Deity of Rousseau on the side of the
drapeau rouge; not a sou if they knew I had the honour to boast such
confreres as I see around me. They subscribe, as we concert, for the
fall of Bonaparte. The policy I adopt I borrow from the policy of the
English Liberals. In England, potent millionnaires, high-born dukes,
devoted Churchmen, belonging to the Liberal party, accept the services of
men who look forward to measures which would ruin capital, eradicate
aristocracy, and destroy the Church, provided these men combine with them
in some immediate step onward against the Tories. They have a proverb
which I thus adapt to French localities: if a train passes Fontainebleau
on its way to Marseilles, why should I not take it to Fontainebleau
because other passengers are going on to Marseilles?

"Confreres, it seems to me the moment has come when we may venture some
of the fund placed at my disposal to other purposes than those to which
it has been hitherto devoted. I propose, therefore, to set up a journal
under the auspices of Gustave Rameau as editor-in-chief,--a journal
which, if he listen to my advice, will create no small sensation. It
will begin with a tone of impartiality; it will refrain from all violence
of invective; it will have wit, it will have sentiment, and eloquence; it
will win its way into the salons and cafes of educated men; and then, and
then, when it does change from polished satire into fierce denunciation
and sides with the blouses, its effect will be startling and terrific.
Of this I will say more to citizen Rameau in private. To you I need not
enlarge upon the fact that, at Paris, a combination of men, though
immeasurably superior to us in status or influence, without a journal at
command is nowhere; with such a journal, written not to alarm but to
seduce fluctuating opinions, a combination of men immeasurably inferior
to us may be anywhere.