[Revolutionaries in London 1851] "Au peuple / [les?] proscrits de Londres dont les noms suivent." IN FRENCH.

Manuscript, 4pp., 4to, minor defects, text clear and complete. A draft in Blanc's hand, with his MS. corrections and additions, of an eloquent and hard-hitting statement representing the views of Blanc and other exiles in London of the situation in France post-1848, particularly attacking Louis Bonaparte. He begins: "Voulez-vous etre avilis? Voulez-vous etre asservis? Voulez-vous devenir pourtant de peuple opprimes qui attendaient de vous leur delivarance, et comptaient sur votre courage un objet eternel de mepris et de rire? / Louis Bonaparte vient d'accumuler en quelques heures plus d'attentat que me semblait pouvoir en contenir une vie d'homme. / Il s'est empare de toutes les libertes de son pays, comme un larron a la faveur d'une surprise nocturne. [Ruse?] vulgaire que certaines gens [line crossed out] ont l'imprudence d'appeler courage ..." He the goes on to talk about the issues including the suppression of the Press and "representation nationale". He asks his audience if they wish to have him as a master when he has released soldiers and cannons onto the strreets of Paris "taritant la France comme un pays conquis", not a republic. He later describes Bonaparte's restoration of the aristocracy and discusses the loss of suffrage. He concludes: Tel est [les cri?] que nous arrache une indignation impossible a contenir. Nous qui, des moins dans notre exil pouvons parler nous parlons. Mais nous devons plus que cela a la Republique. Notre sang lui appartient. Nous le savons et ne l'oulierons pas." Blanc has signed this and added the s[ur]names of 35 fellow-exiles and supporters including Robillart and Bernard le Clubiste, the list of names concluding with the words "Pour copie conforme". I have yet to find a printed version of this important manuscript.