120 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 XIX. CHAP. It has been seen that the success of the plot of XIV 1_ the 2d of December resulted from the massacre onhemas- 6 which took place in the Boulevard on the folio w- L^evard. 9 ing Thursday ; and since this strange event be- came the foundation of a momentous change in inquiry into the polity of France, and even in the destinies of its cause. Europe, it is right for men to know, if they can, how and why it came to pass. At three o'clock on the afternoon of the 4th of December, the ultimate success of the plot had seemed to become almost hopeless by reason of the isolation to which Prince Louis and his associates were reduced. But at that hour the massacre began, and before the bodies were cleared away, the brethren of the Elysde had Paris and France at their mercy. It was natural that wronged and angry men, seeing this cause and this effect, should be capable of believing that the massacre was wilfully planned as a means of achieving the result which it actually produced. Just as the Cambridge theo- logian maintained that he who looked upon a watch must needs believe in a watchmaker, so men who had seen the massacre were led to infer a demon. They saw that the massacre brought wealth and blessings to the Elysee, and they thought it a safe induction to say that the man former note (ante, p. 311), the 'concessions' to railway and other companies began so early as the 10th of December. Ree the Appendix to the ' Annuaire.' — Kclc to 4th Edition, 1863.
