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Like the French revolution of 1830, a conservative minister was the focus of
resentment in France in 1848, but this later revolt also included working-class
members angry at the government's failure to relieve the depression of 1846-47.
The offending minister was Francois Guizot (1787-1874); the unpopular monarch
was King Louis-Philippe (1773-1850). France's opposition parties, forbidden
direct campaigning for a forth-coming election, instead wittily held a
"banquet campaign"; when their most important gathering, slated for
February 22 in Paris, was forbidden by the king and Guizot, the Parisians
gathered in force at the banquetting place, and street fighting erupted. At its
worst on February 23, 1848, when some government troops opened fire while others
laid down their arms or joined the rebels, the revolution forced the dismissal
of Guizot and, the next day, the abdication of Louis-Philippe. A provisional
government, the Committee of Public Safety, guided by Alhonse de Lamartine
(1790-1869), was established by the Chamber of Deputies; it declared the Second
Republic and tried to meet all demands, setting up national workshops, declaring
a right-to-work law, and calling for national elections. The revolution had been
generally local; the French national response was predominantly moderate. An
executive committee, again including Lamartine, replaced the provisional
government and attempted to meet the new public resentment (May 1848). It
dissolved the national workshops... It also produced a very democratic
constitution. In new elections, the French Assembly changed its balance again,
monarchists outnumbering radicals five to two and moderates six to one. The
revolution was now defunct, and the republic was soon to wither. Prince Louis
Napoleon (1808-73), long a Bonaparte claimant and a conservative, was elected
president in December 1848.
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