Louis BLANC (1811-1882). Autograph manuscript signed, Agitat - Lot 192

Louis BLANC (1811-1882). Autograph manuscript signed, Agitateur, [ca. 1845]; 5 1/4 pages small in-4. Political article, with numerous erasures and corrections, in which Louis Blanc evokes the appalling famine of 1845 in Ireland, and the attitude of Daniel O'Connell. "The agitations of the old republics produced much evil, but they opened a career to the highest virtues". Calm is deceptive, and conducive to intrigue: "Be sure that internal troubles will almost, always be redeemed by the brilliance of great things and great denouements. Perhaps power will fall into the hands of some ambitious person skilled in the fatal art of misleading the passions of the people. But wherever spirits are kept awake, tyranny finds a thousand obstacles to establishing and maintaining itself". Louis Blanc gives examples from Antiquity, the Middle Ages and even under the Convention, where the most violent unrest coincided with periods of glory. Does this mean that "popular unrest is good in itself? No, they certainly reveal the vices of an imperfect civilization". They show disorder, but also strength. "At the present time, the word agitator has no application except in Great Britain. [...] But make no mistake, O'Connel is not an agitator in the manner of Caius and Tiberius Gracchus. [...] Thousands of Irish people don't even have a bit of straw to sleep and die on. [...] Why doesn't the mighty one order these hunted human beasts to turn against the hunters? A hero of meetings, he likes to mix his thundering voice with the tumult of these assemblies"; but he shies away from action. Louis Blanc castigates O'Connell's attitude and egotism, and concludes: "O agitator of Ireland, you could so easily have become a great man: there is still time. You are seventy years old, but you belong to a family of centenarians".