ABSTRACT
On 2 December 1851, Louis Napoleon staged a coup d’état in order to dissolve the Constitution which prevented him becoming President for life. With the help of the military, opponents were imprisoned and deported, and popular rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed. Initial reaction in England to the coup was muted. The press and public opinion accepted explanations that Louis Napoleon had done little more than anticipate a surprise attack on his person engineered by the Legislative Assembly, and to avoid a lurch to the left in the planned 1852 elections. However, a middle aged, wealthy Englishwoman visiting Paris was not content to allow Louis Napoleon and the military dictate their view of the events of 2 December unchallenged. Harriet Lewin Grote was an acknowledged authority on foreign affairs and had unparalleled connections with leading French liberals including Léon Faucher, Odilon Barrot, François Guizot, and most importantly Alexis de Tocqueville. The day after the coup, Harriet Grote visited the British Ambassador to Paris, the Marquis of Normanby, to use British influence to secure de Tocqueville’s release from prison. She dryly noted in her diary, ‘I observed to the Marquis that the English Press had given Louis Napoleon great encouragement during the autumn.’ She also toured the streets of Paris at 11 o’clock at night (although accompanied by a servant) to view and to record the results of the riots for herself. After de Tocqueville’s release on 5 December she met with him and smuggled out his account of the events leading up to the coup. 1 The account was given to Henry Reeve who translated it and published it in The Times on 11 December, thus enabling de Tocqueville’s defence of the Legislative Assembly and critique of Louis Napoleon to get wider currency.
