Anselme Bellegarrigue

Contr'un

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Revolution” (3 of 4)

February 8, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy: A Journal of Order Anselme Bellegarrigue Issue Two [continued from Part 2]  VIII The Revolution is the emancipation of the individual or it is nothing; it is the end of the political and social tutelage, or it means nothing. In this I am, and indeed must be, in agreement with everyone, even with those we are accustomed to call reactionaries and who are, after all, only minors promised to the tutelage of the self-styled democrats, as the democrats are today minors under the tutelage of the so-called reactionaries. From a national point of view, the names of the parties […]
Contr'un

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Revolution” (2 of 4)

February 8, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy: A Journal of Order Anselme Bellegarrigue Issue Two [continued from Part 1]  IV February 24, at two o’clock in the afternoon, the Tuileries, the legislative palace, the ministerial hotels, the Hôtel de Ville, and the Prefecture of police were all deserted; the official hierarchy was eclipsed. Authority had physically disappeared, and the people were free. And understand well what that word people means, coming from my pen: when I make use of that word, I mean to designate everyone, smocks and coats, patent leather shoes and hobnailed boots. On February 24, I say, the people were free, that is […]
Contr'un

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Revolution” (1 of 4)

February 8, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy: A Journal of Order Anselme Bellegarrigue Issue Two Foreward The editor of Anarchy, tackling head-on a word which the politicians have used to intimidate the population and hold it for ransom, has proposed two things: First, to prove that order is a popular and anti-governmental element. The best argument that can be furnished in support of this thesis is that the monarchist papers openly greet the civil war as a Providence. Second, to establish that the Revolution is purely and simply a matter of business. The indifference and political skepticism to which the people abandon themselves more and more, […]
Contr'un

Anselme Bellegarrigue

February 2, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve posted a translation of a biographical account of Anselme Bellegarrigue, written in 1862 by Joseph Noulens, an old friend and collaborator of Bellegarrigue. It’s absolutely jam-packed with entertaining stories and useful details of Bellegarrigue’s life and career. But it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. It’s already led me to Bellegarrigue’s contributions to La Mosaïque du Midi and Le Palais de Cristal, which were not political, but are certainly interesting, and it’s given me enough clues to have substantially widened my search for texts and biographical material. Give it a read, and stay tuned for more information.
Contr'un

A biographical account of Anselme Bellegarrigue

February 1, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
A GASCON Minister plenipotentiary of the Republic of San-Salvador AT PARIS. We are going to present a sketch of a bizarre and independent type who, through the adventures of his cosmopolitan life and especially the singularity of his ideas, might have obtained and maintained a great vogue in British society. Among us, his way of life passed unnoticed. That difference in taste between the two nations arises, as we have said elsewhere, from the breakdown of individual originality by the weight of a leveling unity. So we have different sorts. In England, they favor bizarre natures with a gracious and […]
Working Translations

To the Point! To Action!! (4 of 4)

May 9, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Part 1] – [Part 2] – [Part 3] XIX With governmental control, such as was held by fallen administrations and as we have preserved until the present time, we can boldly address a challenge to anyone who would seriously accept public functions, and thus diminish the personnel of two formidable armies that weigh on the liberties and the fortunes of France: the army of the offices and that of the barracks. We can challenge them, consequently, not to proclaim liberty—if they do that, I will laugh—but to put that liberty into action, and lead them to be something other than […]
Contr'un

To the Point! To Action!! (3 of 4)

May 9, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Part 1] – [Part 2] XIII But there are people who are still far from accepting this reasoning. The theoreticians, our masters, find ideas preferable to fact. And this doctrine that they maintain provides them with a dividend which strongly encourages them to continue maintaining it. In their view, provided that tax payments continue and provided that the rain respects the words Republic and Liberty on the front of the public buildings, we are republicans and free. These people are very bright! As bright as that well-advised character in the Arab proverbs who, without touching the contents of a vase […]
Contr'un

To the Point! To Action!! (2 of 4)

May 8, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Part 1] VII The representatives to the National Assembly were elected, let us not forget, to create a democratic constitution, to simplify the administration to allow a reduction in tax and respect for the individual; they were elected to set up the country. What have they done, however? Instead of setting up the country, they have been busy setting themselves up in government; they have deduced the consequence before establishing the principles; then, and without being able to escape the disastrous precedent they have just established, they have only been concerned, as they could only be concerned, with the health […]
Contr'un

To the Point! To Action!! (1 of 4)

May 8, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
To the Point! To Action!! AN INTERPRETATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA[Part 2] – [Part 3] – [Part 4] Anselme Bellegarrigue I am told that that I am governed for my own good. Now, since I pay my money to be governed, it follows that it is for my own good that I pay that money. This is possible, but it nevertheless deserves verification. Moreover, it is a fact that no one could be more familiar than me with the means of making myself happy. I still find it strange, incomprehensible, anti-natural, and extra-human, to devote oneself to the happiness of […]
Contr'un

Anselme Bellegarrigue on “The Revolution”

March 18, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
Bellegarrigue’s Anarchy: A Journal of Order only lasted for two issues, although he had projected several more. The first issue contained his “Manifesto”  — translated and published in part by Benjamin Tucker in Liberty, and in full by the Kate Sharpley Library — and the second was dedicated to “The Revolution.” Like Proudhon, Bellegarrigue was a strong critic of the direction that the 1848 revolution had taken: “In theory, the Revolution is the development of well-being. In practice, it has only been the extension of malaise.” And, like Proudhon, he pointed to certain essential contradictions which prevented that “development of […]