Let one of those giants peculiar to revolutions appear; let him raise his hand, and all is said.

There was a moment in history when a nudge of Danton's elbow would have shaken all Europe to its foundations.
The year 1848 was such a moment.

Ancient Europe, feudal, papal, and monarchical, replastered so disastrously for France, in 1815, tottered.
But there was no Danton.

The crash did not take place.
It has often been said, in the commonplace phraseology used on similar occasions, that 1848 opened a gulf.

Not at all.