The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-06-10 00:00:00

CLIMAX OF "GLORY."

The Tiger-Monkeys shouted " To Berlin!"
Scarce twelve months since—invasion had their no'et.
Back beaten, and their own uoullne hemmed in,
They II iniurlate, at Inuit other's throats.
Suppose the Tlger.Monkeys had prevailed,
Snip). they had antidued•the German men,
think what kind of beasts of prey untalled,
Would have been paramount In Europe thou!
Humanity ! Civilisation What
Is all the wreck. In brute blood yonder drowned,
To that which had been yours and Europe's lot,
II Conquest had vainglorious Euvy crowned
Demolished Architecture, Art destroyed,
Uncounted thousands, mircrearde chiefly slain.
Sad work ! but sadder work might have employed
Unthinking minds that moralise in vain.
And had they who did go with a light heart
To war, each other', hangmen been alone,
A nation's riddance 01 11. baser part
Were no great grief for neighbours to bemoan
hot in yen City, under fiery rain,
Were there not ten found righteous—ten and more?
The thousands and the tens alike were slab,—
The murdered few are victims toil, Wore.
Alas for them ! What pity for the rest
Died they not in their "glory ?" To abhor
Which, all the world just now may be Impressed
13, the iiteat Nation that delights In war—Punch.

THE "INTERNATIONAL" UNMASKED.
The universal expressions of sympathy which the
disasters of Paris have elicited from the whole civilized
world have contributed largely to reconcile so sensitive
a race to their misfortunes, and they also seem to
derive some coned stion from the fact that they have
been the means of unmasking the International (writes
the Paris correspondent of The Tunes). I have before
me an elaburate account of this Society, from which it
would appear that althoimh only nine years have
elapsed since its foundation, it counts upwards
of 2,500,000 members. But even this does not
include all the affiliated Societies which are assisted
in their vsriouri polaical and revolutionary enter-
primes by the In. ernational, and which comprise
the Fenialut, the Marianne, the Brothers of the Re-
public of Lyons and Marseilles, the numerous secret
societies of Russia and Poland, and the Carbonati
generally all over Europe. The Central Committee
of this association, which has • branch in America, is
in London, and its presiding spirit Is a German, who
conceived the idea of organizing in Berlin, in a definite
and tangible form, the theories of Balteuf, Diebneck,
Jacobi, Proudhon, and others. There is DO President,
but the central office is composed of a secretary-
general and fifteen members. Each country composes
a branch of the Association. Each branch is divided
into sections. Each important centre is sub-divided into
other metiocs, with a central bureau. Every week each
central bureau sends to the London office-1, a detailed
report on the political and commercial events of the
neighbourhood; 2, a statement ef additional members;
3, a financial statement; 4, a statement by name of
the principal merchants and tradesmen; 5, a state-
ment by name of the principal proprietors and capita-
lists ; 6, copes of minutes of meetings held. There
are, f course. many other secret rules regarding the
expulsion of members, and the means of preasure to be
employed in cartes of strikes, Sze., which I have no
mean. of obtaining; but it wid appear from the above
that the organization is ens conceived on a stale
capable of indefinite expansion, and appealing to the
sympathies of the largest and least reputable chase of
the c memunity in all countries.
The catastrophe of Paris, so far from operating as a
check to its growth, will probably give it • powerful
I •
impetus, as, unhappily, the more infamous the
notoriety of such an Association becomes the more
attractive will it prove to that large section of society
I over whom such a celebrity exercises an irresistible

, fascination. It is to be regretted that there should
also be a large claw of persons with such singularly
perverted notion, that they conscientiously believe the
reformation of humanity can only be worked out by
*laughter and incendiarion on a vast scale. Such men
were Deleseluee, Miot, Conrbet, and many others of the
leaders of the late movement, one of the most san-
guinary of whom—Millil.re, who had probably ordered
the execution of more Innocent persons than any of his
colleagues—when he was shot shouted with his last
breath, " Flee rhumanitS." Time may "the enthm
:damn of humanity" inverted become absolutely fatal
to it. The philanthropic ideas of Lefrancais, also an
honest enthusiast, took another form; he advocated
the burning of all the public buildings in Paris in order
to erect in their places civil hospitals.
The peculiarity of this Association is, therefore, that
while it appeals to the whole working cles.es of the
civilizsd world by an argument which the simplest can
comprehend, and offers a refuge and support to the
revolutionists of every country, it hese a philosophy and
a political economy of its own sufficiently specious to
attract theorists and would-be reformers. It reaches
the loftiest and the basest natures, those who un-
selfishly wish to raise others and thoee who selfishly
desire to rise themselves at the expense of others.
It embraces in its threefold political, axial, and
moral character political agitators, paupers, and
philosophers; a combination of forces which im-
parts to his organisation altogether special powers
of action. As it raises its head in one country
after another, we shall see how far the special condi-
tions of political morals and society which exist in each
are calculated to cope with it. There I. probably no
country in Europe where circumstances were so favour.
able to an experimental outbreak as France, where the
bourgeoisie were so effete and timid, and the Govern-
ment, owing to its provisional character, so feeble and
Irresolute. Now that the streets of Paris are beginning
to fill, and it money-making, pleasure-seeking popu-
lation Beck back, we are enabled to form some idea
of the wholesale " stampede " which lett the capital
to the mercy of a small minority of roughs. The
International suddenly and unexpectedly found the
occasion ready made for its action, and stepped in
to direct and organise, to such good purpose that it
converted what was at the outset an accidental
flash in the pan into a system of government,
capable of administering for two months an immense
city and of keeping at bay the armies of an Empire.
The orders found upon the bodies of Insurgents leave
no doubt where to fix the guilt of the incendiariem.
These are finding their way into print as they are
coming to light, and are fall of interest. I have seen
the facsimile of an order signed by Parent which runs
thus - " Incendiez le quartier de is Bourse, ne eraigna
pas." Another signed by Delencluze authorises Citizen
Jacquet, upon whom it was found, to shoot imme-
diately all men or women refusing to &mist at the
construction of barricades when ordered ; also orders
ing him to burn all suspected houses at the first signal.
Upon Deleecluze himself was found an order, signed
by himself, Ranvier, Johannard, Vesinier, Brunel and
Dombrowski, for fastens to burn various monuments
and houses, and another signed by Deleacluze and
Billivray, dated the 2nd Prairie], charging Raoul
Rigault and Citizen Re'gere with the execution of the
decree of the Commune relative to the hostages.