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

THE S'Ct

Marshal means was not exhibited in the shooting
of 16,000 insurgents, as they were called, the in-
nocent among the guilty. But we may take it
for granted that for the present the Commune is
put down, We say for the present, for a Paris
journal assures us that there are still 60,000 men
at large in that city who took part in or !quips-
thised with the work of the insurgents; and that
danger from these men may at any time arise.
Whether the calculation is numerically correct
or not, the conclusion is not wide of the mark.
There will always be daoger from the extreme,
the revolutionary, the Red party in Paris until
there is at once a good and strong Government
to keep that party down. We now see in fact
that the ex-Eniperor was not wholly without ex-
cuse for his despotic and repressive measures.
The very same elements of disorder and revolu-
tion which have broken out under a nominal
Republic existed under the new empire, and but
for Napoleon's powerful military rule, we should
probably have long since seen a revolution in
Paris or in some other of the large towns. "For
the moment," as the French say, Communism
has been put down by force ; men who gloated
over the destruction of public buildings, who ap-
parently desired to lay Paris in ashes, and who
did their utmost to massacre the besiegers—
strange anomale I—of the town, have in their
turn been masvitcred. Paris has been conquered
by superior force, and the Communists are cowed
and dismayed, if not crushed. And so l'aris re.
joices—all Paris, that is to say, which is not
Communist and Red Republican. The hotels
and cafes have been re-opened and resuming
much of their old aspect; the boulevards are
again thronged with lounging light-hearted citi-
zens; the railways have re-commenced work ;
and places of amusement are resuming their
wonted aspect, though the smoke from the Paris
ruins has barely rolled away. Whether the dis-
turbing elements in Paris society will be allowed
to break out again may depend for the time on
the strength and organization of the "Party of
Order." en thelr watchfulness and good judge-
ment ; but beside and beyond these considera-
tions is the most important question of the future
Government of France—the question, in fact,
which France is at this moment trying to an-
swer.

The settlement of such a question as this must
always be a difficult one. It proved so in Spain
uot long since, but the difficulties in that country
chiefly rose from the ignorance and the prevail-
hg apathy of the people, ground down by suc-
cessive despotisme. In France, on the contrary
the difficulty of deciding on a form of Govern-
ment mainly arises from the intensely political
character of a large proportion of her imputa.
tion, and from the conflict of parties, as well as
from the persistence with which the several po-
litical sections urge their special views. Politi-
cally considered, France is to a great extent u
nation of theorists, and the unbending tenacity
with which theorists maintain their crotchets is
admirably adapted to keep the country for along
time without any Gove.tnment at all. At the
time we write several theories of Government
are being discussed in the Assembly and the
press, with a display of uncompromising obsti-
nacy which bodes ill for the future of the coun-
try. But if poor, bleeding France is to have
her wounds healed and is to regain somewhat of
her wasted national strength, there must be
compromise, and mere philosophic theories of
the perfection of Government must be subordin-
ated to the necessities of the time.: