The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-05
Tho Late Revolutionary Movements o
the Day. Political and Religious, ant
the Great Reaction.

L
think, who said that 'the battle OF Waterloo
| put back the clock Of progress half a century"
| He referred to the resto ration of the Bourbons
and the ''divine rights" of kings. The diabo-
lsms of the Paris Commune, looking at the
radical revolutionary movements of the age,
have at this day probably put back the clock
| of socialistic ideas and progress on both hemi-
| spheres for at least generation to come. Our
venerable Archbishop McCloskey, however,
in recent conversation with a representative
| of the HERALD, speaking of the ''reds" and
the King of Italy, said Eyes. Before three
years, perhaps before the end of one year,
Victor Emmanuel will be chased from his
throne by the very party who now cajole him
with leadership which he does not exercise.
He is their puppet, and when it suits them he
will be deposed. Then will come the great
| struggle, to end in their overthrow" The
learned Archbishop may be correct in this
| opinion; but in our Judgment the hdeous
developments and the bloody overthrow of the
| Paris Commune have settled the question, at
least for the red fraternity in Italy, and for all
their European affiliations, for the present
generation.
| When the news of the crushing catastrophe
| to Napoleon at Sedan was officially proclaimed
in Paris, and the imperial majority in the
| National Legislature, and the imperial
Cabinet and the Empress fled for their lives
from Paris and from France and when the
republic was proclaimed from the Hotel de
Vile, there was an instantaneous and great
change in the public sentiment of the United
States in favor of France. When our Minister
at Paris, Mr.. Washburne, announced to
President Grant that the republic had been re-
stored in France, and in the midst of the strong
est popular exctements, without bloodshed,
and that there were good reasons for believing
that without crime it would be great success,
| and when the President instructed our Min
lister without delay to recognize the republic,
and when the recognition was accordingly
proclaimed, the American people had great
faith in the good fruits promised by Jules
Favre. The impression next was widely
entertained on this side the water that Spain
and Italy, and even the States of Germany,
would next fall into line from an overwhelming
popular uprising in favor of republican insti-
tutions, and that so the new French republic
would come out of its war with Germany with
greater success and stronger prestige than
the republic of 1898, in being founded on bet
ter and more enduring principles
Such were the great expectations here en-
tertained from the French republic proclaimed
on the 9TH Of September last; but before the
end of the month all such high hopes were dis
PEELED by the continued successes Of the Ger
man armies, by the mysterious feebleness of
General Trochu and his defensive armed
forces of Paris Of four hundred thousand men,
and by the fantastic tricks of the leading
French revolutionary mountebank, Gambetta.
We next see from the German armistice and
the election of the French National Assembly
that the French people, Disguised with the
fantastical republic of Gambe.ta and mortified
| with the appalling defeats of the imperial
| armies, elect an Assembly in favor of the
Bourbons. The Assembly next chooses the
conservative NJ. Theirs as head of the State,
and next in the removal Of the Assembly from
Bordeaux to Versailles instead of Paris, we
have warning that the Paris "reds." who
were so swift to depose the empire, are not
satisfied with NJ. Theirs or his Assembly, and
that presently we shall see, in blood and fire,
the red spectre of the real republic aimed at
all this time by the Paris Commune. It
comes. Paris France and all the world see
this red spectre of the Commune, this bloody
anarchy Of the republic, universal and social,
d. y e.
the horrid spectacle.
Here, then, reconciled to and ready for the
Bourbons or the Bonapartes, as against the
frightful anarchy of the republic, universal
and social, stands France to-day. No
doubt that profound statesman, Prince Bis
marck, in this business has found his policy
of non-intervention in French internal affairs
worth more in the developments from this
Paris Commune to the cause OF the German
empire and of kingly authority in Europe
than hundreds of millions of money in the
shape of indemnitcs. We think, too, this Paris
Commune, with its shocking excesses, has not
only secured the general desire of the French
people for return to strong government,
republic, empire or kingdom, but has secured
the King of Italy against the Italian reds,
and will secure to the Pope of Rome better
terms in the settlement of his temporalities
| than he could otherwise have hoped to gain.
The radical revolutionary movements in
Europe, then, resulting from Napoleon's dis
astrous declaration of war against Prussia
and her German allies, have been set back by
| the terrors of the Paris Commune; and in
this matter the triumph of Bismarck as the
representative of the established order of
things over the revolutionary propaganda Of
France is greater than Won Moltke's triumphs
over the armies of Napoleon and the republic
combined