The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-19

waiting and seeking by legitimate means to
advance their own cause, the Paris rebels, OF
call them Communists or reds, or what else the
reader will, have grievously sinned II is
never in any circumstances the right of the
few, where the rights of all have frst of all
been recognized, to rebel against the rights OF
the many. France spoke out and spoke out
plainly; but section of Paris rebelled, and
hence all this trouble. This, however is
not all. The men who have come to the sur
face in Paris, and who now war against the
national government. have proclaimed them
selves in favor of the worst principles OF the
worst period of the first French revolution.
Belleville now rules Paris, and Belleville is
full Of all the exploded theories of st. Simon
and Fourier and Babeuf Their programme is
simply absurd. Paris is to be an inde-
pendent community, having supreme legis-
lative, financial and administrative powers
Of its own. The other large towns are to
have similar constitutions. The cities are to
be federated, and a treaty is to be concluded
which shall determine the relations of Paris
and the other cities on the one hand and the
relations OF all the federated cities with France
on the other. We do not forget that Florence
once ruled Tuscany and that other large cities
nearer home WELD mighty influence over tho
neighboring rural provinces; but we question
whether so complete system of mob govern
ment was ever put upon paper. Then, again,
it is claimed that all property belongs to the
State and should be equally divided; that debt
should be an impossibility and that every man
should be every other mans equal 1t has
been authoritatively declared that religion is
superstition and should be abolished, and that
the Church, under every form, is the enemy Of
liberty. M. Valiant, the acknowledged chief
of what we might call, to borrow an English
phrase, the Home Office, has openly advo-
Gated the assassination of the Due dAumale
and princes generally, his only qualification
being that the assassin should be sure that he
Is numbering prince The habits of these
people are in every way worthy of their creed
They rob the public treasury, desecrate
churches, disturb the ministers of God in
the discharge of their sacred duties, threaten
the lives of bishops and archbishops if their
whims are not complied with, and arrest and
imprison unoffending nuns. Such are the
principles and such are the practices of the
men who represent what some are pleased to
call the republican cause in France. If they
have not established the guillotine as great
public benefactor, and resorted to the .fusil-
lades and moyades of the years 1894,
it is because they have scarcely as yet had
the opportunity; not because they have not
had the will.
1t is not necessary to waste either time or
space in pointing the moral. The Com
munists of Paris have made republic almost
impossible in France; and it is not we think,
loo much to add that they have put back for
at least fifty years the triumph of the repub-
lican cause in Europe. The hopes of Spain
and Italy are crushed; and the democracy of
Germany look to Paris with mingled wrath
and SORROW