Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-06-09
"Order Rt1Sns In Paris


The dreadful struggle is at last over.
Order reigps in Paris as it onca was said
to reign over Warsaw. It reigns over the
smoking ruins of one-fourth of the city
over the corps-s of sixty thousand vic
timg-Over the panic and Woe stricken
survivors of those who fell 10 an iniqui-
tous cause, and to whose bloody fate even
the tear of sympathy will be refused. Pity
may be extended to those miserable, mis-
guided wretches who blindly followed the
advice of designing demsgogues. aid
even to the stupid fanatics who believed
that they fought for the cause of humani-
ty and universal liberty. But for that
nune, formed OF nearly all the ex convicts
of France, and all the thieves of Paris
s9elled by all the outlaws of Europe-for
whom the burning of Paris over the heads
of helpless women and children was only
passime and revengeful qualification
there can be no sympathy, and there
ought to be no mercy.
A striking contrast exhibits itself be-
twern this Partisan rebellion and the in
surrections Of 1880 and 1949. which were
the real work of the people. In the latter
not only private but public property was
strictly respected. The people were in
full possession of the Tuilleries, the
Louvre and all the public buildings and
Offices but the insurgent who would have
dared to steal She least trife or to apply
the torch would have been shot without
mercy for bringing dishonor upon the
popular cause. In this rebellion plumber
of public and private property and incen-
diarism have been the leading features
It cannot bs denied that the insur-
gents fought recklessIy at the last hour;
bat it was with the rage of despair rather
than the firmness Of intelligent courage
If we refuse them the praise of true
bravery. it is not from desire to add to the
obloquy already weighing upon them. The
reports OF their own chiefs show that be-
fore the last conflict, in which they fought
with rope around their necks, it was i'm
possible to bring them up to a square,
stand-up fight against the Versaillsts.
Military bravery is found in all nations
and is universal among the French-but
surely it could hardly DO expected from
the assassins of de;enceless priests, wo-
men and unarmed prisoners.
Il is time that crimes such as they have
committed should no longer be considered
as political offences, and they as possess
ing some sort of belligerent rigot. Let
them be punished as common crimi nails,
instead of being held up as political mar
tyrs, and there will be hope that they
will find no imitators in the future.
But the late instruction brings fear
full and memorable Lesson, to be medi-
tated and weighed and improved all the
world over. 1t was essentially social,
we might say, servile war. II was the
rising of the poor against the rich, and it
disclosed such depths of class hatred as to
make one shudder. It is this class hatred
which explains why the Partisan masses
fought better against their countrymen
than against the Prussians. They would
not fight to defend the property of the
rich, but they were willing to die to take
it or to destroy it.
There is in Europe school of Sophists, |
unfortunately too large and too widely
spread, whose doctrines have just enough |
OF speclousness to attract the poor and |
the laboring classes who are unable to de-
tect their fallacy. According to these
men property is theft, capital is the de ad
ly enemy of labor. All the restraints of
religion and morality are fetters upon hu.
man liberty, and God himself is myth.
Fathsrland and family are but antiquated
prejudices which must give way to the
more liberal and elevated ideas of the uni
versal republic, in which free love and O
community Of goods will bring about the
golden era in which nobody will hare to