The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-07-01
The Rule OF the Mob.

The sudden collapse Of the French En-
pire, and the notorious incapacity OF the Re
publican Government that succeeded it, to-
gether with the universal discomfort and de.
sire for change, so natural to people in
distress, offered rare opportunity to the
outlaws and pariahs OF society to rise to the
surface. Paris, for nearly century past,
has been the Mecca of the bafled revolution
ist, whether Hungarian, Pole, German,
Spaniard, Italian or Irishman. Whenever
the police kept too close watch on their
movements, run across the Channel was
deemed salutary move; but while London
was good enough as an asylum, and as
standpoint from which to plot and plan and
direct, Paris, of all cities in the world, was
the only one that offered corgenial soil for
the fructifying and dissemination OF the
4 ultra revolutionary doctrine, which formed
the stock in trade OF these red hot gentlemen
OF the pace. The Victor Hugos and Eugene
Sues Of the last twenty-five or thirty years
have contributed not little to bring about
the present state of things With strange
Inconsistency, they daily wept maudlin tears
over the oppression of the dear people-the
"working classes"-preached up socialism
and an equal distribution Of property, they
all the while (nctably Eugene sue) revelling
in more than Oriental luxury and splendor.
''Strkes" were encouraged, "Trades Unions"
and international Societies" formed, and
every thing was done by designing men to
appeal to the very worst passions and preju-
dces Of the Paris rabble.
1t is hardly necessary to say that there
was nothing new or original in this move.
ment The poor, and especially the indo-
lent and the vicious, have ever rebelled
against tho DEGREES Of society. The "agra-
rans" OF ancient Rome held that their
'country owed them living"-and all they
had to do was to go and draw their rations.
The final downfall Of the great Empire can
largely be traced to this baleful cancer
gnawing at its vitals. In the middle ages,
when princes and people shook of the long
endured yoke OF ecclesiastical rule, it is not
to be wondered that the ignorant masses
the peasants of that day-should have taken
it into their heads that the millennium had
come-the great day OF universal equality.
Excesses were committed-wide.spread ruin
was the consequence, and the poor, blind
dupes of ignorance aud fanaticism were cru
ely butchered, and order was once more re-
established. Mob law had it's brief spell ofau-
thority once and again in the large capitals
OF Europe, ever rising in violence, and put
down again with the merciless edge OF the
sword. The French Revolution OF 1889, how
ever, is usually held to be the great opening
chapter OF the history Of universal equality.
The excesses committed under its auspices
are still fresh in the memory OF every school
boy. The Chartists Of England, an ugly
eruption on the English body polite, had
learned in the Same school; but soil and c!i-
mate were unfavorable; the exotic languish-
ed, and, ere long, died, unwept, unhonored
and unsung.
mune, are all French institutions-essen-
tialy Gallicaa.-Sp Spasmodic efforts elsewhere
have ever proved abortive:-Hence Paris
has been the city OF refuge and OF hope to
every 'Red," OF whatever race or nation in
Europe. The peculiar policy OF the Empire
fostered the growth OF an immense proleta-
riat; and the moment the strong hand OF re.
sAaint had relaxed its hold, the artificial So
cial fabric toppled over-the "bottom rail"
ito adopt homely term) ''became the top"
and the mob, true to its traditional in
stincts, inaugurated its sway in blood
and plunder, and ended its brief career in
the effort to make Paris o sanguinary desert
and bowling wilderness. There is nothing
so evil that something good cannot be said
of it. Accordingly the Commune has had
its apologists, and, strange to say, even
now, after all the terrible devastation that it
has caused in life, in property, and in the
thousand objects OF art and historical assocl-
ton, that are above all price and value,
there are those still who champion the Com
mune. These writer's, doubtless from, a fond
ness for paradox, or, what is much the same
thing, because they like to be on ''the
"other slde," say that the Commune was the
representative of the true Republican idea in
France; that they strove for the independ-
ence OF municipalities. True, this they did;
but they also wished to subject all France to
the will OF this same Paris mob. Heretofore
this effort has generally been successful; but
this time the recognized French Government
sat, not in Paris, under the intimidating in
iuence of the canaille, but at Versailles, out
OF earshot OF the surging, seething mass OF
the turbulent Partisan element. Hence the
changed result
The Commune ruled Paris for five or six
weeks; and what record! All law and So
cial order set openly at naught; religion
scoffed at; its ministers reviled, imprisoned,
and finally butchered in cold blood; churches
pillaged and desecrated; banks robbed, indi-
vidual rights violated and private property ap-
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