New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-05-23

volt had been forced to the nights of Mont
martre where it had its baleful birth two
months ago, and where it seems likely now to
expire in a conhagration of its own making,
like a scorpion singed with fire. The fall
of that anomalous experiment of govern
ment calling itself the Commune is no
longer doubtful. 1t has sustained it's ground
for two months with unexpected endur-
ance and cohesion; and while the instruction
in ITSELF and its marvelOusly facile success In
the beginning, gave sign of a morbid political
condition, the long and spirited defense OF
Paris which this mob of workingmen have
made is proof of an unexhausted vitality
which may yet be used for better work.
The movement of the Commune was fran
tic protest against a state of things which was
the direct result of war. The Republic was
not Justly to be held responsible for evils
which the Empire had been preparing for
twenty years, and which had been brought to
intolerable maturity by the heat of disas-
trous war The Republic was not the author OF
the woe and Indebtedness which the dynastic
challenge to Prussia had brought upon the
country. 1t was as little to be blamed for
the peace which was made ready to its hands
by Bismarck and circumstances. 1t was
wild and illogical injustice to charge the Gov
eminent of NJ. Theirs with the weight OF
responsibility which belonged primarily to the
fallen Empire, and next to every Frenchman
who had voted for Napoleon or shouted a Ber-
lin at the dictation of that desperate gambler.
The absurd suspicious to which the Republican
Government was subjected were also power
fully instrumental in preparing the minds OF
the Parisians to accept the crazy Intervention
of the revolt as the shortest way out OF the
maze of doubt and difficulty. The baseless
nature of these suspicious is seen in the fact
that NJ. Theirs is successfully accused, with
equal volubility and detail, of being in league
with Napoleon, with the Count of Paris,
and the Count of Chambord. There
were many worthy gentlemen in this
city who, at given moments of gloom
during our war, thought Mr.. Seward to be
cOnspiring to bring Jefferson Davis to Wash
ington, with, it is probable, about as much
truth as favored these romances about the
intentions of NJ. Thiers; but we believe he
was never charged simultaneously with offer
ing the Dictatorship to Mr.. Davis, Mr.. Wen
dell Phillips and the King of Thule. 1t was
true that a good many of the old aristOcracy
succeeded in obtaining seats in the Legislative
Assembly at Versailles. The spectacle of
" five dukes sitting all in row" was one
which especially revolted the eager suscepti-
bilities of the Democrats. But this was the
most natural result of the fall of the Empire,
which freed the rural districts from the
tyranny of the official candidatures, and left
ancestral wealth and influence to exert their
legitimate power in the elections. 1t is idle to
deny that there is a strong mOnarchical feeling
in France and no consistent Democrat can
refuse this sentiment its proper representa-
ton in a constituent assembly. But the event
showed that after all the Republicans were in
a majority, and the suffrages and support
given to NJ. Gr6vy and NJ. Theirs, and the
entire cabinet of distinguished and honorable
citizens, should have been enough to disarm
the causeless apprehensions of conspiracies
and coups dGtat.
But suspicion is an inevitable product of
civil wars, and partly under its influence, and
partly as a blind protest against peace and
order, which were coming to set everybody to
working and to paying their debts again, the
workingmen of Paris rushed into mutiny, and
for two months held their city against France.
With that singular talent for organization
which seems inherent in every Latin mob.
they formed a new and striking scheme of
government in the first moments of their I'M
looked-for success, and heralded their ideal of
the Commune to France and to Europe. The
cities were to be emancipated from the tyranny
of the country; Paris was to be merely the
elder sister, abdicating her central despotism
and leading France only by the moral power
of her example; the fraud and sham of uni
versal suffrage was to be abolished; the
nuisance of wordy parliament was to be
swept away; handy and compact body of
practical men-elected by themselves, of course,
for who else would be so competent to appre-
ciate their eminent fitness Twas to govern in
the interests of labor against capital, of peace
against war; of reason against privilege, in
short The illuminated cities were to spread
their benefcent light over the be-
nighted provinces and fit them in time
for similar freedom. Europe was to
catch the genial cOntagiOn, and while gov
ernments were to melt away and perish in
the general glow of phianthropic sentiment,
the Commune was in some ineXplicable way
to survive for the mere symbol Of an author
ity too gentle to be felt, among the Contra
ternity of the Peoples. This programme was
in the addresses and circulars of the
butchers and bakers who fioated into the high
places of the improvised Executive, and was
SO neatly phrased that you have to put it into
plain English to see how silly it is. These
sentiments were, however, too fine to wear
every day. While the writing men dipped
their pens in rose water, the working COmmun-
lists were dipping their hands in blood. They
sprinkled the brow of the infant revolt with
the life of Thomas and Lecompte they flung
the Archbishop of Paris into jail they tried