The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-12

france, ana eacn trlumpnanI parry Survives 10
act, not as mob, but as
creed of the Red Republicans, and
what are the principles and opinions they SO
tenaciously defend, it might be hard to state
positively. They are in some degree Social
lists, although Socialism does not appear to
influence them so powerfully as might be ex-
pected from the language of those who always
call them Socialists because this is the strong
est term of abuse at hand. They are filled
with deep hatred and envy of all persons
who have the advantages which wealth. edu-
cation, and station confer. They detest above
all thing strong centralized military powers.
This is the link that binds together in their
ranks the adventurers driven from Poland,
from Germany, and from Italy. They
hate and despise the priests, whom they
look on as the toolsSa. and slaves Of
these military powers, and they revolt from
the religion which they regard these priests
as teaching in the interest of despotisms. In
their fanaticism they are capable of all the
acts in which fanatics rejoice. They have
burnt the noblest buildings of Paris, not only
to crafty a momentary thirst for vengeance,
but to show their horror of all the things on
which their enemies-the kings, aud priests,
and soldiers, and oourtiers-delight. The
destruction of the Tuileri es, of the Sainte
Chapelle, and the Hotel de Vile stand on
ton of the abbeys and cathedrals of Scotland
by the followers of John Knox; and it only
seems different to us at first because we are
accustomed to the fierceness and vandalism of
religious sects, but we are not familiar wit b
the notion of an equal fervor of political
hatred.
France is now transported with Just indig-
nation at the burning of Paris, and foreigners
can find no words too strong to condemn the
~, al
its career. If men choose to fill their hearts
with unreasoning hatreds, and in their blind
fury to spare nothing by which their neigh
bors set store, it is not because they are
fanatics that q word is to be whispered in
their defense. The Commune has been
stamped with the infamy of this odious in
cendiarism, just as the First Republic was
stamped with the infamy of the September
massacres and the murder of Marie-An-
toinette. But if we look at the future politics
of France, we are bound to confess that the
punishment which will follow on this dread
full act will not be in all probability the end
ing of the present troubles of the country.
If this punishment is inflicted in the spirit
which freely finds expression at Versailles, if
the thirst for blood of beaten and demoral-
lied military class is gratifed, if reaction
goes so far as to let Ultramontanism become
rampant, the hatred of the beaten party will
uOJ Only Do lnI6nblu0u, OUT Will communicate
itself to thousands who are now more or
less Indifferent. But even if things go on as
well as can be hoped for, if M. Theirs re-
mains master of the situation, and under
takes the task assigned him in the spirit
of a statesman, 1t is impossible not to see, in
the reign of the Commune and in the burn
ing of Paris, symptoms of malady which
affects France much too radically for any
Government to cure quickly or easily. Per-
hax~s .. - Ill -
times that are most worth noticing. The
picture of the Inhabitants of Paris filling up
every assailable crevice on the outside of
their houses to prevent women aud children
from throwing down petroleum, the fremen
called by the Government pumping petro-
leum into the houses they were pretending to
save, the regiments of Amazons, and the dis
gusting insults bestowed by the women of
Versailles on these Amazons when captured,
leave an impression of a generation grown up,
and generation growing up, in an atmos-
phere of recklessness, fanaticism, treachery,
and cruel cowardice which is perhaps more
painful than this of hearing that all that made
Paris grand and beautiful is gone or injured.
Nor are we sure that this burning of Paris
will not have a sort of fascination in time for
some of the French themselves. However
much they have nominally disapproved of the
reign of terror, large class of the lttterG-
t6u7S OF rance nave always SHOWN prlue IN
the excesses of Jacobinism. They like to think
that Frenehmen dare to do and dream of
doing things which it would not enter
into the hearts of other men to
conceive. The burning of Paris is but
the end of sensation novel on
the largest possible scale, and the country
men of Eugene Sue and Dumas will relish the
thought of catastrophe so diabolically grand
A French journal published in the interests
of imperialism few days ago INDUCED in a
series of sneers at the Commune, as a mere
pigmy by the side of the Revolution of 1898.
1t did nothing strong, terrible and worthy to
be called revolutionary. 1t had not the OrguetL
du NAL, as the journalist expressed tit had
no proper pride in being transcendently
wicked. This reproach at least is now taken
away. The Commune will be no longer
sneered at as pigmy. 1t has craven its ter
rible history on Paris far more effectually
than if it had sent some hundred priests and
aristocrats to the guillotine, and the French
men who ask for signs of the 0rgueI dU NAL
before they can worship and admire anything
will admit that in this respect the detested
Commune has shown itself worthy of its