Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-04-19
POOR FRANCE.

AVVAM 4 HA2AENCASs
IAN may not remember that The present
Notifications of Paris, from behind which
khe Commune huri defiance st al govern
lment, and all civilization, were built by
this same Adolphe Theirs, whose armies
must now storm them. The old man,
doubtless, finds grim satisfaction in the
strength of his own work. Evidently he
hesitates. These bastions defied all The
ornaments of Prussia for five months,
And stand still intact. Itwas not the
forts, but food that failed Paris and
opened its gates to the foreign foe. The
task before Theirs is no easy one. Not
that the Paris mob is good fighting ma
terial; they war against everything that
makes men brave: but they possess all
The audacity of brsg, and in these latter
days the most brazen is oft the most sue
cessfuL Besides they have had terrible
drilling in the art of war, and under
such rare masters of the ART as
Trochu and Ducrot. The Commune
yields an army of veterans, If it can only
enforce discipline. 1t has thus far main
tanned more control of its madcaps than
The world anticipated. 1t may grow
stronger each day by accessions of the
hslcontents of all Europe. The revo-
lutionary juntas of Spain, Italy, Austria,
Poland and Germany are likely to aid it
Withmen and money in proportion as it
promises success.
The dilatory policy of Theirs seems sui
eidsl. We may blame him as incompetent
and the Provinces as apathetic, but we
must look deeper for the real trouble.
Chiers is very silent in his manifestost
about the number of his forces. No Yer.
kailles dispatch has placed it higher than
30, 900, and the only reported response of
volunteers from The. country has been sfew
thousand Bretons, included in this so, 600.
How explain this siuggsrdness of
Francea The Paris proletaires cry,
Death to the rich; they abolish the
Jaw of inheritance; they re-enact the Claw
IF the suspeet:Y they fill the prisons with
the better classes, and whisper of the
guilotine.s Now, the soil of France is so
infinitely subdivided that nearly every
man in the rural districts is his own land
lord, andit would seem natural to look
for stauneh defenders of the rights of
property in the Provincial populations.
Not sol This subdivision has left the
small proprietors head over ears in debt,
bound hand and foot, at the mercy of the
greedy usurer. He grows the wheat in
deed, but secures the coarsest food for his
family with difficulty. He produces the
rich wine that flows at regal fessts, but
must content himself with the dregs. The
peasant proprietor of the nineteenth Gen.
fury is really worse off than his grand
father of the eighteenth. Louis Blanc, in
his well known treatise Du IFGvuiL, ex-
claims ''Whst matters it that he 1.-THE
peasan) be no longer the serf of Seig-
neur, If he still be the serf of monied
man-homnne d'Gr9ent-of a lawyer, of
a village Spectator, of q usurer7" No
much, indeed; he too may join in the
the cry, Down with the capitalists, death
TO the rich. " ~-r -'--' .i.7r
There is therefore ground for fear that,
if prompt and positive measures be not
taken, this revolution may spread, and
the Theirs regime go down beneath the
wave as suddenly and leaving no more
trace On the troubled surface, than the
garrulous Gsmbetta. As lovers of peace,
of law and order we may regret this.
Yet: -- a2g.sssE .-..H
One useful lesson may be drawn from
this sad picture, one that our people and
statesmen should ponder well the bless
ingS of big national debt and high
taxes.