The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-12
A RULE OF RUIN.

From the N. Y. Tribune
Moved by anxiety to secure their indemnity,
the Germans have insisted that the French
Government shall make short work of the
Paris rebels. Possibly but for the conplica-
tions arising from the presence of this third
party whose interests demand prompt action,
the civil conflict in France might be brought
to an end, by the temporizing policy advocated
by Nj. Theirs, without further serious blood
shed. The assault which has been resolved
upon in consequence of the German attitude
will doubtless be bloody; but it is not by any
means certain that the long investment, which
nj. Theirs contemplated in his desire to avoid
bloodshed, would not have resulted In ex-
cesses in Paris by which the innocent-men,
women, and children, alike--would have suf-
fered torture and death. The temper of the
Communists has already brought pillage, i'm
prisonment, and massacre; now it threatens
wholesale slaughter. These fellows are not, as
they believe themselves, of that 'inspred
rabble" with which Dumouriez turned back
the German invasion during the revolution;
but rather the anarchists, whose excesses in
the capital drove the old Jacobin warrior to
declare a constitutional monarchy the only
salvation of Paris from misrule. The Paris
mob is now, as then, the worst enemy of the
republic; and again drives France to accept
the Generalization of personal government as
a refuge from the horrors of no government.
Paris is in less danger from Government
shells than from Communist decrees bonn
bardment can destroy no more churches than
the mob has already pillaged; and an hour of
unbridled license within the city may cost
more lives than days struggle on its ram
parts. The assault which prevents these
threatened horrors and ends this anarchy will
not, therefore, be wholly an unmixed evil
And what terrible misrule of a month it
has been! Established only through the trea-
son of the most trusted Guards of the city
and the republic, the Commune has thriven
only by prescription and murder Civil au-
thority has been exercised by committee
one-half of which early denounced and i'm
prisoned the other half; and this faction has
since been superseded in power by secret
| tribunal, which denounces on mere suspicion
and condemns without trial The right of
national property has been abrogated; debt
has been abolished; landlords have been pro
scribed as enemies of the State, and 100000
citizens have been compelled to flee for no
other offense than being richer than their
neighbors. How many others have been Sc
cretly denounced and imprisoned, or have
fallen victims to private vengeance, which
goes authorized as a public executiouer,
Heaven only knows. Prisons have been filled
with priests and nuns guilty of declaring
themselves servants of person called God. "
Old soldiers of the republic have been shot
as spies, and loyal citizens have been mas
sacred for public demonstrations in favor of
order and the republic.
1t was not reasonable to expect that a Gov
eminent which had adopted such a civil policy
as this could long sustain itself by arms. The
conduct of the defense of Paris by the Com
i nlunists has been simply ridiculous, judged