New Orleans Republican., 1875-12-31

AAo otoAy Va uhO AIlS OOWuuu6t AL u OI
the events which made the name commune
once more as terrible as it was in the me-
diRval history of France, has been told
again by General Appert. 1t any one could
disentangle the embodiment Of the spring
months of 1871, and see clearly through the
smoke of the burning capital, and Of the
retaliatory platoon FIRE to the actual facts
Of the case, it should be General Appert. A
man no longer young, who must have wear
led out all vindictive passion in the tedious
Investigations Of more than four years,
he has presided over the courts martial
which tried the communist. and now gives
to the world an abstract Of his researches.
Possibly he may be under the influence of
unconscious prepossessi0n, and we therefore
tell the story after him, without necessarily
adopting all his conclusions and estimates.
To English readers the Commune has pos
sibly seemed like power born in one mo-
ment Of popular distress, shame and social
jealousy. We are apt to suppose that the
movement suddenly took shape, and provid-
ed itself with an organization, after the popu-
lace had seized the gun on Montmarte, and
But General Appert declares that dis
tinct and eager revolutionary propaganda,
q thing apart from the government of
the fourth of September had existed
from the evening of that memorable
day. By the eleventh of September
a central republican committee Of vigil
ance and national defense was formed;
80 early was this house divided against
itself, and republic formed within the re-
public. This second republic, through all
its changes, preserved one constant feature
it was founded on the support of the armed
part of the people. Its administrators were
persons who we're for the people, and who
looked on the working men of Paris-at
least on such of them as held Evolutionary
rsrnsn tall and -n1,x
people. The words national defense" had
little real meaning, unless we choose to look
on Parie, or on such Of its children as obeyed
the committee, as o nation, or fatherland
in itself. 1t happened, by what must have
seemed lucky chance, that the people at
this juncture had arms in their hands.
The nation tof Paris) consisted, as
Saxon ancestors, of the host, the men at
arms. 1.-The Central Committee of the Re.
publican Federation Of the National Guard"
was the upper house in this curious COM
monwealth. There was q council of the
legion, an assembly Of the battalion, and
the lowest association, the political unit,
was the company. Here was a republic
militant indeed, and it was happy thing
for France that the central committee did
not carry out the promising idea of oppos-
ing the Prussian entrance. The shade of
old Martial VOrwarts might have rejoced at
such an attempt, and muttered his famous
"What q town to plunder" But civiliza-
ton would have had to deplore an even
greater ruin than the hands of the republi-
can militant afterward wrought in this city
that claims to be the capital of Civilization.
When the Prussians had departed peace
fully, the central committee seems to have
had an instructive knowledge that it's
moment for action had arrived. The
charming pretext that on the authority of
the State within the State, that only the
people in the technical sense, should keep
the cannon which it had originally removed
from the sacrilegious path of the Prussians,
became the ground of quarrel. These can
mons were pointed, in General Appert's
opinion, at all supporters OF all institutions
which had existed before the Republican
federation of the national guard came to
regenerate, by means OF virtuous placards,
world which certainly sadly needed re-
generation. Another revolutionary body,
which had seen it's best days, and was look
ing about for support, was blended with
the Republican federation of the national
guard. The International had suffered &C.
verely during the siege.
No money came in from affiliated branch
es without the circle of the forts of Paris.
Subscriptions could not be looked for; aid,
on the other hand, was demanded from
members within Paris who suffered from
uuo b1i CLIO VI tAduOs "A paper CdilOu tuc
Lutte a OatrGnce was started and was o
failure. Now, there is story told of GER
tain French man of letters to the effect
that he was the stormy petrol of journalism.
Whenever q newspaper ceased 10 have sub
ecribers and advertisements, when the most
improper novels would not attract readers.
and offers of gold watches as prizes failed
to draw subscriptions, this gentleman's
signature always appeared at the foot of an
article filed with indignant virtue-so
much go, indeed, as to be dangerous to
moral order. He denounced the shocking
robbery called property, we may presume,
the selfish exclusiveness of the mon
ogamous family. the shameful cor
Iuption Of the emperor, king, presi-
be, of the moment. Then the minions of
the marshal, president, king or emperor,
suppressed the insolvent print, which fell
decently, like Cesar ct P0mpey's statue,
uttering cries of virtue to the last. Now,
the Lutte Outrance was driven to contem-
plate the same sort of suicide, in the shape
Of an appeal to the army and an honorable
to be Journalists, the chiefs of the interna-
tional now got themselves elected delegates
to the Central Committee of the Republican
Federation and so on, and 1t became clear
that what with the international, and what
with the federation, lawful government
must assert itself by some vigorous action.
This action, as every one will remember,
was to have been the seizing of the guns in
the possession of the National Guard on
Montmartre. The scheme for doing so was
well planned, but resulted in fatal failure,
Among all the dreadful events by which
the reign of the Commune recalled the re-
voting scenes of the old revolution, none
more resembled, IN the ferOcity of the mob
and the weakness of the executive, such Oc-
currences as the fall of the Bastile, than the
attempt on the guns a. Montmsrtre. At |
two o'clock in the morning of the eight |
eenth of March, General Lecomte sur
rounded the approaches to the heights with |
. force OF infantry. In another honr he
artillery, both on the higher and the lower |
level of the heights. A number of the dele |
gates Of the Commune were taken with the l
guns, only ono or two men were wounded,
and troops waited for the horses and ma |
terial to carry off the artillery. The horses
never came. The morning grew late,
,rOwd collected, the soldiers were pitied for /
yoing breakfastless, sausages and case
BOTTLES were handled about by the friendly
'pecimens of the people, ladies rushed up
o the gallant men who surely would never
ire on their compstriots, rifles were re-
7ersed, and the process Of fraternizing was
n full swing. The men who were expected
o guard the fanks and approaches to the
leights were engaged in this genial way
'robsbly whom the National Guards oc.
upied the upper heights in force. Com
'anies Of ehasseurs, advancing under Le-
ompte, were encircled, the General was
eized, and the moment of genial expansion
eing over, the p0pulace turned to its tiger
lood. General Lecompte probably knew
hat he was q doomed man from the