The Labor enquirer., 1886-07-31

court. the aristocracy, the clergy They
do not theorlse, it is by ridleule that
they proceed.
Thousands of these fvlng leaflets re-
late the vices of the court and especially
of the queen, ridicule that court, strip 1t
of it's sham decorations, hold it up
naked to the view with all its vices, is
designations. its perversitv, its stupidity.
The royal amours, the court scandals,
the foolish extravagance, the Famine
Pact that alliance of the authorities
with the wheat monopo!isls to enrich
themselves by starving the people-in
these you have the subjects of t. pam :
phlets. The scriSblers are always in
the breach and let slip no public event
that can give them an opportunity of
hitting at the enemy. Let there be
public talk upon any matter-the PAM
phlet and the fugitive leafet treat of it
in their own free way, in their own
style. They lend themselves better
than the newspaper to this kind of agi,
tation. A newspaper is quite an enter
prise, and people look twice before they
run the risk of involving it; its failure
often EN- mbarrasses a whole party. The
pamphlet and the leafet only compro-
mise the author and the lrinter-you
can 90 and look for either of them.
1t is evident that the authors of these
writings must commence, before every
thing else, by emancipating them selves
from the censure; for. if they had not
then inve nted that pretty little instru-
ment of contemporary issuitlsn, the &C
tion for libel, which annihilates com
pletely the Revolutionary writer's lib
erty-they had, that they might throw
into prison authors and printers, the
"lettre de cachet," brutal, it is true, but
always frank.
1t is on this account that the authors
head their pamphlets, whether printed
at Amsterdav, or it matters not where
cat hundred miles from the Bastile,
beneath the tree of Liberty" Conse-
quently they do not hesitate to hit hard
and vilifv the king, the queen and her
lovers, the grandees of the court, the
aristoCrsts With the secret press, the
police were obliged to search the house
ofthe booksellers, to arrest the neWsvend-
ers-the unknown authors escaped pur.
suit and continued their work.
The sOng-a thing too free to BE- put in
type, but which goes the rounds Of
France by being committed to memory
has always been one of the most ELI.
cacious means of propaganda. 1t fell
foul of the established authorities, 1t
made fun of the crowned heads, it sowed
in the very hearth of the family dis
trust Of the royalty, hatred of the clergy
and aristocracy, hope of seeing the
speedy advent of the day of Revolution.
But it was to the placard above all
that the agitators had recourse. The
placard gets itself more talked about,
makes more agitation than pamphlet
or tract. Accordingly pIacards,
printed or written by hand, appear on
every occasion, the moment anything
that interests the masses occurs. Torn
down TO-DAY they make their appear
ance to morrow driving the governors
and their police spies to fury. owe
have missed your grandfather, We will
not miss you" the king reads to-day in
a sheet pasted on the walls OF his palace.
Tomorrow it is the queen who cries
with rage at reading how they have
pasted on the walls the details of her
shameful life. At that very hour was
being prepared the hate which later on
the people swear against the woman
who would in cold blood have extermi-
mated Paris that she might continue
queen and autoCrat.
The courtesans propose to make fete
of the dauphin's birthday the placards
threaten that the -four corners Of the
town shall be set on fire, and thus they
SOW panic. by setting people on the look
out for some hing extraordinary. Well
then, they say that on the day of re)oiC-
ing "the king and the queen will be
conducted under sufficient escort to
the Place de Grive, that from there they
will 60 to the Hotel de Vile to confess
their crimes, and that they Will then
mount sCatfOld to be burnt alive"
The king summons the assembly of no.
tables, Immediately the placards an
nuunCe that che new troupe of come
dians raised by the Sleur de Calonne
the prime minister) will commence its
the tWenty-ninth of this
month, and will give all allegorical bal
let entitled "TOnneau des Danaides."
In fact, becoming wickeder and wick
eder, the placard penetrates even into
the queens chamber, notifying her that
the tyrants are soon going to be exc
cuted
But it is especially against the monop-
olists, against the "farmers-generaI,"
against tue governors of the provinces
that the pIacards are used. Each time
that there is any excitement amongst
the peonle, the placards announce the
st. Bartholomew of the provincial gov
ernors and of the farmers-general. Such
and such wheat speculator, such and