The Labor enquirer., 1886-08-07

The spirit can work only in this way
what occasions are there in which intel
ligent men cannot find the means of get
ting together crowds, mere laughter a
first, then men ready to act, above all i
the excitement has been prepared in ad
vance by the situation and by the acts o
men of action. Il
All that being given on the one hant
the Revolutionary situation, the genera
discont5 mt, and on the other hand, the
placards, the pamphlets, the songs, the
executions in ettigy, all emboldened the
populace, and soon the crowds became
more and more menacing. To-day, it is
the archbishop of Paris who is assaulted
at crossing; tomorrow it is duke OIL
count who is nearly thrown into the
water; another day the crowd amuses
itself with hooting at the members ol
parliament as they pass by; the acts OF
revolt vary thus infinitely, while await
the day on which a single spark shal
suffice to transform the gathering into
an outbreak, and the outbreak into Rev.
olution.
1T was the dregs of the people, it was
the scoundrels, the do nothings who
rloted"-saY to day the Prudhomme
historians. Well, yes, indeed, it was not
among the well-to-do folk that the Revo'
Iutionary bourgeoise sought allies
Since the we'll todo confined them
selves to drawing room recrimlnation
that they might. grovel on their stom'
achs moment after. Well then. it was
to the suburban Cf ill repute that the
Revolutionists went in search Of COM
rades arme | with cudgels, when mon
seigneur the archbishop of Paris was to
be hissed-though it may displease the
Proudhommes who to-day deny these
facts.
If action had been confded to the at
tack upon the men and the institutions
of the government, without touching the
economic institutions, the great ReVolu-
ton would it ever Lave been that which
in reality it was, that is to say general
uprising of the mass of the people
peasants aud workingmen-against the
privileged classes? The Revolution,
would it have lasted four years? would
it have stirred France even to her very
bowels? would it have got that inyinc-
ible spirit which gave it the power to re-
sist the conspiracy of kings"
Certainly not Let historians sing as
they may the glores of the gentlemen
of the Third Estate" of the constituent
assembly, or of the conVention,-we
know what that amounts to. We know
that the Revolution would have ended
with but a microscopic constitutional
limitation of the royal power, without
touching the feudal regime, if the
French peasant had not risen from one
end of the country to the other. and
maintained, during four years, Anarchy
the spontaneous Revolutionary action
Of groups and of individuals, freed from
all governmental guardianship. We
know that the peasant would have re
mained the beast of burden of the seig-
neur, if the Jacquere had not ragged
from 1888 to l79S-right up to the date
at which the convention was forced to
Consecrate by law what the peasan is
had just accomplished in fact: the abo-
itlon without compensation of all the
feudal dues and the restitution to the
Communes of the goods which had been
already stolen from them BY the rich
under the ancient regime. VainIy
would ole have waited upon the as
semblies for justice, if the naked feet and
the breechless had not thrown the
weight of their clubs and their pixies on
to the parliamentary see-saw.
Rnt il was neither the agitation