The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-16

were snubbed for their pains. Then
that willy little revolution monger,
Theirs, counseIled moderation and pa
tience and went away to sit ir corners
and think. AS yet, even he could not
foresee the red spectre of the 18th of
March; but they who rise by violence
shall fall again by violence as long as
the dreary old proverb lasts.
So. on the 5th of September. 1870, the
walls of Paris were covered with proc
lamations TO the people and to the
army, setting forth in sOnorous phrases
that a government had been "consti-
tuted" and ratified" by popular ac-
clamatiOn."
Constituted was word as audacious
as it was dangerous. Seven months
later the commune prohted by the
abuse Of it. AS for the ratification, -
that was, perhaps. true, and that was
the sole excuse for the men who so
impudently invested themselves with
poweT-a power the burden of which
was destined to crush them.
However, the people liked the new
government; Believille howled joyously
and dragged RochefoTt from Sainte-
Pelagie prison and the government
dared not refuse to swallow its medi-
cine nor deny this sop to Belleville
Jules FaNre shrugged his shoulders
and said he'd rather have Rochefort in
the government than outSide-an epi-
gram which pleased everybody. a few
conservative people. however, cooled a
little when the former farce writer,
Arago, was made mayor of Paris. Then,
on the 9th of September. Jules Favre
minister OF foreign relations. commit
ted the first official idiocy OF his new
career by publishing in a diplomatic
note the following phrase:
We Will relinquish neither one inch
of our territory nor one stone of our
fortresses," well knowing that a few
days later he should go TO Ferrieres on
that hearth breaking mission which all
the world has heard of
The proclamation of the republic
stirred the masses TO such an efferves-
cence Of joy that nobody thought any
longer of the Prussians. Everything
appeared safe under the magic name
Republic" To a population alternate
~ stunned and stung to fury by dis
patches which for six weeks past had
announced one unbroken series of dis
asters, the situation seemed already
less desperate. Toul, Belfort, Stras-
bodrg and Metz still held out; the pro-
Vinces il was believed, were rising en-
masse; there were serious rumors aioat
concerning the disaffection of the Sax
on and Bavarian troops. particularly
the latter. and the more sanguine of
the Parisians looked confidently to the
United States, now a sister republic
as probable ally. Some even thanked
God that there would be no more dis
astrous rumors concerning the army of
Chalons. because the army of Chalons
had ceased to exist except as an army
of prisoners.
AS for the new government, no soon
er had it been installed than energetic
measures for the defense of Paris We're
pushed forward on every side. One of
the most important questions of de-
Tense concerned the provisioning of the
city and the forts, and had Monsieur
Magnin, who succeeded Monster Glenn
ent Duvernois as minister of commerce,
displayed the good judgment and ac-
tivity of his predecessor, the history of
the siege of Paris might have been
written differently. Flour. grain, hay,
straw, cattle, sheep-nothing was for
gotten by Monsieur Duvernois-not
even a supply of millstones for grind
ing cereals As for his successor-his
mania was economy, and it is pity
that he alone was not obliged TO en-
dure the consequences OF all guilty
fools responsible for their nations hui
initiation. the economical fool is the
most deserving of perdition- Under the
new military reorganization, the gov
eminent FASTENED to equip the 16 forts
and the various redoubts and batteries
that surrounded Paris and st. Denis in
an oval measuring so kilometres in cir
conference. Not only was 1t necessary
to construct emplacements, gun plat
forms, classmates, magazines, bomb
proofs and storehouseS, but ii was also
imperative that the water supply
should be assured, mines planted, cleo