Year: 1871




respectable people who still find homes In
Paris have the prospect of speedy delveranoe.
The Versailles government has been eau
tious--painfully cautious and painfully slow;
but while we cannot help blaming them for
their caution and setting down against them
something for inexcusable dilatoriness, we
must admit that France has stood by them and
that they have moved toward what now
seems certain victory. The Germans, at the
request of M Theirs aud his friend Jules
Favre, spared Paris, not wisely, as we thought
then-not wisely, as the Germans think now;
still they spared it, and the world has no good
reason to find fault with M. Theirs and those
who act with him for not doing what they
themselves implorcd Count Bismarck and his
master not to do. The deliberate destruc-
ton of the Vend6me Pillar-a pillar which
was justly regarded by Frenchmen, and,
indeed, by every man who cared for the
past, as grand historic monnment-has re-
vealed the character Of the Commune. The
civilized world interceded to save Paris
from the rough purposes and the rougher
hands of the men of the sturdy but intelligent
North. The Vandalism which Germany was
to do, but did not do. has been accomplished
by men who call themselves Frenchmen, and
progressive Frencbmen and republicans, to
boot. The Communists have destroyed the
vend6me Pillar If they burned the Hotel
not give the world better proof Of what they
are and what they mean. The fall Of the
Commune, which is now imminent, will be
relief to the whole civilized world.


As republicans we feel it to be our duty to
write guardedly on this subject. The Paris
Commune did represent q republican idea.
They sought municipal rights and privileges.
Their radical idea was that the intelligence of
the great French cities was at the mercy of the
ignorant rural voter The idea was good 1t
was based on truth. 1t had been built up by
experience. The failure Of the first empire,
of the restoration, Of the government Of
Louis Philippe, Of the republic Of 184S,
OF the second empire, was on their side
To give France new foundation fresh and
more solid point Of departure, was purpose





But the men of the Commune have had their
chance; all the world knows how they have
used 1t and how France has responded to their
call; and to-day we have 10 confess it that we
know no thoughtful man who is not willing to
admit that whatever was good in the Com
mune was stained at the outset with blood
that it has been disgraced day after day by
objectionable iniquities, and that the end of
this latest Chartist levelling experiment will be
a relief 1t is a duty which we owe to the
European public to say that the republicans of
the United States recognize no brotherhood in
the men who have revived history and full
filled prophecy by converting the fairest city
Of modern times into another and more often
sive Babylon. Since the days Of Robespierre
and the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Com
mittee Of Public Safety no such iniquities
have been perpetrated in the name of Liberty.
Liberty of opinion has found expression in the
extinction of the Paris press. Liberty
in matters religious has been expressed
by invading religious houses, by impris-
oning unoffending nuns, by holding the
cleaning sword over the head of man who's
only fault is that he is the Archbishop of Paris,
aud by other outrages too numerous and too
horrible to repeat. New York at the mercy
Of the Bowery boys and the hopeful lads Of
the Sixth ward-behold the character of the
Paris Commune! Much as we must blame
the Commune, let this be said-the Commune
is not France. The rural population detest it.
The large cities, which at the outset had some
faith in it, have given good proof that, much
as they desire and pray for fair play, they will
not have municipal rights by walking in the
dark ways and by endorsing the vain tricks Of
the Paris Reds. A good solid republic, after
Germany sheathed her sword, was in France
possibility. The possibility is no more.


1t is not impossible that the men of the Com
mune may do for Paris what the Russians, in
better cause, once did for Moscow. But
whether the miserable men who now hold Paris
burn it or fee from it, we are not allowed TO
doubt that the end is at hand and, that France,
as a united whole, will once more command
the attention of the thinking men of the
civilized world. In few days more NJ.
Theirs will be in Paris. What is to follow i?
Will the civil war be ended? Shall we have
fresh disturbances, renewed outbreaks? To
speak the truth, the fall of the Commune does
not, so far as we can see, promise the bless
ings Of peace to France. The future is still
dark and uncertain. There is strong desire
all over France for federal republic but the
organizing of republic on the desired basis
implies so much work and SO many changes
that while we can see trouble we cannot see
the end. France is not and never can be
Switzerland. She wants the elements out of
which it is possible to construct republic
after the fashion Of the United States. At the
same time we know and must admit that an
effort will be made in the direction of fede-