Year: 1871

With the conclusion of peace between the
German Empire and the Provisional Government
OF France, the friends of the last-named country
throughout the United States, cherished the hope
that from the ruins of Imperisl despotism Re-
public might arise which, proftiug by the lessons
of the past, would be at the same time blessing
in the form of free government to the people,
and hope, to which she could look with conf
dence, to a speedy restoration of that state of
prosperity and honor which she held before the
mad ambition of the fallen Emperor plunged
her, while yet unprepared for the trial, into the
horrors of bloody and desolating war. The
friendly aid which France extended to our land,
when the Young Republic took arms against,
and sought to escape the tyranny of the mother
country, is something that can nevor be forgotten
and banished from the American mind, nor do
we wish it otherwise. The remembrance of that
friendly act will ever create an intuitive sympa-
thy in our hearts for the French people and their
liberties and welfare, which not even the undis-
guised hostility of the Imperial Government to
our own, when the hopes of rebellion ran high,
can wholly succeed in eradicating.


But whatever hope of free Government in
France may have been entertained month since,
the scenes now being enacted in and around the
enyirons of Paris, must prove to have been de-
lusiye. Scarcely was peace concluded and the
victorious Germans on their homeward march,
than formidable mob, raising the standard of
insurrecton against the existing Government,
took possession of the city and inaugurated
reign of terror which has already condemned
and executed some of the bravest spirits of the
nation. The forces of the insurgents and those
of the Government have met in several fierce
combats, embttered by that hatred which civil
war alone can engender, prisoners taken by either
side are butchered with cold-booded atrocity
that can find its equal only among sayages.-
Even the sacred calling of the priesthood is no
protection against the infuriated Communists.
The Archbishop of Paris was seized, stripped
naked, bound and scoqrged for hours by band
of Reds" while the cells of the prisons were
filled with priests and nuns. The latest news
from Paris indicates the speedy downfall of the
Communists and the triumph of the forces under
the command of Mcmahon and Vinoy. President
Theirs, apparently desirous of sparing the city
the horrors of another bombardment, is in favor
of the capture by storm or by an investment
which shall stsrve them into submission, while
Bismarck, with an eye to German interests, is
reported to declare that unless the insurgents
are speedily put down, the German troops shall
return and occupy Paris until a stable form of
Government is established.


Such, in brief, Is the situation in France, and
it is not such as gives encouragement to the
friends of Republican Government. The Paris
mob of 1871 has shown itself to be possessed of
a spirit akin to that which animated the Paris
mobs of the first revolution. The "reign of ter
ror' which was inaugurated then would, if un-
checked, find its counterpart in the reign of ters
ror of to-day. Granted, that the Provisional
Government may be successful in conquering
the present insurrection, it gives US but little
faith In the future The different factions of
Republicanism, the conquerers and the con-
quered will hate each other yet more bitterly for
the bloody, though brief trial of arms, and each
will prefer a return to despotic rule to the sue
cess of the other. 1t is only under strong,
firm and stable Government and freed from
both domestic and foreign broils that France can
again hope to soon regain prosperity and power.
And that kind of Government will not be a
Republic, we fear, with the present tempera-
ment of the French people.