Year: 1871

If there be any flowers to pluck from the
nettle of the Communist insurTection, 1t Is
found in the hope that henceforward Paris
ceases to be France, and assumes her proper
position subordinate to the nation. For the
last eighty years, as q result of tho system OF
Capitalization which followed the great revo-
luton, the fortunes of parties and of dynasties
have been absolutely dependent upon the pos
session of tho Capital by mob. This has
been fatal farlt of former revolutionary
movements. When everything is left to the
upreason and caprice of the gentlemen OF
leisure who live in the cutters, it is highly inn
mobabIe that any practicable or wise direction
can be given to popular demonstration.
Any unforeseen street accident may change the
face of affairs, and the political complexion of
"a movement, in moment. A remarkable ex-
libition of this kind was seen in 1S48,
where a misunderstanding about attacking
q station house led to collision which
destroyed the throne. The crowd was
carried on by the impetus OF successful riot
until tho emente became a revolution. The
men who at sunrise shouted Viue ie R0'!
from the hight of their barricades, and loyalty
demanded redress of grievances, at noon
trampled under foot the abdication of the
King, and stumbled into Republic which no
one had dreamed of in the morning. Yet so
powerful was the moral influence of the
Capital that the provinces gave in their
adhesion promptly and without exception to
the new order Of things they had done
nothing to establish. Later, when the work
mems insurrectOn in June imperiled the
commonwealth, France waited alphabetically to
see what Paris would do with it and when
Cavaignac had crushed it with the aid of the
army the provinces quietly acquiesced. 1t
was the same when Louis Bonaparte seized
the government and imprisoned the repre-
sentatves of the nation. He had only to
stun and stupefy Paris by prompt slaughter,
and the country, seeing the city reduced to
order, made no effectual resistance to the
usurpation, and when the Pebscitum came
to give its sham sanction to the theft and
perjury, the peasantry voted as solidly as
hired gang of our own repeaters.


1t is an encouraging symptom of the gradual
progress of the democratic principle in France
under Che workings of universal suffrage, that
the Capital appears to have lost this absolute
power over the provinces. 1t was rude sur
prise to those idoators of Paris who regarded
her as sacred land unquestionable to find,
when the mad emeute of MOntmartre had
deluged the city and drowned out all sembance
of government, that the work of revolution
was not completed. They evidently thought
that with the proclamation of the Commune,
that vague and underlined apothcosis OF the
City, the political problem was solved They
expected that all the secondary towns of the
country would follow the example of their
imperial sister, and that the rural masses
would as usual, accept the fact accomplished.
But the Republican administration, who had
learned in the experiences Of former revolu-
tions the true significance of political systems
formulated by the crack Drained coryphces OF
the mob, resolved to try conclusions with The
spirit of anarchy before tamely surrenderlng.
1t is probable that Mr.. Thiers and his associates
were not much less surprised at the loyal adj
hesion of the country at large than were the
Montmartrists at the resistance OF the Govern
ment and the detection of the great cities.
After insignificant demonstrations in few
places, the whole Of France rallied to the sup
port of the regular authorities. and the un-
precedented spectacle was presented OF an
insurrection triumphant and isolated in Paris.


AS soon as this almost incredible fact was
realized i'll the Capital, tho tone of defiant ex-
utation and contempt OF the Government
changed into one Of desperation and rage.