YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HISTORY OF THE COMMUXE OF 1871. BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON HISTORY THE COMMUNE OF 1871. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF L I S S A G A R A Y, ELEANOR MARX AVELING. LONDON: REEVES AND TURNER, 196 STRAND. 1886. INTRODUCTION. The following translation of Lissagaray's " Histoire de la Commune " was made many years ago, at the express wish of the author, who, besides making many emendations in his work, wrote nearly a hundred pages especially for this English version. The translation, in fact, was made from the "Histoire de la Commune" as prepared for a second edition — an edition which the French Government would not allow to be pubhshed. This explanation is necessary in view of the differences between the translation and the first edition of Lissagaray's book. Written in 1876, there are necessarily passages in this history out of date to-day ; as, for example, the references to the prisoners in New Caledonia, the exiles, and the amnesty. But for two reasons I prefer leaving this translation as it was originally. To have it " written up to date " would only be making patchwork of it. Secondly, I am loth to alter the work in any way. It had been entirely revised and corrected by my father. I want it to remain as he knew it. Lissagaray's " Histoire de la Commune " is the only authentic and reliable history as yet written of the most memorable movement of modern times. It is true Lissa- garay was a soldier of the Commune, but he has had the courage and honesty to speak the truth. He has not attempted to hide the errors of his party, or to gloss over vi INTRODUCTION. the fatal weaknesses of the Revolution ; and if he has erred, it has been ou the side of moderation, in his anxiety not to make a single statement that could not be corroborated by overwhelming proofs of its truth. Wherever it was possible, the statements of the Versaillese in their Parliamentary Inquiries, in their press, and in their books are used in preference to the statements of friends and partisans ; and whenever the evidence of Communards is given, it is inva riably sifted with scrupulous care. And it is this impar tiality, this careful avoidance of any assertion that could be considered doubtful, which should recommend this work to English readers. In England especially most persons are still quite ignorant of the events which led up to, and forced the people of Paris into making that revolution which was to save France from the shame and disgrace of, a fourth Empire. To most English people the Commune still spells " rapine, fear, and lust," and when they speak of its " atrocities," they have some vague idea of hostages ruthlessly massacred by brutal revo lutionists, of houses burnt down by furious petroleuses. Is it not time that English people at last learnt the truth ? Is it not time they were reminded that for the sixty-five hostages shot, not by the Commune, hut by a few people made mad by the massacre of prisoners by the Versaillese, the troops of law and order shot down thirty thousand men, women, and children, for the most part long after all fighting had ceased ? If any Englishman, after reading Lissagaray's " History of the Commune," still has any doubt as to what the " atrocities " of the Commune really were, he should turn to the Parisian correspondence for May and June 187 1 of the Times, Daily News, and Standard} There he can learn 1 I need but refer readers to the Times'- account of the murders at Moulin Saquet and Clamart, long before the entry of the Versaillese into Paris, and to the accounts in the English press of the wholesale INTRODUCTION. vii what kind of " order reigned in Paris" after tho glorious victory of Versailles. Nor is it enough that wo should ho clear as to flu* " atro cities " of the Commune. It is time pooplo imdorstood the true meaning of this Revolution ; and this can be Buinmed up in few words. It meant the government of tho pooplo by the people. It was the first attempt oi' tho proletariat to govern itself. The workers of Paris expressed this when in their first manifesto they declared they " understood it massacres after their entry. Ibre are a few extracts taken at ran dom : — " The shambles have been established at the end of the Boulevard Malesherbes, and it is a lugubrious spectacle to see men and women, of all ages and conditions of life, defile past at intervals in that fatal direc tion. A party of three hundred moved across the boulevard only a few moments ago. . . . At Satory, on "Wednesday, a thousand of the captured insurgents revolted and got rid of their handcuffs. . . . The soldiers fired into the crowd, and three hundred insurgents were shot. ... In one of the convoys of prisoners ... a woman was being driven on by a gen darme, who goaded her with the point of his sabre till the blood ran. . . . M. Gallifet halted the column, selected eighty-two [prisoners], and had them shot there and then. ... As many as one thousand Communists were shot after their capture (June ist). . . . Human hfe has become so cheap, that a man is shot more readily than a dog. Summary execu tions are still [long after the fighting had ceased] going on wholesale.'' — Times, May-June 1871. " Several hundred insurgents who took refuge in the Madeleine were, it is said, bayoneted in the church. . . . Eleven waggon-loads of dead bodies of insurgents have been buried in the common ditch of Issy. . . . No quarter was given to any man, woman, or child. . . Batches of as many as fifty and one hundred at a time are shot." — Daily News, Map- June 1 87 1. " The wholesale executions continue indiscriminately. Prisoners are taken down in batches to certain . . . places where firing- parties are stationed, and deep trenches dug beforehand. ... At one of these, the Caserne Napoleon, since last night five hundred persons have been shot. . . . There are invariably women and boys among them. . . . Prisoners are soon disposed of by a volley and tumbled into a trench, when, if not killed by the shots, death from suffocation must soon put an end to their pain. Two court-martials alone are shooting at the rate of five hundred a day. Two thousand dead bodies are collected round the Pan theon." — Standard, June 1871. viii INTRODUCTION. was their imperious duty and their absolute right to render themselves masters of their own destinies by seizing upon governmental power." The establishment of the Commune meant not the replacing of one form of class-rule by another, but the abolishing of all class-rule. It meant the substi tution of true co-operative, i.e., communistic, for capitalis tic production, and the participation in this Revolution of workers of all countries meant the internationalising, not only the nationalising, of the land and of private property. And the same men who now cry out against the use of force used force — and what force ! — to vanquish the people of Paris. Those who denounce Socialists as mere firebrands and dynamitards used fire and sword to crush the people into submission. And what has been the result of these massacres, of this slaying of thousands of men, women, and children ? Is Socialism dead ? Was it drowned in the blood of the people of Paris ? Socialism to-day is a greater power than it has ever been. The bourgeois Republic of Prance may join hands with the Autocrat of Russia to blot it out ; Bismarck may pass repressive laws, and democratic America may follow in his wake — and still it moves ! And because Socialism is to day a power, because in England even it is " in the air," the time has come for doing justice to the Commune of Paris. The time has come when even the opponents of Socialism will read, at least with patience if not with sympathy, an honest and truthful account of the greatest Socialist move ment — thus far — of the century. ELEANOR MARX AVELING. June {Whit-Week} 1886. PREFACE. The history of the Third Estate was to have boon tho pro logue to this history. But time presses ; the victims are gliding into their graves ; the perfidies of the Radicals threaten to surpass the worn-out calumnies of the Monarch ists. I limit myself for the present to the strictly necessary introduction. Who made the Revolution of the i 8th March ? What part was taken by the Central Committee ? What was the Commune? How comes it that 100,000 Frenchmen are lost to their countiy ? Who is responsible ? Legions of witnesses will answer. No doubt it is an exile who speaks, but an exile who has been neither member, nor officer, nor functionary of the Commune ; who for five years has sifted the evidence ; who has not ventured upon a single assertion without accu mulated proofs ; who sees the victor on the look-out for the slightest inaccuracy to deny all the rest ; who knows no better plea for the vanquished than the simple and sincere recital of their history. This history, besides, is due to their children, to all the working-men of the earth. The child has the right to know the reason of the paternal defeats, the Socialist party the campaign of its flag in all countries. He who tells the people revolutionary legends, he who amuses them with sensational stories, is as criminal as the geographer who would draw up false charts for navigators. London, November 1877. CONTENTS. PROLOGUE. PAGE HOW THE PRUSSIANS GOT PARIS AND THE RURALS FRANCE . I CHAPTER I. FIRST ATTACKS OF THE COALITION AGAINST PARIS — THE BAT TALIONS OF THE NATIONAL GUARD FEDERALISE AND SEIZE THEIR CANNON — THE PRUSSIANS ENTER PARIS ... 58 CHAPTER II. THE COALITION OPENS FIRE ON PARIS — THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE CONSTITUTES ITSELF — M. THIERS ORDERS THE ASSAULT . CHAPTER III. THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH . .... 78 CHAPTER IV. THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE CONVOKES THE ELECTORS THE MAYORS OF PARIS AND DEPUTIES OF THE SEINE TORN AGAINST IT . 88 CHAPTER V. THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE AFFIRMS ITSELF, REORGANISES THE PUBLIC SERVICES, AND HOLDS PARIS . . . . IOI CHAPTER VI. THE MAYORS, THE DEPUTIES, THE JOURNALISTS, THE ASSEMBLY COMBINE AGAINST PARIS — THE REACTION MARCHES ON THE PLACE VEND6ME, AND IS PUNISHED I08 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. FAQ IE THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE TRIUMPHS OVER ALL OBSTACLES AND CONSTRAINS THE MAYORS TO CAPITULATE . . . . II 6 CHAPTER VIII. l/pROCLAMATION OF THE COMMUNE 1 26 CHAPTER IX. THE COMMUNE AT LYONS, ST. ETIENNE, AND CREUZOT . . . I3I CHAPTER X. THE COMMUNE AT MARSEILLES, TOULOUSE, AND NARBONNE . . I42 CHAPTER XI. THE COUNCIL OF THE COMMUNE WAVERS FROM ITS FIRST SITTINGS — THE MAYORS AND ADJUNCTS ELECTED DESERT EN MASSE . 153 CHAPTER XII. SORTIE OF THE THIRD APRIL — THE PARISIANS ARE REPULSED EVERYWHERE — FLOURENS AND DUVAL ARE KILLED — THE VERSAILLESE MASSACRE SOME PRISONERS . . . 162 CHAPTER XIII. THE COMMUNE IS VANQUISHED AT MARSEILLES AND NARBONNE . I7I CHAPTER XIV. THE GREAT RESOURCES OF THE COMMUNE — THE GREAT WEAKNESS OF THE COUNCIL — NOMINATION OF CLUSERET — DECREE CON CERNING THE HOSTAGES — THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE — THE BANK T9, • CHAPTER XV. THE FIRST COMBATS OF NEUILLY AND ASNIERES — ORGANISATION AND DEFEAT OF THE CONCILIATORS I90 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XVI. I'AIIK THE MANIFESTO OF THE COUNCU.— THE COMPLIMENTARY ELEC TIONS OF THE 1 6t.U APRIL SHOW A MINORITY WITHIN Till: COUNCIL — FIRST DISPUTES — TUE GEHMS OV DEFEAT . 199 CHAPTER XVII. OUR PARISIENNES — SUSPENSION OF ARMS FOR THE EVACUATION OF NEUILLY — THE ARMY OF VERSAILLES AND THAT OF PARIS . 207 CHAPTER XVIII. THE PUBLIC SERVICKS — FINANCE — WAR — POLICE — EXTERIOR- JUSTICE — EDUCATION — LABOUR AND EXCHANGE . . . 217 CHAPTER XIX. THE FREEMASONS JOIN THE COMMUNE — THE FIRST EVACUATION OF THE FORT OF ISSY — CREATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY 236 CHAPTER XX. ROSSEL REPLACES CLUSERET — THE RIVALRIES — THE DEFENCE OF THE FORT OF ISSY . . ... 246 CHAPTER XXI. PARIS IS BOMBARDED — THE FORT OF ISSY SUCCUMBS — THE COUN CIL ELECTS A NEW COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY — ROSSEL FLIES ... 254 'chapter XXII. THE CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE COMMUNE . . 265 CHAPTER XXIII. M. THIERS' POLICY WITH REGARD TO THE PROVINCES— THE EX TREME LEFT BETRAYS PARIS 27I COXTENTS. CHAPTER XXIV. THE IMPOTENCE OF THE SECOND COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY- EVACUATION OF THE FORT OF VANVES AND OF THE VILLAGE OF ISSY— THE MANIFESTO OF THE MINORITY— THE EXPLO SION IN THE AVENUE RAPP— FALL OF THE VEND6ME COLUMN 283 CHAPTER XXV. PARIS ON THE EVE OF DEATH 293 CHAPTER XXVI. THE VERSAILLESE ENTER PARIS ON SUNDAY, 2 1ST MAY, AT THREE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON — THE COUNCIL OF THE COM MUNE DISSOLVES • 3°4 CHAPTER XXVII. MONDAY 22ND — THE VERSAILLESE INVADE THE QUARTERS OF THE EAST— PARIS RISES 313 CHAPTER XXVIII. TUESDAY 23RD — MONTMARTRE IS TAKEN — THE WHOLESALE MAS SACRES — WE LOSE GROUND — PARIS ON FIRE — THE LAST NIGHT OF THE H6TEL-DE- VILLE 326 CHAPTER XXIX. WEDNESDAY 24TH — THE MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL EVACUATE THE H6TEL-DE-VILLE — THE PANTHEON IS TAKEN — THE VER SAILLESE SHOOT THE FEDERALS BY HUNDREDS — THE FE DERALS SHOOT SIX HOSTAGES — THE NIGHT OF THE CANNON . 339 CHAPTER XXX. THURSDAY 25TH — THE WHOLE LEFT BANK FALLS INTO THE HANDS OF THE TROOPS — DELESCLUZE DIES — THE BRASSARDIERS STI MULATE THE MASSACRE — THE MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL EVACUATE THE MAIRIE OF THE ELEVENTH ARRONDISSEMENT 353 CONTENTS. xv CHAPTER XXXI. rAOB THE RESISTANCE CENTRES IN BELLEVILLE— FRIDAY, FORTY-EIOIIT HOSTAGES ARE SHOT IN THE RUE IIAXO — SATURDAY 27TH, THE WHOLE TWENTIETH ARRONDISSKMKNT IS 1 N VADKD— Till! PERE LACHAISE IS TAKEN — SUNDAY 28TH, THE BATTLE ENDS AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK IN THE MORN ING — MONDAY 29TH, THE FORT OF VINCENNES IS SURRENDERED . . . 365 CHAPTER XXXII. THE VERSAILLESE FURY— THE SLAUGHTER-HODSES — THE PRE- VOTAL COURTS — THE DEATH OF VARLIN — THE BURIALS . 382 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE CONVOYS OF PRISONERS— THE ORANGERIE — THE ARRESTS — SATORY — THE DENUNCIATORS — THE PRESS — THE LEFT IN SULTS THE VANQUISHED — DEMONSTRATIONS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES ... 395 CHAPTER XXXIV. THE PONTOONS — THE FORTS THE PRISONS — THE FIRST TRIALS . 408 CHAPTER XXXV. THE COURTS-MARTIAL — THE EXECUTIONS — BALANCE-SHEET OF THE CONDEMNATIONS 424 CHAPTER XXXVI. NEW CALEDONIA — EXILE — BALANCE-SHKET OF BOURGEOIS VENGEANCE — THE LIBERAL CHAMBER AND THE AMNESTY . 445 APPENDIX ..... 467 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. PROLOGUE. "Osons, ce mot renferme toute la politique de cette heure." — Happort de St. Just a la Convention. HOW THE PRUSSIANS GOT PARIS AND THE R URALS FRANCE. August 9, 1870. — lu six days the Empire has lost three battles. Douai, Frossart, MacMahon have allowed them selves to be isolated, surprised, crushed. Alsace is lost, the Moselle laid bare. The dnmbfoundered Ministry has con voked the Chamber. Ollivier, in dread of a demonstration, denounces it beforehand as " Prussian." But since eleven in the morning an immense agitated crowd occupies the Place de la Concorde, the quays, and surrounds the Corps Legislatif. Paris is waiting for the mot d 'ordre of the deputies of the Left. Since the announcement of the defeats they have become the only moral authority. Bourgeoisie, working- men, all rally round them. The workshops have turned their army into the streets, and at the head of the different groups one sees men of tried energy. The Empire totters — it has now only to fall. The troops drawn up before the Corps Legislatif are greatly excited, ready to turn tail in spite of the decorated and grumbling Marshal Baraguay d'Hilliers. The people cry, " To the frontier." Officers answer aloud, " Our place is not here." In the Salle des Pas Perdus well-known Republicans, the men of the clubs, who have forced their way in, roughly apos trophise the Imperialist deputies, speak loudly of proclaiming 2 HISTORY OE THE COMMUXE. the Republic. The pale-faced Mamelukes steal behind the groups. M. Thiers arrives and exclaims, " Well, then, make your republic ! " When the President, Schneider, passes to the chair, he is received with cries of " Abdication ! " The deputies of the Left are surrounded by delegates from without. " What are you waiting for ? We are ready. Only show yourselves under the colonnades at the gates." The honourables seem confounded, stupefied. " Are you numerous enough ? Were it not better to put it off till to-morrow?" There are indeed only 100,000 men ready. Some one arrives and tells Gambetta, " There are several thousands of us at the Place Bourbon." Another, the writer of this history, says, "Make sure of the situation to-day, when it may still be saved. To-morrow, having become desperate, it will he forced upon you." But these brains seem paralysed ; no word escapes these gaping mouths. The sitting opens. Jules Pavre proposes ' to this base Chamber, the abettor of our disasters, the humus of the Empire, to seize upon the government. The Mamelukes rise up in dudgeon, and Jules Simon, hair on end, returns to us in the Salle des Pas Perdus. " They threaten to shoot us," he shrieks ; "I descended into the midst of the hall and said, ' Well, shoot us.' " We exclaim, " Put an end to this." "Yes," says he, "we must make au end of it," — and he returns to the Chamber. And thus ended their "damnable faces." The Mamelukes, who know their Left, recover their self-assurance, throw Ollivier overboard and form a coup-d'etat Ministry. Schneider precipitately breaks up the sitting in order to get rid of the crowd. The people, feebly repulsed by the soldiers, repair in masses to the bridges, follow those who leave the Chamber, expecting every moment to hear the Republic proclaimed. M. Jules Simon, out of reach of the bayonets, makes a heroic discourse, and convokes the people to meet the next day at the Place de la Concorde. The next day the police occupy all the approaches. Thus the Left abandoned to Napoleon III. our two last PROLOGUE. 3 armies. One effort would have sufficed to overthrow this pasteboard Empire.1 The people instinctively offered their help to render the nation unto herself. The Left repulsed them, refused to save tho country by a riot, aud, confining their efforts to a ridiculous motion, loft to tho Mamelukes the care of saving France. The Turks in 1S76 showed more intelligence and elasticity. During three weeks it was the story of the Bas-Empire all over again, — the fettered nation sinking into the abyss in the face of its motionless governing classes. All Europe cried, " Beware ! " They alone heard not. The masses, deceived by a braggart and corrupt press, might ignore the danger, lull themselves with vain hopes ; but the deputies have, must have, their hands full of crushing truths. They conceal them. The Left exhausts itself in exclamations. On the 1 2th M. Gambetta cries, " We must wage repub lican war," — and sits down again. On the 13 th Jules Favre demands the creation of a Committee of Defence. It is refused. He utters no syllable. On the 20th the Minis try announces that Bazaine has forced three army corps into the quarries of Jaumont ; the next day the whole European press related, on the contrary, that Bazaine, three times beaten, had been thrown back upon Metz by 200,000 Germans. And no deputy rises to interpellate the liars ! Since the 26th they have known MacMahon's insane march upon Metz, exposing the last army of France, a mob of 80,000 conscripts and vanquished, to 200,000 victorious Germans. M. Thiers, again restored to favour since the disasters, demonstrates in the committees and in the lobbies that this march is the way to utter ruin. The extreme Left says and bruits about that all is lost ; and of all these responsible persons seeing the state ship tempest-tossed, not one raises his hand to seize the helm. 1 The prefect of police, Pietri, attests it : " It is certain that on that clay the revolution might have succeeded, for the crowd which surrounded the Corps Legislatif on the 9th August was composed of elements simi lar to those which triumphed on the 4th September." — Enqu'te sur le 4 Septembre, vol. i. p. 253. 4 HISTORY OF THE COMMUXE. Since 1813 France had seen no such collapse of the governing classes. The ineffable dastardliness of the Cent- jours pales before this superior cowardice ; for here Tar- tuffe is grafted upon Trimalcion. Thirteen months later, at Versailles, I hear, amidst enthusiastic applause, the Empire apostrophised, "Varus, give us back our legions." Who speaks, who applauds thus? The same great bourgeoisie which, for eighteen years mute and bowed to the dust, offered their legions to Varus. The bourgeoisie accepted the Second Empire from fear of Socialism, even as their fathers had submitted to the First to make an end of the Revolution. Napoleon I. rendered the bourgeoisie two services not over paid by his apotheosis. He gave them an iron centralisa tion and sent to their graves 15,000 wretches still kindled by the flame of the Revolution, who at any moment might have claimed the public lands granted to them. But he left that same bourgeoisie saddled for all masters. When they possessed themselves of the parliamentary government, to which Mirabeau wished to raise them at one bound, they were incapable of governing. Their mutiny of 1830, turned into a revolution by the people, made the belly master. The great bourgeois of 1830, like him of 1790, had but one thought — to gorge himself with privileges, to arm the bul warks in defence of his domains, to perpetuate the prole tariat. The fortune of his country is nothing to him, so that he fatten. To lead, to compromise France, the parlia mentary king has as free license as Bonaparte. When by a new outburst of the' people the bourgeoisie are compelled to seize the helm after three years, spite of massacre and proscription, it slips out of their palsied hands into those of the first comer. From 1851 to 1869 they relapse into the same state as after the 1 8th Brumaire. Their privileges safe, they allow Napoleon III. to plunder France, make her the vassal of Rome, dishonour her in Mexico, ruin her finances, vulgarise debauchery. All-powerful by their retainers and their wealth, they do not risk a man, a dollar, for the sake of pro testing. In 1869 the pressure from without raises them to PROLOGUE. 5 the verge of power ; a little strength of will and the govern ment is theirs. They have but the velloily of tho euuucli. At the first sign of the impotent master they kiss the rod that smote them on tho 2nd December, making room for the plebiscite which rebaptizes tho Empire. Bismarck prepared the war, Napoleon 111. wanted it, the great bourgeoisie looked on. They might have stopped it by an earnest gesture. M. Thiers contented himself with a grimace. He saw in this war our certain ruin ; he knew our terrible inferiority in everything ; ho could have united the Left, the tiers-^arti, the journalists, have made palpable to them the folly of the attack, and, supported by this strength of opinion, have said to the Tuileries, to Paris if needs be, " War is impossible ; we shall combat it as treason." He, anxious only to clear himself, simply demanded the despatches instead of speaking the true word, " You have no chance of success." * And these great bourgeois, who would not have risked the least part of their fortunes with out the most serious guarantees, staked 100,000 lives and the milliards of France on the word of a Lebceuf and the equivocations of a Grammont." And what then is the small middle-class doing mean while ? This lean class, which penetrates everything — industry, commerce, the administration — mighty by encom passing the people, so vigorous, so ready in the first days of our Hegira, will it not, as in 1792, rise for the common weal ? Alas ! it has been spoilt under the hot corruption of the Empire. For many years it has lived at random, 1 Let it be understood that I proceed, the words of our adversaries in hand — parliamentary inquiries, memoirs, reports, histories ; that I do not attrihute to them an act or a word which has not been avowed by them, their documents, or their friends. When I say M. Thiers saw, M. Thiers knew, it is that M. Thiers has said, / saw, page 6, I knew, page 11, vol. i. of the Enquete sur les Actes du Gouvernement de la /hjhim: Nationale. It will be the same with all the acts and words of all the official or adverse personages that I quote. 2 See the evidence of the Marquis de Talhouet, reporter of the Com mission charged to verify the famous despatch which precipitated the vote for war. EnquSte sur le 4 Septembre, vol. i. p. 1 2 1- 124 6 HISTORY OF THE COMMUXE. isolating itself from the proletariat, whence it issued but yesterday, and whither the great barons of Capital will hurl it back again to-morrow. No more of that fraternity with the people, of that zeal for reform, which manifested themselves from 1830 to 1848. With its bold initiative, its revolutionary instinct, it loses also the consciousness of its force. Instead of representing itself, as it might so well do, it goes about in quest of representatives among the Liberals. The friend of the people who will write the history of Liberalism in France will save us many a convulsion. Sincere Liberalism would be folly in a country where the governing classes, refusing to concede anything, constrain every honest man to become a revolutionist. But it was never anything else than the Jesuitism of liberty, a trick of the bourgeoisie to isolate the workmen. From Bailly to Jules Favre, the moderantists have masked the manoeuvres of despotism, buried our revolutions, conducted the great massacres of proletarians. The old clear-sighted Parisian sections hated them more than the downright reactionists. Twice Imperial despotism rehabilitated them, and the small middle-class, soon forgetting their true part, accepted as defenders those who pretended to be vanquished like themselves. The men who had made abortive the movement of 1848 and paved the way for the 2nd December thus became during the darkness which followed it the acclaimed vindicators of ravished liberty. At the first dawn they appeared what they had ever been — the enemies of the working-class. Under the Empire the Left never condescended to concern itself with the interests of the workmen. These Liberals never found for them a word, a protestation, even such as the Chambers of 18 30- 1848 sometimes witnessed. The young lawyers whom they had affiliated to themselves soon revealed their designs, rallying to the Liberal Empire, some openly, like Ollivier and Darimon, others with prudence, like Picard. For the timid or ambitious they founded the " open Left," a bench of candidates for public office ; and in 1 870 a number of Liberals indeed solicited official functions. PROLOGUE. 7 For the " intransigeants " there was the " closed Loft," where the irreconcilable dragons Gambetta, Creinieux, Arago, Pelletan guarded the pure, principles. The duel's towered in the centre. These two groups of augurs thus held every fraction of bourgeois opposition — tho timorous and the intrepid. After the plebiscite they became tho holy synod, the uncontested chiefs of the small middle-class, more and more incapable of governing itself, and alarmed at the Socialist movement, behind which they showed it the hand of the Emperor. It gave them full powers, shut its eyes, and allowed itself to drift gradually towards the parlia mentary Empire, big with portfolios for its patrons. The thunderbolt of the defeats galvanised it into life, but only for a moment. At the bidding of the deputies to keep quiet, the small middle-class, the mother of the ioth August, docilely bent its head and let the foreigner plunge his sword into the very bosom of France. Poor France ! Who will save thee ? The humble, the poor, those who for six years contended for thee with the Empire. While the upper classes sell the nation for a few hours of rest, and the Liberals seek to feather their nests under the Empire, a handful of men, without arms, unprotected, rise up against the still all-powerful despot. On the one hand, young men who form the bourgeoisie have gone over to the people, faithful children of 1789, resolved to con tinue the work of the Revolution; on the other hand, working-men unite for the study and the conquest of the rights of labour. In vain the Empire attempts to split their forces, to seduce the working-men. These see the snare, hiss the professors of Cassarian socialism, and from 1863, without journals, without a tribune, affirm themselves as a class, to the great scandal of the Liberal sycophants, maintaining that 1789 has equalised all classes. In 1867 they descend into the streets, make a manifestation at tho tomb of Manin, and, despite the bludgeons of the sbirri, protest agamst Mentana. At this appearance of a revolu tionary socialist party the Left gnashes its teeth. When some 8 HISTORY OF THE COMMUXE. working-men, ignorant of their own history, ask Jules Favre if the Liberal bourgeoisie will support them on the day of their rising for the Republic, the leader of the Left impu dently answers, " Gentlemen workmen, you have made the Empire ; it is your business to unmake it." And Picard says, " Socialism does not exist, or at any rate we will not treat with it." Thus set right for the future, the working-men continue the struggle single-handed. Since the re-opening of the public meetings they fill the halls, and, in spite of persecution and imprisonment, harass, undermine the Empire, taking advantage of every accident to inflict a blow. On the 26th October 1869 they threaten to march on the Corps Legis latif; in November they insult the Tuileries by the election of Rochefort ; in December they goad the Government by the Marseillaise; in January 1870 they go 200,000 strong to the funeral of Victor Noir, and, well directed, would have swept away the throne. The Left, terrified at this multitude, which threatens to overwhelm them, brands their leaders as desperadoes or as police agents. They, however, keep to the fore, unmasking the Left, defying them to discussion, keeping up at the same time a running fire on the Empire. They form the vanguard against the plebiscite. At the war rumours they are the first to make a stand. The old dregs of Chauvinism, stirred by the Bonapartists, discharge their muddy waters. The Liberals remain impassible or applaud ; the working- men stop the way. On the 15 th July, at the very same hour when Ollivier from the tribune invokes war with a light heart, the revolutionary socialists crowd the boulevards crying, "Vive la paix ! " and singing the pacific refrain— " Les peuples sont pour nous des freres Et les tyrans des ennemis.'' From the Chateau d'Eau to the Boulevard St. Denis they are applauded, but are hissed in the Boulevards Bonne Nouvelle and Montmartre, and come to blows with certam bands shouting for war. PROLOGUE. 9 The next day they meet again at the Bastille, and parade the streets, Ranvier, a painter on porcelain, well known in Belleville, marching at their head with a banner. In the Faubourg Montmartre the sergents-dc-ville charge them with drawn swords. Unable to influence the bourgeoisie, they turu to the working-men of Germany, as they had done in 1869: — " Brothers, we protest against the war, we who wish for peace, labour, and liberty. Brothers, do not listen to the hirelings who seek to deceive you as to the real wishes of France." Their noble appeal received its reward. In 1869 the students of Berlin had answered the pacific address of the French students with insults. The working- men of Berlin in 1870 spoke thus to the working-men of France : " We too wish for peace, labour, and hberty. We know that on both sides of the Rhine there are brothers with whom we are ready to die for the L'niversal Republic." Great prophetic words ! Let them be inscribed on the first page of the Golden Book just opened by the workmen. Thus towards the end of the Empire there was no life, no activity, save in the ranks of the proletariat and the young men of the middle-class who had joined them. They alone showed some political courage, and in the midst of the general paralysis of the month of July 18 70, they alone found the energy to attempt at least the salvation of France. They lacked authority ; they failed to carry with them the small middle-class, for which they also combat, because of their utter want of pohtical experience. How could they have acquired it during eighty years, when the ruling class not only withheld light from them, but even the right to enlighten themselves ? By an infernal Machiavelism they forced them to grope their way in the dark, so that they might hand them over the more easily to dreamers and sectarians. Under the Empire, when the public meetings and journals reappeared, the political education of the work men had still to be effected. Many, abused by morbid minds, in the belief that their affranchisement depended on a coup- de-main, gave themselves up to whoever spoke of overthrow- io HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. ing the Empire. Others, convinced that even the most thoroughgoing bourgeois were hostile to Socialism, and only courted the people in furtherance of their ambitious plans, wanted the workmen to constitute themselves into groups independent of all tutelage. These different currents crossed each other. The chaotic state of the party of action was laid bare in its journal the Marseillaise, a hot mish-mash of doctrinaires and desperate writers united by hatred of the Empire, but without definite views, and above all, without discipline. Much time was wanted to cool down the first effervescence and get rid of the romantic rubbish which twenty years of oppression and want of study had made fashionable. However, the influence of the Socialists began to prevail, and no doubt with time they would have classified their ideas, drawn up their programme, eliminated the mere /Spouters, entered upon serious action. Already, in 1869, working-men's societies, founded for mutual credit, resistance, 1 and study, had united in a Federation, whose headquarters 1 were the Place de la Corderie du Temple. The Inter- \ national, setting forth the most adequate idea of the revolu tionary movement of our century, under the guidance of Varlin, a bookbinder of rare intelligence, of Duval, Theisz, Frankel, and a few devoted men, was beginning to gain "power in France. It also met at the Corderie, and urged on the more slow and reserved workmen's societies. The pubhc meetings of 1870 no longer resembled the earlier ones; the people wanted useful discussions. Men like Milliere, Lefrancais, Yexmoxel, Longuet, &c, seriously competed with \j the mere declaimers. But many years would have been re quired for the development of the party of labour, hampered by young bourgeois adventurers in search of a reputation, encumbered with conspiracy-mongers and romantic vision aries, still ignorant of the administrative and political me chanism of the bourgeois regime which they attacked. Just before the war some discipline was attempted. Some tried to move the deputies of the Left, and met them at Cremieux'. They found them stupefied, more afraid of a coup-d'dtat than of the Prussian victories. Cremieux, pressed PROLOGUE. i r to act, answered naively, " Let us wait for a new disaster, as, for instance, the fall of Strasburg." It was indeed necessary to wait, for without these shadows nothing could be done. Tho small Parisian middlo-elass believed in the Extreme Left, as it had believed in our armies. Those who wished to do without thom failed. On the 14th the friends of Blanqui attempted to raise tho outlying districts, attacked the quarters of the firemen of La Villette, and put the sergents-de-ville to flight. Masters of the field, they traversed the boulevard up to Belleville, crying, " Vive la Republique ! Death to the Prussians ! " No one joined them. The crowd looked on from afar, astonished, motionless, rendered suspicious by the police agents, who thus drew them off from the real enemy — the Empire. The Left pretended to believe in the Prussian agent, to reassure the bourgeoisie, and Gambetta demanded the immediate trial of the prisoners of La Villette. The Minis ter Palikao had to remind him that certain forms must be observed, even by military justice. The court-martial con demned ten to death, although almost all the accused had had nothing to do with the affray. Some true-hearted men, wishing to prevent these executions, went to Michelet, who wrote a touching letter on their behalf. The Empire had no time to carry out the sentences. Since the 25 th MacMahon was leading his army into the snares laid by Moltke. On the 29th, surprised and beaten at Beaumont l'Argonne, he knew himself overreached, and yet pushed forward. Palikao had written to him on the 27th : " If you abandon Bazaine we shall have the Revolution in Paris." And to ward off the Revolution he exposed France. On the 30th he threw his troops into the pit of Sedan; on the 1st September the army was surrounded by 200,000 enemies, and 700 cannons crowned the heights. The next day Napoleon III. delivered up his sword to the King of Prussia. The telegraph announced it; all Europe knew it that same night. The deputies, however, were silent ; they remained so on the 3rd. On the 4th only, at midnight, after Paris had passed through a day of feverish excitement, they 12 HISTORY OF THE COMMUXE. made up their minds to speak. Jules Favre demanded the abolition of the Empire and a Commission charged with the defence, but took care not to touch the Chamber. During the day some men of tried energy had attempted to raise the boulevards, and in the evening an anxious crowd pressed against the railings of the Corps Legislatif, crying, " Vive la Rdpublique." Gambetta met them and said, " You are wrong; we must remain united; make no revolution." Jules Favre, surrounded on his leaving the Chamber, strove to calm the people. If Paris had been guided by the Left, France would have capitulated that very hour more shamefully than Napoleon III. But on the morning of the 4th of September the people assemble, and amongst them National Guards armed with their muskets. The astonished gendarmes give way to them. Little by little the Corps Legislatif is invaded. At ten o'clock, notwithstanding the desperate efforts of the Left, the crowd fills the galleries. It is time. The Chamber, on the point of forming a Ministry, try to seize the government. The Left support this combination with all its might, waxing indignant at the mere mention of a Republic. When that cry bursts forth from the galleries, Gambetta makes unheard-of efforts, and conjures the people to await the result of the deliberations of the Chamber, — a result known beforehand. It is the project of M. Thiers : a Government Commission named by the Assembly ; peace demanded and accepted at any price ; after that disgrace, the parliamentary monarchy. Happily a new crowd of invaders bursts its way through the doors, while the occu pants of the galleries glide into the hall. The people expel the deputies. Gambetta, forced to the tribune, is obliged to announce the abolition of the Empire. The crowd, want ing more than this, asks for the Republic, and carries off the deputies to proclaim it at the Hotel-de- Ville. This was already in the hands of the people. In the Salle du Trone were some of those who for a month had attempted to rouse public opinion. First on the ground, they might, with a little discipline, have influenced the PROLOGUE. ,3 constitution of the government. The Left surprised them haranguing, and, incited by an acclaiming multitude, Jules Favre took the chair, which Millioro gave up to him, saying, "At the present moment there is but one matter at stake — the expulsion of the Prussians." l Jules Favre, Jules Simon, Jules Ferry, Gambetta, Cremieux, Emmanuel Arago, Glais- Bizoin, Polletan, Garnier-Pages, Picard, uniting, proclaimed themselves the Government, and read their own names to the crowd, which answered by adding those of men like Delescluze, Ledru Rollin, Blanqui. They, however, declared they would accept no colleagues but the deputies of Paris. The crowd applauded. This phrenzy of just-emancipated serfs made the Left masters. They were clever enough to admit Rochefort. They next applied to General Trochu, named governor of Paris by Napoleon. This general had become the idol of the Liberals because he had sulked a little with the Empire.3 His whole military glory consisted in a few pamphlets. The Left had seen much of him during the last crisis. Having attained to power, it begged him to direct the defence. He asked, firstly, a place for God in the new regime ; secondly, for himself the presidency of the council. He obtained everything. The future will show what secret bond so quickly united the men of the Left to the loyal Breton who had promised "to die on the steps of the Tuileries in defence of the dynasty." 3 Twelve individuals thus took possession of France. They invoked no other title than their mandate as representa tives of Paris, and declared themselves legitimate by popular acclamation. , In the evening the International and syndicates of the »/ workmen sent delegates to the H6tel-de- Ville. They had 1 Compte-rendu du 31 Octobre, by Milliere. 2 Which did not, however, prevent his accepting a secret mission during the Crimean war. He was commissioned by Napoleon III. to propose to the English to betray Turkey by limiting the war to the defence of Constantinople. 3 Enquete sur le 4 Septembre, Jules Brame, vol. i. p. 201. i4 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. on the same day sent a new address to the German working- men. Their fraternal duty fulfilled, the French workmen gave themselves up to the defence. Let the Government organise it and they would stay by it. The most suspicious were taken in. On the 7th, in the first number of his paper La Patrie en Danger, Blanqui and his friends offered the Government their most energetic, their absolute co operation. All Paris abandoned itself to the men of the Hotel- de- Ville, forgetting their late defections, investing them with the grandeur of the danger. To seize, to monopolise the government at such a moment, seemed a stroke of audacity of which genius alone is capable. Paris, deprived for eighty years of her municipal liberties, accepted as mayor the lachry mose Etienne Arago. In the twenty arrondissements he named the mayors he liked, and they again named the adjuncts agreeable to themselves. But Arago announced early elec tions and spoke of reviving the great days of 1792. At this moment Jules Favre, proud as Danton, cried to Prussia, to Europe, " We will cede neither an inch of our territories nor a stone of our fortresses," and Paris rapturously applauded this dictatorship announcing itself with words so heroic. On the 1 4th, when Trochu held the review of the National Guard, 250,000 men stationed in the boulevards, the Place de la Concorde, and the Champs-Elysees cheered enthusiasti cally, and renewed a vow like that of their fathers on the morning of Valmy. Yes, Paris gave herself up without reserve — incurable confidence — to that same Left to which she had been forced to do violence in order to make her revolution. Her outburst of will lasted but for an hour. The Empire once overthrown, she re-abdicated. In vain did far-seeing patriots try to keep her on the alert ; in vain did Blanqui write, " Paris is no more impregnable than we were invincible. Paris, mystified by a braggart press, ignores the greatness of the peril ; Paris abuses confidence." Paris abandoned herself to her new masters, obstinately shutting her eyes. And yet each day brought with it new ill omens. The shadow of the siege PROLOGUE. '5 approached, and the Government of Dofcnco, far from remov ing the superfluous mouths, crowded the 200,000 inhabitants of the suburbs into tho town. The exterior works did not advance. Instead of throwing all Paris into the work, and taking these descendants of the levellers of tho Chainp-de- Mars out of the enceinte in troops of 100,000, drums beat ing, banners ilying, Trochu abandoned tho earthworks to the ordinary contractors. The heights of Chatillon, tho key to our forts of the south, had hardly been surveyed, when on the 19th the enemy presented himself, sweeping from the plateau an affrighted troop of zouaves and soldiers who did not wish to fight. The following day, that Paris which the press had declared could not be invested, was surrounded and cut off from France. This gross ignorance very soon alarmed the Revjoliitioriists. . They had promised their sjrrrnort^but not blind faith. _ Since the 4th September. wishing_to centralise the forces of _ the party of action for the defence and the maintenance of the Republic, they had invited the^ public meetings in each arrondissement to name a Committee of Vigilance charged to control the mayors and to delegate four members to aTJentraF Committee of the twenty arrondissements. This tumultuous mode of election had resulted in a committee composed of working-men, employe's, authors, known in the revolutionary movements of the last years. ThiscomhTittee TiaoV estaB-" lished itself in the hall of the Rue de la Corderie, lent by the International and the Federation of the syndicates. These had almost suspended their work, the service of the National Guard absorbing all their activity. Some of their members again met in the Committee of Vigilance and in the Central Committee, which caused the latter to be erroneously attributed to the International. On the 4th it demanded by a manifesto the election of the municipalities, the police to be placed in their hands, the election and control of all the magistrates, absolute freedom of the press, public meeting and association, the expropriation of all arti cles of primary necessity, their distribution by allowance, the arming of all citizens, the sending of commissioners to rouse the 1 6 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. provinces. But Paris was then infected with a fit of confi dence. The bourgeois journals denounced the committee as Prussian. The names of some of the signers were, however, well known in the meetings and to the press : Ranvier, Milliere, Longuet, Valles, Lf francais, Malon, &c. Their pla cards were torn down. On the 20th, after Jules Favre's application to Bismarck,' the Committee held a large meeting in the Alcazar and seat a deputation to the H6tel-de-Ville to demand wav&outrance and the early election of the Commune~oi' Paris. Jules Ferry gave his word of honour that the Government would not treat at any price, and announced the municipal elections for the end of the month. Two days after a decree post poned them indefinitely. Thus this Government, which in seventeen days had pre pared nothing, which had allowed itself to be blocked up with out even a struggle, refused the advice of Paris, and more than ever arrogated to itself the right of directing the defence. Did it then possess the secret of victory ? Trochu had just said, " The resistance is a heroic madness ; " Picard, " We shall defend ourselves for honour's sake, but all hope is chime rical ; " the elegant Cremieux, " The Prussians will enter Paris like a knife goes into butter ; " 1 the chief of Trochu's staff, " We cannot defend ourselves ; we have decided not to defend ourselves ; " and, instead of honestly warning Paris, saying, " Capitulate at once or conduct the combat your selves," these men, who declared defence impossible, claimed its undivided direction. What then is their aim ? To negotiate. Since the first defeats they have no other. The reverses which exalted our fathers only made the Left more cowardly than the Impe rialist deputies. On the 7th of August Jules Favre, Jules Simon, and Pelletan had said to Schneider, "We cannot hold out ; we must come to terms as soon as possible." 3 All the following days the Left had only one plan of policy — to 1 Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, vol. ii. p. 194. 2 T^d. p ,t, 3 Ibid., Jules Favre, vol. i. p. 330. PROLOGUE. 1 7 urge the Chamber to possess itself of the government in order to negotiate, hoping to get into oflico afterwards. Hardly established, these defenders sent M. Thiers all over Europe to beg for peace, and Jules Favre to run al'l or Bismarck to ask his conditions,1 — a step that revealed to the Prussian with what tremblers he had to deal. When all Paris cried to them, "Defend us; drive back the enemy," they applauded, accepted, but said to them selves, " You shall capitulate." There is no more crying treason in history. The asinine confidence of the immense majority no more diminishes the crime than the foolishness of the dupe excuses the cheater. Did the men of the 4th September, yes or no, betray the mandate they received ? " Yes " will be the verdict of the future. A tacit mandate, it is true, but so clear, so formal, that all Paris started at the news of the proceedings at Ferrieres. If the Defenders had gone a step farther, they would have been swept away. They were obhged to adjourn, to give way to what they termed the '• madness of the siege," to simu late a defence. In point of fact, they did not abandon their idea for an hour, esteeming themselves the only men in Paris who had not lost their heads. " There shall be fighting, since those Parisians will have it so, but only with the view to soften Bismarck." On his return from the review, this scene of hopeful enthusiasm manifested by 250,000 armed men is said to have affected Trochu, who announced that it would perhaps be possible to hold the ramparts.2 Such was the maximum of his en thusiasm : to hold out — not to open the gates. As to drill ing or organising these 250,000 men, uniting them with the 240,000 mobiles, soldiers and marines gathered together in Paris, and with all these forces forming a powerful scourge to drive the enemy back to the Rhine, of this he never dreamt. His colleagues thought of it as little, and only discussed with 1 In his official report, Jules Favre, to clear the Government, did not neglect to assume the responsibility of this mission, which he said he had undertaken without the knowledge of his colleagues. 2 Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, Gamier- Pages, vol. i. p. 445. B 1 8 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. him the more or less cavilling they might venture upon with the Prussian invader. He was all for mild proceedings. His devoutness for bade him to shed useless blood. Since, according to all military manuals, the great town was to fall, he would make that fall as little sanguinary as possible. Besides, the return of M. Thiers, who might at any moment bring back the treaty, was waited for. Leaving the enemy to establish himself tranquilly round Paris, Trochu organised a few skirmishes for the lookers-on. One single serious engagement took place on the 30th at Chevilly, when, after a success, we retreated, abandoning a battery for want of reinforcements and teams. Public opinion, still hoaxed by the same men that had cried "A Berlin," believed in a success. The Revolutionists only were not taken in. The capitulation of Toul and of Strasbourg was to them a solemn warning. Flourens, chief of the 63 rd battalion, but who was the real commander of Belleville, could no longer restrain himself. , With the head and heart of a diildj^an ardent imagination, guided only by his own impulse, Flourens con ducted his battalions to the Hotel- de- Ville, demanded the leve'e en masse, sorties,_municipal elections, and the putting the town on short rations. Trochu, who, to amuse him, had given him the title of major of the rampart, made an elaborate discourse ; the twelve apostles argued with him, and wound up by showing him out. As delegates came from all sides to demand that Paris should have a voice in her own defence, should name a council, her Commune, the Government declared on the 7th that their dignity forbade them to concede these behests. This insolence caused the movement of the 8th October. The committee of the twenty arrondissements pro tested in an energetic placard. Seven or eight hundred persons cried " Vive la Commune " under the windows of the H6tel- de-Ville. But the multitude had not yet lost faith. A great number of battalions hastened to the rescue ; the Government passed them in review. Jules Favre opened the flood-gates of his rhetoric and declared the election impossible because — un answerable reason ! — everybody ought to be at the ramparts. PROLOGUE. I9 The majority greedily swallowed the bait. On tho iGth Trochu having written to his crony Elionno Arago, "I shall pursue the plan I have traced lor myself to the end," the loungers announced a victory, and took np the burden of their August song on Bazaine, "Let him alone; lie has his plan." The agitators looked like Prussians, for Trochu, as a good Jesuit, had not failed to speak of " a small num ber of men whose culpable views serve the projects of the enemy." Then Paris allowed herself during the whole month of October to be rocked asleep to the sound of ex peditions commencing with success and ahvays terminated by retreats. On the i 3th we took Bagnenx, and a spirited attack would have repossessed us of Chatillon : Trochu had no reserves. On the 2 1 st a march on the Malmaison revealed the weakness of the investment and spread panic even to Versailles. Instead of pressing forward, General Ducrot engaged only six thousand men, and the enemy repulsed him, taking two cannons. The Government transformed these repulses into successful reconnoitres, and coined money out of the despatches of Gambetta, who, sent to the provinces on the 8th, announced imaginary armies, and intoxicated Paris with the account of the brilliant defence of Chateaudun. The mayors encouraged this pleasant confidence. They sat at the H6tel-de-Ville with their adjuncts, and this Assembly of sixty-four members could have seen clearly what the Defence was if they had had the least courage. But it was composed of those Liberals and Republicans of whom the Left is the last expression. They knocked at the door of the Government now and then, timidly interrogated it, and received only vague assurances, in which they did not believe,1 but made every effort to make Paris believe. But at the Corderie, in the clubs, in the paper of Blanqui, 1 "Constantly in relations with the anxious population, which urgently asked what was going on, what the Government thought, what il was doing, we were obliged to screen it ; to say that it was acting for the best ; that it had given itself up entirely to the defence ; that the chiefs of the army were most devoted and working with ardour. . . . We said this without knowing, without believingit. We knew nothing." — EnquUe sur le 4 Septembre, Corbon, vol. i. p. 375. 20 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. in the Bdveil of Delescluze, in the Combat of Felix Pyat, the plan of the men of the H6tel-de- Ville is exposed. What mean these partial sorties which are never sustained ? Why is the National Guard hardly armed, unorganised, withheld from every military action ? Why is the casting of cannon not proceeded with ? Six weeks of idle talk and inactivity cannot leave the least doubt as to the inca pacity or ill-will of the Government. This same thought occupies all minds. Let the sceptics make room for those that believe in the Defence ; let Paris regain possession of herself; let the Commune of 1792 be revived to again save the city and France. Every day this resolution sinks more deeply into virile minds. On the 27th the Combat, which preached the Commune in high-flown phraseology whose musical rhythm struck the masses more than the nervous dialectics of Blanqui, hurls a terrific thunderbolt. " Bazaine is about to surrender Metz, to treat for peace in the name of Napoleon III. ; his aide-de-camp is at Versailles." The H6tel-de-Ville immediately contradicted this news, " as infamous as it is false. The glorious soldier Bazaine has not ceased harassing the besieging army with brilliant sorties." The Government called down upon the journalist " the chastisement of public opinion." At this appeal the drones of Paris buzzed, burnt the journal, and would have torn the journalist to pieces if he had not decamped. The next day the Combat declared that they had the statement from Rochefort, to whom Flourens had communicated it. Other complications followed. On the 20th a surprise made us masters of Bourget, a village in the north-east of Paris, and on the 29th the general staff announced this success as a triumph. The whole day it left our soldiers without food, without reinforcements, under the fire of the Prussians, who, returning on the 30th 15,000 strong, re covered the village from its 1 600 defenders. On the 3 ist of October, Paris on awaking received the news of three disas ters : the loss of Bourget, the capitulation of Metz, together with the whole army of the "glorious Bazaine," and the arrival of M. Thiers for the purpose of negotiating an armistice. PROLOGUE. 21 The men of the 4th September believed they were saved, that their goal was reached. They had placarded the armistice side by side with the capitulation, " good and bad news,"1 convinced that Paris, despairing of vietorv, would accept peace with open arms. Paris started up as with an^electric shock, at the same time rousing .Marseilles, Toulouse, and Saint-Etienne. There wnT7uch_sjwutaneitY of indignation, that from eleven o'clock, in pouring rain, the masses came to the H6tel-de- Ville crying " 1S0 armistice." Notwithstanding the resistance of the mobiles who defended the entrance, they invaded the vestibule. Arago and his adjuncts hastened thither, swore that the Government was exhausting itself in efforts to save us. The first crowd retired; a second followed hard upon. At twelve o'clock Trochu appeared at the foot of the staircase, thinking to extricate himself by a harangue ; cries of " Down with Trochu " answered him. Jules Simon relieved him, and, confident in his rhetoric, even went to the square in front of the H6tel-de- Ville and expatiated upon the comforts of the armistice. The people cried " No armistice." He only succeeded in backing out by asking the crowd to name six delegates to accompany him to the Hutel-de-Ville. Trochu, Jules Favre, Jules Ferry, and Picard received them. Trochu in Ciceronic periods demonstrated the uselessness of Bourget, and pretended that he had only just learnt the capitulation of Metz. A voice cried, " Vou are a liar." A deputation from the Committee of the twenty arrondissements and of the Committees of Vigilance had entered the hall a little while before. Others, wishing to pump Trochu, invited him to continue his speech. He recommenced, when a shot was fired in the square, putting an end to the monologue and scaring away the orator. Calm being re-established, Jules Favre supplied the place of the general, and took up the thread of his discourse. While these scenes were going on in the Salle du Tr6ne, the mayors, so long the accomplices of Trochu, were cleli- 1 Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, Jules Ferry. He even calls the armistice a " compensation." 22 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. berating in the hall of the municipal council. To quell the riot, they proposed the election of municipalities, the forma tion of battalions of the National Guard, and their joining them to the army. The scapegoat Etienne Arago was sent to offer this salve to the Government. At two o'clock an immense crowd inundated the Place de l'H6tel-de- Ville, crying, " Down with Trochu ! Vive la Commune ! " and carrying banners with the inscription " No armistice." They had several times come into collision with the mobiles. The delegates who entered the H6tel-de- Ville brought no answer. About three o'clock, the crowd, growing impatient, rushed forward, breaking through the mobiles, and forcing Felix Pyat, come to the H6tel-de- Ville as a sight-seer, into the Salle des Maires. He exclaimed, struggled, protested that this was against all rules. The mayors supported him as well as they could, and announced that they had demanded the election of the municipalities, and that the decree in that sense was about to be signed. The multitude, still pushing forward, goes up to the Salle du Trone, cutting short the oration of Jules Favre, who had rejoined his col leagues in the Government-room. While the people were thundering at the door, the De fenders voted the proposition of the mayors — but in principle — not fixing the date for the elections,1 — another Jesuitical trick. Towards four o'clock the mass penetrated into the room. Rochefort in vain promised the municipal elections. They asked for the Commune ! One of the delegates of the Committee of the twenty arrondissements, getting upon the table, proclaimed the abolition of the Government. A Commission was charged to proceed with the elections within forty-eight hours. The names of Dorian, the only Minister who had taken the defence to heart, of Louis Blanc, Ledru- Rollin, Victor Hugo, Raspail, Delescluze, Felix Pyat, Blan qui, and Milliere were received with acclamation. Had this Commission seized on authority, cleared the H6tel-de-Ville, posted up a proclamation convoking the electors with the briefest delay, the day's work would have 1 Enquete sur le 4 Septembre, vol. i. p. 432. PROLOGUE. a3 been beneficially concluded. But Dorian refused. Louis Blanc, Victor Hugo, Ledru-Rollin, Raspail, Felix I'yat remained silent or turned tail altogether. Flourens had time to come up. He broke in upon the assembly with his tirailleurs of Belleville, got upon the tablo round which were gathered the members of tho Government, and instead of a Commune proposed a Committee of Public Safety. Some applauded, others protested, declaring the question was not to substitute one kind of dictatorship for another. Flourens got the upper hand, read the names, his own first, then those of Blanqui, Delescluze, Milliere, Ranvier, Felix Pyat, and Mottu. Interminable discussions followed, the disorder became terrible. The men of the 4th September felt they were saved, and smiled as they looked at the con querors who allowed victory to slip through their fingers. Thenceforth all became involved in an inextricable im broglio. Every room had its Government, its orators. The confusion was such that about eight o'clock reactionary National Guards could, under Flourens' nose, pick up Trochu and Jules Ferry, while others carried off Blanqui when some franc-tireurs tried to rescue him. In the cabinet of the mayor, Etienne Arago and his adjuncts con voked the electors for the next day under the presidency of Dorian and Schcelcher. Towards ten o'clock their placard was posted up in Paris. The whole day Paris had looked on. " On the morning of the 3 1st October," says Jules Ferry, " the Parisian popula tion, from highest to lowest, was absolutely hostile to us.1 Everybody thought we deserved to be dismissed." Not only did Trochu's battalions not stir, but one of the best, led to the succour of the Government by General Tamisier, com mander-in-chief of the National Guard, raised the butt end of their guns on arriving at the Place de l'H6tel-de-Ville. In the evening everything changed when it became known that the members of the Government were prisoners, and above all who were their substitutes. The measure seemed 1 Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, vol. i. p. 395. The deposition of this imbecile, always equally naive, is all the more conclusive. 24 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. too strong. Such a one, who might have accepted Ledru- Rollin or Victor Hugo, could not make up his mind to Flourens and Blanqui.1 In vain the whole day drums had been beating to arms ; in the evening they proved effective. Battalions refractory in the morning arrived at the Place Vendome, most of them believing, it is true, that the elections had been granted ; an assemblage of officers at the Bourse only consented to wait for the regular vote on the strength of Dorian and Schcelcher's placard. Trochu and the deserters from the Hotel-de- Ville again found their faithful flock. The H6tel-de- Ville, on the other hand, was getting empty. Most of the battalions of the Commune, believing their cause victorious, had returned to their quarters. In the edifice there remained hardly a thousand unarmed men, the only troops being Flourens' unmanageable tirailleurs, while he wandered up and down amidst this mob. Blanqui signed and again signed. Delescluze tried to save some remnants from this great movement. He saw Dorian, received the formal assurance that the elections of the Commune would take place the next day, those of the Provisional Government the day after ; put these assurances upon record in a note where the insurrectional committee declared itself willing to wait for the elections, and had it signed by Milliere, Flourens, and Blanqui. Milliere and Dorian went to communicate this document to the members of the Defence. Milliere proposed to them to leave the H6tel-de-Ville together, while charging Dorian and Schcelcher to proceed with the elections, but on the express condition that no prosecutions were to take place. The members of the Defence accepted,2 and Milliere was just 1 " We were able to unite 40,000 men by telling the National Guards that Blanqui and Flourens occupied the H6tel-de- Ville. These two names did not fail to produce their usual effect." — Enquite sur le 18 Mars, ed. Adam, vol. ii. p. 157. " If the name of Blanqui had not been pronounced, the new elections announced by the placard of Dorian and Schcelcher would have taken place the next &&y."—Enqu6te sur le 4 Septembre, Jules Ferry, vol. i. p. 396-431. 2 See the affirmation of Dorian. Enquete sur le 4 Septembre, vol. i. p. 527-528. PROLOGUE. 25 saying to them, "Gentlemen, yon aro free," when tho National Guards asked for written engagements. The prisoners became indignant that their word should be doubted, while Milliere and Flourens could not make tho Guards understand that signatures are illusorv. During this mortal anarchy the battalions of order grow larger, and Jules Ferry attacked the door opening on to the Place Lobau. Delescluze and Dorian informed him of the arrange ment which they believed concluded, and induced him to wait. At three o'clock in the morning chaos still reigned supreme. Trochu's drums were beating on the Place de l'H6tel-de- Ville. A battalion of Breton mobiles debouched in the midst of the Hotel-de- Ville through the subterranean passage of the Napoleon Barracks, surprised and disarmed many of the tirailleurs. Jules Ferry invaded the Govern ment-room. The indisciplinable mass offered no resistance. Jules Favre and his colleagues were set free. As the Bretons became menacing, General Tamisier reminded them of the convention entered upon during the evening, and, as a pledge of mutual oblivion, left the Hotel-de- Ville between Blanqui and Flourens. Trochu paraded the streets amidst the pompous pageantry of his battalions. Thus this day, which might have buoyed up the Defence, ended in smoke. The desultoriness, the indiscipline of the patriots restored to the Government its immaculate character of September. It took advantage of it that very night to tear down the placards of Dorian and Schcelcher ; it ac corded the municipal elections for the 5th, but in exchange demanded a plebiscite, putting the question in the Imperialist style, " Those who wish to maintain the Government will vote aye!' In vain the Committee of the twenty arrondisse ments issued a manifesto ; in vain the Iie'veil, the Patrie en Banger, the Combat, enumerated the hundred reasons which made it necessary to answer No. Six months after the plebiscite which had made the war, the immense majority of Paris voted the plebiscite that made the capitulation. Let Paris remember and accuse herself. For fear of two or three men she opened fresh credit to this Government which added 26 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. incapacity to insolence, and said to it, "I want you," 322,000 times. The army, the mobiles, gave 237,000 ayes. There were but 54,000 civilians and 9000 soldiers to say boldly, no. How did it happen that those 60,000 men, so clear sighted, prompt, and energetic, could not manage to direct public opinion? Simply because they were wanting in cadres, in method, in organisers. The fever of the siege had been unable to discipline the revolutionary party, in such dire confusion a few weeks before, nor had the patriarchs of 1848 tried to do so. The Jacobins like Delescluze and Blanqui, instead of leading the people, lived in an exclusive circle of friends. Fdlix Pyat, vibrating between just ideas and literary epilepsy, only became practical 1 when he had to save his own skin. The others, Ledru-Rollin, Louis Blanc, Schcelcher, the hope of the Republicans under the Empire, returned from exile shallow, pursy, rotten to the core with vanity and selfishness, with out courage or patriotism, disdaining the Socialists. The dandies of Jacobinism, who called themselves Radicals, Floquet, Clemenceau, Brinon, and other democratic poli ticians, carefully kept aloof from the working-men. The old Montagnards themselves formed a group of their own, and never came to the Committee of the twenty arrondisse ments, which only wanted method and political experience to become a power. So it was only a centre of emotions, not of direction, — the Gravilliers section of 1870—71, daring, eloquent, but, like its predecessor, treating of everything by manifestoes. There at least was life, a lamp not always bright, but always burning. What is the small middle-class contributing now? Where are their Jacobins, even their Cordeliers ? At the Corderie I see the proletariat of the small middle-class, men of the pen and orators, but where is the bulk of the army ? All is silent. Save the faubourgs, Paris was a vast sick 1 He offered a musket of honour to any one who would kill the King of Prussia, and patronised a Greek-Are that was to roast the German army. PROLOGUE. 27 chamber, where no one dared to speak above his breath. This moral abdication is the true psychological phenomenon of the siege, all the more extraordinary that it co-e\isted witli an admirable ardour for resistance. Men who speak of going to seek death with their wives and children, who say, "We will burn our houses rather than surrender them to the enemy," 1 get angry at any controversy as to the power intrusted to the men of the Hotel-de- Ville. If they dread the giddy-headed, the fanatics, or compromising collaborators, why do they not take the direction of the movement into their own hands ? But they confine themselves to crying, " No insurrection before the enemy ! No fanatics ! " as though capitulation were better than an insurrection ; as though the ioth of August 1792 and 31st May 1793 had not been insurrections before the enemy ; as though there were no medium between abdication and delirium. And you, citizens of the old sections of 1792—93, who furnished ideas to the Convention and the Commune, who dictated to them the means of safety, who directed the clubs and fra ternal societies, entertained in Paris a hundred luminous centres, say, do you recognise your offspring in these gulls, weaklings, jealous of the people, prostrate before the Left like devotees before the host ? On the 5th and 7th they renewed their plebiscitory vote, naming twelve of the twenty mayors named by Arago, four amongst them, Dubail, Vautrain, Tirard, and Desmarets, belonging to the pure reaction. The greater part of the adjuncts were of the Liberal type. The faubourgs, always at their post, elected Delescluze in the nineteenth arron- dissement and Ranvier, Milliere, Lefrancais, and Flourens in the twentieth. These latter could not take their seats. The Government, violating the convention of Dorian and Tami- sier, had issued warrants for their arrest, and for that of about twenty other revolutionists.2 Thus, out of scventy- 1 Enquite sur le 18 Mars, Jules Favre, vol. ii. p. 42. 2 Even Felix Pyat was arrested. He managed to get out of prison through a jest, writing to Emmanuel Arago : "What a pity that I should be your prisoner ; you might have been my advocate." He was set free. 28 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. five effective members, mayors and adjuncts, there were not ten revolutionists. ' These shadows of municipal councillors loc ked upon them selves as the stewards of the Defence, forbade themselves any indiscreet question, were on their best behaviour, feeding and administering Trochu's patient. They allowed the inso lent and incapable Ferry to be appointed to the central mairie, and Clement-Thomas, the executioner of June 1848, to be made commander-in-chief of the National Guard. For seventy days, feeling the pulse of Paris growing from hour to hour more weak, they never had the honesty, the courage to say to the Government, " Where are you lead ing us ? " Nothing was lost in the beginning of November. The army, the mobiles, the marines numbered, according to the plebiscite, 246,000 men and 7500 officers: 125,000 National Guards capable of serving a campaign might easily have been picked out in Paris, and 129,000 left for the defence of the interior.1 The necessary armaments might have been furnished in a few weeks, the cannon especially, every one depriving himself of bread in order to endow his battalion with five pieces, the traditional pride of the Parisians. " Where find 9000 artillerists ? " said Trochu. Why, in every Parisian mechanic there is the stuff of a gunner, as the Commune has sufficiently proved. In every thing else there was the same superabundance. Paris swarmed with engineers, overseers, foremen, who might have been drilled into officers. There lying wasted were all the materials for a victorious army. The gouty martinets of the regular army saw here nothing but barbarism. This Paris, for which Hoche, Marceau, Kleber would have been neither too young, nor too faithful" nor too pure, had for generals the residue of the Empire and Orleanism, Vinoy of December, Ducrot, Luzanne, Leflo, and a fossil like Chabaud-Latour. In their pleasant intimacy 1 The Minister of War, Lefl6, who naturally undervalues everything says, " This left us, while assuring the operations of the siege against the Prussians, a disposable force of 230,000 to 240,000 men." PROLOG UP. 29 they made much fun of tho defence.1 Finding, however, that the joke was lasting a little too long, tho 3 1st October enraged them. They conceived an implacable, rabid hatred to the National Guard, and up to tho last hour refused to utilise it. Instead of amalgamating the forces of Paris, of giving to all the same cadres, the same uniforms, the same flag, the proud name of National Guard, Trochu had maintained the three divisions : the army, mobiles, and civilians. This was the natural consequence of his opinion of the Defence. The army, incited by the staff, shared its hatred of Paris, who imposed on it, it was said, useless fatigues. The mobiles of the provinces, prompted by their officers, the cream of the country squires, became also embittered. All, seeing the National Guard despised, despised it, calling them, " Les d entrance ! Les t rente sous!" (Since the siege the Parisians received thirty sous — is. 2|d. — as indemnity.) Collisions were to be feared every day." The 3 ist of October changed nothing in the real state of affairs. The Government broke off the negotiations, which, notwithstanding their victory, they could not have pur sued without foundering, decreed the creation of march ing companies in the National Guard, and accelerated the cannon-founding, but did not believe a whit the more in defence, still steered towards peace. Riots formed the chief subject of their preoccupation.3 It was not only from the " folly of the siege " that they wished to save Paris, but above all from the revolutionists. In this direc tion they were pushed on by the great bourgeoisie. Before the 4th September the latter had declared they " would not fight if the working-class were armed, and if it had any chance of prevailing ; " 4 and on the evening of tho 4th September Jules Favre and Jules Simon had gone to the Corps Legislatif to reassure them, to explain to them 1 Appendix I. 2 Enquite sur le 18 Mars, Cresson, vol. ii. p. 135. 3 Jules Simon, Souvenirs du 4 Septembre. His textual expressions. 4 Enquite sur le 18 Mars, Jules Favre, vol. ii. p. 43. 3o HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. that the new tenants would not damage the house. But the irresistible force of events had provided the proletariat with arms, and to make them inefficient in their hands became now the supreme aim of the bourgeoisie. For two months they had been biding their time, and the plebiscite told them it had come. Trochu held Paris, and by the clergy they held Trochu, all the closer that he believed himself to be amenable only to his conscience. Strange conscience, full of trap-doors, with more complications than those of a theatre. Since the 4th of September the General had made it his duty to deceive Paris, saying, " I shall surrender thee, but it is for thy good." After the 3 1 st October he believed his mission twofold — saw in him self the archangel, the St. Michael of threatened society, This marks the second period of the defence. It may per haps be traced to a cabinet in the Rue des Postes, for the chiefs of the clergy saw more clearly than any one else the danger of inuring the working-men to war. Their intrigues were full of cunning. Violent reactionists would have spoilt all, precipitated Paris into a revolution. They applied subtle tricks in their subterranean work, watching Trochu's every movement, whetting his antipathy to the National Guard, penetrating everywhere into the general staff, the ambulances, even the mairies. Like a fisherman struggling with too big a prey, they bewildered Paris, now apparently allowing her to swim in her own element, than suddenly weakening her by the harpoon. On the 28th November Trochu gave a first performance to a full-band accompani ment. General Ducrot, who commanded, presented himself like a Leonidas : " I take the oath before you, before the whole nation. I shall return to Paris dead or victorious. You may see me fall ; you will never see me retreat." This proclamation exalted Paris. She fancied herself on the eve of Jemmapes, when the Parisian volunteers scaled the artillery-defended heights ; for this time the National Guard was to take part in the proceedings. We were to force an opening by the Marne in order to join the mythic armies of the provinces, and cross the river PROLOGUE. 3, at Nogent. Ducrot's engineer had taken his measures badly ; the bridges were not in a fit state. It was neces sary to wait till the next day. The enemy, instead of being surprised, was able to put himself on the defensive. Ou the 30th a spirited assault mado us masters of Champigny. The next day Ducrot remained inactive, while the enemy, disgarnishing Versailles, accumulated its forces upon Cham pigny. On the 2nd they recovered part ol* the village. The whole day we fought severely. The former deputies of the Left were jepresented on the field of battle by a letter to their " very dear president." That evening we camped in our positions, but half frozen, the " dear president " having ordered the blankets to be left in Paris, and we had set out — a proof that the whole thing had been done in mockery — without tents or ambulances. The following day Ducrot declared we must retreat, and, " before Paris, before the whole nation," this dishonoured braggart sounded the retreat. We had 8000 dead or wounded out of the 100,000 men who had been sent out, and of the 50,000 engaged. For twenty days Trochu rested on his laurels. Clement- Thomas took advantage of this leisure time to disband and stigmatise the tirailleurs of Belleville, who had, however, had many dead and wounded in their ranks. On the mere report of the commanding general at Vincennes, he also stigmatised the 200th battalion. Flourens was arrested. On the 20th of December these rabid purgers of our own ranks consented to take a little notice of the Prussians. The mobiles of the Seine were launched without cannons against the walls of Stains and to the attack of Bourget. The enemy received them with a crushing artillery. An advantage obtained on the right of the Ville-Evrard was not followed up. The soldiers returned in the greatest consternation, some of them crying, " Vive la paix ! " Each new enterprise betrayed Trochu's plan, enervated the troops, but had no effect on the courage of the National Guards engaged. During two days on the plateau D'Ouron they sustained the fire of sixty pieces. When there was a 32 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. goodly number of dead, Trochu discovered that the position was of no importance, and evacuated. These repeated foils began to wear out the credulity oi Paris. From hour to hour the sting of hunger was increas- ing, a,nd_ horse-flesh had become a delicacy. Dogs, cats, "andTrats were eagerly devoured. The women waited for_^ hours in the cold and mud for a starvation allowance. "For bread they got black grout, that tortured the~stomach. Children died on their mothers' empty breasts. ^JWood was worth its weight in gold, and the poor had~only to warm them the despatches of Gambetta^always announcing fantastic successes.1 At the end of December their priva- tions began to open the eyes of the people.^ Were they to ^ give in, their arms intact ? __ The mayors did not stir. Jules Favre gave them little weekly receptions, where they gossiped about the cuisine of the siege.2 One only did his duty — Delescluze. He had* acquired great authority by his articles in the Re'veil, as free of partiality as they were severe. On the 30th December he interpellated Jules Favre, said to his colleagues, " You are responsible," demanded that the municipal council should be joined to the Defence. His colleagues protested, more especially Dubail and Vacherot. He returned to the charge on the 4th of January, laid down a radical motion — the dismissal of Trochu and of Clement- Thomas, the mobilisation of the National Guard, the institu tion of a council of defence, the renewal of the Committee of War. No more attention was paid him than before. 1 After the disaster of Orleans, which cut in two our army, he wrote : " The army of the Loire is far from being annihilated ; it is separated into two armies of equal force." 2 They avoided drawing up minutes to prevent even the appearance of being a municipality (Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, Jules Ferry, vol. i. p. 406). A dozen of these brave ones met with a few adjuncts at the inairie of the third arrondissement. They confined their whole efforts to seeking some one to replace Trochu. One of them, M. Corbon, has said (Enquite sur le 18 Mars, vol. ii. p. 613) : "However displeased they might have been at the manner affairs were conducted by the Defence, they would not for the world overthrow or weaken the Government." PROLOGUE. 33 The Committee of the twenty arrondissements supported Delescluze in issuing a red placard on the 6 th • " Una t.lm Government which charged itself with the notional dnfpnee fulfilled its mission ? JNo. By their pror.rnKthmtion^thoir^ indecision, their inertion, those who govern us have led_ us to the brink of the abyss. They have known neither hew to administer nor how to fight. We die ofcoTJ, t^moitT of hunger. Sorties without object, deadly struggles without results, repeated failures. The Government has given the measure of its capacity ; it is killing us. The perpetua- tion of this regime means capitulation. The politics, the strategies, the administration of the Empire continued by the men of the 4th September have been judged. Make way for the people ! Make way for the Commune ! " 1 This was outspoken and true. However incapable of action the Tjommittee may have been, its ideas were just and precise," "Und to tEe end of the siege it remained the indefatigable, sagacious monitor of Paris. The multitude, who wanted illustrious names, paid no attention to these placards. Some of those who had signed it were arrested. Trochu, however, felt himself attainted, and the very same evening had posted on all the walls, " The governor of Paris will never capitulate." And Paris again applauded, four months after the 4th September. It was even wondered at that, in spite of Trochu's declaration, Delescluze and his adjuncts should tender their resignations.2 Nevertheless, without obstinately shutting one's eyes it was impossible not to see the precipice to which the Govern ment was hurrying us on. The Prussians bombarded our houses from the forts of Issy and of Vanves, and on the 30th December Trochu, having declared all further action impos sible, invoked the opinion of all his generals, and wound up by proposing that he should be replaced. On the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th January the Defenders discussed the election of an 1 This placard was drawn up by Tridon and Valles. 2 "See," said they, " what a terrible responsibility we should incur if we consented any longer to remain the passive instruments of a policy condemned by the interests of France and of the Republic." 0 34 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. Assembly which was to follow the catastrophe.1 But for the irritation of the patriots, Paris would have capitulated before the I 5 th. The faubourgs no longer called the men of the Govern ment other than " the band of Judas." The great democratic lamas, who had withdrawn after the 3 1 st October, returned to the Commune, thus proving their own helplessness and the common sense of the people. The Republican Alliance, where Ledru-Rollin officiated before half-a-dozen incense-bearers, the Republican Union, and other bourgeois chapels, went so far as to very energetically demand a Parisian Assembly to organise the defence. The Government felt it had no time to lose. If the bourgeoisie joined the people, it would become impossible to capitulate without a formidable imeute. The population which cheered under the shells would not allow itself to be given up like a flock of sheep. It was necessary to mortify it first, to cure it of its " infatuation," as Jules Ferry said, to purge it of its fever. " The National Guard will only be satisfied when 10,000 National Guards have fallen," they said at the Government table. Urged on by Jules Favre and Picard on the one hand, and on the other by the simple-minded Emmanuel Arago, Garnier- Pages, and Pelletan, the quack Trochu consented to give a last performance. It was got up as a farce 2 at the same time as the capitu lation.8 On the 1 9th the Council of Defence stated that a new defeat would be the signal of the catastrophe. Trochu was willing to accept the mayors as coadjutors on the ques tion of capitulation and revictualling. Jules Simon and Garnier-Pages were willing to surrender Paris, and only make some reserve with regard to France. Garnier-Pages proposed to name by special elections mandatories charged to capitulate. Such was their vigil before the battle. On the 1 8 th the din of trumpets and drums called Paris 1 See the Minutes of the Government of the Defence, evidently arranged for the best by M. Dreo, the son-in-law of Garnier-Pages. 2 Enquite sur le 18 Mars, Ducrot, vol. iii. p. xx. 3 See the Minutes of the Government of Defence. PROLOGUE. 35 to arms and put the Prussians on the alert. For this supreme effort Trochu had been able to muster only 84,000 men, of whom nineteen regiments belonged to the National Guard. He made them pass the night, which was cold and rainy, in the mud of the fields of Mont-Yalerien. The attack was directed against the defences that covered Versailles from the side of La Bergerie. At ten o'clock, with the impulse of old troops,1 the National G uards and the mobiles, who formed the majority of the left wing and centre,2 had stormed the redoubt of Montretout, the park of Buzenval, a part of St. Cloud, pushing forward as far as Garches, occupying, in one word, all the posts designated. General Ducrot, commanding the left w-ing, had arrived two hours behind time, and though his army consisted chiefly of troops of the line, he did not advance. We had conquered several commanding heights which the generals did not arm. The Prussians were allowed to sweep these crests at their ease, and at four o'clock sent forth assault columns. Ours gave way at first, then steadying themselves, checked the onward movement of the enemy. Towards six o'clock, when the hostile fire diminished, Trochu ordered a retreat, let there were 40,000 reserves between Mont-Valerien and Buzenval. Out of 150 artillery pieces, thirty only had been employed. But the generals, who during the whole day had hardly deigned to communicate with the 1 Who bears witness to the bravery of the National Guard ? Superior officers themselves. See in the Enquite sur le 18 Mars, the depositions of General Leflo, Vice- Admiral Pothuan, Colonel Lambert, and Trochu, speaking from the tribune : " If I did not fear to appear intrusive, I could show that up to the close of the day the inexperienctd National Guards took and retook with the energy of old troops, under terrific fire, the heights that had been abandoned. It was necessary to hold then! at any price in order to effect the retreat of the troops engaged in tin; centre. I had told them so, and they sacrificed themselves without hesitation." 2 Vinoy's corps, which took Montretout, had five regiments and one battalion of infantry, nineteen battalions of mobiles, live regiments of National Guards. That of General Bellemare, which took Buzenval, hail five regiments of line, seventeen battalions of mobiles, eight regiments of National Guards. 3 6 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. National Guard, declared they could not hold out a second night, and Trochu had Montretout and all the conquered positions evacuated. Battalions returned weeping with rage. All understood that the whole affair was a cruel mockery.1 Paris, which had gone to sleep victorious, awoke to the sound of Trochu's alarm-bell. The General asked for an armistice of two days to carry off the wounded and bury the dead. He said, " We want time, carts, and many litters." The dead and wounded did not exceed 3000 men. This time Paris at last saw the abyss. Besides, the Defenders, disdaining all further disguise, suddenly dropped the mask. Jules Favre and Trochu summoned the mayors. Trochu declared that all was lost and any further struggle impossible.2 The sinister news immediately spread over the town. During four months' siege, patriotic Paris had foreseen, accepted all ; pestilence, assault, pillage, everything save capitulation. On this point the 20th of January found Paris, notwithstanding her credulity, her weakness, the same Paris as on the 20th September. Thus, when the fatal word was uttered, the city seemed at first wonderr-Struck,. as atthe sight of some crime monstrous, unnaturah_ The, wounds of four months opened again, crying for vengeance. 'Tjold, starvation, bombardment, the long nights in the.. trenches, tha lit.t.ln rdiilrJren dying by thousands, death. scattered abroad in the sorties, and all to end in shame, to. form an escort for Bazaine, to become a second Met?:- One fanciecTone could hear the Prussian sneering. With some, stupor turned into rage. Those who were longing for the surrender threw themselves into attitudes. The white- livered mayors even affected to fly into a passion. On the 1 " We shall give the National Guard a little peppering (ecrabouiller un peu la garde nationale) since they wish it," said a colonel of infantry, much annoyed at this affair. Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, Colonel Chaper, vol. ii. p. 281. 2 He told them by way of consolation that " from the evening of the 4th September he had declared that it would be madness to attempt sustaining a siege by the Prussian army." — Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, Corbon, vol. iv. p. 389. PROLOGUE 37 evening of the 2 1st they were again received liy Trochu. That same morning all the generals had unanimously decided that another sortie was impossible Trochu very philoso phically demonstrated to the mayors tho absolute necessity of making advances to the enemy, but declareil he would have nothing to do with it, insinuating that they should capitulate in his stead. They cut wry faces, protested, still imagining they were not responsible for this issue. After their departure the Defenders deliberated. Jules Favre asked Trochu to tender his resignation. But he, the apostle, insisted upon being dismissed by them, fancying thus to cheat history into the belief that he had to the last resisted capitulation.1 The discussion was growing warm when, at three o'clock in the morning, they were informed of the rescue of Flourens and other pohtical prisoners con fined at Mazas. A body of National Guards headed by an adjunct from the eighteenth arrondissement had presented themselves an hour before in front of the prison. The bewildered governor had let them have their way. The Defenders, fearing a repetition of the 3 1 st October, hurried on their resolution replacing Trochu by Vinoy. He wanted to be implored. Jules Favre and Leflo had to show him the people in arms, an insurrection imminent. At that very moment, the morning of the 2 2nd, the prefect of police, declaring himself powerless, had sent in his resig nation. The men of the 4th September had fallen so low as to bend their knees before those of the 2nd December. Vinoy condescended to yield. His first act was to arm against Paris, to dismantle her lines before the Prussians, to recall the troops of Suresne, Gentilly, Les Lilas, to call out the cavalry and gendarmerie. A battalion of mobiles commanded by Vabre, a colonel of the National Guard, fortified itself in the H6tel-de-Ville. Clement-Thomas issued a furious proclamation: "The factions are joining the enemy." He adjured the " entire National 1 He has pronounced these words of perfect Jesuitism : " To yield to hunger is to die, not to capitulate."— Jules Simon, Souvenirs du 4 Sep tembre, p. 299. 38 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. Guard to rise in order to smite them." He had not called upon it to rise against the Prussians. There were signs of anger afloat, but no symptoms of a serious collision. Many revolutionists, well aware that all was at an end, would not support a movement which, if successful, would have saved the men of the Defence and forced the victors to capitulate in their stead. Others, whose patriotism was not enlightened by reason, still warm from the ardour of Buzenval, believed in a sortie en masse. We must at least, said they, save our honour. The evening before, some meetings had voted that an armed opposition should be offered to any attempt at capitulation, and had given themselves a rendezvous before the Hotel-de- Ville. At twelve o'clock the drums beat to arms at the Batignolles. At one o'clock several armed groups appeared in the square of the Hotel-de- Ville ; the crowd was gathering. A depu tation, led by a member of the Alliance, was received by G. Chaudey, adjunct to the mayor, for the Government was seated at the Louvre since the 3 1 st October. The orator said the wrongs of Paris necessitated the nomination of the Commune. Chaudey answered that the Commune was nonsense ; that he always had, and always would oppose it. Another and more eager deputation arrived. Chaudey received it with insults. Meanwhile the excitement was spreading to the crowd that filled the square. The 10 ist battalion arrived from the left bank crying " Death to the traitors ! " when the 207th of the Batignolles, who had marched down the boulevards, debouched on the square through the Rue du Temple and drew up before the Hotel- de-Ville, whose doors and windows were closed. Others joined them. Some shots were fired ; the windows of the H6tel-de- Ville were clouded with smoke, and the crowd dispersed with a cry of terror. Sheltered by lamp-posts and some heaps of sand, some National Guards sustained the fire of the mobiles. Others fired from the houses in the Avenue Victoria. The fusillade had been going on for half an hour when the gendarmes appeared at the corner of the Avenue. The insurgents, almost surrounded, made a retreat. About a rROLOGUP. 39 dozen were arrested and taken to the llotol-do-Yille, whore Vinoy wanted to despatch them at once. Jules Ferry re coiled, and had them sent before the regular court-martials. Those who had got up the demonstration and the inoffensive crowd of spectators had thirty killed or wounded, among others a man of great energy, Commandant Sapia. The H6tel-de-Ville had only one killed and two wounded. The same evening the Government closed all the clubs and issued numerous warrants. Eighty-three persons, most of them innocent,1 were arrested. This occasion was also taken advantage of to send Delescluze, notwithstanding his sixty-five years, and an acute bronchitis which was under mining his health, to rejoin the prisoners of the 3 Ist October, thrown pell-mell into a damp dungeon at Vincennes. The Mixeil and the Combat were suppressed. An indignant proclamation denounced the insurgents as " the partisans of the foreigners," the only resource left the men of the 4th September in this shameful crisis. In this only they were Jacobins. "Who served the enemy ? The Government ever ready to negotiate, or the men ever offering a desperate resistance ? History will tell how at Metz an immense army, with cadres, well-trained soldiers, allowed itself to be given over without a single marshal, chef-de-corps, or a regiment rising to save it from Bazaine ; " whereas the revolutionists of Paris, Avithout leaders, without organisa tion, before 240,000 soldiers and mobiles gained over to peace, delayed the capitulation for months and revenged it with their blood. The simulated indignation of traitors raised only a feel ing of disgust. Their very name, " Government of Defence," cried out against them. On the very day of the affray they played their last farce. Jules Simon having assembled 1 Deposition of General Soumairs, Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, vol. ii. p. 215. 2 What disgrace ! 175,000 men pretending that they had been sold by a single one ! In the Seven Years' War, in Westphalia, at Minden, when General Morangies prepared to capitulate, 1500 men, roused by a corporal, refused to surrender, forced their way, and rejoined the army of the Count of Clermont. 4o HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. the mayors and a dozen superior officers,1 offered the supreme command to the military man who could propose a plan. This Paris, which they had received exuberant with life, the men of the 4th September, now that they had exhausted and bled her, proposed to abandon to others. Not one of those present resented the infamous irony. They confined themselves to refusing this hopeless legacy. This was exactly the thing Jules Simon waited for. Some one muttered, "We must capitulate." It was General Lecomte. The mayors understood why they had been convoked, and a few of them squeezed out a tear. From this time forth Paris existed like the patient who is expecting amputation. The forts still thundered, the dead and the wounded were still brought in, but Jules Favre was known to be at Versailles. On the 27th at midnight the i^aniwi werfl silenced. Bismarck and .In les K^yr" ^a^ eoma-" ~VTimhonoiirable understanding.2 Paris had surrendered. — _ " ThTnext day the Government of the Defence published the basis of the negotiations — a fortnight's armistice, the immediate convocation of an Assembly, the occupation of the forts, the disarmament of all the soldiers and mobiles with the exception of one division. The town remained gloomy. These days of anguish had stunned Paris. Only a few . demonstrations were made. A battalion of the National Guard came before the Hotel-de- Ville crying " Down with the traitors-! " In the evening, 400 officers signed a pact_ of resistance, naming as their chiet Brunei, an ex-officer expelled from the army under the Empire for his republican opinions, and resolved to march on the forts of the east, cian- "manded by Admiral Saisget, whom the press credited with the reputation ofa Beaurepaire At midnight the call to arms and the alarm-bell summoned the tenth, thirteenth, and twentieth arrondissements. But the night was icy cold, the 1 Enquite sur le 4 Septembre, Arnaud de l'Ariege, vol. ii. p. 320-321. 2 "I return from Versailles. I have come to terms with M. de Bismarck, and it has been agreed upon between us as a matter of honour the firing should cease." — Order sent by Jules Favre on the 27th, seven o'clock evening. Vinoy, L' Armistice et la Commune, p. 67. PROLOGUE. 4 1 National Guard too enervated for an act of despair. Two (br three battalions only came to the rendezvous. Brunei was alrrested two days after. 1 On the 29th January the German (lag was hoisted on our jfbrts. All had been signed the evening before. 400,000 imen armed with muskets and cannons capitulated before 200,000. The forts, the enceinte were disarmed. Paris was to pay 200,000,000 francs in a fortnight. The Govern ment boasted of having preserved the arms of the National Guard, but every one knew that to take theso it would have been necessary to storm Paris. In fine, not content with surrendering Paris, the Government of the National Defence surrendered all France. The armistice applied to all the armies of the provinces save Bourbaki's, the only one that would have profited by it. On the following davs there arrived some news from the provinces. It was known that Bourbaki, pressed by the Prussians, had, after a comedy of suicide, thrown his whole army into Switzerland. The aspect and the weakness of the Delegation of the Defence in the provinces had just begun to reveal themselves, when the Mot d! Ordre, founded by Roche fort, who had abandoned the Government after the 3 1 st October, published a proclamation by Gambetta, stigmatising a shameful peace, and a whole litany of Radical decrees : ineligibility of all the great functionaries and official deputies of the Empire ; dissolution of the conscils-giniraux, revo cation of some of the judges l who had formed part of the mixed commission of the 2nd December. It was ignored that during the whole war the Delegation had acted in contradic tion to its last decrees, which, coming from a fallen power, were a mere electoral trick, and Gambetta's name was placed on most of the electoral lists. Some bourgeois papers supported Jules Favre and Picard, who had been clever enough to make themselves looked upon as the out-and-outers of the Government ; none dared to go so far as to support Trochu, Simon, and Ferry. The variety of electoral lists set forth by the republican party explained 1 The decree sacrificed fifteen and spared twenty-four. 42 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNE. its impotence during the siege. The men of 1848 refusei to accept Blanqui, but admitted several members of th International in order to usurp its name, and their list, medley of Neo- Jacobins and Socialists, entitled itself " the lisn of the Four Committees." The clubs and the working-men'sf groups drew up lists of a more outspoken character; one bore the name of the German Socialist deputy, Liebknecht. The most decided one was that of the Corderie. f The International and the Federal Chamber of the working. men's societies, mute and disorganised during the siege again taking up their programme, said, " We must also have working-men amongst those in power." They /came to an arrangement with the Committee of the twenty avrondisse- ments, and the three groups issued the same manifesto. " This," said they, " is the list of the candidates presented in the name of a new world by the party of the disinherited. France is about to reconstitute herself; working-men have the right to find and take their place in the new order of things. The Socialist-revolutionary candidatures signify the denial of the right to discuss the existence of the Republic ; affirmation of the necessity for the accession of working-men to political power ; overthrow of the oligar chical Government and of industrial feudalism." Besides a few names familiar to the public, Blanqui, Gambon, Gari baldi, Felix Pyat, Ranvier, Tridon, Longuet, Lefrancais, Vallfes, these Socialist candidates were known only in the working-men's centres — mechanics, shoemakers, ironfounders, tailors, carpenters, cooks, cabinetmakers, carvers.1 Their placards were but few in number. These disinherited could not compete with bourgeois enterprise. Their day was to come a few weeks later, when two-thirds of them were to he 1 A. Arnaud, Avrial, Beslay, Blanqui, Demay, Dereure, Dupas, E. Dupont, J. Ditrand, E. Duval, Eudes, Flotte, Frankel, Gambon, Goupil, Granger, Humbert, Jaclard, Jarnigon, Lacambre, Lacord, Langevin, Lefrancais, Leverdays, Longuet, Macdonnell, Malon, Meillet, Minet, Oudet, Pindy, F. Pyat, Ranvier, Eey, Rouillier, Serraillier, Theisz, Tolain, Tridon, Vaillant, Valles, Varlin. The names of those who were elected members of the Commune are in italics. PROLOGUE. 43 elected to tho Commune. Now those only received a man date who were accepted by the middle-class papers, fivo in all: Garibaldi, Gambon, Felix I'yat, Tolain, and Malon. The list of representatives of the 8th February was a harlequinade, including every republican shade and every political crotchet. Louis Blanc, who had played the part of a goody during the siege, and who was supported by nil the committees except that of the Corderie, headed the proces sion with 216,000 votes, followed by Victor Hugo, Gam betta, and Garibaldi; Delescluze obtained 154,000 votes. Then came a motleyT crowd of Jacobin fossils, radicals, officers, mayors, journalists, and inventors. One single member of the Government slipped in, Jules Favre, although his private life had been exposed by Milliere, who was also elected.1 By a cruel injustice, the vigilant sentinel, the only journalist who during the siege had always shown sagacity, Blanqui, found only 52,000 votes, about the number of those who opposed the plebiscite, while Felix Pyat received 145,000 for his piping in the Comb it." This confused incongruous ballot affirmed at least the, republican idea. Paris, trampled upon by the Empire and the Liberals, clung to the Republic, who gave her promise for the future. But even before her vote has been pro claimed she heard coming forth from the provincial ballet- boxes a savage cry of reaction. Before a single one of her representatives had left the town, she saw on the way to Bordeaux a troop of rustics, of Pourcccui