been in the assigned part of the city since the 1st--marched
off through the Arc de Triomphe, and on the 7th the German
headquarters were moved from Versailles. The great
Franco-Prussian War was over. ... But before ... peace could
be attained, the country had yet to suffer from the so-called
patriots of the Red Republicans worse outrage than it had
endured at the hands of the German invaders. When the
negotiations for the capitulation of Paris were in progress,
Count Bismarck had warned M. Favre of the danger of allowing,
as he proposed, the National Guard to retain their arms; and
the members of the Government of National Defence might
themselves have seen the risk they were incurring, had they
calmly considered the various émeutes that had taken place
during the siege, and in which the National Guard had always
played such a conspicuous part on the side of disaffection.
Now, in the full consciousness of their strength--somewhere
about 100,000--and in their possession of a powerful
artillery,--for during the German occupation they had, on the
pretext of keeping them safe, got a large number of cannon
into their hands,--they seemed determined to attempt the
revival of the Reign of Terror. ... The appointment of General
d'Aurelle de Paladines as their commander gave great offence,
and on the 9th March an attempt to place the tricolor on the
column in the Place de la Bastille instead of the red flag of
revolution led to an outbreak. A promise in the event of the
cannon being given up, of the continuance of pay till
'ordinary work was resumed,' was disregarded, and the
dismissal of D'Aurelle and the full recognition of the right
of the National Guard to elect its own officers demanded. An
effort of the government to seize the cannon in the Place des
Vosges failed, and it was now clear enough that more energetic
action than negotiations must take place. On the morning of the
18th March a large force of regular troops under Generals
Vinoy and Lecomte proceeded to Montmarte and took possession
of the guns; but the want of horses for their immediate
removal gave time for the Reds to assemble and frustrate the
effort, while, worst of all, a large number of the regular
troops fraternized with the insurgents. General Lecomte and
General Clement Thomas were taken prisoners and almost
immediately shot. The outbreak, thus begun, spread rapidly;
for, through some unaccountable timidity of the government,
the government forces were withdrawn from the city, and the
insurgents left free to act as they pleased. They seized
General Chanzy at the Orleans railway station, took possession
of the Ministry of Justice and the Hôtel de Ville, and threw
up barricades round all the revolutionary quarters. The
Central Committee of the National Guard, the leading man of
which was Assi, ... summoned the people of Paris to meet 'in
their comitia for the communal elections,' and declared their
intention of resigning their power into the hands of the
Commune thus chosen. The National Assembly removed from
Bordeaux and held its sittings at Versailles: but bitter as
was the feeling of the majority of the Deputies against the
new turbulence, the position of affairs prevented any action
from being taken against the insurgents. The removal of
General d'Aurelle and the appointment of Admiral Saisset in
his place was of no avail. A number of the inhabitants of
Paris, styling themselves 'Men of Order,' attempted to
influence affairs by a display of moral force, but they were
fired on and dispersed. The Assembly was timid, and apparently
quite unable to bring its troops into play. ... Through
Admiral Saisset concessions were offered, but the demands of
the Communists increased with the prospect of obtaining
anything. They now modestly demanded that they should
supersede the Assembly wherever there was any prospect of
collision of power, and be allowed to control the finances;
and as a very natural consequence the negotiations were
abandoned. This was on the 25th of March, and on the 26th the
Commune was elected, the victory of the Reds being very easily
gained, as hardly any of those opposed to them voted. Two days
afterwards the Commune was proclaimed at the Hôtel de Ville,
the members who had been elected being seated on a platform in
red arm-chairs. The leading man of the new system was the
honest but hot-headed and utopian Deleseluze; Cluseret, a man
of considerable military genius, who had led a life of a very
wild nature in America, and who was the soul of the resistance
when the actual fighting began, was Delegate of War; Grousset,
of Foreign Affairs; and Rigault, of Public Safety. The new
government applied itself vigorously to changes; conscription
was abolished, and the authority of the Versailles government
declared 'null and void.' Seeing that a desperate struggle
must inevitably ensue, a very large number of the inhabitants
of Paris quitted the city, and the German authorities allowed
the prisoners from Metz and Sedan to return so as to swell the
forces at the disposal of M. Thiers. They also intimated that,
in view of the altered circumstances, it might again become
necessary for them to occupy the forts they had already
evacuated. The first shot in the second siege of Paris, in
which Frenchmen were arrayed against Frenchmen, was fired on
the 2d April, when a strong division of the Versailles army
advanced against the National Guards posted at Courbevoie, and
drove them into Paris across the Pont de Neuilly. During the
ensuing night a large force of insurgents gathered, and were
on the morning of the 3d led in three columns against
Versailles. Great hopes had been placed on the sympathy of the
regular troops, but they were doomed to disappointment. ...
The expedition ... not only failed, but it ... cost the
Commune two of its leading men,--Duval, and that Flourens who
had already made himself so conspicuous in connection with
revolutionary outbreaks under the Empire and the Government of
National Defence,--both of whom were taken and promptly shot
by the Versailles authorities. The failure and the executions
proved so exasperating that the 'Commune of Paris' issued a
proclamation denouncing the Versailles soldiers as banditti.
... They had ample means of gratifying their passion for
revenge, for they had in their hands a number of leading men,
including Darboy, Archbishop of Paris, and M. Bonjean,
President of the Court of Cassation, and these--two hundred in
all--they proclaimed their intention of holding as hostages.
{1391}
M. Thiers was still hesitating, and waiting for a force
sufficiently powerful to crush all opposition; and in this he
was no doubt right, for any success of the Communists, even of
the most temporary character, would have proved highly
dangerous. The Germans had granted permission to the
government to increase their original 30,000 troops to
150,000, and prisoners of Metz and Sedan had been pouring
steadily back from Germany for this purpose. On the 8th April
Marshal MacMahon took command of the forces at Versailles. A
premature attack on the forts of Issy, Vanves, and Montrouge
on the 11th failed, but on the 17th and 19th several of the
insurgent positions were carried; on the 25th the bombardment
of Issy and Vanves was begun, and from that time onwards
operations against the city were carried on with the greatest
activity, the insurgents being on all occasions put to the
sword in a most merciless manner. Issy was taken on the 8th
May, and Vanves on the 4th, and the enceinte laid bare. Inside
Paris all this time there was nothing but jealousy. ... First
one leader, and then another, was tried, found wanting, and
disgraced. ... On the 21st May the defenders of the wall at
the gate of St. Cloud were driven from their positions by the
heavy artillery fire, and the besieging army, having become
aware of the fact, pushed forward and secured this entrance to
the city; and by the evening of the 22d there were 80,000
Versaillists within the walls. Next day they gained fresh
ground, and were ready to re-occupy the Tuileries and the
Hôtel de Ville; but before this was possible the Communists,
mad with despair, had resolved on that series of outrages
against humanity that will make their names detested and their
cause distrusted as long as the story of their crimes stands
recorded in the annals of history. They had already
perpetrated more than one act of vandalism. ... On the 12th
May, in accordance with a public decree, they had destroyed
the private residence of M. Thiers with all its pictures and
books; on the 16th the magnificent column erected in the Place
Vendome in memory of Napoleon I., and crowned by his statue,
was undermined at one side and then pulled to the ground by
means of ropes and utterly destroyed; and now on the 24th, in
the last efforts of despairing rage, bands of men and women,
still more frantic and eager for blood than were those of the
Reign of Terror, rushed through the doomed city. Early in the
morning the Tuileries, the Hôtel de Ville, the Ministry of
Finance, the Palais d'Orsay, and other public and private
buildings were seen to be on fire. The Louvre, too, with all
its inestimable treasures, was in flames, and was saved with
the greatest difficulty. If the Commune was to perish, it had
clearly resolved that the city was to perish with it. Men and
women marched about in bands with petroleum, and aided the
spread of the conflagration by firing the city in different
places. Heedless of the flames, the Versailles troops pressed
on, eager, if possible, to save the lives of the 200 hostages,
but, alas, in vain. A passion for blood had seized on the
Commune, and its last expiring effort was to murder in cold
blood, not only a large number of the hostages, but also
batches of fresh victims, seized indiscriminately about the
streets by bands of men and women, and dragged off to instant
death. On the 26th Belleville was captured, and on the 27th
and 28th the Cemetery of Père la Chaise was the scene of the
final struggle,--a struggle of such a desperate nature--for
there was no quarter--that, for days after, the air of the
district was literally fraught with pestilence. Many of the
leaders of the Commune had fallen in the final contest, and
all the others who were captured by the Versailles troops
during the fighting were at once shot. Of the 30,000 prisoners
who had fallen into the hands of the government, a large
number, both men and women, were executed without mercy, and
the rest distributed in various prisons to await trial, as
also were Rossel, Assi, Grousset, and others, who were
captured after the resistance was at an end. Cluseret
succeeded in making good his escape. ... Of the prisoners,
about 10,000 were set free without trial, and the others were
sentenced by various courts-martial during the following
months and on through the coming year, either to death,
transportation or imprisonment."
_H. Martin,
Popular History of France from the First Revolution,
volume 3, chapter 24._
ALSO IN:
_E. B. Washburne,
Recollections of a Minister to France,
volume 2, chapters 5-7._
_P. Vésinier,
History of the Commune of Paris._
_P. O. Lissagaray,
History of the Commune of 1871._
_W. P. Fetridge,
Rise and Fall of the Paris Commune._
_J. Leighton,
Paris under the Commune._
FRANCE: A. D. 1871 (April-May).
The government of the Commune in Paris.
"For the conduct of affairs the Communal Council divided
itself into ten 'commissions,' of finance, war, public safety,
external relations, education, justice, labour and exchange,
provisions, the public service, and the general executive. Of
these the most efficient appears to have been that of finance;
by advances from the bank and by the revenues of the post, the
telegraph, the octrois, &c., means were found to provide for
the current expenditure. The other commissions were admittedly
inefficient, and especially the one which was most important
for the moment, that of war:--'as to a general plan,' says
Lissagaray, 'there never was one: the men were abandoned to
themselves, being neither cared for nor controlled;' 'at the
Ministry,' says Gastyne, 'no one is at his place. They pass
their time in running after one another. The most
insignificant Lieutenant will take orders from nobody, and
wants to give them to everybody. They smoke, chat and chaff.
They dispute with the contractors. They buy irresponsibly
right and left because the dealers give commissions or have
private relations with the officials;' 'in the army of
Versailles,' said a member of the Commune, 'they don't get
drunk: in ours they are never sober;' 'the administration of
war,' said another, 'is the organisation of disorganisation;'
'I feel myself,' said Rossel, on resigning his command,
'incapable of any longer bearing the responsibility of a
command where everyone deliberates and no one obeys. The
central committee of artillery has deliberated and prescribed
nothing. The Commune has deliberated and resolved upon
nothing. The Central Committee deliberates and has not yet
known how to act. ... My predecessor committed the fault of
struggling against this absurd situation. I retire, and have
the honour to ask you for a cell at Mazas.' The same
incompetence, leading to the same result of anarchy, was
displayed by the Executive Commission:--'in less than a
fortnight,' said Grosset, 'conflicts of every kind had arisen;
the Executive Commission gave orders which were not executed;
each particular commission, thinking itself sovereign in its
turn, gave orders too, so that the Executive Commission could
have no real responsibility.'
{1392}
On April 20 the Executive Commission was replaced by a
committee, composed of a delegate from each of the nine other
commissions; still efficiency could not be secured, and at the
end of the month it was proposed to establish a Committee of
Public Safety. This proposition was prompted by the traditions
of 1793, and brought into overt antagonism the two conflicting
tendencies of the Commune: there were some of its members who
were ready to save the movement by a despotism, to secure at
every cost a strong administration, and impose the Commune, if
need be by terror, upon Paris and the provinces. ... On the
other hand there was a strong minority which opposed the
proposal, on the ground that it was tantamount to an
abdication on the part of the Communal Council. ... The
appointment of the Committee was carried by forty-five votes
to twenty-three; many of those who voted for it regarded it as
merely another 'Executive Commission,' subordinate to, and at
any moment subject to dismissal by, the Commune; and so, in
effect, it proved; it was neither more terrible nor more
efficient than the body to which it succeeded; it came into
existence on the 1st of May, and on the 9th the complaint was
already advanced that 'your Committee of Public Safety has not
answered our expectations; it has been an obstacle, instead of a
stimulus;' on the 10th a new committee was appointed, with
similar results; all that the innovation achieved was to bring
into clear relief the fact that there existed in the Commune a
Jacobin element ready to recur to the traditions of 1793, and
to make Paris the mistress of France by the guillotine or its
modern equivalent."
_G. L. Dickinson,
Revolution and Reaction in Modern France,
pages 267-270._
FRANCE: A. D. 1871-1876.
The Assembly at Bordeaux.
Thiers elected Chief of the Executive Power.
The founding of the Republic.
The recovery of order and prosperity.
Resignation of Thiers.
Election of Marshal MacMahon.
Plans of the Monarchists defeated.
Adoption of the Constitution of 1875.
"The elections passed off more quietly than was to be
expected, and the Assembly which came together at Bordeaux on
the 13th of February exactly represented the sentiment of the
nation at that particular moment. France being eager for
peace, the Assembly was pacific. It was also somewhat
unrepublican, for the Republic had been represented in the
provinces only by Gambetta, the promoter of war to the knife,
who had sacrificed the interests of the Republic to what he
conceived to be the interests of the national honor. Politics
had, in truth, been little thought of, and Thiers was elected
in 27 departments upon very diverse tickets, rather on account
of his opposition to the war and his efforts in favor of peace
than on account of his fame as a liberal orator and historian.
Moved by the same impulse, the Assembly almost unanimously
appointed him Chief of the Executive Power of the French
Republic, and intrusted to him the double task of governing
the country and of treating with the German Emperor. ... It
was apparently in the name of the Republic that peace was
negotiated and the Government gradually reconstructed. ... The
Assembly, however, which was all-powerful, held that to change
the form of government was one of its rights. It might have
been urged that the electors had scarcely contemplated this,
and that the Monarchists were in the majority simply because
they represented peace, while in the provinces the Republic
had meant nothing but war to the hilt. But these distinctions
were not thought of in the press of more urgent business,
namely, the treaty which was to check the shedding of blood,
and the rudiments of administrative reconstruction. No
monarchy would have been willing to assume the responsibility
of this Treaty. ... The Right accordingly consented to accept
the name of Republic as a makeshift, provided it should be
talked about as little as possible. Thiers had come to think,
especially since the beginning of the war, that the Republic
was the natural heir of Napoleon III. ... He had, however,
been struck with the circumstance that so many Legitimists had
been elected to the Assembly, and he was no more eager than
they to stop to discuss constitutions. ... He was the more
disposed to wait, inasmuch as he saw in the Chamber the very
rapid formation and growth of a group in which he had great
confidence. Of these deputies M. Jules Simon has given a
better definition than they could themselves formulate,--for
this political philosopher has written a masterly history of
these years. ... Here is what Simon says of this party in the
Assembly: 'There were in this body some five-score firm
spirits who were alike incapable either of forsaking the
principles whereon all society rests, or of giving up freedom.
Of all forms of government they would have preferred
constitutional monarchy, had they found it established, or
could they have restored it by a vote without resort to force.
But they quickly perceived that neither the Legitimists nor
the Bonapartists would consent to the constitutional form;
that such a monarchy could obtain a majority neither in the
Parliament nor among the people. ... Some of these men
entertained for the Republic a distrust which, at first,
amounted to aversion. Being persuaded, however, that they must
choose between the Republic and the Empire ... they did not
despair of forming a Republic at once liberal and
conservative. In a word, they thrust aside the Legitimate
Monarchy as chimerical, Republican and Cæsarian dictatorship
as alike hateful. ... Of this party M. Thiers was not merely
the head, but the body also.' ... But there was another party,
which, although the least numerous in the Assembly and split
into factions at that, was the most numerous in the
country,--the Republican party."
_P. de Rémusat,
Thiers,
chapters 6-7._
{1393}
"In the wake of Thiers followed such men as Rémusat, Casimir
Périer, Leon Say, and Lafayette. This added strength made the
Republicans the almost equal rivals of the other parties
combined. So great was Thiers' influence that, despite his
conversion to Republicanism, he was still able to control the
Monarchical Assembly. A threat of resignation, so great was
the dread of what might follow it, and so jealous were the
Monarchists of two shades and the Imperialists of each other,
was enough to bring the majority to the President's terms. It
was under such political conditions that the infant Republic,
during its first year, undertook the tasks of preserving
peace, of maintaining internal order, of retrieving disaster,
of tempting back prosperity and thrift to the desolated land,
of relieving it of the burdens imposed by war, and, at the
same time, of acquiring for itself greater security and
permanency. The recovery of France was wonderfully rapid; her
people began once more to taste sweet draughts of liberty; the
indemnity was almost half diminished; and her industries, at
the end of the year, were once more in full career. But the
Republic was a long way from complete and unquestioned
recognition. The second year of the Republic (1872-73) was
passed amid constant conflicts between the rival parties.
Thiers still maintained his ascendency, and stoutly adhered to
his defence of Republican institutions; but the Assembly was
restive under him, and energetic attempts were made to bring
about a fusion between the Legitimists and the Orleanists.
These attempts were rendered futile by the obstinacy of the
Count of Chambord, who would yield nothing, either of
principle or even of symbol, to his cousin of Orleans. The
want of harmony among the Monarchists postponed the
consideration of what should be the permanent political
constitution of France until November of the year 1872, when a
committee of thirty was chosen to recommend constitutional
articles. Against this the Republicans protested. They
declared that the Assembly had only been elected to make peace
with Germany; ... that dissolution was the only further act
that the Assembly was competent to perform. This indicated the
confidence of the Republicans in their increased strength in
the country; and the fact that the Monarchists refused to
dissolve shows that they were not far from holding this
opinion of their opponents. Despite the rivalries and
bitterness of the factions, the Republic met with no serious
blow from the time of its provisional establishment in
February, 1871, until May, 1873. Up to the latter period two
thirds of the enormous indemnity had been paid, and the German
force of occupation had almost entirely retired from French
territory. ... But in Italy, 1873, a grave misfortune, alike
to France and to the Republican institutions, occurred. At
last the Monarchical reactionists of the Assembly had gathered
courage to make open war upon President Thiers. Perceiving
that his policy was having the effect of nourishing and adding
ever new strength to the Republican cause, and that every
month drifted them further from the opportunity and hope of
restoring Monarchy or Empire ... they now forgot their own
differences, and resolved, at all hazards, to get rid of the
Republic's most powerful protector. ... The Duc de Broglie,
the leader of the reactionary Monarchists, offered a
resolution in the Assembly which was tantamount to a
proposition of want of confidence in President Thiers. After
an acrimonious debate, in which Thiers himself took part, De
Broglie's motion was passed by a majority of fourteen. The
President had no alternative but to resign; and thus the
executive power, at a critical moment, passed out of
Republican into Monarchical hands. Marshal MacMahon was at
once chosen President. ... MacMahon was strongly Catholic in
religion; and so far as he was known to have any political
opinions, they wavered between Legitimism and
Imperialism--they were certainly as far as possible from
Republicanism. Now was formed and matured a deliberate project
to overthrow the young Republic, and to set up Monarchy in its
place. All circumstances combined to favor its success. The
new President was found to be at least willing that the thing
should, if it could, be done. His principal minister, De
Broglie, entered warmly into the plot. The Orleanist princes
agreed to waive their claims, and the Count of Paris was
persuaded to pay a visit to the Count of Chambord at his
retreat at Frohsdorf, to acknowledge the elder Bourbon's right
to the throne, and to abandon his own pretensions. The
Assembly was carefully canvassed, and it was found that a
majority could be relied upon to proclaim, at the ripe moment,
Chambord as king, with the title of Henry V. The Republic was
now, in the early autumn of 1873, in the most serious and real
peril. It needed but a word from the Bourbon pretender to
overthrow it, and to replace it by the throne of the Capets
and the Valois. Happily, the old leaven of Bourbon bigotry
existed in 'Henry V.' He conceded the point of reigning with
parliamentary institutions, but he would not accept the
tricolor as the flag of the restored monarchy. He insisted
upon returning to France under the white banner of his
ancestors. To him the throne was not worth a piece of cloth.
To his obstinacy in clinging to this trifle of symbolism the
Republic owed its salvation. The scheme to restore the
monarchy thus fell through. The result was that the two wings
of Monarchists flew apart again, and the Republicans, being
now united and patient under the splendid leadership of
Gambetta, once more began to wax in strength. It only remained
to the Conservatives to make the best of the situation--to
proceed to the forming of a Constitution, and to at least
postpone to as late a period as possible the permanent
establishment of the Republic. The first step was to confirm
MacMahon in the Presidency for a definite period; and 'the
Septennate,' giving him a lease of power for seven years--that
is, until the autumn of 1880--was voted. ... It was not until
late in the year 1875 that the Constitution which is now the
organic law of France was finally adopted.
See CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE.
The chief circumstance which impelled a majority of the
Assembly to take this decisive step was the alarming revival
of Imperialism in the country. This was shown in the success
of Bonapartists in isolated elections to fill vacancies. Much
as the Royalists distrusted a Republic, they dreaded yet more
the restoration of the Empire; and the rapid progress made by
the partisans of the Empire forced them to adopt what was
really a moderate Republican Constitution. This Constitution
provided that the President of the Republic should be elected
by a joint convention of the Senate and the Chamber of
Deputies; that the Senate should consist of 300 members, of
whom 75 were to be elected for life by the Assembly, and the
remaining 225 by electoral colleges, composed of the deputies,
the councillors-general, the members of the councils
d'arrondissement, and delegates chosen from municipal
councils; that the vacancies in the life senatorships should
be filled by the Senate itself, while the term of the Senators
elected by the colleges should be nine years, one third
retiring every three years; that the Chamber of Deputies
should consist of 533 members, and that the deputies should be
chosen by single districts, instead of, as formerly, in groups
by departments: that the President could only dissolve the
Chamber of Deputies with the consent of the Senate; that money
bills should originate in the Lower Chamber, and that the
President should have the right of veto.
{1394}
The 'Septennate' organized and the Constitution adopted, the
Assembly, which had clung to power for about five years, had
no reason for continued existence, and at last dissolved early
in 1876, having provided that the first general election under
the new order of things should take place in February. ... The
result of the elections proved three things--the remarkable
growth of Republican sentiment; the great progress made, in
spite of the memory of Sedan, by the Bonapartist propaganda;
and the utter hopelessness of any attempt at a Royalist
restoration."
_G. M. Towle,
Modern France,
chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_J. Simon,
The Government of M. Thiers._
_F. Le Goff,
Life of Thiers,
chapters 8-9._
FRANCE: A. D. 1872-1889.
Reform of Public Instruction.
See
EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
FRANCE: A. D. 1833-1889.
FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889.
Stable settlements of the Republic.
Presidencies of MacMahon and Grevy.
Military operations in Tunis, Madagascar and Tonquin.
Revision of the constitution.
Expulsion of the princes.
Boulangerism.
Election of M. Sadi Carnot to the presidency.