Who would think it? They are voting. When I say “they are voting,” I
mean to say “they might vote;” for as for going to the poll, Paris
seems to trouble itself but little about it. The Commune, too, seems
somewhat embarrassed. You remember Victor Hugo’s song of the
Adventurers of the Sea:
“En partant du golfe d’Otrente
Nous étions trente,
Mais en arrivant à Cadix
Nous n’étions que dix.”[59]
The gentlemen of the Hôtel de Ville might sing this song with a few
slight variations. The Gulf of Otranto was not their starting point,
but the Buttes Montmartre; though to make up for it they were eighty in
number. On arriving at C——, no, I mean, the decree of the Colonne
Vendôme, they were a few more than ten, but not many. What charming
stanzas in imitation of Victor Hugo might Théodore de Banville and
Albert Glatigny write on the successive desertions of the members of
the Commune. The first to withdraw were the _maires_ of Paris,
frightened to death at having been sent by the votes of their
fellow-citizens into an assembly which was not at all, it appears,
their ideal of a municipal council. And upon this subject Monsieur
Desmarest, Monsieur Tirard, and their _adjoints_ will perhaps permit me
an unimportant question. What right had they to persuade their electors
and the Friends of Order, to vote for the Commune of Paris if they were
resolved to decline all responsibility when the votes had been given
them? Their presence at the Hôtel de Ville, would it not have
infused—as we hoped—a powerful spirit of moderation even in the midst
of excesses that could even then be foretold? When they have done all
they can to persuade people to vote, have they the right to consider
themselves ineligible? In a word, why did they propose to us to elect
the Commune of Paris if the Commune were a bad thing? and if it were a
good thing, why did they refuse to take their part in it? Whatever the
cause, no sooner were they elected than they sent in their
resignations. Then the hesitating and the timid disappeared one after
another, not having the courage to continue the absurdity to the end.
Add to all this the arrests made in its very bosom by the Assembly of
the Hôtel de Ville itself, and you will then have an idea of the extent
of the dilemma. A few days more and the Commune will come to an end for
want of Communists, and then we shall cry, “Haste to the poll, citizens
of Paris!” And the white official handbills will announce supplementary
elections for Sunday, 16th of April.
But here comes the difficulty; there may be elections, but not the
shadow of an elector. Of candidates there are enough, more than enough,
even to spare; Toting lists where the electors’ names are inscribed;
ballot-urns-no, ballot-boxes this time-to receive the lists; these are
all to be found, but voters to put the lists into the ballot-boxes, to
elect the candidates, we seek them in vain. The voting localities may
be compared to the desert of Sahara viewed at the moment when not a
caravan is to be seen on the whole extent of the horizon, so complete
is the solitude wherever the eager crowd of voters was expected to
hasten to the poll. Are we then so far from the day when the Commune of
Paris, in spite of the numerous absentees, was formed—thanks to the
strenuous efforts of the few electors left to us? Alas! At that time we
had still some illusions left to us, whilst now.... Have you ever been
at the second representation of a piece when the first was a failure?
The first day there was a cram, the second day only the claque
remained. People had found oat the worth of the piece, you see.
Nevertheless, though the place is peopled only with silence and
solitude, the claque continues to do its duty, for it receives its pay.
For the same reason one sees a few battalions marching to the poll, all
together, in step, just as they would march to the fighting at the
Porte Maillot; and as they return they cry, “Oh! citizens, how the
people are voting! Never was such enthusiasm seen!” But behind the
scenes,—I mean in the Hôtel de Ville,—authors and actors whisper to
each other: “There is no doubt about it, it is a failure!”