[90] It should be remarked that the destruction of M. Thiers’ house
coincided with the first success of the Versailles army; it was the
spirit of hatred and mad destructiveness which dictated the following
decree, issued by the Committee of Public Safety on the 10th of May:—
“Art. 1. The goods and property of Thiers (they even denied him the
appellation of citizen) are seized by order of the administration
of public domains.
“Art. 2. The house of Thiers, situated at the Place Saint-Georges,
to be demolished.”
“On the following day the National Assembly, in presence of the
activity exhibited by M. Thiers, declared that the proscribed,
whose house was demolished, had exhibited proofs of an amount of
patriotism and political ability which inspired every confidence in
the future. On the 12th of the same month works were commenced at
Versailles for the formation of a railway-station sufficient for
all the wants of an important army, the initiation of which was due
to M. Thiers; a conference was opened on the 19th April with the
Western Railway Company, the plans were approved on the 22nd of the
same month, and the preliminary works were commenced on the 12th of
May. When these are terminated, they will consist of thirty-five
parallel lines of rails, more than a mile in length. But the
principal point in the plan is, that by means of branches to
Pontoise and Chevreuse, this immense station may be placed in
direct communication with all the lines of railway in France. It is
easy enough to draw the following conclusion, namely, that if the
necessity should ever again arise, Paris would cease to be the
central depot for all commercial movements, and thus the paralysis
of the affairs of the whole country would be avoided, in case the
Parisian populace should again be bitten by the barricade mania. At
one time it was feared that the collections of M. Thiers were
destroyed in the conflagration at the Tuileries; but M. Courbet
reports that on the 12th of May he asked what he ought to do about
the different things taken at the house of M. Thiers, and if they
were to be sent to the Louvre or to be publicly sold, and he was
then appointed a member of the commission to examine the case.
Regarding his conduct at the time of the demolishing of the house
of M. Thiers, he arrived too late, he says, to make an inventory;
the furniture and effects had been already packed by the _employés_
of the Garde Meuble; “I made some observations about it, and on
going through the empty apartments, I noticed two small figures
that I packed in paper, thinking they might be private _souvenirs_,
and that I would return them some day to their owner. All the other
things were already destroyed or gone.”