THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE TRIUMPHS OVER ALL OBSTACLES AND
CONSTRAINS THE MAYORS TO CAPITULATE.
The Central Committee was equal to the occasion. Its proclamations, its
Socialist articles in the _Officiel_, the truculence of the mayors and
deputies, had at last rallied round it all the revolutionary groups. It
had also added to its members some men better known to the masses.[98]
By its order the Place Vendome was provided with barricades; the
battalions of the Hotel-de-Ville were reinforced; strong patrols
remounted the boulevards before the reactionary posts of the Rues
Vivienne and Drouot. Thanks to it, the night passed tranquilly.
As the elections on the next day had become impossible, the Committee
declared they could only take place on the 26th, and said to Paris: "The
reaction, excited by your mayors and your deputies, has declared war on
us. We must accept the struggle and break this resistance." It announced
that it would summon before it all the journalists libelling the
people. It sent a battalion of Belleville to reoccupy the mairie of the
sixth, and replaced by its delegates the mayors and adjuncts of the
third, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and eighteenth arrondissements, in
spite of their protestations. M. Clemenceau wrote that he yielded to
force, but would not himself resort to force. This was all the more
magnanimous that his whole force consisted of himself and his adjunct.
The Federals installed themselves at the Batignolles on the railway
lines, and stopped the trains, thus preventing the occupation of the St.
Lazare station. Lastly, the Committee proceeded energetically against
the Bourse.
The reaction counted upon famine to make the Committee capitulate. The
million of the Monday was gone; a second one had been promised. On the
Thursday morning, Varlin and Jourde, going to fetch an instalment,
received only threats. They wrote to the governor: "To starve out the
people, such is the aim of a party that styles itself honest. Famine
disarms no one; it will only encourage devastation. We take up the glove
that has been flung down to us." And, without deigning to take any
notice of the swashers of the Bourse, the Committee sent two battalions
to the bank, which had to give in.
At the same time the Committee neglected nothing in order to reassure
Paris. Numerous ticket-of-leave men had been let loose upon the town.
The Committee denounced them to the vigilance of the National Guard, and
posted upon the doors of the Hotel-de-Ville, "Every individual taken in
the act of stealing will be shot." Picard's police had failed to put an
end to the gamblers who every night since the siege had encumbered the
streets; a single order of the Committee sufficed. The great scarecrow
of the reactionists was the Prussians, and Jules Favre had announced
their early intervention. The Committee published the despatches that
had passed between it and the commander of Compiegne, to this effect:
"The German troops will remain passive so long as Paris does not take a
hostile attitude." The Committee had answered with great dignity: "The
Revolution accomplished at Paris is of an essentially municipal
character. We are not qualified to discuss the preliminaries of peace
voted by the Assembly." Paris was therefore without anxiety on that
head.
The only disturbance proceeded from the mayors. Authorised by M. Thiers,
they appointed as chief of the National Guards Saisset, the madman of
the sitting of the 21st, giving him Langlois and Schoelcher as
coadjutors, and made every effort to attract National Guards to the
Place de la Bourse, where they distributed the pay due to the guards of
the invaded mairies. Many came only to get the pay, not to fight. Even
the chiefs began to be divided amongst themselves. The most rabid
certainly spoke of sweeping away everything before them. Those were
Vautrain, Dubail, Denormandie, Degouve-Denuncques, and Heligon, an
ex-workingman, an idle fellow, admitted into the bourgeois servants'
hall, and bumptious like other lackeys. But many others flagged and
thought of conciliation, especially since some of the deputies and
adjuncts--Milliere, Malon, Dereure, and Jaclard--had withdrawn from the
union of the mayors, thus still further setting forth its frankly
reactionary character. Finally, some soft-headed mayors, still believing
that the Assembly needed only enlightenment, extemporised a melodramatic
scene.
They arrived at Versailles on the 23rd, at the moment when the rurals,
again plucking up their courage, made an appeal to the provinces to
march on Paris. In most solemn attitude these mayors put in their
appearance before the tribune of the president, girdled with their
official scarfs. The Left applauded, crying "Vive la Republique!" The
Lamourettes returned the compliment. But the Right and the Centre cried
"Vive la France! Order! Order!" and with clenched hands they
apostrophised the deputies of the Left, who naively answered, "You
insult Paris!" to which the others replied, "You insult France!" and
they left the House. In the evening a deputy, who was also a mayor,
Arnaud De l'Ariege, read from the tribune the declaration that they had
brought, and wound up by saying, "We are on the eve of an awful civil
war. There is but one way to prevent it--that the election of the
commander-in-chief of the National Guard be fixed for the 28th, and that
of the municipal council for the 3rd of April." These propositions were
referred to the Committee.
The mayors returned home indignant. A despatch of the evening before had
already disquieted Paris. M. Thiers announced to the provinces that the
Bonapartist Ministers, Rouher, Chevreau, and Boitelle, arrested by the
people of Boulogne, had been protected, and that Marshal Canrobert, one
of the accomplices of Bazaine, had offered his services to the
Government. The insult inflicted upon the mayors irritated the whole
middle-class, and called forth a sudden change in their Republican
journals. The attacks against the Central Committee relaxed. Even the
Moderates began to expect the worst from Versailles.
The Central Committee took advantage of this change of opinion. Having
just been informed of the proclamation of the Commune at Lyons, it spoke
out all the more clearly in its manifesto of the 24th. "Some battalions,
misled by their reactionary chiefs, have thought it their duty to clog
our movements. Some mayors and deputies, forgetting their mandates, have
encouraged this resistance. We rely upon your courage for the
accomplishment of our mission. It is objected that the Assembly promises
us at some indefinite period the election of the municipal council and
that of our chiefs, and that consequently our resistance ought not to be
prolonged. We have been deceived too often to be entrapped again; the
left hand would take back what the right hand gives. See what the
Government has already done. In the Chamber, through the voice of Jules
Favre, it has challenged a terrible civil war, called on the provinces
to destroy Paris, and covered us with the most odious calumnies."
Having spoken, the Committee now acted, and named three
generals--Brunel, Duval, and Eudes. It had to confine the drunkard
Lullier, who, assisted by a staff of traitors, had the evening before
allowed a whole regiment of the army encamped at the Luxembourg to leave
Paris with arms and baggage. Now, too, it was known that Mont-Valerien
was lost by his fault.
The generals made a profession not to be misunderstood: "This is no
longer a time for Parliamentarism. We must act. Paris wishes to be free.
The great city will not permit public order to be disturbed with
impunity."
A direct caution this addressed to the camp of the Bourse, which,
moreover, was visibly growing less. The desertions from it multiplied at
every sitting of the rurals. Women came to fetch their husbands. The
Bonapartist officers, overshooting the mark, irritated moderate
Republicans. The programme of the mayors--submission to
Versailles--discouraged the middle-class. The general staff of this
helter-skelter army had been foolishly established at the Grand Hotel.
There sat the crazy trio--Saisset, Langlois, and Schoelcher--who, from
extreme confidence, had fallen into a state of utter dejection. The most
crack-brained of them, Saisset, took upon himself to announce by
placards that the Assembly had granted the complete recognition of the
municipal franchise, the election of all the officers of the National
Guard, including the general-in-chief, modifications of the law on the
overdue commercial bills, and a bill on rents favourable to the tenants.
This gigantic hoax only mystified Versailles.
The Committee, pushing forward,[99] ordered Brunel to seize the mairies
of the first and second arrondissements. Brunel, with 600 men of
Belleville, two pieces of artillery, and accompanied by two delegates of
the Committee, Lisbonne and Protot, presented himself at three o'clock
at the mairie of the Louvre. The bourgeois companies assumed an air of
resistance. Brunel had his cannon advanced, when the passage was at once
opened to him. He declared to the adjuncts, Meline and Ad. Adam, that
the Committee would proceed with the elections as soon as possible. The
adjuncts, intimidated, sent to the mairie of the second arrondissement
to ask for the authorisation to treat. Dubail answered that they might
promise the elections for the 3rd April. Brunel insisted on appointing
the 30th March. The adjuncts acquiesced. The National Guards of the two
camps saluted this agreement with enthusiastic acclamations, and
mingling their ranks, marched to the mairie of the second
arrondissement. In the Rue Montmartre a few companies of the Bourse
army, trying to stop the way, were told, "Peace is made," and they let
them pass. At the mairie of the second arrondissement, Schoelcher, who
presided at the meeting of the mayors, Dubail, and Vautrain resisted,
refusing to ratify the convention, insisting on the date of the 3rd
April. But the great majority of their colleagues accepted that of the
30th, and the election of the commander-in-chief of the National Guard
for the 3rd April. Immense cheers hailed the good news, and the popular
battalions, saluted by the bourgeois battalions, defiled through the Rue
Vivienne and the boulevards, dragging along their cannon, mounted by
lads with green branches in their hands.
The Central Committee could not accept this transaction. Twice it had
postponed the elections. A new adjournment would have given certain
mayors five days for plotting and playing into the hands of Versailles.
Besides, the Federal battalions, on foot since the 18th, were really
tired out. Ranvier and Arnold the same evening went to the mairie of the
second arrondissement to say that the Hotel-de-Ville adhered to the date
of the 26th for the elections. The mayors and adjuncts, many of whom had
only the one purpose, as they have avowed since,[100] of gaining time,
inveighed against a breach of faith. The delegates protested, for
Brunel had had no mandate but that of occupying the mairies. For several
hours everything was tried to talk over the delegates, but they held
their ground, and went away at two o'clock in the morning without any
conclusion being arrived at. After their departure the more intractable
discussed the chance of resistance. The irrepressible Dubail wrote a
call to arms, sent it to the printing-office, and spent the whole night
with his faithful Heligon in transmitting orders to the chiefs of
battalions and providing the mairie with mitrailleuses.
While they were thus bent upon resistance the rurals thought themselves
betrayed. Every day they became more nervous, being deprived of their
creature-comforts, obliged to camp in the lobbies of the castle of
Versailles, exposed to all winds and to all panics. They felt weary of
the incessant interference of the mayors, and were thunderstruck by the
proclamation of Saisset. They fancied that M. Thiers was coquetting with
the _emeute_, that the _petit bourgeois_, as he hypocritically called
himself, wanted to cozen the monarchists, and, using Paris as his lever,
overthrow them. They spoke of removing him, and appointing as
commander-in-chief one of the D'Orleans, Joinville or D'Aumale. Their
plot might have come to a head at the evening sitting, when the
proposition of the mayors was to be read. M. Thiers was beforehand with
them, implored the Assembly to adjourn the discussion, adding that an
ill-considered word might cost torrents of blood. Grevy shuffled through
the sitting in ten minutes. But the rumour of a plot got abroad.
Saturday was the last day of the crisis. Either the Central Committee or
the mayors had to disappear. The Committee on that very morning
placarded: "The transport of mitrailleuses to the mairie of the second
arrondissement compels us to maintain our resolution. The election will
take place on the 26th March." Paris, which had believed peace
concluded, and for the first time since five days had passed a quiet
night, was very angry at seeing the mayors recommence the wrangle. The
idea of the election had made its way in all ranks, and many papers
declared for it, even among those that had signed the protestation of
the 21st. No one could understand this quarrel about a date. One
irresistible current of fraternisation swayed the whole town. The ranks
of the two or three hundred soldiers of order who had remained faithful
to Dubail dwindled away from hour to hour, leaving Admiral Saisset alone
to make his proclamation in the desert of the Grand Hotel. The mayors
had no longer an army when, at ten o'clock, Ranvier came to ask for
their final decision. Their dispute grew hot when some deputies of Paris
on their return from Versailles announced the news that the Duc d'Aumale
was proclaimed lieutenant-general. Several mayors and adjuncts then at
last understood that the Republic was at stake, and, convinced of their
impotence, capitulated. The draft of a placard was drawn up to be signed
by the mayors, deputies, and for the Central Committee by the two
delegates Ranvier and Arnold. The Committee wanted to sign _en masse_,
and slightly modified the text, saying, "The Central Committee, round
which the deputies of Paris, the mayors, and adjuncts have rallied,
convokes...." Thereupon some of the mayors, on the look-out for a
pretext, rose, crying, "This is not our convention; we said the
deputies, the mayors, the adjuncts, and the members of the
Committee...;" and, at the risk of rekindling the embers, placarded the
protest. Yet the Committee might well say, "Which have rallied?" since
it had yielded no point. However, Paris overruled the mischief-mongers.
Admiral Saisset had to disband the four men who remained to him. Tirard
in a placard advised the electors to vote; for M. Thiers that same
morning had given him the hint, "Do not continue a useless resistance. I
am reorganising the army. I hope that in a fortnight or three weeks we
shall have a sufficient force to relieve Paris."[101]
Five deputies only signed the address for the election, MM. Lockroy,
Floquet, Clemenceau, Tolain, and Greppo; the rest of Louis Blanc's group
had kept aloof from Paris for several days. These weaklings, having all
their life sung the glories of the Revolution, when it rose up before
them ran away appalled, like the Arab fisher at the apparition of the
genie.
With these mandarins of the tribune of history and of journalism, mute
and lifeless, contrast strangely the sons of the multitude, obscure, but
rich in will, faith, and eloquence. Their farewell address was worthy of
their advent: "Do not forget that the men who will serve you best are
those whom you will choose from amongst yourselves, living your life,
suffering the same ills. Beware of the ambitious as much as of the
upstarts. Beware also of mere talkers. Shun those whom fortune has
favoured, for only too rarely is he who possesses fortune prone to look
upon the workingman as a brother. Give your preference to those who do
not solicit your suffrages. True merit is modest, and it is for the
workingmen to know those who are worthy, not for these to present
themselves."
They could indeed "come down the steps of the Hotel-de-Ville head
erect," these obscure men who had safely anchored the revolution of the
18th March. Named only to organise the National Guard, thrown at the
head of a revolution without precedent and without guides, they had been
able to resist the impatient, quell the riot, re-establish the public
services, victual Paris, baffle intrigues, take advantage of all the
blunders of Versailles and of the mayors, and, harassed on all sides,
every moment in danger of civil war, known how to negotiate, to act at
the right time and in the right place. They had embodied the tendency of
the movement, limited their programme to communal revindications, and
conducted the entire population to the ballot-box. They had inaugurated
a precise, vigorous, and fraternal language unknown to all bourgeois
powers.
And yet they were obscure men, all with an incomplete education, some of
them fanatics. But the people thought with them. Paris was the brazier,
the Hotel-de-Ville the flame. In the Hotel-de-Ville, where illustrious
bourgeois have only accumulated folly upon defeat, these new-comers
found victory because they listened to Paris.
May their services absolve them from two grave faults--allowing the
escape of the army and of the functionaries, and the retaking of
Mont-Valerien by Versailles. It has been said that on the 19th or 20th
they ought to have marched on Versailles. But on the first alarm these
would have fled to Fontainebleau, with the Administration and the Left,
everything that was wanted to govern and deceive the provinces. The
occupation of Versailles would only have displaced the enemy, and it
would not have been for long, as the popular battalions were too badly
provided, too badly commanded, to hold at the same time this open town
and Paris.
At all events, the Central Committee left its successor all the means
necessary to disarm the enemy.
FOOTNOTES:
[98] Here are the names of those who signed the proclamations and
notices of the Committee. We shall restore, as far as possible, their
correct orthography, often altered, even in the _Officiel_, to the
extent of giving fictitious names:--Andignoux, A. Arnaud, G. Arnold, A.
Assi, Babick, Barroud, Bergeret, Billioray, Bouit, Boursier, Blanchet,
Castioni, Chouteau, C. Dupont, Eudes, Fabre, Ferrat, Fleury, H. Fortune,
Fougeret, Gaudier, Geresme, Gouhier, Grelier, J. Grollard, Josselin,
Jourde, Lavalette, Lisbonne, Lullier, Maljournal, Ed. Moreau, Mortier,
Prudhomme, Ranvier, Rousseau, Varlin, Viard. Notwithstanding the
decision of the Committee, all its members did not always sign the
proclamations. Finally, some who took part in certain deliberations
never signed at all.
[99] This order had been given the evening before. The treachery of Du
Bisson, nominated chief of the staff by Lullier, had prevented its
execution.
[100] Tirard: "My whole preoccupation and that of my colleagues had been
to postpone the elections so as to reach the date of the 3rd
April"--_Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p. 340. Vautrain: "My
colleagues and I thus gained eight days more."--_Ibid._, p. 379. J.
Favre: "For eight days we were the only barricade raised up between the
insurrection and the Government."--_Ibid._, p. 385. Desmarets: "I
believed it necessary to remain exposed to danger in order to give the
Government of Versailles time for arming."--_Ibid._, p. 412.
[101] _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, Tirard, vol. ii. p. 342.