tributed. But when the mass of a nation struggles desperately to escape from a political atmosphere which may be typified by the Black Hole of Calcutta, and exhausts itself in confused and at the same time apparently hopeless efforts, then the torrent of indignation breaks loose.

Was anything ever done by Danton, Robespierre, or Marat more brutal than the proposition read before the emperor in Council by the much-honored Field Marshal von Moltke in 1875? The facts with the evidence are given by De Blowitz, correspondent of the London Times, in an article in Harper's Magazine for May, 1893, entitled "The French Scare of 1875." Von Moltke urged, in view of the growing strength of France, that immediate war should be declared, Paris surrounded, and if necessary destroyed; that a fine of ten milliards should be imposed payable during twenty years without power of anticipation, and that garrisons should meantime be maintained throughout the country. This he declared was the wisest and, with a view to the sparing of future bloodshed, the most Christian course. It was Bismarck, who could at least understand that the force of public opinion in Europe was something different from what it was in the Thirty Years' War, through whom this Christian enterprise was foiled. Seeing that even his influence with the old emperor was not equal to the tempting bait held out by his military surroundings, Prince Bismarck caused the whole scheme to be revealed to the French ambassador, through whom it reached the Tsar of Russia and he interposed an effective veto. One is tempted to turn almost hopefully to the Scripture doctrine, that "they who take the sword shall perish by the sword."

Τ

CHAPTER XIII

THE SIEGE AND THE COMMUNE OF PARIS

IT is difficult to imagine anything more depressing than

the situation of Paris in the beginning of September, 1870. The emperor had left the city pretty much to take care of itself. The entire armies of France, except scanty garrisons of the cities and forts, were on the Rhine frontier.1 The men who were to make up the Government of National Defence had protested with all their energy against the war and the insufficient grounds on which it was declared. They had charged the ministers with acting upon the telegraphic reports of agents and had begged for further delay in negotiations, but in vain. After the departure of the emperor, they appealed to the Corps Législatif to take the government into its own hands and to provide for impending dangers. Both Chamber and ministry remained inactive. On Sunday, the 4th of September, at 1 P.M., a session was held under the weight of the news of the surrender of Sedan, which had taken place on the 2d. On the part of the conservatives it was proposed that a council of government and defence should be appointed by the Chamber, with Count Palikao

1 The losses at Sedan were 17,000 French killed, principally by artillery, 21,000 taken prisoners during action, 83,000 surrendered. Total 121,000. - VON MOLTKE, op. cit., Vol. I., p. 135.

At Metz there were 6000 officers, 167,000 men, taken prisoners, besides 20,000 sick, who could not be moved at once, making about 200,000.Ibid., Vol. I., p. 222.

Even if these figures are exaggerated, they indicate a number which, with the losses in previous battles, presents nearly the entire French forces under arms.

as lieutenant-general. The Opposition demanded that the Chamber should hand over the government to a commission of national defence, with the duty of calling a constituent assembly as soon as circumstances would permit. The members separated and were engaged in discussing these plans in their committee rooms, when a crowd broke into the building and filled the galleries. The members hastily reassembled, but the mob rushed in with them, shouting for the overthrow of the Empire and the establishment of the Republic. The President declared the session at an end. The members of the Left appealed to the crowd to preserve order, and Jules Favre, obtaining a moment's hearing and dreading a repetition of the scenes of May, 1848, proposed an adjournment to the Hôtel de Ville.

The scene there was a repetition of that of 1848 minus. the violence. Through a crowd which filled the building and its approaches the deputies representing Paris made their way into a small office, itself crowded to repletion, and then and there constituted themselves the Government of National Defence, with one or two additions in deference to the spectators. The names of these eleven men were Émanuel Arago, Léon Gambetta, Picard, Crémieux, Garnier-Pagès, Rochefort, Jules Favre, Glais-Bizoin, Jules Simon, Jules Ferry, Pelletan, to whom was added General Trochu as president and governor of Paris.

Of these men eight were lawyers, one a man of business, two journalists, and one a teacher by profession. Two of them had been members of the provisional government of 1848, being now respectively seventy-five and sixty-seven years of age. Besides these only one had held any prominent executive office. This was Jules Favre. Born in

1 Hon. E. B. Washburne, United States minister, who was present both at the Chamber and the Hôtel de Ville, bears emphatic testimony to the good nature and peaceableness of the crowds in both places.

1809, he was then sixty-one years of age, and, the son of a Lyons merchant, had won his way by untiring industry. Having completed his law studies in Paris in 1830, he, like other men who afterwards became prominent, had made a reputation in the political trials of the time. In 1848 he was General Secretary of the Interior under Ledru-Rollin, and shortly afterwards Under-secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Having entered the Corps Législatif in 1858, he combated the Empire at every step till its fall, while in its last days his eloquence and sincerity of purpose had made him distinctly the leader of the Opposition and marked him out for executive office. As vice-president of the new government and Minister of Foreign Affairs, to which was added, after the departure of Gambetta, the Ministry of the Interior, to him belongs the honor of having directed the civil government of Paris during the siege, and of having saved the city from starvation and negotiated the terms of peace, the work of Thiers having begun with his appointment to the executive power and after the Government of National Defence had passed out of existence.1

The youngest member of the government was Léon Gambetta, a Marseilles lawyer, born in 1838 at Cahors, a town about sixty miles north of Lyons. Descended from a Genoese commercial family, he had sprung from obscu

1 It may be regarded as a favor to our readers to call their attention to the three volumes of his "Simple Récit d'un membre du gouvernement de la défense nationale." Apart from the charm of exquisite French prose, the simplicity and modesty implied in the title are combined with a degree of earnestness and sincerity which carry the conviction of a devoted patriot and a thoroughly honest man. Making allowance for errors and shortcomings, for weaknesses in the management of the populace and the National Guard, for irresolution with regard to municipal elections, and the irregularities of private life, which are said to have darkened the close of his career, he appears as one of the evolutions of individuality which go far to justify the first French Revolution, something as Abraham Lincoln was in his relation to the people of the United States.

rity to reputation through a speech in memory of Baudin, one of the victims of the coup d'état. His age of thirtytwo years and his fiery southern nature, which refused to accept defeat, very nearly wrecked the negotiations for peace, but his character was redeemed by other qualities.1 Next to him in age was Jules Ferry, who afterwards attained to distinction under the Republic. Born at St. Dié, a manufacturing town in the Vosges, he was thirty-eight years of age and had in addition to his legal practice made a reputation as a journalist. Acting as secretary to the new government, he occupied himself with the duties of internal administration of the city, and on the 15th of November became maire of Paris, succeeding Étienne Arago, who, having refused payment for his services in that office, resigned because the government would not sustain his promises for the election of a Commune.

Henri Rochefort, who seems to have been accepted as a concession to the more violent element, and whose undesirable reputation as a journalist taints everything with which his name is connected, may be left out of the account, as he also resigned after October 31, for the same reason if not with the same motives as M. Étienne Arago. A word must be said for Ernest Picard, a native Parisian about fifty years old, whose cool and clear-headed decisions in moments of crisis are gratefully quoted by Favre.

The head of the military operations was General

1 For the present purpose take this passage: "After the war was over, his enemies put into operation all the machinery of a parliamentary inquisition, in the hope of blasting his reputation, soiling his honor, and destroying him in the public estimation; pursuing him for months, tracking him with spies, they could find no spot upon his garments. With absolute control of uncounted and untold millions, they had found his record clean and his hands unstained with plunder." HON. E. B. WASHBURNE, LL.D., "Recollections of a Minister to France," Vol. I., p. 180.