Paris under the Commune. John Leighton
the Paris which is ready to favour that side which can prove that it has the most justice in it.
The deputies and maires of Paris have placarded the following proclamation:—
"RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE.
"LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ.
"Citizens—Impressed with the absolute necessity of saving Paris and the Republic by the removal of every cause of collision, and convinced that the best means of attaining this grand object is to give satisfaction to the legitimate wishes of the people, we have resolved this very day to demand of the National Assembly the adoption of two measures which we have every hope will contribute to bring back tranquillity to the public mind.
"These two measures are: The election of all the officers of the
National Guard, without exception, and the establishment of a
municipal council, elected by the whole of the citizens.
"What we desire, and what the public welfare requires under all circumstances; and which the present situation renders more indispensable than ever, is, order in liberty and by liberty.
"Vive la France! Vive la République!
"The representatives of the Seine:
"Louis Blanc, V. Schoelcher, Edmond Adam, Floquet, Martin Bernard,
Langlois, Edouard Lockroy, Farcy, Brisson, Greppo, Millière.
"The maires and adjoints of Paris:
"1st Arrondissement: Ad. Adam, Meline, adjoints.—2nd Arrondissement: Tirard, maire, representative of the Seine; Ad. Brelay, Chéron, Loiseau-Pinson, adjoints.—3rd Arrondissement; Bonvalet, maire; Ch. Murat, adjoint.—4th Arrondissement: Vautrain, maire; Loiseau, Callon, adjoints.—5th Arrondissement: Jourdan, adjoint.—6th Arrondissement: Hérisson, maire; A. Leroy, adjoint.—7th Arrondissement: Arnaud (de l'Ariége), maire, representative of the Seine.—8th Arrondissement: Carnot, maire, representative of the Seine.—9th Arrondissement: Desmaret, maire.—10th Arrondissement: Dubail, maire; A. Murat, Degoyves-Denunques, adjoints.—11th Arrondissement: Motu, maire, representative of the Seine; Blanchon, Poirier, Tolain, representative of the Seine.—12th Arrondissement: Denizot, Dumas, Turillon, adjoints.—18th Arrondissement: Léo Meillet, Combes, adjoints.—14th Arrondissement: Héligon, adjoint.—15th Arrondissement: Jobbe-Duval, adjoint.—16th Arrondissement: Henri Martin, maire and representative of the Seine—17th. Arrondissement: FRANÇOIS FAVRE, maire; MALOU, VILLENEUVE, CACHEUX, adjoints.—18th. Arrondissement: CLÉMENCEAU, maire and representative of the people; J.B. LAFONT, DEREURE, JACLARD, adjoints."
This proclamation has now been posted two hours, and I have not yet met a single person who does not approve of it entirely. The deputies of the Seine and the maires of Paris have, by the flight of the Government to Versailles, become the legitimate chiefs. We have elected them, it is for them to lead us. To them belongs the duty of reconciling the Assembly with the city; and it appears to us that they have taken the last means of bringing about that conciliation, by disengaging all that is legitimate and practical in its claims from the exaggeration of the émeute. Let them therefore have all praise for this truly patriotic attempt. Let them hasten to obtain from the Assembly a recognition of our rights. In acceding to the demands of the deputies and the maires, the Government will not be treating with insurrection; on the contrary, it will effect a radical triumph over it, for it will take away from it every pretext of existence, and will separate from it, in a definite way, all those men who have been blinded to the illegal and violent manner in which this programme is drawn up, by the justice of certain parts of it.
If the Assembly consent to this, all that will remain of the 18th of March will be the recollection—painful enough, without doubt—of one sanguinary day, while out of a great evil will come a great benefit.
Whatever may happen, we are resolute; we—that is to say, all those who, without having followed the Government of Versailles, and without having taken an active part in the insurrection, equally desire the re-establishment of legitimate power and the development of municipal liberties—we are resolved to follow where our deputies and the maires may lead us. They represent at this, moment the only legal authority which seems to us to have fairly understood the difficulties of the situation, and if, in the case of all hope of conciliation being lost, they should tell us to take up arms, we will do so.
VIII.
Paris has this evening, the 21st of March, an air of extraordinary contentment; it has belief in the deputies and the maires, it has trust even, in the National Assembly. People talk of the manifestation of the Friends of Order and approve of it. A foreigner, a Russian, Monsieur A—— J——, who has inhabited Paris for ten years, and is consequently Parisian, has given me the following information, of which I took hasty note:—
"At half-past one o'clock to-day a group, of which I made one, was formed in the place of the New Opera-house. We numbered scarcely twenty persons, and we had a flag on which was inscribed, 'Meeting of the Friends of Order.' This flag was carried by a soldier of the line, an employé, it is said, of the house of Siraudin, the great confectioners. We marched along the boulevards as far as the Rue de Richelieu; windows were opened as we passed, and the people cried, 'Vive l'Ordre! Vive l'Assemblée Nationale! A bas la Commune!' Few as we were at starting our numbers soon grew to three hundred, to five hundred, to a thousand. Our troop followed the Rue de Richelieu, increasing as it went. At the Place de la Bourse a captain at the head of his National Guards tried to stop us. We continued our course, the company saluted our flag as, we passed, and the drums beat to arms. After having traversed, still increasing in numbers, the streets which surround the Bourse, we returned to the boulevards, where the most lively enthusiasm burst out around us. We halted opposite the Rue Drouot. The mairie of the Ninth Arrondissement was occupied by a battalion attached to the Central Committee—the 229th, I believe. Although there was some danger of a collision, we made our way into the street, resolved to do our duty, which was to protest against the interference with order and the disregard for established laws; but no resistance was opposed to us. The National Guards came out in front of the door of the mairie and presented arms to us, and we were about to continue our way, when some one remarked that our flag, on which, as I have already said, were the woods 'Meeting of the Friends of Order,' might expose us to the danger of being taken for 'réactionnaires,' and that we ought to add the words 'Vive la République!' Those who headed the manifestation came to a halt, and a few of them went into a café, and there wrote the words on the flag with chalk. We then resumed our march, following the widest and most frequented paths, and were received with acclamations everywhere. A quarter of an hour later we arrived at the Rue de la Paix and were marching towards the Place Vendôme, where the battalions of the Committee were collected in masses, and where, as is well known, the staff of the National Guard had its head-quarters. There, as in the Rue Drouot, the drums were beaten and arms presented to us; more than that, an officer came and informed the leaders of the manifestation that a delegate of the Central Committee begged them to proceed to the staff quarters. At this moment I was carrying the flag. We advanced in silence. When we arrived beneath the balcony, surrounded by National Guards, whose attitude was generally peaceful; there appeared on the balcony a rather young man, without uniform, but wearing a red scarf, and surrounded by several superior officers; he came forward and said—'Citizens, in the name of the Central Committee. … ' when he was interrupted by a storm of hisses and by cries of 'Vive l'Ordre! Vive l'Assemblée Nationale! Vive la République!' In spite of these daring interruptions we were not subjected to any violence, nor even to any threats, and without troubling ourselves any more about the delegate, we marched round the column, and having regained the boulevards proceeded towards the Place de la Concorde. There, some one proposed that we should visit Admiral Saisset, who lived in the Rue Pauquet, in the quarter of the Champs Elysées, when a grave looking man with grey hair said that Admiral Saisset was at Versailles. 'But,' he added,