Page:Ernest Belfort Bax - A Short History of the Paris Commune (1895).djvu/43

 Rh handicapped in their influence. In the matter of the Picpus Convent, where racks, cages with women in a frightful state shut up in them, skulls with hair on, and other evidences of criminal practices were unearthed, nothing was done beyond transferring the nuns to St. Lazare. Decrees of the Commune were not given effect to. Journals suppressed in the morning were allowed to be sold in the evening. The only thing that was not forgotten by this department as by the whole movement was the humanitarian idea and the so-called Christian (?) principle of doing good to those that revile you and persecute you. The Commune through this delegation supported the wives and families of the men who were fighting against it, saying "the Commune has bread for all misery and care for all orphans."

Allied with the Commission of police and public safety was that of Justice. The Commune ordered that every arrest should be at once notified to this department. As regards punctiliousness in the matter of property the department of Justice like the Commune showed itself almost pedantic, returning the cash-box of a gas company (!) seized in a search for hidden arms on the company's premises. It dismissed a commissary for having sequestrated, police-fashion, the money found on Gustave Chaudey when arrested for having ordered the firing from the Hotel de Ville on the 22nd of January.

The delegation of Justice further instituted a rigorous enquiry into the state of the prisons, and the motives for the arrest of all persons detained. This latter led to a conflict between the two departments and to the resignation of Raoul Rigault after having been admonished by Delescluze for his careless conduct of the important functions entrusted to him. With all his faults, however, it cannot be said that this young man erred on the side of harshness.