Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/150

 *nority argued that it was not the moment to waste time on such trifling questions. The reasons which preceded the text of the decree were also the subject of a long discussion. Although monuments commemorative of victories are of a nature to perpetuate insatiable animosities between nations, if they are to disappear, the national representation of the whole of France ought to order their suppression, the whole of France having contributed to their erection.

Paschal Grousset, in his paper, the Vengeur, says:

"At last that Column Vendôme is to be removed—a ridiculous and monstrous trophy, erected at the command of a blind despot, to perpetuate the remembrance of his insensate conquests and his culpable glory—a monument, moreover, destitute of all artistic value—a cantata in bronze, a daub in metal instead of on canvas—in short, a wretched imitation of Trajan's column. Art will lose nothing by its destruction; good sense and patriotism will gain. For the fact is injudicious to leave under the eyes of the ignorant and the simple the stupid glorification of a cursed past. That Column of Vendome I have never been able to look at it without my heart bounding with indignation and disgust. In the time of the Empire there was always to be seen hanging on the railings and rotting in the rain, innumerable wreaths of a flaunting yellow or a dirty white: Souvenir, Regrets, Gloire, Victoire. Without the sentinel who watched over this rubbish with jealous care, one might have taken the place for the traditional shop always to be found next door to the marble-mason's at the gates of the cemeteries."

The seizure of the public treasures of the Paris churches created an intense excitement, and most of the respectable journals which still remained unsuppressed were loud in their complaints against Rochefort, a supporter of the