Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/169



be ended by an illusory compromise—the issue should not be doubtful. The victory fought for with such indomitable energy by the Commune will remain with the idea and with the right. We appeal to France, which knows that Paris in arms possesses as much calm as bravery, where order is maintained with as much energy as enthusiasm, which is ready to sacrifice herself with as much reason as energy. Paris is only in arms in consequence of her devotion to liberty, and the glory of all in France ought to cause this bloody conflict to cease.

"It is for France to disarm Versailles by a solemn manifestation of her irresistible will. Summoned to profit by our conquests, she should declare herself identified with our efforts; she should be our ally in the contest which can only end by the triumph of the Communal idea or the ruin of Paris. As for ourselves, citizens of Paris, we have a mission to accomplish, a modern revolution, the greatest and the most fruitful of all those which have illuminated history. It is our duty to fight and conquer."

It might have been alleged that the title of the Commune to rule the country was quite as good as that of the government that preceded it; but well established as was their unscrupulousness, it was amusing to find the men who were daily arresting dozens of harmless citizens talking of their fighting for individual liberty, and after arresting priests wholesale, forcibly closing their churches, and brutally expelling nuns from their convents, having the incredible impudence to describe themselves as the champions of the rights of conscience. The appeal to the people of France to join them against the Assembly at Versailles was too extravagant to be seriously examined. The only thing serious, indeed, in the whole proclamation, was that these men meant to fight to the bitter end, and ruin Paris, unless France acceded to their insane terms.