Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/205

 General Dombrowski, who had his headquarters at La-Muette; and the other reaching from the Point-du-Jour to Bercy, and commanded by General Walbrewski, whose headquarters were at Gentilly. The two armies were each subdivided into three sections.

Another, that as constant changes in the officers of the National Guard were most unfavorable to strict discipline, each person regularly elected would be provided with a commission guaranteeing to him his post. Any person wearing an officer's uniform and not provided with such an authority, would be arrested and imprisoned.

Another order said that certain abuses, expensive for the Commune, must be put a stop to. Various officers, thinking of nothing but handsome swords and gold lace, when afterwards rejected by their men, withdraw with their arms, which, however, no longer belong to them. Heads of legions are charged with having such property returned to the central storehouses.

On the evening of the 28th of April a meeting of the Presidents of the Freemason Lodges was held at their usual place of assembling, Rue Cadet, to come to some understanding on the subject of the public demonstration announced for the next morning in favor of the Commune. Thirty-four persons were present, and the great majority decided that the proceedings of certain brothers of the order of the Châtelet were altogether personal, and in direct opposition to the principles of Freemasonry; that, in the absence of any former decision either of the Grand Orient of France or of the Supreme Council, the manifestation fixed for the next day was in like manner irregular, and that the responsibility of the incidents which might occur was completely individual. A notice to the above effect was published by the Presidents in the various journals, as well as a letter from Ernest Hamel, ex-venerable of the Lodge Avenir, expressing his surprise