Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/22

 the Emperor, the chiefs of that movement, many of whom were leaders in the late insurrection, proclaimed to the world that Napoleon III was the prime mover in the declaration of war. Most people, residents of France, knew to the contrary; the English Government knew to the contrary when Lord Lyons' dispatches were read in the House of Commons, declaring that the French people had taken the reins out of the Emperor's hands. The armies of the Empire were defeated, the Republic was proclaimed, its armies defeated, its military and political leaders overpowered by the surrender of Paris and the treaty of Brussels—then was committed the crowning error of leaving armed a National Guard, a large portion of which was the refuse of France, and the scum of different European countries, who, getting the upper hand of the more respectable portion of the Republicans in the city, loosened the bagne of some thirty thousand of its frequenters, and, led by instigators of murder and rebellion—assassins like Eudes and Mégy—released from prison by the Committee of National Defence, in which they had been confined under the Empire, committed, under the name, and for the purpose of protecting the Republic, every species of crime and blasphemy.

Prince Napoleon, cousin of the Emperor, and who, in the event of the death of the Prince Imperial, would be the next heir to the Imperial crown, addressed the following letter to Jules Favre, in which he accused that statesman with all the misery lately brought upon France. Its publication will throw considerable light on the origin of events proposed to be illustrated:

PRINCE NAPOLEON'S LETTER.

", May, 1871.

"Peace is signed with the conqueror. Paris, the great capital, burns—its finest edifices, which have existed for