Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/252

 tions which have been sent to us, and not one but has presented to us as a condition the obedience of the national sovereignty to the revolt—the sacrifice of all liberties and of all interests. We have repeated to these delegations that we would continue to pay the subsidy to necessitous workmen. We promised, and we promise it still, but the insurrection must cease; for it cannot be prolonged without causing the ruin of France. The Government which speaks to you would have preferred that you should liberate yourselves from a few tyrants who are playing with your liberties and your lives; but since you cannot do so, it must itself undertake the duty; and for that purpose it has collected an army beneath your walls—an army which comes, at the price of its blood, not to conquer,

but to deliver you. Up to the present time it has confined itself to attacking the outer works. The moment has now arrived when, to abridge your sufferings, it must attack the enceinte itself. It will not bombard Paris, as the people of the Commune and Committee of Safety will not fail to tell you it intends. A bombardment threatens a whole city, and renders it uninhabitable, and has for its object to intimidate the citizens, and constrain them to a capitulation. The Government will not fire a cannon except to force one of your gates, and will endeavor to limit to the point attacked the ravages of war of which it is not the author. The Government knows, and would have understood, even if you had not on all hands informed it, that immediately the soldiers shall have entered through the enceinte you will rally round the national flag, in order to contribute with our valiant army to the destruction of a sanguinary and cruel tyranny. It depends upon yourselves to prevent disorders which are inseparable from an assault. You are a hundredfold more numerous than the Communist sectarians. Unite, then; open your gates, which they have closed against law, order, your prosperity,