Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/29

 better informed as to the scope of manifestations which have caused too much alarm, will shortly admit that temporization was, after all, the best course to adopt.

On the same day a meeting was held, in the open air, by the National Guards at Montmartre. The principal business was the election of members of the Central Committee; Garibaldi was unanimously elected general-in-chief of the National Guard; Flourens also was elected to an important office; and all present pledged themselves to obey in future no orders but those of the Committee. Generals Paladine and Vinoy were declared to be dismissed from their functions, and these were generals commanding the French army then stationed in Paris; and still M. Thiers, the veteran statesman, the head of the French executive, who had shown such temper, promptitude and adroitness in all his transactions, who had steered the country through its recent crisis, did not have the courage to grapple with the rising difficulty.

The executive government now determined to appoint a Prefect of Police, and their choice fell upon General Valentin, a former colonel of gendarmerie, a man of fine abilities, who had distinguished himself during the siege. The National Guard, encamped at Montmartre, protested against this appointment—they wished not only to exercise military but political rights, and insisted in electing their own municipal officers. They also protested against the introduction of regular troops into the city—rights which neither the city of New York nor London possess—and aspired to revive the days of the Revolutionary Commune. Their organization represented the various districts and wards of the city, and was originally intended to assist in defending the capital against the Prussians. Upon the ratification of peace by the National Assembly and the withdrawal of the enemy, this organization should have been dissolved; but the chiefs, having the power in their