Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/35



paralyzed; credit will not revive in capitals, the government of which, while the territory of the country needs to be delivered from the presence of an enemy, hesitates to come forward.

"In your interest, and in that of the city, and in that of France, the Government has resolved to act. The criminals, who affect to institute a government, must be delivered to regular justice, and the cannon taken away must be restored to the arsenals. To carry out this act of justice and reason, the Government counts upon your assistance, and that the good citizens will separate from the bad, that they will support instead of resist public opinion, that they will thus hasten to restore peace in the city, and render a service to the Republic which, in the opinion of France, must be ruined by disorder. Parisians! we speak to you thus, because we esteem your good sense, wisdom and patriotism, but having given you this warning, we shall proceed to have recourse to force, because there must be peace at all hazards without a day's delay, so that order, the condition of well-being, may return—order, complete, immediate, and unalterable."

The following proclamation, signed by all the members of the National Government, was posted during the day on the walls of Paris:

",—An absurd report is being circulated that the Government is making preparation for a coup d'état. The Government of the Republic neither has nor can have any other object than the safety of the Republic. The measures it has taken were indispensable for the maintenance of order; it intended and still intends thoroughly to put down the Insurrectionary Committee, whose members are almost all unknown to the inhabitants of Paris; they represent nothing but