Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/471

 M. Victor Hugo, who had been called to Belgium by a recent bereavement, where he prudently remained during the reign of the Commune, addressed the following letter to the editor of the Indépendence Belge of Brussels, expressing his disapproval of the conduct of the Belgian Government:

", May 26th, 1871.

":—I protest against the declaration of the Belgian Government relative to the vanquished of Paris.

"Whatever may be said or done, these vanquished are political men.

"I was not with them.

"I accept the principle of the Commune. I do not accept the men.

"I have protested against their acts: law of hostages, reprisals, arbitrary arrests, violation of liberties, suppression of newspapers, spoliations, confiscations, demolitions, destruction of the Column, attacks on the law, attacks on the people.

"Their violences have rendered me indignant, as to-day the violence of the opposite party will do the same.

"The destruction of the Column is an act of treason against the nation. The destruction of the Louvre would have been a crime—treason against civilization.

"But savage acts, done in ignorance, are not villainous acts. Madness is a disease, not an offence. Ignorance is not the crime of the ignorant.

"The Column destroyed was a sad hour for France. The Louvre destroyed would have been for all people an eternal mourning.

"But the Column will be raised, and the Louvre is saved.

"To-day, Paris is retaken. The Assembly has vanquished the Commune. Who made the 18th of March?