Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/52

 boulevards, every one in search of news. The omnibuses had ceased to run, fearing they would be requisitioned for barricades; but in the centre of the city circulation was nowhere impeded.

In the morning of the 19th March the following proclamation was posted on the walls of Paris, addressed to the National Guards of the city, signed by all the members of the government present:

March 19, 1871.

"A body, assuming the name of Central Committee, after having seized on a certain number of cannon, has covered Paris with barricades, and has taken possession, during the night, of the Ministry of Justice. It has fired on the defenders of order; it has made prisoners and has murdered in cold blood Generals Clement-Thomas and Lecomte. Who are the members of that committee? No one in Paris knows them; their names are new to every one. No one can even say to what party they belong. Are they Communists, Bonapartists, or Prussians? Are they the agents of a triple coalition? Whoever they may be, they are the enemies of Paris, for they are giving it up to pillage; of France, for they are handing her over to the Prussians; and of the Republic, for they are abandoning it to despotism. The abominable crimes they have committed deprive of all excuse those who would dare to follow them or to submit to them. Will you accept the responsibility of their murders, and of the ruin they are bringing on the country? If so, remain at home. But if you have any regard for your most sacred interests, rally around the Government of the Republic and the National Assembly."

During the night the office of the Journal Officiel had been seized by the insurgents, and that paper appeared in the morning as the exclusive organ of the Central Com