Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/55



responsibility, which was great. It was not unknown, for it was the free expression of the suffrages of 215 battalions of the National Guard. It has not provoked disorders; for the National Guards, which have done it the honor to accept its direction, have committed neither excesses nor reprisals, and have owed their strength to the wisdom and moderation of their conduct.

"And yet provocations have not been wanting; the Government has not ceased, by the most shameful means, to attempt the most horrible of crimes—civil war; it has calumniated Paris, and has excited the provinces against the capital; it has drawn up against us our brothers of the army, and has left them to perish with cold in the streets while their homes were waiting them; it has attempted to impose on you a General-in-Chief; it has, by nocturnal attacks, tried to disarm us of our cannons, after having been prevented by us from delivering them up to the Prussians; in fine, with the aid of its affrighted accomplices of Bordeaux, it has said to Paris: 'Thou hast just been heroic; therefore we are afraid of thee, and tear from thy brow thy crown of capital.'

"What has the Central Committee done to reply to those attacks? It has founded the Federation; it has preached moderation and generosity. At the moment when the armed attack commenced it said to all: 'Refrain from aggression, and defend yourself only at the last extremity.' It summoned to its aid all men of intellect and capacity; it invited the co-operation of the corps of officers; it opened its door to whoever knocked in the name of the Republic. On which side, then, was right and justice, and on which deception?

"One of the greatest causes of anger against us was the obscurity of our names. Alas! how many were known—too well known, and that notoriety has often been fatal to us. One of the last means they employed against us was to refuse bread to the troops who preferred to allow them