Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/86

 has always been the hot-bed of riots and revolutions. A number of delegates from different political groups proceeded to the Hotel de Ville on the afternoon of the 22d of March, and demanded that the Prefect should recognize as the legal government the Central Committee installed in Paris. That injunction not being obeyed, the malcontents left, declaring that they could, if necessary, carry their point by force. Crowds having begun to assemble on the Place des Terreux, the authorities ordered the National Guard to be called out. During the evening cries of "Vive la Commune!" and "Vive le Comité de Paris!" were raised in the streets, and the Marseillaise was sung. One or two companies of a battalion from La Guillotière also went over to the rioters. About midnight a delegate of the Committee was introduced into the Hotel de Ville, then occupied by three battalions, and proclaimed from the balcony the insurrectionary government of Paris. Many of the National Guards protested, but abstained from offering any opposition to the movement, in order to avoid a collision. One shot was fired, but apparently by accident, and no person is known to have been wounded. Great incertitude existed in the minds of the population, and the insurgents took advantage of the hesitation to impose their own will. The red flag was hoisted the following morning on the Hotel de Ville. The Prefect was made prisoner, and the Municipal Council dissolved and replaced by a Provisionary Committee. This Committee, after pronouncing numerous decrees and several capital condemnations (which fortunately were never executed), finding themselves gradually abandoned by the very National Guards who had at first supported them, decided to retire, which they did after drawing up a paper declaring that, being no longer supported by the National Guards, they considered themselves as released from all engagements with their constituents, and threw up all