The History of the Paris Commune of 1871

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THE HISTORY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE OF THE History OF THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871 BY THOMAS MARCH ILontion SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. Ltd PATERNOSTER SQUARE Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. DEDICATED WITH UNFAILING ADMIRATION OF HER MANY EXCELLENT QUALITIES TO MY WIFE TAe /ipuivs denote tAc Jrrondissem&v/sS in/v wAic/i /hris is ctudc/ect . V CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGES List of Authorities vii I. Introductory ....... 1-13 II. Sunday, September 4th, 1870 .... 14-22 III. September 5th to 18th, 1870 .... 23-32 IV. „ 19th to 31st October, 1870 . . 33—5 1 V. November 1st to December 31st, 1870 . . 52-63 VI. January 1st to middle of February, 187 1 . 64-80 VII. From the middle of February to March 17th, 1 87 1 81-99 VIII. The 1 8th March, 1 87 1 100-115 IX. Paris under the Comite Central, March 19th to 27th, 1871 116-141 X. The Communal Elections — Results and Analyses 142-147 Paris under the Commune 148-247 The Eight Days of May :— First day, Sunday, May 21st, 1871 . . 248-255 Second „ Monday, „ 22nd, „ . . 256-272 Third „ Tuesday, „ 23rd, „ . . 273-288 Fourth „ Wednesday, „ 24th, „ . 289-308 Fifth „ Thursday, „ 25th, „ . . 309-320 Sixth „ Friday, „ 26th, „ . . 321-334 Seventh „ Saturday, „ 27th, „ . . 335-340 Eighth „ Sunday, „ 28th, „ . . 341-344 Conclusion 345-355 Index 357-372 LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES — to which the Author hereby acknowledges his Indebtedness — MADE USE OF IN THE COMPILATION OF this Work.

Actes du Gouvernement de la Defense Nationale. 7 tomes. Le 18 Mars. Rapport fait a lAssemblee Nationale, au nom de la Commission d'Enquete, par Martial Delpit. Macmahon. L'Armee de Versailles ; rapport officiel par le Marechal de Mac-Mahon. Rapport d'ensemble de M. le General Appert, sur les operations de la Justice militaire, presente a lAssemblee Nationale. Gazette des Tribunaux, for proceedings of the Conseils de Guerre. Lefrangais. Etude sur le mouvement communaliste, par G. Lefrangais. Du Camp. Les Convulsions de Paris, 4 tomes (tomes 1, 3, et 4, edition 1889; tome 2, edition 1878), par Maxime du Camp. Dalseme. Histoire des Conspirations sous la Commune, par A. -J. Dalseme. De la Brugere. Histoire de la Commune, par de la Brugere. La Veritef sur la Commune, par un ancien proscrit. Daudet.

LAgonie de la Commune, par Ernest Daudet. D'Esbœufs. Le Coin du Voile, par V. D'Esbœufs. Rousse. Discours prononce par M. Rousse a l'ouverture de la Conference des avocats. List of the Principal Authorities VIII Delpit. Huit jours d'Histoire, par Albert Delpit. Forni. Raoul Rigault, etude par Jules Form". Faillet. Biographie de Varlin, par E. Faillet. Mottit. Les Desastres de Paris, par John Mottu Barges. Notre Dame des Victoires pendant la Commune, par J. J. L. Barges. Un officier. Guerre des Communaux de Paris, par un officier superieur de l'armee de Versailles. Journal Officiel. Les 31 Seances officielles de la Commune de Paris (reproduced from the Official Journal of the Commune). Larousse. Articles in Larousse's Encyclopædia on the Commune, Vendome Column, and numerous individuals. Etc, etc. References are made to the above under the ivord or ivords italicised. i87i

Chapter I Introductory Seldom

is it that a popular movement of historical importance should take its rise, mature, and end within the brief space of a year, yet such a rarity is presented by the Paris Commune of 1871. The incidents of this movement, compact almost beyond precedent, are of thrilling interest, and rank among the most remarkable events of modern times. Notwithstanding the twenty-four years which have elapsed since 1871, the reminiscence of the Paris Commune is still an active influence in French affairs. To the Governments of every civilized country that Commune is an object-lesson which cannot, or at least should not, be lost sight of, for the human passions and aspirations which found expression then are still in existence, and may again, under different guises, make manifest their depth and power. To understand all the currents of thought which helped to sweep the Commune into being, some knowledge of the reign of the Emperor Napoleon III. is necessary, and therefore the rule of that monarch must first be briefly adverted to.

It was on the 10th December, 1848, that Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon, was chosen President of France, under a republican form of government. Three years later, after prolonged friction between himself and the National Assembly, he forcibly dissolved the latter, and maintained the irregular position thus created until it was confirmed by the French people, to whom he appealed by means of a plebiscite. A year later — December 2nd, 1852 — Buonaparte restored the B imperial form of government, styling himself Napoleon III- This act, also, was subsequently sanctioned by the nation. The Emperor ruled with firmness and tact, and dazzled the sentimental turn of the French intellect by the elaborate splendour of his court. He engaged in various wars with more or less success, and by this and other means consolidated and established his government.

The development of socialistic and democratic ideas was restrained with a strong hand, though this feature of his regime did not prevent the Emperor doing what, to his mind, constituted liberal things for the working classes, to whom, therefore, little indulgences accrued from time to time. One instance of this politic trait occurred in 1862, when, by the aid of a subvention from the Imperial Govern ment and the town of Paris, certain French workmen were sent to visit the great exhibition which was being held that year in London, in order to study the products and methods of English industry. Truly a benevolent and, one would think, harmless mission ; nevertheless, the intercourse of the French and English artisans gave rise to a project for founding an International Association of Workers for the furtherance of the workmen's interests in their respective countries, and such an outcome of the Emperor's liberality was totally unexpected and undesired by him.

The idea took root slowly ; it was not put into concrete shape until two years afterwards, when the nucleus of the Association was formed. The Imperial Government of France tolerated no political associations, and therefore the newly born body was of necessity non-political, and it apparently was also voluntarily so, for it refused to permit any pro minent politician to preside over its infancy and patronize its members. Its headquarters were at London, and branches were in Paris, Berlin, and other continental cities. One of the French workmen who were concerned in forming it was a book-binder, named Varlin, who, though only twenty-four years old, had already gained some renown by the earnestness and enthusiasm he had shown in promoting the welfare of the Parisian workmen. Varlin was employed by his uncle, and one day the latter suggested to him that he should marry one of his nieces, in which case the book-binding business would be settled upon him.

But, no ; Varlin would never enrich himself by the labour Introductory 3 of working men, neither would he marry, for his family — the oppressed ! — was ready to hand.1 The International Association speedily increased in numbers and influence. It was joined after some time by another inter national body — of freethinkers, from the junction with which dates a deviation from its non-political character. Freethinkers (so called) are averse to priests and religions, and it is impossible to exclude politics from an atheistical propaganda. The new comers, as well, perhaps, as a portion of the original body, considered that the miseries and injustices under which the working classes suffer could be radically alleviated or removed only by a violent revolution ; and it was in accordance with this impression that, at a congress held at Geneva in 1866, under the auspices of the International Association, certain French men were invited to attend it because of the revolutionary speeches they had made a short while before at Liege.

Among these were two persons named Tridon and Protot. Notwith standing this, the revolutionary elements were in a minority at the congress. The International Association had by then ramifications all over Paris and France. There were hundreds of various trades' or co-operative societies affiliated to it, all of which received a general inspiration and support from the central office. Early in 1867 there came an opportunity to test its strength. Several large employers of bronze-workers in Paris became alarmed at the numbers of their workpeople that belonged to the trade unions, and gave them the option of ceasing so to do or of relinquishing work at their factories. The workmen at once chose the latter alternative and were joined by the non-unionists, so that a general strike ensued. The International Association supported the action of the strikers, sent to England for assistance — and obtained it ; which two facts bore such fruit that the Paris employers receded from the position they had taken up, and the workmen returned to their labours triumphant.

The International Association benefited largely by the prestige which this affair gave it. In the same year the Association held its annual congress at 1 Faillet, p. 12. Lausanne. Whilst it did so, another congress, composed entirely of French republican politicians — headed by M. Jules Favre, the leader of the Opposition party in the Legislative Assembly — met at Geneva under the title of the League of Peace and Liberty, and made overtures to the democratic International — overtures which the latter reciprocated, but, in its own mind, attached too much importance to. A few months afterwards the Parisian Internationalists indulged in a novel enterprise ; to wit, an open-air political demonstration. After the interchange of compliments which had occurred in Switzer land, the Internationalists not unnaturally expected the personal support of M. Jules Favre at their demonstration ; but this gentleman did not appear, and, in consequence, was written to and expostulated with.

M. Favre, however, esteemed himself too considerable a personage to be connected intimately with workmen or with a manifestation that was sure to come under the ægis of Napoleonic law ; he curtly replied that there was no alliance betwixt them. The demonstration had more tangible result in attracting the attention of the police, as a result of which the executive commission of the International was by legal process dissolved, and its leaders fined 100 francs each. Undeterred, but rather confirmed and emboldened by this, the Internationalist chiefs formed a second executive, which issued a document advocating more advanced and com munistical ideas than the Association had hitherto ventured to proclaim. A second process of law ensued, and this time the leaders were imprisoned. None the less, the International Association increased both in power and in the general adoption of extreme views.

By the time of the next congress — held at Brussels in 1868 — these advanced opinions had so gained ground, that now it was the moderate party which constituted the lesser number. In this congress the revolutionary element abounded, and included among its representatives various newspaper writers, of whom the most prominent was one Blanqui, an elderly man of brilliant capacities but of rebellious and pusillanimous spirit, which on numberless occasions had procured for him imprisonments and condemnations. The principal measures advocated in these congresses were Introductory 5 as follow : denial of the right of a private individual to possess property ; abrogation of inheritance ; separation of Church from State, and confiscation of ecclesiastical properties ; equality of the sexes ; equality of men ; combination of the workmen of all countries against the employers, the necessary corollary of this being the abandonment of the principles of nationality and patriotism ; prohibition of religious teaching to children ; the establishment of communes which should be in fact what they were in name, places where all things should be possessed in common, where there should be neither privilege nor oppres sion, poverty nor wealth, idleness nor overwork, and where in justice should be swallowed up in a new system of social order: such was the vast ideal which the members of the congresses set before them and laboured to accomplish.

The practical diffi culties in the way were ignored or unthought of; the wrongs that would necessarily follow the realization of their rights were also unperceived or contemptuously scouted. The men who held these opinions were not isolated enthusi asts. They represented a very considerable public, composed chiefly of the working classes in Paris and other large towns of France, but including various persons of social position, and journalists of advanced views. This public had for generations been without any deep religious feeling ; it had now, for the most part, none. It was free to accept principles and believe theories which not any religion of civilization would approve ; with which intellectual liberty, however, there unfortunately was coupled, as frequently happens, a narrowness of mind which excluded the perception that the dogmas seized on with such avidity were in many cases only half true, and even when wholly true, that they were not to be selfishly appropriated by any particular class of society, but applied with equal force to the entire community.

It was this particular portion of the French nation that once more was becoming inflated with the ideal beauty of universal suffrage ; it was talked and written to concerning the latent power it possessed ; the socialistic writings of Proudhon were elaborated in clubs, assemblies, and journals ; whilst the irksome discipline incurred under the firm and some what arbitrary rule which swayed over France was held up to odium, and regarded only as the outcome of an antiquated and despotic form of government. All these things sunk deeply into the mind of the urban artisans and labourers ; the inculcations were laid to heart, strengthened, at Paris, by the brilliancy of the Imperial Court, which contrasted so markedly with their own abject condition. To these people, and to their leaders, the end justified the means : the end was said to be universal happiness and justice ; the means were to be any and every — it was not a matter of solicitude.

To agitators and revolutionists opportunity is of the first importance, and it was only for a fitting occasion that the French Socialists waited and longed. They were mentally prepared for any event that might occur by which their propaganda might be realized. It was in such expectant frame of mind that a naturalized American of French birth, named Cluseret, wrote from New York to Varlin in Paris early in 1870 : " That day we must be ready physically and morally. It shall be, that day, us or nothing. I say again, that day Paris will be ours, or Paris will no longer exist." Cluseret and Varlin had become acquainted with each other in the prison of Ste. Pelagie about two years previously, both of them having been imprisoned for political offences. Such imprisonments were very frequent during the years 1868, 1869, and the first half of 1870.

The offences generally consisted of newspaper articles which attacked the Empire, seditious speeches at public meetings, manifestations against the existing authorities, and occasionally an open revolt. It thus happened that most of the Internationalist chiefs and socialistic and revolutionary writers in the Parisian press found themselves at one time or another in prison, often more than once. The natural result of such political intolerance was further to embitter the minds of the prisoners and their adherents against the Emperor and all the bureaucracy and officialism which he represented, and to confirm in their opinion the necessity for a new and better society. The docility with which for many years the Emperor's rule had been endured by the working classes in the large towns of France had now completely vanished, and opposition thereto was freely manifested.

During the general elections which were held in 1869, this feeling was expressed with remarkable bitterness, and in January of the following year an incident occurred which, Introductory 7 for a time, threatened to inaugurate a revolution. The Emperor's cousin, Prince Pierre Buonaparte, had engaged in a newspaper conflict with a socialistic journalist named Paschal Grousset. Words not being weighed, personal offence was speedily perceived in the Prince's writings, and Grousset, with his friend and coad jutor Rochefort (a marquis, but none the less a man of revolutionary ideas), decided upon bringing the Buonaparte to a duel. Grousset sent to him two gentlemen, one of whom was named Victor Noir, to demand satisfaction. In the interview which took place between these three persons at the Paris house of the Prince, the latter angrily demanded if his visitors approved of what Grousset had written, and then, losing all self-control, drew forth a revolver and shot Victor Noir, who rushed out and fell dead in the street.

When this became known in the city, an indescribable fury took possession of the people ; they seethed with indignation and rage, which the arrest of the Prince failed to reduce, and, but for the overwhelming armed force maintained in the capital, an open outbreak would have ensued. The fer ment lasted for weeks, and the Empire and all connected with it were denounced in unmeasured terms by socialistic writers and speakers. A special court was constituted to try Prince Pierre ; it acquitted him of the criminal charge, and merely fined him £1,000 as civil compensation to Noir's family. So flagrant a miscarriage of justice overwhelmed the Parisians with amaze ment, and many of them gave free vent to their feelings of dis gust, regardless of consequences. Among those who did so was Rochefort, whose outspoken words in his journal, La Marseil laise, speedily procured for him incarceration in Ste. Pelagie, notwithstanding that he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, or Corps Legislatif.

Paschal Grousset shortly afterwards shared the same fate. Gustave Flourens, another of Rochefort's friends and collaborators, only escaped imprisonment by fleeing to Belgium. Many other arrests were made in connection with the affair, by means of which further manifestation of disapprobation was stifled ; but it is indisputable that the failure to administer justice to the murderer of Victor Noir sensibly weakened throughout France, and more especially in its capital, the Imperial regime. Shortly after this, several prominent Socialists plotted to overthrow the Imperialist dynasty by force, explosives being the medium of which choice was made. The police obtained knowledge of the plot, and at once arrested the ringleaders. Among them was the afore-mentioned Protot, a young barrister ; also Ferre, a law student ; Cournet, a journalist ; Dereure, a shoemaker ; Tony Moilin, a doctor ; and one Megy.

The arrest of the first-named was highly resented by the Parisian Bar, and it protested so energetically that Protot was released, and was thus able to act as counsel for the defence of Megy, when, in July, 1870, the trial came on before the High Court of Blois. This Megy had gained additional notoriety from the fact of having killed the officer who was sent to arrest him, on the ground that the arrest was attempted to be made at an untimely hour, in contravention of the law. His very questionable action was warmly supported by the socialistic organs in Paris, notably by La Reveil, a paper directed by Delescluze, who, like Blanqui, had spent his life in agitating for reforms. The prisoners in the " Complot of Bombs," as it was called, were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, of which the longest, Megy's, was for fifteen years.

Notwithstanding the frequency of the arrests of journalists, the suppression of newspapers, the existence of various prohibi tions which limited the right of public expression of opinion, and the gross miscarriage of justice in the Victor Noir case, the Empire held a very strong position in France, which all the efforts of writers and orators seemed powerless seriously to undermine. The Emperor was not blind to the political currents of the age, and he caused the existing constitution to be amended in order that the people might be more actively and evidently represented in the work of legislation. His policy was submitted to a plebiscite in May, 1870, with the result that seven and a half millions of votes were recorded in its favour, and only one and a half millions against it ; a note worthy fact being that the adherents to the Emperor's policy were found chiefly in the rural districts, whilst its opponents predominated in the large towns.

After the record of the plebiscite was known, affairs, both domestic and foreign, in France gradually sunk to the lowest ebb of depression, and for some weeks there was not the Introductory 9 slightest ruffle upon the surface of events to indicate or presage important occurrences. The sinister murmurings of trouble with Prussia, which during four years had kept Frenchmen alert, had at last died away ; the internal symptoms of disorder had lost their outward activity and by most people were forgotten : France was at peace with itself and with the world. Such homely concord could not long exist in the midst of an excitable and proud people. In the early days of July, a German Prince was offered and accepted the vacant throne of Spain. France fancied by this that she would be placed between two enemies, and that her position would be imperilled.

The Emperor objected to the arrangement, and desired the King of Prussia to persuade the young Prince to forego the proffered honour. The King, however, would not do this, but left the Prince to decide for himself; that decision was in accordance with the French desires. Not content with the renunciation thus obtained, France demanded of Prussia a guarantee for the future. This the King of Prussia refused to give, and sent his intimation to that effect to the French am bassador by an aide-de-camp, whereas the ambassador had expected to receive the reply personally from the King. The latter also sent word that he had no further need to receive the ambassador in connection with this subject. These messages, unpleasant though they were in substance, were courteously sent to and accepted by the ambassador ; no affront was given or received. *- Far otherwise was it with the French nation, which gained its knowledge of the incident from unofficial and imaginative news papers, whose accounts represented that the King of Prussia had offensively declined to receive the ambassador of France.

The honour and dignity of the French people were wounded ; Paris went mad with indignation at the alleged insult, and clamoured for war ; the provinces followed its lead, and re echoed the cry. It might have been the over-exacting demands of the Emperor which precipitated this crisis, but it was all France— Republican as well as Imperial — that took it up. War was declared, and before long hundreds of thousands of 1 Actes, tome i. p. 14 ; tome v. p. 47. soldiers were on their way to the German frontier, determined to cross it and chastise their insolent neighbour. The Emperor headed his army in person, and chief commands were given to two of his ablest generals, Marshals Macmahon and Bazaine. The utmost enthusiasm prevailed, and jubilant hopes of winning great and speedy victories filled every breast.

The Germans were not behindhand. They arrived at the frontier as quickly as the French, and, on August 2nd, the war commenced in earnest by a French attack upon Saarbruck, a town just within Prussian territory. This place the French succeeded in occupying, and therefore the first engagement of any consequence was in their favour. Reverses were, however, at hand. Within the next few days the French were defeated at Weissenburg, at Worth, and on the Spicheren heights, the last two being of a serious character. The news of these defeats alarmed and infuriated Paris. It cast about for an explanation of so unexpected a contingency, and its searches led only to one man, the Emperor. It was rumoured that he had opposed the military tactics recommended by his generals ; that desire for his personal safety hampered the army he was with, and it was now freely stated that he had plunged into a great war before the troops had been efficiently trained and equipped — "the Emperor" was the scapegoat.

Some practical measures were, however, taken. The city was declared in a state of siege ; fresh troops were raised ; the Gardes Mobiles — a body of reserves — called out ; volunteer free-shooters requisitioned, and, in order to despatch as many of the regular soldiers as possible to the seat of war, sixty battalions of National Guards were enrolled, composed of capable citizens, whose duty it would be to defend the capital. The city, sur rounded by an immense fortified wall, and, a mile beyond that, protected by various fortresses of great strength, was considered invulnerable. Nevertheless, more guns were mounted on the ramparts and in the forts, quantities of ammunition were stored up, the roads leading out of the city were excavated at the boundaries and drawbridges laid down. Finally, in anticipation of an actual siege, immense herds of cattle and sheep and prodigious supplies of provisions were gathered together.

To pacify the Republican party in the Legislative Chamber, Introductory 11 which loudly proclaimed its dissatisfaction with the existing government, the Empress Eugenie, who, in the Emperor's absence, was Regent of France, dismissed her ministers and appointed others more energetic for the purpose of making efficient preparations for carrying on the war. Count Palikao was the head of this new ministry. Subsequently, by direct warrant from the Emperor, General Trochu was appointed governor of Paris and commander-in-chief of all the forces assembled therein. Some of the Socialists in Paris endeavoured to make capital out of their country's misfortunes by instigating a rebellious agitation, from which, at such a juncture, great results were hoped. Blanqui, the revolutionary journalist, was the prime mover in the affair, and a hundred men were engaged, at a cost of 18,000 francs,1 to put the project into execution.

It took the shape of an attack, headed by a shorthand writer and former chemist's assistant, named Emile Eudes, upon some inoffensive firemen at La Villette, in the north end of Paris. Two of the firemen were killed, one of them by Eudes' hand, and a little boy was killed inadvertently. The plan was a crude and foolish one : the attack was instantly quelled, and Eudes and others arrested. For his participation in this affray, Eudes was con demned to death ; but, on the urgent requests of his friends, a delay was granted ere the sentence should be carried out. Further news from the seat of war came into Paris by driblets. It was forbidden to publish any information other than that issuing from the Government, and this was usually of a meagre and unsatisfactory nature. The Parisians learnt seriatim and by degrees that the Emperor had divested himself of the office of commander-in-chief, and had invested Marshal Bazaine therewith ; that.the latter was at Metz with a total force of about 120,000 men ; that the Germans were besieging Stras burg ; that their foe had also attacked Bazaine at a place east of Metz, had defeated him, forced him back upon Metz, and were there surrounding him so as to cut off his retreat upon Paris ; that Marshal Macmahon, at the head of 200,000 men, was manœuvring in the vicinity of Metz, waiting only to choose his 1 Actes, tome i. p. 180. own time and place to strike a blow at the German forces and relieve Bazaine.

The Emperor's whereabouts became a matter of conjecture, so little did the people of Paris know the actual state of events. Rumours of victories alternated with rumours of defeats, and men knew not which to trust. Poor people for miles around the capital flocked in great numbers into the city for the better protection its walls would afford them in case the enemy came so far ; on the other hand, multitudes of the wealthier classes and the entire colony of German residents fled from the place and from France. In and beyond Paris all was warlike activity : raising of troops, manufacture of arms, warehousing provisions, drilling recruits, erecting defence works— the war was not only upper most, but undermost also, through every thought of the French mind. Amusements, such as there were, were diverted into the same channel : one of them was somewhat noteworthy.

A patriotic cafi chantant was held on September ist, at which an old barrister and politician, a M. Cremieux, appeared. Fifty years before, when Louis XVIII. reigned over France, this Cremieux, then a young man of four-and-twenty, had defended some prisoners who were charged with singing the Marseillaise — an offence, to English ideas, devoid of criminality, but to French Royalists, and even to Napoleonic Imperialists, poignant with insult, terror, and revolutionary menace. M. Cremieux on that occasion had shown great audacity by reading in open court the words of the famous song, delivering them with such vigour that his personal acquiescence in them could not be doubted. His boldness carried the day ; the prisoners were acquitted, and Cremieux' reputation as an advocate was at once established.

Now, after the lapse of half a century, with the throne of France occupied by a Buonaparte who also had prohibited, until the outbreak of the war, the same song, the old barrister reproduces in full that notable pleading, and is enthusiastically applauded. It forms the event of the evening, and the theme of conversation throughout Paris the following day. There was, however, very little show of enthusiasm or of excitement. The city as a whole was sad ; it had serious work on hand, and did it ; there was no inclination for gaiety, and too Introductory 13 much depression to permit even of the exhibition of the pas sion for revenge which inwardly consumed it. Laughter was heard not ; for two weeks an unprecedented calmness of de meanour had characterized the Parisians. A Frenchman loves his country, and it was impossible to be light-hearted when it was threatened.