Paris under the Commune Part 11

The only possible solution, believe me, is that in favour of the tenants, only it ought not to be applied in so wholesale a fashion.

Inquiries should be inst.i.tuted, and to those tenants from whom the war has taken away all possibility of payment an unconditional receipt should be delivered: to those who have suffered less, a proportionate reduction should be allowed; but those whom the invasion has not ruined or seriously impoverished--and the number is large, among provision merchants, cafe keepers, and private residents--let those pay directly.

In this way the landlords will lose lees than one may imagine, because it will be the lowest rents that will be forfeited. The decree of the Commune is based on a right principle, but too generally applied.

The new Government--for it is a Government--does not confine itself to decrees. It has to install itself in its new quarters and make arrangements.[27]

In a few hours it has organized more than ten committees--the executive, the financial, the public-service, the educational, the military, the legal, and the committee of public safety. No end of committees and committeemen: it is to be hoped that the business will be promptly despatched!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 27: Organisation of the Commissions on the 31st of March:

_Executive Commission_.--Citizens Eudes, Tridou, Vaillant, Lefrancais, Duval, Felix Pyat, Bergeret.

_Commission of Finance_.--Victor Clement, Varlin, Jourde, Beslay, Regere.

_Military Commission_.--General E. Duval, General Bergeret, General Eudes, Colonel Chardon, Colonel Flourens, Colonel Pindly, Commandant Ranvier.

_Commission of Public Justice_.--Ranc, Protot, Leo Meillet, Vermorel, Ledroit, Babick.

_Commission of Public Safety_.--Raoul Rigault, Ferre, a.s.sy, Cournet, Oudet, Chalain, Gerardin.

_Victualling Commission_.--Dereure, Champy, Ostyn, Clement, Parizel, Emile Clement, Fortune Henry.

_Commission of Industry and Trade_.--Malon, Frankel, Theiz, Dupont, Avrial, Loiseau-Pinson, Eugene Gerardin, Puget.

_Commission of Foreign Affairs_.--Delescluze, Ranc, Paschal Grousset, Ulysse Parent, Arthur Arnould, Antoine Arnauld, Charles Gerardin.

_Commission of Public Service_.--Ostyn, Billioray, Clement (J.B.) Martelet, Mortier, Rastoul.

_Commission of Education_.--Jules Valles, Doctor Goupil, Lefevre, Urbain,[28] Albert Leroy, Verdure, Demay, Doctor Robinet.]

[Footnote 28: Memoir, see Appendix XIII.]

XXII.

Come, let us understand each other. Who are you, members of the Commune? Those among you who are in some sort known to the public do not possess, however, enough of its confidence to make up for the want of knowledge it has of the others. Have a care how you excite our mistrust.

You have published decrees that certainly are open to criticism, but that are not entirely obnoxious, for their object is to uphold the interests of that portion of the population, which you most particularly represent, and from whom you hold your commission. We will forgive the decrees if you do nothing worse. Yesterday, the 30th March, during the night (why in the night?) some men wearing a red scarf and followed by several others with arms, presented themselves at the Union Insurance Company. On the porter refusing to deliver up the keys of the offices he was arrested. They then proceeded to break open the doors with the b.u.t.t-end of their muskets, and put seals on the strong box. What can this portend? Have you been elected to break open private offices and put seals on cash-boxes? That same night, a friend of mine who happened to be pa.s.sing across one of the bridges on his way home, noticed that the windows of the Hotel de Ville were brilliantly lighted. Could they be having a ball already? he wondered. He made inquiries and discovered that it was not a ball, but a banquet; three or four hundred National Guards from Belleville had invaded the apartments and had ordered a dinner to be served to them. They were accompanied by a corresponding number of female companions, and were drinking, talking, and singing to their hearts' content. What do you mean by that, members of the Commune?

Have you been elected to keep open-house, and do you propose to inscribe over the entrance of the munic.i.p.al palace: "Ample accommodation for feasts and banquets," as a companion to your motto of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity?"

XXIII.

"I tell you, you shall not go!"--"But I will."--"Well, you may, but not your furniture."--"And who shall prevent my carrying off my furniture if I choose?"--"I will."--"I defy you!"--"Thief!"--"Robber!"

This animated discussion was being carried on at the door of a house, in front of which a cart filled with furniture was standing; a crowd of street boys was fast a.s.sembling, and the heads of curious neighbours appeared grinning in all the windows.

A partizan of the Commune had determined to profit by the decree.

Matters at first had seemed to go on quietly. The concierge, taken aback by the sudden apparition of the van, had not summoned up courage to prevent the furniture from being stowed away in it. The landlord, however, had got scent of the affair, and had hastened to this spot.

Now, the tenant was a determined character, and as the van-men refused to mix themselves up in the fray, he himself shouldered his last article of furniture and carried it to the van. He was about to place it within cover of the awning, when the landlord, like a miser deprived of his treasure, seized it and deposited it on the pavement. The tenant re-grasped his spoil and thrust it again into the cart, from whence it was instantly drawn forth again by the enraged landlord. This game was carried on for some time, each as determined as the other, grasping; s.n.a.t.c.hing, and pulling this unfortunate piece of furniture until one wrench, stronger than the former, entirely dislocated its component parts, and laid it in a ruined heap upon the ground. This was the moment for the tenant to show himself a man of spirit. Taking advantage of the surprise of the landlord, he swept the broken remains of his property deftly into the van, bounded on to the driver's seat, shook the reins, cracked his whip, and started off at a thundering gallop, pursued by the huzzas of the crowd, the cries of the van-men, and the oaths of the disappointed landlord. The van and its team of lean cattle were soon lost to view, and the landlord was left alone on his doorstep, shaking his fist and muttering "Brigand!"

XXIV.

What a quant.i.ty of luggage! Even those who had the good fortune of witnessing the emigration before the siege would never have supposed that there could be so much luggage in Paris. Well-to-do looking trunks with bra.s.s ornaments, black wooden boxes, hairy trunks, leathern hat-boxes, and cardboard bonnet-boxes, portmanteaux and carpet bags are piled up on vehicles of every description, of which more than ten thousand block up the roads leading to the railway stations. Everybody is wild to get away; it is whispered about that the Commune, the horrid Commune, is about to issue a decree forbidding the Parisians to quit Paris. So all prudent individuals are making off, with their bank-notes and shares in their pocket-books. I see a man I know, walking very fast, wearing a troubled expression on his face. I ask him where he is going.--"you do not know what has happened to me?" he cries. I confess I do not.--"The most extraordinary thing: I am condemned to death!"--"You!" I exclaim.--"Yes! by the Commune!"--"And wherefore?" I ask.--"Because I write on the _Figaro_."--"Why, I never knew that!"--"Oh! not very often; but last year I addressed a letter to the Editor, to explain to him that my new farce called 'My Aunt's Garters'

had nothing at all to do with 'My Uncle's Braces,' which is by somebody else. You understand that I did not want to change the t.i.tle, which is rather good of its kind, so I wrote to the _Figaro_, and as my letter was inserted, and as the Commune condemns all the contributors.... You see ...!"--"Perfectly! Why, my dear fellow, you ought to have been off before. Of course you go to Versailles?"--"Why, yes."--"By the railway?"

I cannot help having a joke at his expense.--"Yes, of course."--"Well, if I were you, I would not, really; the engine might blow up, or you might run into a luggage train. Such things do happen in the best of times, and I think the Commune capable of anything to get rid of so dangerous an adversary."--"You don't mean to say," says the poor little, man in a tremor, "that they would go to such lengths! Well, at any rate I will travel by the road."[29]

A little farther up the Boulevard des Italiens I see another acquaintance. "What, still in Paris?" I say, shaking hands with him.--"I am off this evening," he answers.--"Are you condemned to death?"--"No, but I shall be tried to-night."--"The devil! Do you write on the _Figaro_!"--"No, no, it is quite a long story. Three years ago, I made the acquaintance of a charming blonde, who reciprocated my advances, and made herself highly agreeable. In a word, I was smitten. Unfortunately there was a husband in the case!"--"The devil there was!"--"He made inquiries, and found out who I was, and ..."--"And invited you to mortal combat?"--"Oh! no, he is a hosier. But from that day forth he became my most bitter enemy."--"Very disagreeable of him, I am sure, but I do not see how the enmity of this retail dealer obliges you to quit Paris?"--"Why, you see he has a cousin who is elected a member of the Commune."--"I understand your uneasiness; you fear the latent revenge of this unreasonable hosier."--"I am to be tried to-night, but it is not the fear of death which makes me fly. It is worse than that. Those Hotel de Ville people are capable of anything, and I hear they are going to make a law on divorce. I know the malignity of the lady's husband--and I believe he is capable of getting a divorce, and forcing me to marry her!"

So, under one pretext and another, almost everyone is going away. As for me, I am like a hardened Parisian--my boots have a rooted dislike to any other pavement than that of the boulevards. Who is right, I, or those who are rushing off? Is there really danger here for those who are not ardently attached to the principles of the Commune? I try to believe not. True there have been arrests--domiciliary visits and other illegal and tyrannical acts--but I do not think it can last.[30] May we not hope that the dangerous element in the Commune will soon be neutralised by the more intelligent portion of the Munic.i.p.al Council, if, indeed, that portion exists? I cannot believe that a revolution, accomplished by one-third of the population of Paris, and tolerated by another (the remaining fraction having taken flight), can be entirely devoid of the spirit of generosity and usefulness, capable only of appropriating the funds of others, and unjustly imprisoning innocent citizens. Besides, even if the Commune, instead of trying to make us forget the b.l.o.o.d.y deeds with which it preceded its establishment, or seeking to repair the faults of which it has been guilty, on the contrary continues to commit such excesses, thus harrying to its ruin a city which has already suffered so much, even then I will not leave it. I will cling to it to the last, as a sailor who has grown to love the ship that has borne him gallantly in so many voyages, clings to the wreck of his favourite, and refuses to be saved without it.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 29: The following is a doc.u.ment which completely justifies these apprehensions:--

"30th March--The Commune of Paris--Orders from the Central Committee to the officer in command, of the battalion on guard at the station of Ouest-Ceinture.

"To stop all trains proceeding in the direction of Paris at the Ouest-Ceinture station.

"To place an energetic man night and day at this post. This man is to mount guard with a beam, which he is to throw across the rails at the arrival of each train, so as to cause it to run off the rails, if the engine-driver refuses to stop.

"HENRI, Chief of a Legion."]

[Footnote 30: Vexatious measures acc.u.mulated:

The pacific M. Glais-Bizoin was arrested in a tobacconist's shop, where he was, doubtless, lighting a reactionary cigar. He fancied at first that there had been a mistake, but he was taken before the Committee, which caused him, however, to be liberated.

M. Maris Proth, a writer in _Charivari_, which is certainly not a royalist journal, was arrested on the following day, and detained for a longer time.

On the same day a search was made at the house of the publisher Lacroix.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gambon.]

XXV.