That the officer was arrested by the military authorities no
doubt shows prima fade that he disobeyed military orders, and will have to take the consequences of his acts if they are proved to have been illegal. We must not forgot, however, that one act of injustice can never be wiped out by another. We must remember, further, that it is one of the supreme evils of revolt, and one of the reasons why such revolt has always been punished with severity by all communities, Republican or Monarchical, that in the wild confusion of the strife---operations governed by none of the ordinary rules of war—blunders a.ndmists.kes of the most appal- ling kind aro only too apt to be committed, not out of deliberate cruelty or bloodthirstiness, but from pure misapprehension. When Thiers's troops were putting down the Communards, hundreds of men and women were shot for the offence of pouring petroleum upon the flames. Yet it is now known that many of them were in reality attempting to put out the fires by pouring water on them. Both fluids were colourless, and both fluids may under certain conditions appear when thrown on a fire to cause a sudden flame. Hence an appreciable number of people perished for acts not of bad but of good citizenship.
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