LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871.
[TO TILE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Srn,—I have read your very interesting reviews of M. Simon's " Gouvernement de M. Thiers," and as it is a period of history of absorbing interest and imperfectly understood, perhaps I may be permitted to narrate what I witnessed of the outbreak of the Commune. I arrived in Paris early in the morning of Saturday, the 18th of March, 1871; there were no fiacres to drive me to my hotel, the horses having been mostly eaten, during the siege by the Germans. A porter carried my portmanteau, while I walked. The rappel was being beaten as we went through the streets, and on inquiry the porter told me it was to collect the National Guard, to defend the city from the attack by the Government. We have many accounts of the doings of the Commune written, as you justly remark of M. Simon's narrative, " as one viewed it from the outside," but up to the present time I think there is not one account, as viewed from the inside, by those who took part in it ; and yet if it ever is written, it will form one of the most remark- able chapters in ancient or modern history. We have the fact that Paris during the siege of 1870 and 1871 had between 500,000 and 600,000 soldiers of the National Guard, so that at the termination of the siege, after allowing for all casualties, there could not be less than 400,000. M. Simon says, " No sooner were the gates of Paris opened, than all who had the means to go away rushed to revisit their families. The reports of the head-quarters staff of the National Guard show that 60,000 -Guards—the most trustworthy and• best situated, those who had a natural interest to defend order—left Paris, as the channels of conveyance became practicable." Nothing is said of the rest, yet there mast have been between 300,000 and 400,000 left. On the evening of the 18th, the streets, boule- vards, and public places were full of soldiers, turned out by rappel to preserve order. It was said at the time that as many as 300,000 were in the streets that evening, and from my observation I fully believe it. Between eight and nine, I found the men disbanding and returning to their homes. I asked several, and they said, " All is settled, and we are ordered home." What was " settled " they could not explain, as might be expected of rank and file. But the proprietor of my hotel, an officer, returned home, and all he could tell me was, their orders were to disperse. M. Simon now explains. M. Thiers was the first to leave Paris for Versailles, at five p.m.—and after him fol- lowed all the Government,—" after giving a written order for the Army to go away." That there was a large number to preserve order, is evinced by M. Simon's statement that the Maire of Paris "wrote that he could hold the Hotel de Ville inde- finitely with 500 men." But M. Thiers would not listen, and his only reply was a "formal comfnand to withdraw."
The result of this fatal order was the most tremendous -example of the transcendent importance of firm government in a crisis, and the evil done by vacillation. M. Thiers's order 'to disband was obeyed by the " men of order," who went to their beds ; but the Federal Council of Communists were up all night, and their 100,000 men of National Guards, while the rest were -asleep, took possession of the Tuileries, the Louvre, the various Government offices, barracks, &c. ; and on the next morning (Sun- day, the 19th), they were quartered in the Hotel de Ville, which the Maire of Paris had told M. Thiers the previous afternoon he could hold with only 500 men. I was wakened that morning about seven o'clock by the report of a heavy gun, and a few minutes after there was another loud report. It was Belleville and Mont- martre saluting, after the great events of the night ; and when I went out, I saw large placards, with crowds reading them, on all the Government buildings and principal streets, signed by the members of the Federal Council, forming a provisional Government for Paris. The inhabitants of Paris were stupefied ; many looked on the situation with stolid indifference, for there was such an utter distrust of every one in power that they even looked at the Federal Council as really the only faithful body, for they at least had not given up Paris to the Germans,—with nearly half a million of soldiers who had not seen the enemy, they had not made a dis- graceful peace. M. Simon indicates the feeling prevailing, by giving the violent denunciation of Cluseret against the appoint- ment by M. Thiers of General Aurelle de Paladino to the com- mand of the National Guards, as an act of treason. But whatever view was taken, there was no Government, or authority, or rallying- point for the rest of the well-disposed in the city, and the remainder of the 200,000 National Guards, consisting of shop- keepers, tradesmen, the better sort of workmen, and other respectable men, having no orders, did nothing ; while all Sunday and Sunday night, the Federal Council secured all they had obtained. They brought many of the bronze guns from the Place des Vosges and Montmartre, and ranged them in front of the Hotel de Ville, raised barricades across every avenue leading to it, with embrasures, through which were pointed cannon, the streets were picketed throughout the night, they cooked their soup with camp-fires, and stuck their billets of bread—cut off their long Parisian rolls—on the tops of the bayonets of their rifles, which were stacked in the street. I counted upwards of eighty bronze cannon ranged, and thus guarded, in front of the Hotel de Ville. On Monday further barricades were made, and all secured within the city. While this was going on within, the Council of Communists got a body of men together that I saw on Monday morning start for Ver- sailles, intending to strike a capital blow by capturing it, with M. Thiers and all his Government ; but they returned, finding too strong a force in front. You quote a striking account by M. Simon of the condition of the capital position of Mont Valdrien, which " had for its whole garrison two companies of disarmed riflemen" only, on Sunday, the 19th, and of the urgent en- treaties made to him to garrison it. I can confirm the truth that this formidable fortress was in this destitute condition, for on Sunday I walked from the dismantled Fort D'Issy to Meudon, where the Germans had the batteries that shelled Paris, and from thence to Mont Valerie°, and making my way through openings that I found in the strong palisading surrounding the outskirts of the fort, I arrived about six p.m. quite within the fort before I was challenged, and then by an unarmed soldier ; I saw only a few other soldiers about, and all without arms. Knowing the condition of Paris, I was very much struck at it, and on returning to the city, I expressed my astonishment that sufficient soldiers could not be found to occupy this most commanding position, for as 1 saw it, 100 soldiers might have taken Mont Valdrien. That very night a body of troops were got together to occupy it. It was stated afterwards that this was done on General Vinoy's own responsibility, who had learned its condition,—and such a capital stroke added much to his credit. We now have the truth from M. Simon. M. Thiers, after much pressing, at last yielded, and I extract the words you quote :—" The
difficulty was not to despatch a regiment but to find.
one At last, the 119th Line was selected. At two in the morning of the 20th, the orders were sent to it." Then follows, "That very evening the Federals [Communists] presented them- selves before Mont Valerien, but they found it then strongly occu- pied." Thus by the merest chance this great fortress, which played so great a part in the second siege of Paris, was saved from the hands of the Communists.
History nowhere records such a remarkable fact that 100,000 soldiers should thus at one blow paralyse 200,000 of their com- rades, as good and as well armed as themselves. But the explana- tion is that the leaders of the 100,000 men were on the spot, to give orders, and had a fixed purpose ; whereas the 200,000 men were without leaders,—they had " gone to Versailles," and were without any fixed purpose at all. After a few days, when they began to realise the new tyranny they were under, they made a feeble attempt to recover what they had lost, and were shot down without mercy, and their dead bodies laid out, covered with
sheets, in the Place Vendome. Further resistance was hopeless. The sequel of the second siege, and the terrible revenge, when at last the Communists were overcome, needs not my pen to narrate.
—I am, Sir, &c., CHARLES CLEMENT WALKER.
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