NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE great thunder-cloud of war which had been hanging so long over Paris burst at last: the storm is over, for the time ; and Pa- ris, shattered, bloodstained, disgraced—its government swept away in the hurricane—reawakens to some hope of safety under the shield of a military dictator. Never has so great a war been compressed into so small a compass both of space and time : few military engagements can vie with the slaughter that Paris, self- decimated, has achieved within its own walls, and within four days.
The history of the contest is as yet but imperfectly known. Some facts, indeed, are plain enough. The struggle was of a double nature—that of a servile and that of a civil war. The Provisional Government, of which M. Louis Blanc was un- luckily a member, undertook a huge experiment in Commu- nism, not only without social machinery for the purpose, but without even the slightest provision for fitting the new to the old system of industry : even had the soundness of M. Blanc's doctrines been demonstrated—which it never was, an experiment thus instituted must have been disastrous : Louis Blanc failed to establish a system of industry, but he did establish a gigantic system of paid idleness. A vast band of workmen, some hundred thousand strong, soon learned to receive daily wages for doing nothing; some twenty or thirty thousand convicts joined the easy trade ; and a bankrupt exchequer was burdened with the hugest army of able-bodied paupers since corn was distributed to the degenerate people of Rome. Mae nuisance was intolerable, and its suppression was demanded daily : but the Executive Govern- ment feared to grapple with the achievement. The paid idlers, however, with their allies the Communists and the convicts, knew that the "ateliers nationaux" continued to exist only so long as the Government lacked courage to demolish them; preliminary attempts at removal were made, and the men revolted in defence of their vested rights to paid idleness : the main body of the rebel army, no doubt, consisted of the men belonging to the ateliers nationaux. But they had allies from divers sec- tions of the population,—the criminal population, a very numerous body, naturally bound to the convict interest ; the theoretical Communists ; some part of the working classes, in- clined to disorder for its own sake ; the starving, who thought that any change must be for the better ; besides, probably, other speculators in tumult among the less scrupulous politicians of Paris. The leaders of the revolt are not yet named : the military skill and the comprehensive plan suggest the idea that practised Officers were among the rebels. Possibly some military genius may have been called forth by the opportunity—some degraded and inglorious Napoleon, emerging from among the many sol- diers that mingle with every class of Paris, may have run his wild career in the four days. But there are rumours of distin- guished traitors, whose names remain to be divulged. It is cer- tain that some of the insurgents possessed considerable sums of money—how obtained, is part of the mystery.
The character of the warfare was such as might be anticipated, from the noted malignity of civil contest, and from the strong infusion of criminal passions : the cruelties perpetrated on prisoners taken by the insurgents almost rival those ascribed to the old buccaneers and to the Greek brigands of our own time. Among the most regretted victims was the pious and zealous Archbishop of Paris, who went forth to speak words of peace, and fell in that noble mission.
The precise aim of the revolt, if it had one, is not yet known. To beat off the suppression of the national workshops was the proximate purpose; possibly also to set up a government that would not suppress the workshops was an ulterior aim ; and there can be little doubt that Ultra Republicans, Legitimists, and Imperialists, were among the fighters, speculating on opportu-
nities. The results of the visitation are more obvious : they are —first, a vast slaughter, a carnage exceeding that of St. Bartho- lomew, and only less wanton than that hideous visitation of royal fanaticism ; secondly, the summary cutting of that gordian knot the question of the ateliers nationaux ; thirdly, a reaction which has rather violently restored some power to the Executive Go- vernment.
The feebleness and inertness of the Executive Committee had become so astounding as to suggest suspicions of treachery, which are not altogether allayed. A story to explain the unaccountable supineness of M. de Lamartine is, that at the outset the great Re- publican orator made a compact with M. Ledru-Rollin, of mutual support ; and that he felt bound to observe the compact., even after his ally proved to be on the losing side and he saw his own popularity disappearing. From whatsoever motives of conscious feebleness, in the midst of the turmoil the Executive Committee transferred its power into the hands of General Cavaignac ; who for five days ruled Paris as a military dictator, put down the re- bellion, and resigned his extraordinary powers; a promptitude of civic virtue singularly consistent with his recent denunciation of attempts against the Republican form of government. Cavaig- nac was at once reappointed "President of the Council," with power to form his own Ministry ; in other words, he is created President of the Republic ad interim. He constructs his Ministry in great part from old official materials; and France once more possesses the semblance of a government.
It was high time. The recent history of Paris has cast dis- credit on a popular dogma, that liberty is to be attained by some mode of "curbing the power of the state": in France, the State, even before February, was not too powerful, but too feeble ; it was the feebleness of the last Government which handed over Paris to anarchy ; buccaneering bands, rebels inspired by the genius of Norfolk Island, incapable of developing any go- verning powers of their own, put liberty to the torture and con- demned Paris to the "state of siege" : the vigorous will of one man, aided by the sword and the coiiperation of the public at large, has raised up a new power, under protection of which a faint hope dawns that liberty may revive.
