elusive hopes as accomplished facts? It seems pretty certain now
that the Government will make no concessions, that the proclamation is
only waste paper, and that the Provisional Commander of the National
Guard has been leading us into error--with a laudable intention
doubtless--or else has himself been deceived likewise. The united
efforts of the Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris have been
unequal to rouse the apathy of the Assembly.[21] In vain did Louis Blanc
entreat the representatives of France to approve the conciliatory
conduct of the representatives of Paris. "May the responsibility of what
may happen be on your own heads!" cried M. Clemenceau. He was right; a
little condescension might have saved all; such obstinacy is fatal.
Deprived of the countenance of the Assembly, and left to themselves, the
Deputies and Mayors of Paris, desirous above all of avoiding civil war,
have been obliged to accede to the wishes of the Central Committee, and
insist upon the municipal elections being proceeded with immediately.
They could not have acted otherwise, and yet it is humiliating for them
to have to bow before superior force, and their authority is compromised
by so doing. What the Assembly, representing the whole of France, could
have done with no loss of dignity, and even with honour to itself, the
former accomplish only at the risk of losing their influence; what to
the Assembly would have been an honourable concession is to them
dangerous although necessary submission. The Committee would have been
annulled if the Government had consented to the municipal elections, but
thanks to a tardy consent, rung from the Deputies and Mayors of Paris,
it triumphs. The result of the humiliation to which the representatives
of Paris have been forced to submit to prevent the effusion of blood,
will be the entire abdication of their authority, which will remain
vested in the Central Committee until the members of the Commune are
elected. Abandoned by the Government since the departure of the chief of
the executive power and the ministers, we rallied round the
representatives, who, unsustained by the Government, are obliged to
submit to the revolutionists. We must now choose between the Commune and
anarchy.

Therefore, to-day, Sunday, the 26th March, the male population of Paris
is hurrying to the poll. It is in vain that the journals have begged the
people not to vote; the elections were only announced yesterday, and the