ou or many of your
brother-landlords took pretty good care not to be in Paris during the
Prussian siege, and that you contented yourselves with forming the most
ardent wishes, for the final triumph of French arms, from beneath the
wide-spreading oaks of your chateaux in Touraine and Beauce, or from the
safe haven of a Normandy fishing village; while we, accompanied it is
true by your most fervent prayers, took our turn at mounting guard, on
the fortifications during the bitter cold nights, or knee-deep in the
mud of the trenches. However, I do not blame those who sought safety in
flight; each person is free to do as he pleases; what I object to is
your coming back and saying, "During seven or eight months you have done
no work, you have been obliged to pawn your furniture to buy bread for
your wife and children; I pity you from the bottom of my heart--be so
kind as to hand me over my three quarters' rent." No, a thousand times
no; such a demand is absurd, wicked, ridiculous; and I declare that if
there is no possible compromise between the strict execution of the law
and his decree of the Commune, I prefer, without the least hesitation,
to abide by the latter; I prefer to see a little poverty replace for a
time the long course of prosperity that has been enjoyed by this very
small class of individuals, than to see the last articles of furniture
of five hundred thousand suffering wretches, put up to auction and
knocked down for one-twentieth part of their value. There must, however,
be some way of conciliating the interests of both landlords and tenants.
Would it be sufficient to accord delays to the latter, and force the
former to wait a certain time for their money? I think not; if I were
allowed three years to pay off my three quarters' rent, I should still
be embarrassed. The tool of the artisan is not like the peasant's plot
of ground, which is more productive after having lain fallow. During the
last few sad months, when I had no work to do, I was obliged to draw
upon the future, a future heavily mortgaged; when I shall perhaps
scarcely be able to meet the expenses of each day, will there be any
possibility of acquitting the debts of the past? You may sell my
furniture if the law gives you the right to do so, but I shall not pay!

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 instituted, and to those tenants fr