an example of moderation and respect of duty, that
democracy is not only the greatest of all political principles, but
also the most scrupulous of governments.

"However, no one has arrived from Paris, and it is necessary to act,
come what may; the perfidious machinations of the enemies of France
must be frustrated.

"Prussia relies upon the armistice to enervate and dissolve our
armies; she hopes that the Assembly, meeting after so long a
succession of disasters, and under the impression of the terrible
fall of Paris, wilt be timid and weak, and ready to submit to a
shameful peace.

"It is for us to upset these calculations, and to turn the very
instruments which are prepared to crush the spirit of resistance,
into spurs that shall arouse and excite it.

"Let us make this same armistice into a code of instruction for our
young troops; let us employ the three coming weeks in pushing on the
organization of the defence and of the war more ardently than ever.

"Instead of the meeting of cowardly reactionists that our enemies
expect, let us form an assembly that shall be veritably national and
republican, desirous of peace, if peace can ensure the honour, the
rank, and the integrity of our country, but capable of voting for
war rather than aiding in the assassination of France.

"FRENCHMEN,

"Remember that our fathers left us France, whole and indivisible;
let us not be traitors to our history; let us not deliver up our
traditional domains into the hands of barbarians. Who then will sign
the armistice? Not you, legitimists, who fought so valiantly under
the flag of the Republic, in the defence of the ancient kingdom of
France; nor you, sons of the bourgeois of 1789, whose work was to
unite the old provinces in a pact of indissoluble union; nor you,
workmen of the towns, whose intelligence and generous patriotism
represent France in all her strength and grandeur, the leader of
modern nations; nor you, tillers of the soil, who never have spared
your blood in the defence of the Revolution, which gave you the
ownership of your land and your title of citizen.

"No! Not one Frenchman will be found to sign this infamous act; the
enemy's attempt to mutilate France will be frustrated, for, animated
with the same love of the mother country and bearing our reverses
with forti