t the public in a
theatre or a cafe. He declares this is the "revolution." For our own
part it seems to us nothing but "immediate" madness.

It goes without saying that the bourgeois governments, whilst inveighing
against the authors of these attempts, cannot but congratulate
themselves upon these tactics. "Society is in danger!" _Caveant
consules!_ And the police "consuls" become active, and public opinion
applauds all the reactionary measures resorted to by ministers in order
to "save society." "The terrorist saviours of society in uniform, to
gain the respect of the Philistine masses must appear with the halo of
true sons of 'holy order,' the daughter of Heaven rich in blessings, and
to this halo the school-boy attempts of these Terrorists help them. Such
a silly fool, lost in his fantastical imaginings, does not even see that
he is only a puppet, whose strings are pulled by a cleverer one in the
Terrorist wings; he does not see that the fear and terror he causes only
serve to so deaden all the senses of the Philistine crowd, that it
shouts approval of every massacre that clears the road for
reaction."[72]

Napoleon III. already indulged from time to time in an "outrage" in
order once again to save society menaced by the enemies of order. The
foul admissions of Andrieux,[73] the acts and deeds of the German and
Austrian _agents provocateurs_, the recent revelations as to the attempt
against the Madrid Parliament, etc., prove abundantly that the present
Governments profit enormously by the tactics of the "companions," and
that the work of the Terrorists in uniform would be much more difficult
if the Anarchists were not so eager to help in it.

Thus it is that spies of the vilest kind, like Joseph Peukert, for long
years figured as shining lights of Anarchism, translating into German
the works of foreign Anarchists; thus it is that the French bourgeois
and priests directly subvention the "companions," and that the
law-and-order ministry does everything in its power to throw a veil over
these shady machinations. And so, too, in the name of the "immediate
revolution," the Anarchists become the precious pillars of bourgeois
society, inasmuch as they furnish the _raison d'etre_ for the most
immediately reactionary policy.

Thus the reactionary and Conservative press has always shown a hardly
disguised sympathy for the Anarchists, and has regretted that the
Socialists, conscious of their end and aim, will have nothing t