ADOLF THIERS.
First President of French Republic.
As the army of Versailles advanced, the Communards applied the torch to every monument of note that came in their way.
During the 23rd of May petroleum was poured upon the Tuileries, and all along the Rue de Lille. Toward the end of the day the buildings on the Rue Royale and the Rue Saint-Honoré were burning. The Court of Accounts, the Legion of Honor, the Council of State, the Barracks, went down one by one. The next day the flames attacked the Prefecture of Police, the City Hall, the Custom House, the Archives and other buildings. How far the fury of the Communards might have gone toward the complete destruction of Paris cannot be said; it was a fortunate circumstance which saved from their torches the Louvre with its treasures of art, and the great Church of Notre Dame.
When it was not possible to employ fire, the artillery was called into action. The batteries of Père-Lachaise poured shot and shell against the dome of St. Augustine's, the bourse, the post-office, and other prominent edifices. Murder accompanied the horrors of fire. Men were shot down in the open street, or stabbed in the shadows of dark alleys. Six hostages, among them Mgr. Darboy and M. Bonjean fell at La Roquette. Fifteen priests and religious sustained on that day the agonies that make martyrs, pierced with bullets, transfixed by bayonets, and beaten to death by the blows of a savage mob. With them a number of laymen fell victims to hatred on that fateful 25th of May, 1871.
JULES FERRY.
While all Europe felt a thrill of horror at these cowardly and brutal deeds, socialism seized the occasion to chant the praises of the Commune. Its principal organ, the Vorbote, calls it a revolution "which the socialist democracy of the whole world ought to hail with enthusiasm," "which is only an episode in the social revolution." "The Commune is dead," it cried, "Long live the Commune!"
ANTI-CLERICALISM.
It is not surprising that a Government born under such auspices should prove very unfavorable to the cause of religious and social freedom. The first promptings of war against the Church had sounded in the very first moments of the Third Republic. Its actual declaration and acts of hostility required a preparation of several years. It was on May 4, 1877, that M. Gambetta terminated his vehement assault upon the Catholic Church in the Chamber of Deputies with those words which have become famous: "Our enemy is clericalism!" In spite of the protest uttered by the Count de Mun, the Chamber acquiesced silently in the charge and thereby betrayed its evident purpose of antagonizing the Church. The administration of President MacMahon proving unfavorable to anti-religious sectarianism, it was determined to compel the hero of so many battles to resign—a consummation that was finally effected in January, 1879.