"The budget of monthly expenses before the 18th March rose to 120,000 francs, of which 23,000 were absorbed by the salaries of the functionaries, employés, &c. After this date the expenses did not reach 20,000 francs a week, the expenses of placarding included.
"After the Commune the Union Républicaine announced in the journals that it had saved the Archives and the National Printing-Office from the flames. This was a lie, as proved by the order sent on the 24th May to the Archives at the request of Debock.
"Order.—The Archives not to be burnt.—The Colonel commanding the Hôtel-de-Ville, Pindy.
"As to the printing-office, it was occupied by Debock up to the invasion of the quarter. In the night of the 24th he sent to ask the Committee of Public Safety for the documents, papers, and articles necessary for the composition of the Journal Officiel. The next day, having received no answer, and the Versaillese pressing forward, he repaired to Belleville, where the three proclamations or placards which appeared on the following days were printed by his order."
IX.—(Page 241.)
"Certainly the Communal principle must have been very strong in itself to have held sixty days against such fools."—Behind the Scenes at the Commune, "Fraser's Magazine," December, 1872.
"To conquer was so easy and simple, that it needed the double dose of vanity and ignorance with which the feeble brains of the majority of the Commune were stuffed to baulk the people of its victory."—The Paris Commune of 1871, "Fraser's Magazine," March, 1873.
"He (Delescluze) had only once dared to attack me to my face, but it resulted in so much discomfiture to himself, and he came out of the affair so crestfallen, that for the future he confined himself to plotting against us behind my back, while to my face he was as civil as possible."—Behind the Scenes at the Commune, "Fraser's Magazine," December, 1872.
X.—(Page 250.)
At the trial of the members of the Commune, the advocate of Assi read a letter which the prisoners in Germany had sent his client:—