The Religion of the Commune.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 116, 30 January 1872, Page 7

The Religion of the Commune.

5 The Times quotes from an article signed "Frederick Harrigon," arid published in the Fortnightly Review, the following words : "The people of Paris believe not in any Gnd, nor in any man. But they have a reI ligion of their own, for which they are ready to die. That religion is the faith that I capital and its holders must adapt themselves jto nobler uses, or they ha.l hotter cease to exist." Those words, the Tkiw. savs, were | printed because they tell the real truth about ! that revolution which has horrified the world ! by its catastrophes, and because they convey j in a narrow compass the history of the move- ! ment from beginning to end. The Commune, j proclaimed in the manifesto of the Paris artiI zans, represented nothing but the. means of an end. That end was the violent establishj ment of their private doctrines on the largest | practicable scale. Under the conditions of I their programme, Paris would have become ■ and remained the Paris of six weeks since i a city in which an organisation of armed | workmen was the sole depository of'power, j and a committee of working delegates the 1 sole centre of authority. On these terms jthey could proceed to action, and either ! ' k adapt capital and its holders to nobler uses," | or take care that they should cease to exist. IThey rose in arms against a power which I would have interposed on behalf of the na- ' j tiou, and forbidden ad this. For two months '(together they held the city against France, land then at last, when France proved too ! strong for them, thev endeavoured to destroy • j the capital itself before dving m despair. ' | The catastrophe is astounding if measured ! j against the cause. Men do die, and have ■died in all ages, for their rel'gion, bnt never j for a " reJig'ou" like this. N i ("h>d, no man, i no faith, no hope ; nothing but better swages ; and more pleasure. The principle of the ; revolution now quenched hi b'.ood was not a I I bit grander than that of a tailors' strike. • i What could have been done with these men ? • \ That 3io compromise or middle course •'•as )' pract'caV.d is pprfoct.Jy plain. municipal 1 privilesres, no political rishts, would have • : satis lied men who proposed to take all the ? i land and all the money, if possible, from the 51 whole neople : if not, at least from the people -! of Paris.