Wilmington Journal

La Republique Rouge.

It does seem a strange fatality that every time the friends of true republican government in France have seen, as they thought, a fair opportunity to establish it, some fanatics and demagogues, assuming to be the real republican party, have proclaimed doctrines and committed acts whose effect was to drive back at once all the men of moderation with all the supporters of order to the shelter of a strong government, either Monarchy or Empire.

It is evident that the same result must soon happen again, and in view of the present state of affairs, the sooner the better.

It has been asserted that great cities are ulcers on the body politic. Nowhere has that saying been verified so completely as in France. It is only in Paris and Lyons that Socialism, with its pernicious doctrines, has established a strong foothold. Even in Marseilles and Bordeaux it never gained much ascendancy; and at present the socialist insurrection seems to be confined to Paris alone.

It is hard to tell exactly what are the purposes of the insurgents, or their grievances. Perhaps the squib of the Paris 'Charivari' during the insurrection of 1849, would hit off the present situation as well. That paper published the following decree as emanating from the 'Republique Sociale et Democratique' of that day.

Art. I. Everything is abolished.

Art. II. There is no longer anything.

Art. III. Everybody is charged with the execution of this decree.

Signed, Louis Blanc, Flocon and a good many other names now figuring again upon the decrees of the Commune of Paris.

Really, if it were not for the misery and bloodshed, the crashing of shells among women and children, the loss of life inflicted upon each other by citizens of the same country, the present insurrection would be a huge farce, an absurd mockery, hardly to be explained upon any other hypothesis but epidemic insanity. But unfortunately, it is mingled with enough of terror to make it a fearful tragedy. At the last accounts the insurgents were claiming a success, and the government was waiting for reinforcements. To our mind, it seems utterly impossible that such an insurrection can succeed in extending itself, even though it meet a transitory success. Our reason for thinking so is this: The insurrection is avowedly Socialistic. Now, Socialism has multitudes of adherents in the large cities, more in Paris than anywhere else, among those immense masses of mechanics of all trades, who, on account of the density of population and the competition of trade, are obliged to work for wages so small that they can never accumulate any property. The utmost that they can do is barely to subsist. Even the best paid, skilled mechanics under the most favorable circumstances, can only, as a general thing, acquire a little household furniture; and this he loses as soon as work fails him, or he is taken sick. It must go to the pawnbroker's or the auction block to buy bread. Such a thing as an artisan being enabled by his labor to acquire, in time, a little house and a piece of land, and to look forward to rest and comfort in his old age, as we see every day around us in this country, is almost unheard of in Europe. This is why Communism makes so many proselytes in the great manufacturing cities. The workmen, living from hand to mouth, are very ready to listen to the demagogues who preach to them a division of property, in which they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

But in the country, among the agricultural population, who form by far the great majority of the nation, a very different feeling prevails. In the first place, the peasant, while more ignorant than the city workman, is also less discontented with his lot and less irritated by the contrast of wealth around him. But especially the French peasants are to a great extent land owners. Since the Revolution of 1789, the chief aim of a peasant's life has been to acquire land. He will delve and toil and starve himself so that he may but purchase his acre or two, if no more. Thus it is that while the entire landed property of England has become concentrated in the hands of 30,000 holders, that of France is distributed among 5,000,000. Now, a man may be a Communist so long as he has nothing—but once let him be a proprietor, though it be only of a mud cabin and potato patch; then let Louis Blanc or Pyat or anybody else talk to him of dividing with those who have nothing, and he will reply with his pitchfork or his musket. This is human nature, and it will prevail. The Rouges may keep Paris in agony and terror for a few days longer, but France will put them down with the strong hand, and all the people will say amen! Let mercy be shown to the deluded masses; but in the name of civilization, of religion, of national honor and decency, let there be stern retribution dealt out to those who, unsatiated with the unparalleled calamities of their country, have, without even a specious pretext, shed the blood of their fellow-citizens and brought dishonor upon the cause of liberty and the name of their own native land!