FRANCE. 



369 



They think that when society is organized on 

 a proper basis, the functions of government 

 and the principle of authority will become ob- 

 solete, that practical tasks will be delegated 

 voluntarily, as outside of the sphere of govern- 

 ment they are in a great measure, to persons 

 who show the requisite knowledge and skill, 

 and that, when it is necessary to take counsel, 

 informal bodies local, industrial, or more gen- 

 eral untrammeled by a rigid legal constitution, 

 will establish themselves spontaneously. The 

 Socialists of the old schools Phalansterians, 

 Proudhonians, Positivists have ceased agita- 

 tion. Those now in the field, as they became 

 more disappointed and out of harmony with 

 the republic, grew violent and revolutionary 

 in their attitude. The more politic and ambi- 

 tious, who throve by agitation such as Louise 

 Michel, Lissagaray, Rochefort, Fe~lix Pyat, 

 Emile Digeon, and other editors and orators 

 did not compromise themselves by adopting 

 any system of socialistic doctrine, but followed 

 the popular revolutionary drift, and grew more 

 inflammatory in their language. 



The meeting of the unemployed working- 

 men was held on the Esplanade des Invalides. 

 It was arranged by one of the numerous groups 

 of agitators, and was consequently discouraged 

 by the rival agitators. About 4,000 people 

 assembled, a considerable proportion of whom 

 were actually distressed mechanics in the 

 building-trade and Paris industries. The po- 

 lice kept the crowd moving, and when Louise 

 Michel, the orator of the day, appeared, she 

 was interrupted in the beginning of her ad- 

 dress. Suddenly, at a signal-cry, the crowd 

 started for the presidency, but were driven 

 back by the police. The whole programme of 

 the demonstration was prearranged, and the 

 spectators far outnumbered the participants, 

 many of them reactionaries, wishing and ex- 

 pecting a serious collision with the police. 

 When the passage of the Bridge de la Con- 

 corde was opposed by the police, the mob made 

 a show of resistance, and a brief struggle took 

 place before they retired. A band of those 

 who did not join the demonstration on the 

 Elysee followed Louise Michel up the Boule- 

 vard. Some of them entered the bakers' shops 

 demanding bread. If the shopkeepers refused 

 to give them loaves, they broke the windows 

 and helped themselves. This episode formed 

 no part of the original programme, in which 

 the assembly and the police acted their parts 

 with formal regularity. Louise Michel did not 

 suggest the proceedings, but, when she saw 

 them, laughed at the ingenious idea. 



The carpenters' demonstration and march on 

 the residence of President Grevy was only one 

 of many signs that the French working-man, 

 now pinched by hard times, was determined 

 to call the republic to account for neglecting 

 social legislation. The excitement was intense 

 among all classes. The political parties all en- 

 deavored to make capital out of the situation. 

 The Bonapartists and Legitimists accused the 

 VOL. xxiu. 24 A 



Republicans of having brought the distress 

 upon the working-class, and were themselves 

 accused of having instigated the riot of March 

 9th, and of being in league with Anarchists. 

 The crisis in the building trade was ascribed in 

 part to the pampering of the working-class by 

 the municipality of Paris, which paid high 

 wages to carpenters, and forced up the scale 

 until work could be done in the provinces 15 

 to 20 per cent, cheaper. Wages were said to 

 have risen 60 per cent, in the building trades 

 since 1875. 



A second demonstration was attempted on 

 Sunday, March llth, but the Government 

 adopted vigorous measures for the repression 

 of revolutionary agitation. A great number 

 who took part in the demonstrations of the 

 9th were arrested and sentenced to short terms 

 of imprisonment. Louise Michel gave herself 

 up, after evading the police for a week or two. 

 On June 21st Louise Michel, with eight other 

 persons, were put on trial on the charge of in- 

 citing to pillage. This orator and poet of the 

 social revolution was forty-six years old. Be- 

 f .re she entered upon the career of a commu- 

 nistic agitator she was a school-teacher. She 

 had endured the horrors of exile in New Cale- 

 donia, and returned with the last of the amnes- 

 tied communards. On one of her companions 

 was found a revolver, and in his lodgings ex- 

 plosives and many copies of a pamphlet such 

 as had been recently distributed among the 

 soldiers, inciting them to burn their barracks. 

 He was a book-agent, named Pouget, twenty- 

 three years old. The two prisoners conducted 

 their own defense, injecting political sarcasms 

 and denunciations into their pleas. They were 

 pronounced guilty, and sentenced Louise Mi- 

 chel to six and Pouget to eight years' imprison- 

 ment, with ten of police supervision for both. 



Labor Legislation. The problem of artisans' 

 dwellings was a branch of the labor question 

 which the Premier took up with sympathy and 

 zeal, as the solution would remove a growing 

 evil and at the same time provide work for 

 the clamorous carpenters and masons of Paris. 

 He entered into arrangements with the Land 

 Bank, by which advances would be made to 

 contractors to put up cottages, constructed on 

 the best models for comfort and sanitation, in 

 the environs of Paris. These dwellings, 13,000 

 in number, built at a total cost of 20,000,000 

 francs, were to be sold to working-men, and 

 paid for in annual payments, which are some- 

 what less than the ordinary rent of apartments 

 in the slums of Paris, but which will pay 5 

 per cent, interest and extinguish the principal 

 in twenty years. These payments are guar- 

 anteed by the Government. At the same time, 

 the municipality of Paris guaranteed loans 

 amounting to 50 millions, at the same rate of 

 interest and conditions of amortization, for the 

 construction of model tenement-houses con- 

 taining 26,000 dwellings. The rents range from 

 150 to 300 francs per annum. The tenants are 

 partly relieved from taxes. The same system is 



