nightwork of journeymen bakers suppressed. (20 April)* 

the private jurisdiction, usurped by the Seigneurs of mills etc 
(manufacturers) (employers, great and small) being at the same time 
judges, executors, gainers and parties in the disputes, that right of 
a penal code of their own, enabling them to rob the labourers’ wages 
by fines and deductions, as punishment etc, abolished in public and 
private workshops; penalties impended upon the employers in 
case they infringe upon this law; fines and deductions extorted since 
the 18th of March to be paid back to the workmen; (27 April). 

Sale of pawned articles at Pawn Shops suspended; (29 March).‘ 

A great lot of workshops and manufactures have been closed in 
Paris; their owners having run away. This is the old method of the 
industrial capitalists, who consider themselves entitled “by the 
spontaneous action of the laws of political economy” not only to 
make a profit out of labour, as the condition of labour, but to stop 
it altogether and throw the workmen on the pavement—to 
produce an artificial crisis whenever a victorious revolution 
threatens the “order” of their “system”. The Commune, very 
wisely, has appointed a Communal commission which in coopera- 
tion with delegates chosen by the different trades will inquire into 
the ways of handing over the deserted workshops and manufac- 
tures to cooperative workmen societies with some indemnity for 

No. 111, April 21, 1871.— Ed. 

1871), Journal officiel (Paris), No. 119, April 29, 1871.— Ed. 

News, No. 7776, April 1, 1871.— Ed. 

the capitalist deserters; (16 April)* (this commission has also to 
make statistics of the abandoned workshops); 

Commune has given order to the mairies to make no distinction 
between the femmes called illegitimate, the mothers and widows of 
national guards, as to the indemnity of 75 centimes?; 

the public prostitutes till now kept for the “men of order” at 
Paris but for their “safety” kept in penal servitude under the 
arbitrary rule of the police; the Commune has liberated the 
prostitutes from this degrading slavery, but swept away the soil 
upon which, and the men by whom, prostitution flourishes. The 
higher prostitutes—the cocottes—were, of course, under the rule 
of order, not the slaves, but the masters of the police and the 
governors. 

There was, of course, no time to reorganize public instruction 
(education); but by removing the religious and clerical element 
from it, the Commune has taken the initiative in the mental 
emancipation of the people. It has appointed a Commission for 
the organization of education (primary and professional) (28 
April). It has ordered that all tools of instruction like books, maps, 
paper etc be given gratuitously by the schoolmasters who receive 
them in their turn from the respective mairies to which they 
belong. No schoolmaster is allowed on any pretext to ask payment 
from his pupils for these instruments of instruction. (28 April)‘ 

Pawnshops*: under all receipts issued by Mont de Piété before 
April 25, 1871, the pawned clothes, furniture, linen, books, 
bedding and implements of labour, valued at not more than 20 
francs, may be reclaimed free of charge, beginning from May 12. 
(May 7)° 

2) MEASURES FOR THE WORKING CLASS, 
BUT MOSTLY FOR THE MIDDLE CLASSES 

Houserent for the last 3 quarters up to April wholly remitted: 
Whoever had paid any of these 3 quarters shall have right of 

also Journal officiel (Paris), No. 107, April 17, 1871.— Ea. 

(Paris), No. 119, April 29, 1871.— Ed. 

May 7, 1871.— Ed. 

setting that sum against future payments. The same law to prevail 
in the case of furnished apartments. No notice to quit coming 
from landlords to be valid for 3 months to come. (29 March)? 
échéances (Payment of bills of exchange due): (expiration of bills): all 
prosecutions for bills of exchange fallen due suspended. (12 April)” 

All commercial papers of that sort to be repaid in repayment 
spread over two years, to begin next July 15, the debts being not 
chargeable with interest. The total amount of the sums due 
divided in 8 equal coupures, payable by trimestre (first trimester to be 
dated from July 15). Only on these partial payments when fallen 
due judicial prosecutions permitted. (16 April)'** The Dufaure 
laws on leases and bills of exchange entailed the bankruptcy of the 
majority of the respectable shopkeepers of Paris. 

The notaries, huissiers, auctioneers, bum-bailiffs and other 
judicial officers making till now a fortune of their functions 
transformed into agents of the Commune receiving from it fixed 
salaries like other workmen ‘?; 

As the Professors of the Ecole de Médecine have run away, the 
Commune appointed a Commission for the foundation of free 
universities, no longer state parasites; given to the students that 
had passed their examination means to practise independent of 
Doctor titles; (titles to be conferred by the faculty). 

Since the judges of the Civil tribunal of the Seine, like the other 
magistrates always ready to function under any class government, 
had run away, Commune appointed an advocate to do the most 
urgent business until the reorganization of tribunals on the basis of 

general suffrage; (26 April) 
3) GENERAL MEASURES 

Conscription abolished In the present war every able man 
(National Guard) must serve. This measure excellent to get rid of 
all traitors and cowards hiding in Paris (29 March). 

4 Decree of March 29, 1871 on the remission of rents, The Daily News, 
No. 7775, March 31, 1871.— Ed. 

Rappel, No. 670, April 14, 1871.— Ed. 

Games of hazard suppressed. (2 April)? 

Church separated from State; the religious budget suppressed; all 
clerical estates declared national properties, (3 April). 

The Commune, having made inquiries consequent upon private 
informations, found that beside the old Guillotine the “government 
of order” had commanded the construction of a new guillotine 
(more expeditive and portable), and paid in avance. The Commune 
ordered both the old and the new guillotine to be 
burned publicly on the 6th of April.“ The Versailles journals, 
reechoed by the press of order all over the world, narrated the 
Paris people, as a demonstration against the bloodthirstiness of the 
Communals, had burnt these guillotines! (6 April) All political 
prisoners were set free at once after the Revolution of the 18th of 
March.* But the Commune knew that under the régime of L. 
Bonaparte and his worthy successor of the Government of Defence 
many people were simply incarcerated on no charge whatever as 
political suspects. Consequently it charged one of its members— 
Protot—to make inquiries.“ By him 150 people set free who being 
arrested since six months, had not yet undergone any judicial 
examination; many of them, already arrested under Bonaparte, 
had been for a year in prison without any charge or judicial 
examination. (9 April) This fact, so characteristic of the Govern- 
ment of Defence, enraged them. They asserted the Commune had 
liberated all felons. But who liberated convicted felons? The 
forger Jules Favre. Hardly got into power, he hastened to liberate 
Pic and Taillefer, condemned for theft and forgery in the affaire of 
the Etendard.'*© One of these men, Taillefer, daring to return to 
Paris, has been reinstated into his convenient abode. But this is not 
all. The Versailles government has delivered in the Maisons 
Centrales' all over France convicted thiefs on the condition of 
entering M. Thiers’ army! 

Decree on the demolition of the column of the place Vendéme*” as 

b Decree of April 2, 1871 separating the church from the state, The Daily 

(Paris), No. 100, April 10, 1871.— Ed. 

Journal officiel (Paris), No. 79, March 20, 1871.— Ed. 

“a monument of barbarism, symbol of brute force and false glory, an 
affirmation of militarism, a negation of international right”. (12 April)? 

Election of Frankel (German member of the International) to the 
Commune declared valid: “considering that the flag of the 
Commune is that of the Universal Republic and that foreigners 
can have a seat in it”; (4 April)” Frankel afterwards chosen a 
member of the executive of the Commune; (21 April) 

The Journal officiel has inaugurated the publicity of the sittings of 
the Commune. (15 April) 

Decree of Pascal Grousset for the protection of Foreigners 
against requisitions. Never a government in Paris so courteous to 
Foreigners. (27 Apvril)° 

The Commune has abolished political and professional oaths. 
(May 4)° 

Destruction of the monument called “Chapelle expratoire de Louis XVI” 
rue d’Anjou St. Honoré (erected by the Chambre introuvable '” of 
1816) (7 May).° 

4) MEASURES OF PUBLIC SAFETY 

Disarmament of the “loyal” National Guards; (30 March)‘ 

Commune declares incompatibility between seats in its ranks and 
at Versailles; (29 March) 

Decree of Reprisals." Never executed. Only the fellows arrested, 
Archbishop of Paris and Curé of the Madeleine’; whole staff of the 

see also Journal officiel (Paris), No. 90, March 31, 1871.— Ed. 

(Paris), No. 125, May 5, 1871.— Ed. 

college of Jesuits; Incumbents of all the principal churches; Part of 
these fellows arrested as hostages, part as conspirators with Versailles, 
part because they tried to save church property from the clutches of 
the Commune. (6 April) 

“The Monarchists wage war like savages; they shoot prisoners, they murder the 
wounded, they fire on ambulances, troops raise the butt-end of their rifles in the 
air and then fire traitorously.” (Proclamation of Commune)* 

In regard to these decrees of Reprisals to be remarked: 

In the first instance men of all layers of the Parts society — after the 
exodus of the capitalists, the idlers, and the parasites—have 
interposed at Versailles to stop the Civil war— except the Paris clergy. 
The Archbishop and the curé de [la] Madeleine have only written to 
Thiers because averse to “the effusion of their own blood” in their 
quality as hostages. 

Secondly: After the publication by the Commune of the Decree 
of reprisals, the taking of hostages etc, the atrocious treatment 
of the Versailles prisoners by Piétri’s lambs and Valentin’s Gen- 
darmes did not cease, but the assassination of the captive Paris 
soldiers and National Guard was stopped to set in with renewed 
fury so soon as the Versailles Government had convinced itself 
that the Commune was too humane to execute its decree of the 
6th of April. Then the assassination set again in wholesale. The 
Commune did not execute one hostage, not one prisoner, not 
even some Gendarme officers who under the disguise of National 
Guards had entered Paris as spies and were simply arrested. 

Surprise of the Redoute of Clamart (2 May). Railway Station in the 
hands of the Parisians, massacre, bayonetting, the 22nd Battalion of 
Chasseurs (Galliffet?) shoots line soldiers offhand without any 
formality. (2 May) 

Redoubt of Moulin Saquet, situated between Fort Issy and 
Montrouge, surprised in the night by treachery on the part of the 
commandant Gallien who had sold the password to the Versaillese 
troops. Federals surprised in their beds asleep—massacred great 
part of them. (4 May?) 

25 April 4 National guards (this constated by Commissaries 

April 5, 1871.— Ed. 

sent to Bicétre where the only survivor of the 4 men, a Belle 
Epine, prés* Villejuif. His name Scheffer.) These men _ being 
surrounded by horse Chasseurs, on their order, unable to resist, 
surrendered, disarmed, nothing done to them by the soldiers. But 
then arrives the captain of the Chasseurs, and shoots them down 
one after the other with his revolver. Left them on the soil. 
Scheffer fearfully wounded survived.° 

13 soldiers of the line made prisoners at the railway Station of 
Clamart were shot offhand, and all prisoners wearing the line 
uniforms who arrive in Versailles will be executed whenever 
doubts about their identity are cleared up. (Liberté at Versailles.) 
Alexander Dumas fils, now at Versailles, tells that a young man 
exercising the functions, if not bearing the title, of a general, was 
shot, by order of a Bonapartist general, after having marched in 
custody a few 100 yards along a road... Parisian troops and 
National Guards surrounded in houses by Gendarmes, [who] 
inundate the house with Petroleum and then fire it. Some cadavers 
of National Guards (calcinés‘) have been transported by the 
ambulance of the press of the Ternes. (Mot d’ordre 20 April“) “They 
have no right to ambulances.” '*° 

Thiers. Blanqui. Archbishop. General Chanzy. (Thiers said his 
Bonapartists should have liked to be shot.) 

Visitation in Houses, etc. Casimir Bouts, appointed chairman of a 
commission of inquiry ° in the doings of the dictators of 4 September. 
(14 April) Private houses invaded and papers seized, but no 
furniture has been carried away and sold by auction.’ (Papers of the 
fellows of 4 September, of Thiers etc and Bonapartist policemen), 
f. i. in Hotel of Lafont, inspecteur-général des prisons. (11 April) The 
houses (properties) of Thiers et Co. as traitors sealed but only the 
papers confiscated. 

Arrests among themselves: This shocks the bourgeois who wants 
political idols and “great men” immensely. 

“It is provoking” (Daily News, 6 May. Paris Correspondence), “however, and 
discouraging, that whatever be the authority possessed by the Commune, it is 
continually changing hands, and we know not to-day with whom the power may 

d “Les gendarmes usent...”, Le Mot d’Ordre, No. 56, April 20, 1871.— Ed. 

rest to-morrow... In all these eternal changes one sees more than ever the want of a 
presiding mind. The Commune is a concourse of equivalent atoms, each one jealous 
of another and none endowed with supreme control over the others.” 

Journal suppression!" 

5) FINANCIAL MEASURES 
(See Daily News. 6 May)? 

Principal outlay for war! 

Only 8,928 fcs. from confiscations‘—all taken from ecclesiastics 
etc 

Vengeur 6 May.* 

b Ibid. See also Journal officiel (Paris), No. 124, May 4, 1871.— Ed. 
- Vengeur, No. 38, May 6, 1871.— Ed.