the Empire had challenged. But a resistance was organised by Gambetta, at 198 the head of a stock-jobbing clique, whose interests, both commercial and political, forbade them to let the war die out, lest they should find themselves face to face with a people determined to be fleeced no longer. In saying the above we do not deny that this sham patriotism was backed up by a wave of genuine patriotic enthusiasm common to the whole people. The resistance, however, was always quite hopeless from a military point of view,and brought the country to the verge of ruin. It also necessarily involved the German siege of Paris, the result of which was to throw a great deal of power into the hands of the city proletariat, since they at least were in earnest in their opposition to the foreign enemy, and the theatrical resistance necessary to the ambition of the political adventurers who posed as their leaders could not have had a decent face to put upon it without their enthusiasm. In October, while the siege was still at its height, a rising headed by Blanqui nearly succeeded in overthrowing the bourgeois domination; and after the siege the possession of arms, especially cannon, by the proletariat, in the face 199 of the disarmed and disorganised army under the bourgeois, afforded the opportunity desired by the Socialists. On the failure of Thiers’ attempt to disarm Paris─whether he expected it to succeed, or only designed it as a trap to enable him to fall with force of arms on the city we will not decide—on this failure the insurrection took place, and the Central Committee, largely composed of members of the International, got into their own hands the executive power, a great deal of which they retained during the whole existence of the Commune. Their position was strengthened by the fact that, apart from their aims towards the economical freedom of the proletariat, they were, in their aspirations towards genuine federalisation, in appearance at least, in accord with the Radicals who wished to see an advanced municipalism brought about.
As the movement progressed, it became more and more obvious that if the resistance to Thiers and the attempt to establish municipal independence for Paris was to succeed, it must be through the exercise of