olished."

What say you to my proposition? Does it not agree with your dearest
desire? But you can do better and better: believe me you ought to have
the courage of your opinions.

"The Commune of Paris, considering that the Museum of the Louvre
contains a great number of pictures, of statues, and other objects
of art, which, by the subjects they represent, bring eternally to
the mind of the people the actions of gods, and kings, and priests;
that these actions indicated by flattering brush or chisel are often
delineated in such a way as to diminish the hatred that priests,
kings, and gods should inspire to all good citizens; moreover, the
admiration excited by the works of human genius is a perpetual
assault on one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, its
imbecility,

"Decrees:

"_Sole article_.--The Museum of the Louvre shall be burned to the
ground."

Do not attempt to reply that in spite of the recollections of religion
and despotism attached to these monuments you would leave Notre Dame and
the Museum of the Louvre untouched for the sake of their artistic
importance. Beware of insinuating that you would have respected the
Colonne Vendome had it possessed some merit as a work of art. You!
respect the masterpieces of human art! Wherefore? Since when, and by
what right? No, little as you may have been known before you were
masters, you were yet known enough for us to assert that one of
you--whom I will name: M. Lefrancais--wished in 1848 to set fire to the
_Salon Carre_; there is another of you--whom I will also name: M. Jules
Valles--asserts that Homer was an old fool. It is true that M. Jules
Valles is Minister of Public Instruction. If you have spared Notre Dame
and the Museum of the Louvre up to this moment, it is that you dared not
touch them, which is a proof, not of respect but of cowardice.

Ah! our eyes are open at last! We are no longer dazzled by the
chimerical hopes we nourished for a moment, of obtaining, through you
communal liberties. You did but adopt those opinions for the sake of
misleading us, as a thief assumes the livery of a house to enter his
master's room and lay hands on his money. We see you now as you are. We
had hoped that you were revolutionists, too ardent, too venturous
perhaps, but on the whole impelled by a noble intention: you are nothing
but insurgents, insurgents whose aim is to sack and pillage, favoured by
dist