une. The first to withdraw were the _maires_ of Paris, frightened to
death at having been sent by the votes of their fellow-citizens into an
assembly which was not at all, it appears, their ideal of a municipal
council. And upon this subject Monsieur Desmarest, Monsieur Tirard, and
their _adjoints_ will perhaps permit me an unimportant question. What
right had they to persuade their electors and the Friends of Order, to
vote for the Commune of Paris if they were resolved to decline all
responsibility when the votes had been given them? Their presence at the
Hotel de Ville, would it not have infused--as we hoped--a powerful
spirit of moderation even in the midst of excesses that could even then
be foretold? When they have done all they can to persuade people to
vote, have they the right to consider themselves ineligible? In a word,
why did they propose to us to elect the Commune of Paris if the Commune
were a bad thing? and if it were a good thing, why did they refuse to
take their part in it? Whatever the cause, no sooner were they elected
than they sent in their resignations. Then the hesitating and the timid
disappeared one after another, not having the courage to continue the
absurdity to the end. Add to all this the arrests made in its very
bosom by the Assembly of the Hotel de Ville itself, and you will then
have an idea of the extent of the dilemma. A few days more and the
Commune will come to an end for want of Communists, and then we shall
cry, "Haste to the poll, citizens of Paris!" And the white official
handbills will announce supplementary elections for Sunday, 16th of
April.

But here comes the difficulty; there may be elections, but not the
shadow of an elector. Of candidates there are enough, more than enough,
even to spare; Toting lists where the electors' names are inscribed;
ballot-urns-no, ballot-boxes this time-to receive the lists; these are
all to be found, but voters to put the lists into the ballot-boxes, to
elect the candidates, we seek them in vain. The voting localities may be
compared to the desert of Sahara viewed at the moment when not a caravan
is to be seen on the whole extent of the horizon, so complete is the
solitude wherever the eager crowd of voters was expected to hasten to
the poll. Are we then so far from the day when the Commune of Paris, in
spite of the numerous absentees, was formed--thanks to the strenuous
efforts of the few electors left to us? Alas! At that time we had still