w-citizens. You will find receivers of stolen goods among you, no
doubt. They told me yesterday that you had sent the Titiens and Paul
Veroneses of the Louvre to London, in order to be able to make money out
of them. A most excellent measure, that I can well explain to myself,
because I can understand that Monsieur Courbet must have a great desire
to get rid of these two painters, for whom he feels so legitimate and
profound a hatred. But, alas! it was but a false report. You confined
yourselves to putting up for sale the materials composing the Column of
the Place Vendome; dividing them into four lots, two lots of stone and
cement, and two lots of metal. Two lots only? Why! you know nothing
about making the best of your merchandise. There is something better
than stone and metal in this column. There is that in it which a number
of silly people used to call in other times the glory of France. What a
pretty spectacle--when the sale by auction is over--to see the buyers
carrying away under their arms--one, a bit of Wagram; another, a bit of
Jena; and some, who had thought to be buying a pound or two of bronze,
having made the acquisition of the First Consul at Arcole or the Emperor
at Austerlitz. It is a sad pity that you did not puff up the value and
importance of your sale to the bidders. Your speculation would then have
turned out better. You have managed badly, my dear Commune; you have not
known how to take advantage of your position. Repair your faults, impose
your taxes, appropriate, confiscate! All may be yours, disdain nothing,
and have no fear of resistance; everyone is afraid of you. Here! I have
five francs in my own pocket, will you have them?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 70: Jourde occupied the position of financial Minister under
the Commune Government. He is well-educated, and is said to be one of
the most intellectually distinguished of the Federal functionaries. He
is a medical student, and said to be twenty-seven years of age. See
Appendix 8.]

[Footnote 71: A working cobbler, and member of the International
Society, which he represented at the Congress of Bale. He occupied a
post on the _Marseillaise_ newspaper, became a Commissary of Police
after the fourth of September, and took part on the popular side in the
outbreak of the thirty-first of October. He was deprived of his office
by General Trochu's government, and appointed one of the delegates for
justice, by the authorities of the Commune.]