raying you.

"Our mandate has now expired..."

Always this same mandate which we gave you, eh?

"We now return it to you, for we do not pretend to take the place of
those which the popular breath has overthrown.

"Prepare yourselves, let the Communal election commence forthwith,
and give to us the only reward we have ever hoped for--that of
seeing the establishment of a true republic. In the meanwhile we
retain the Hotel de Ville in the name of the people.

"Hotel de Ville, Paris, 19th March, 1871.

"The Central Committee of the National Guards:

"Assy, Billioray, and others."

Placarded up also is another proclamation[17] signed by the citizens
Assy, Billioray, and others, announcing that the Communal elections will
take place on Wednesday next, 22nd of March, that is to say in three
days.

This then is the result of yesterday's doings, and the revolution of
the 18th March can be told in a few words.

There were cannon at Montmartre; the Government wished to take them but
was not able, thanks to the fraternal feeling and cowardice of the
soldiers of the Line. A secret society, composed of several delegates of
several battalions, took advantage of the occasion to assert loudly that
they represented the entire population, and commanded the people to
elect the Commune of Paris--whether they wished or not.

What will Paris do now between these dictators, sprung from heaven knows
where, and the Government fled to Versailles?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 14: No one may use white placards--they are reserved by the
government.

The following is an extract from the _Official Journal_ of Versailles,
bearing the date of the 20th of March, which explains the official form
of the announcements made by the Central Committee:--

"Yesterday, 19th March, the offices of the _Official Journal_, in Paris,
were broken into, the employes having escaped to Versailles with the
documents, to join the Government and the National Assembly. The
invaders took possession of the printing machines, the materials, and
even the official and non-official articles which had been set up in
type, and remained in the composing-rooms. It is thus that they were
enabled to give an appearance of regularity to the publication of their
decrees, and to deceive the Parisian public by a false _Official
Journal_."]

[Footnote 15: Here is an extract from the _Official Journal_ upon the
subject (numbers of the 29th