g with the Prussians, to enslave the
people, after having betrayed the country. To whom then must we turn to
save the country? To the Legitimists? To the Orleanists?" (No, no.) The
orator does not hesitate to avow that he would turn to them if they
could save France. (Impossible.) Yes, it is impossible for them. The
orator admits it; and all the more because Legitimists and Orleanists
are enrolled in the conspiracy against the nation. The people can be the
only saviours of the people, by the establishment of the commune; and
this is why the men of the Hotel de Ville and the Reactionists are
opposed to its establishment. A second speaker abandons the question of
the Commune and of the conspiracy, in order to call attention to the
resignation of Citizen Delescluze, late mayor of the nineteenth
arrondissement. While this orator thinks that it would be unjust to
accuse the patriot Delescluze of treason, he ought not the less to be
blamed for having abandoned a post to which he had been called by his
fellow citizens. The people elected him, and he had no right to put his
resignation in the hands of the men of the Hotel de Ville in the
critical circumstances in which we find ourselves--at a moment when the
tide of misery is mounting--when the mayors have a great mission to
fulfil. What has been the consequence of this act of weakness? The men
of the Hotel de Ville have named a commission to administer the
nineteenth arrondissement exactly as was done under Bonaparte. This is
what we citizens of Belleville have gained by the desertion of
Delescluze. (Applause.) A citizen pushes his way to the tribune to
justify the mayor. He admits that at first sight it is difficult to
approve of a magistrate who has been elected by the people resigning his
office at the very moment when the people have the greatest need of him,
but--and again we get into the dark mystery of the conspiracy--if he
gave in his resignation, it was because he would not be an accomplice of
treason. In a meeting presided over by Jules Favre, what do you suppose
the mayors were asked to do? (Here the orator pauses a moment to take
breath. The curiosity of the audience is intense.) They were asked to
take part in the capitulation. (Violent murmurs--Infamous.) Well
yes--Delescluze would have nothing to do with this infamy, and he
withdrew. Besides, there was another reason. In the division of the
succour afforded to necessitous citizens the nineteenth arrondissement
wa