et Bakunin (whose
hobby the struggle against inheritance was well known to be) plainly
see that the Congress wished to have none of him, although they had
not ventured to oppose the views of his adherents upon the far more
important question. The proposal only received thirty-two votes for
it, twenty-three against it, and seventeen delegates refrained from
voting. Therefore the resolution was lost, since it could not obtain a
decisive majority.

This procedure of the Basle Congress was calculated to embitter both
parties. Open rupture could not be long delayed. Already, at the
Romance Congress[1] at Chaux-de-Fonds on April 4, 1870, the admission
of the Bakuninist sections had raised a veritable storm--twenty-one
delegates voting for the admission, and eighteen against it, and the
latter withdrew immediately from the Congress in consequence of the
decision. Nevertheless, at this Congress Bakunin's views practically
prevailed, for the Congress declared in favour of taking part in
politics, and putting up working-men candidates at elections as a
means of agitation.

[1] The first groups of the "International" in the
Romance-speaking portions of Switzerland had increased so
quickly that at a congress in Geneva in 1869 they united
themselves into a league of their own, the "Romance
Federation," in harmony with the "International," to which
members of the "Alliance" and Marxists belonged in almost
equal numbers.

The day on which the Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris (the 4th
September, 1870) was considered by the "Alliance" to be the right
moment "to unchain the hydra of Revolution." This was first done in
Switzerland, where manifestoes were issued calling to the formation of
a free corps against the Prussians. The manifestoes were seized, and
the head of the revolutionary hydra cut off, as far as Switzerland was
concerned. On September 28th, Bakunin tried to organise a riot at
Lyons. Albert Richard, Bastelica, and Gaspard Blanc began it; the mob
took possession of the Town Hall; Bakunin installed himself there, and
decreed "abolition of the State." He had perhaps hoped that the
example of Lyons would encourage other cities in the circumstances
then prevailing, and these would likewise declare themselves to be
free communes, and the State to be abolished. But the State,--as the
opponents of the "Alliance" maliciously said,--in the shape of two
companies of the National Guard, found a way