April 4, 1871, Paris Commune Gazette Collection:
Paris had become a free city, esteemed sir. Did you understand?
Alas, Paris had become the property of the proletariat. Rents had been reduced—this was simply condemning poor millionaires, speculators, small-stock traders, clerks, and priests to death. We would soon face a terrible off-season, with several months' rent gone. Those old ladies secretly delightedly said, "At last, we have endured to the end."
Ah, esteemed sir, none of this could be blamed on you. Yet during the imperial era, those around you understood our methods better. Trochu said fighting Parisians was like playing cards, and that he could make the great king—the heir of the old king you yearned for in your dreams—change his mind.
At the mere sound of Trochu's promise, the Commune would slash rents to less than a third. Esteemed sir, you had to protect us and strictly restrain those damned workers who created wealth for us and funded the lavish lives of great personages such as yourselves.
Conscription had been abolished. What did you think of that?
At the beginning of the siege, we foresaw what was about to happen, so we formed a volunteer corps specially to guard our cashboxes and safes. The volunteer corps did not stand watch, did not work, and did not bear the exhausting responsibility of defending the nation—a responsibility borne only by the lowly masses... We left Paris beaming with joy. We were going to inspect those hateful commoners too poor to eat, those commoners whom your experts had long said were best subdued by starving them. We were going to settle accounts with those idiots. Though they had in fact kept our property completely safe, what we wanted was money, was that not right, sir? They had been corrupted by Père Duchesne's