3) General Measures
Conscription abolished^ In the present war every able man (National Guard) must serve. This measure excellent to get rid of all traitors and cowards hiding in Paris (29 March).
Games of hazard suppressed. (2 April)* Church separated from State; the religious budget suppressed; all clerical estates declared national properties, (3 April).(1)
The Commune, having made inquiries consequent upon private informations, found that beside the old Guillotine the "government of order" had commanded the construction of a new guillotine (more expeditive and portable), and paid in avance. The Commune ordered both the old and the new guillotine to be burned publicly on the 6th of April.(2) The Versailles journals, reechoed by the press of order all over the world, narrated the Paris people, as a demonstration against the bloodthirstiness of the Communals, had burnt these guillotines! (6 April) All political prisoners were set free at once after the Revolution of the 18th of March.(3) But the Commune knew that under the régime of L. Bonaparte and his worthy successor of the Government of Defence many people were simply incarcerated on no charge whatever as political suspects. Consequently it charged one of its members— Protot — to make inquiries.[6] By him 150 people set free who being arrested since six months, had not yet undergone any judicial examination; many of them, already arrested under Bonaparte, had been for a year in prison without any charge or judicial examination. (9 April) This fact, so characteristic of the Government of Defence, enraged them. They asserted the Commune had liberated all felons. But who liberated convicted felons? The forger Jules Favre. Hardly got into power, he hastened to liberate Pic and Taillefer, condemned for theft and forgery in the affaire of the Etendard,™(4) One of these men, Taillefer, daring to return to Paris, has been reinstated into his convenient abode. But this is not all. The Versailles government has delivered in the Maisons Centrales(5) all over France convicted thief s on the condition of entering M. Thiers' army!
Decree on the demolition of the column of the place Vendôme(6) as "a monument of barbarism, symbol of brute force and false glory, an affirmation of militarism, a negation of international right". (12 April)[3]
Election of Frankel (German member of the International) to the Commune declared valid: "considering that the flag of the Commune is that of the Universal Republic and that foreigners can have a seat in it"; (4 April)b Frankel afterwards chosen a member of the executive of the Commune; (21 April)
The Journal officiel has inaugurated the publicity of the sittings of the Commune. (15 April)
Decree of Pascal Grousset for the protection of Foreigners against requisitions. Never a government in Paris so courteous to Foreigners. (27 April)c
The Commune has abolished political and professional oaths. (May 4)d
Destruction of the monument called "Chapelle expiatoire de Louis XVI" rue d'Anjou St. Honoré (erected by the Chambre introuvable m of 1816) (7 May).e
Endnotes
[6] This refers to the war waged by the German people against Napoleon I's rule in 1813-14.
[3] A reference to the coup d'état of December 2, 1851, which gave birth to the Second Empire.