THE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENSE 2

to the Hôtel de Ville and there proclaimed the Republic. The Empress fled. A Government of National Defense was organized with General Trochu at its head, which was the actual government of France during the remainder of the war.

The Franco-German war lasted about six months, from the first of August 1870, when fighting began, to about the first of February 1871. It falls naturally into two periods, the imperial and the republican. During the first, which was limited to the month of August, the regular armies were, as we have seen, destroyed or bottled up. Then the Empire collapsed and the Emperor was a prisoner in Germany. The second period lasted five months. France, under the Government of National Defense, made a remarkably courageous and spirited defense under the most discouraging conditions.

The new Government of National Defense, thus improvised, and representing only a spontaneous movement of opinion, never legally sanctioned, was the government of France till the close of the war. It threw all the blame of the war on Napoleon, and declared itself ready for peace; only it would not consent to a peace involving the violation of the territory of France. "Not an inch of our soil will we cede," said Favre, "not a stone of our fortresses." As Germany intended annexations as a result of her victories, this utterance meant that the war must continue.

The Germans, leaving a sufficient army to carry on the siege of Metz, advanced toward Paris. They began the siege of that city on September 19th. The siege, one of the most famous in history, lasted four months, and astonished Europe. Immense stores had been collected in the city, the citizens were armed, and the defense was energetic. The Parisians hoped to hold out long enough to enable new armies to be organized, and diplomacy possibly to intervene. To accomplish the former a delegation from the Government of National Defense, headed by Gambetta, escaped from Paris by balloon, and established a branch seat of government first at Tours, then at Bordeaux. Gambetta, by his immense energy, his eloquence, his patriotism, was able to raise new armies, whose resistance astonished the Germans, but, as they had not time to be thoroughly trained, they were unsuccessful. They could not break the immense circle of iron that surrounded Paris. After the overthrow of the Empire the war was reduced to the siege of Paris, and the attempts of these improvised armies to break that siege. These attempts were rendered all the more hopeless by the fall of Metz (October 27, 1870). Six thousand officers and 173,000 men were forced by

impending starvation to surrender, with hundreds of cannon and immense war supplies, the greatest capitulation "recorded in the history of civilized nations." A month earlier, on September 28, Strasbourg had surrendered, and 19,000 soldiers had become prisoners of war.

The capitulation of Metz was particularly disastrous because it made possible the sending of more German armies to reinforce the siege of Paris, and to attack the forces which Gambetta was, by prodigies of effort, creating in the rest of France. These armies could not get to the relief of Paris, nor could the troops within Paris break through to them. The siege became simply a question of endurance.

The Germans began the bombardment of the city early in January. Certain sections suffered terribly, and were ravaged by fires. Famine stared the Parisians in the face. After November 20th there was no more beef or lamb to be had; after December 15th only thirty grammes of horse meat a day per person, which, moreover, cost about two dollars and a half a pound; after January 15th the amount of bread, a wretched stuff, was reduced to 300 grammes. People ate anything they could get, dogs, cats, rats. The market price for rats was two francs apiece. By the 31st of January, there would be nothing left to eat. Additional suffering arose from the fact that the winter was one of the coldest on record. Coal and fire wood were exhausted. Trees in the Champs Elysées and the Bois de Boulogne were cut down, and fires built in the public squares for the poor. Wine froze in casks. On January 28th, with famine almost upon her, Paris capitulated after an heroic resistance. The armistice of Versailles was concluded which really closed the war.

The armistice was designed to permit elections to be held throughout France for an assembly that should pronounce upon the question of peace. As peace would involve the cession of French territory to the victors, the Government of National Defense felt that the people of France should themselves decide a matter so vital. Elections were accordingly held on February 8, 1871. The peasants voted overwhelmingly for those favoring peace. As Gambetta, leader of the Republicans, favored war to the bitter end, they voted largely against the Republican candidates. Thus the first Assembly, elected under the Third Republic, was composed of a majority of Monarchists, divided into two wings, the Legitimists and the Orleanists, and a minority of Republicans. Only a handful of Bonapartists were chosen, so vast was the disgrace now attached to that name. The

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Assembly met at Bordeaux, February 12th, and, believing that if France continued the war she might ultimately be annihilated, believing that the fundamental necessity of self-preservation de- ' manded an immediate cessation, voted overwhelmingly for peace. The Government of National Defense now laid down its powers, yielding to the National Assembly. This Assembly chose Thiers as "Chief of the Executive Power," and empowered him to negotiate with Bismarck for peace. The question of the permanent government of France was postponed until a more convenient season. Thiers was now the most popular man in France. He had, in July 1870, done his utmost to prevent France from going to war. He had, during the war, journeyed from one capital of Europe to another, London, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Florence, on a futile diplomatic mission, seeking to win foreign support for France. He was over seventy years of age, but he was about to render his most valuable services to France. The terms of peace granted by Bismarck were extraordinarily severe. They were laid down in the preliminary Peace of Versailles, February 26, 1871. France must pay an indemnity of five thousand million francs ($1,000,000,000) within three years. She must cede Alsace and a large part of Lorraine, including the important fortress of Metz. She was to support a German army of occupation, which should be gradually withdrawn as the installments of the war indemnity were paid. After much controversy these preliminaries were embodied in the final Treaty of Frankfort, signed May 10, 1871, and ratified by the Assembly of Bordeaux by 433 votes to 98.

Meanwhile other events had occurred as a result of this war. Italy had completed her unification by seizing the city of Rome, thus terminating the temporal rule of the Pope. The Pope had been supported there by a French garrison. This was withdrawn as a result of the battle of Sedan, and the troops of Victor Emmanuel attacked the Pope's own troops, defeated them after a slight resistance, and entered Rome on the 20th of September 1870. The unity of Italy was now consummated and Rome became the capital of the Kingdom.

A more important consequence of the war was the completion of the unification of Germany, and the creation of the German Empire. Bismarck had desired a war with France as necessary to complete the unity of Germany. Whether necessary or not, at least that end was now secured. After the early German victories, and during the siege of Paris, negotiations were carried on between Prussia and the South German states, looking

toward their entrance into the Confederation. In the case of Bavaria and Würtemberg, states of considerable size, concessions had to be made, preserving to them certain powers not retained by the other states. Finally treaties were drawn up and the King of Bavaria, prompted and directed by Bismarck, urged the King of Prussia, in behalf of the princes, to assume the headship of united Germany, and to revive the Empire.

Finally on the 18th of January 1871, surrounded by the princes of Germany and by the generals of the army, King William I was proclaimed German Emperor. This memorable ceremony is one of the supreme ironies of history, as it occurred in the Hall of Mirrors, in the palace of Versailles, itself a mighty monument and symbol of the power and pride of Louis XIV, a power which had been secured to some extent by the humiliation of Germany.

The war of 1866 had resulted in the expulsion of Austria from Germany and from Italy. The war of 1870 completed the unification of both countries. Berlin became the capital of a

federal Empire, Rome of a unified Kingdom.

CHAPTER XV

THE RISE OF SOCIALISM

ONE of the important forces in the modern world, Socialism, is the direct outgrowth of the Industrial Revolution. Only against the background of the factory system of industry can the various theories grouped under that name be properly examined. The factory system offered certain advantages which were undeniable and obvious, a greatly increased production of the commodities which men need or desire. Wealth increased rapidly through the greater power now exercised by man over the forces of nature. The improvements in manufacturing, in commerce and in communication were multifarious, astounding, far-reaching in the benefits they conferred. But along with these advantages went certain disadvantages, equally perceptible, equally serious, and also far-reaching in their effects. The development of the factory system meant the simultaneous development of the capitalist system, upon which, indeed, it rested. The new machines and factories were owned by one set of men, while those who utilized them and made them work constituted another set. Capitalists on the one hand, laborers on the other, such was the division in the world of industry, a world now split asunder into two elements of unequal strength. That fusion of capital and labor which had partially characterized the domestic system of industry, that essential solidarity of interest of all who participated in the work of production, did not characterize the new system, which emphasized, rather, the differences in status and in opportunity, of the directors of industry and of its manual laborers. The position of the former became more and more powerful and brilliant while that of the latter in many cases, and particularly at first, became harder and more depressing. The capitalists who built the factories and equipped them with machinery were anxious to make as large profits as possible, and in order to do this, they sacrificed the well-being and the health of their employees. The latter were obliged to have employment or they could not live, and they were forced therefore to accept whatever conditions and whatever wages were