[Footnote 70: Jourde occupied the position of financial Minister under the Commune Government. He is well-educated, and is said to be one of the most intellectually distinguished of the Federal functionaries. He is a medical student, and said to be twenty-seven years of age. See Appendix 8.]
[Footnote 71: A working cobbler, and member of the International Society, which he represented at the Congress of Bâle. He occupied a post on the _Marseillaise_ newspaper, became a Commissary of Police after the fourth of September, and took part on the popular side in the outbreak of the thirty-first of October. He was deprived of his office by General Trochu's government, and appointed one of the delegates for justice, by the authorities of the Commune.]
"The social revolution could end but in one great catastrophe, of which the immediate effects would be--
"And, if it were possible that such a state of things could be prolonged for several weeks--
"To cause three or four millions of human beings to perish by horrible famine.
"When the Government shall be without resources, when the country shall be without produce and without commerce:
"When starving Paris, blockaded by the departments, will no longer discharge its debts and make payments, no longer export nor import:
"When workmen, demoralised by the politics taught at the clubs and the closing of the workshops, will have found a means of living, no matter how:
"When the State appropriates to itself the silver and ornaments of the citizens for the purpose of sending them to the Mint:
"When perquisitions made in the private houses are the only means of collecting taxes:
"When hungry bands spread over the country, committing robbery and devastation:
"When the peasant, armed with loaded gun, has to neglect the cultivation of his crops in order to protect them:
"When the first sheaf shall have been stolen, the first house forced, the first church profaned, the first torch fired, the first woman violated:
"When the first blood shall have been spilt:
"When abomination and desolation shall have spread over all France--
"Oh! then you will know what we mean by a social revolution:
"A multitude let loose, arms in hand, mad with revenge and fury:
"Soldiers, pikes, empty homes, knives and crowbars: