THE  COMMUNE.                                      159"
No. 179.
Mr. Favre to Mr. Washburne.
[Translation.!
Paris, March 18,1871.
My Dear Minister : I am in receipt of the dispatch kindly commu-
nicated to me by you, addressed to you by the chancellor of the empire,,
of date yesterday, March 17, and by which the chancellor informs you
of excesses which have been committed on the persons of German offi-
cers and soldiers in the districts occupied by the German troops. Un-
fortunately I have no method of either verifying or repressing them.
When in conformity with the convention signed by General Count de
Fabrice and the minister of finances the French administration shall be
re-established, we will be able to intervene, and perhaps we will also
have occasion on our side to call attention to acts of abuse by German
soldiers whose proceedings are denounced to us every day by our fellow-
citizens. What I can promise on my part is, that the government will
do all that in it lies to protect German subjects who are found within
its territory, asking of the Prussian authorities to give orders to their
troops to respect discipline.
As to the war taxes exacted from Germans, the statement is utterly
inexact and I beg you to deny it when you reply to Mr. de Bismarck.
I seize this occasion, &c,
JULES FAVRE.
Mr. E. B. Washburne,
&c, &c, &c.
THE COMMUNE.
No. 180.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish.
No. 394.]                              Legation of the United States,
Paris, March 19,1871.   (Received April 3.)
Sir : In my No. 390, of day before yesterday, I alluded to the insur-
rectionary movements in Paris, and expressing the opinion that they
would not amount to much, and that no great degree of violence was
probable. It was not then possible for me to conceive that in a little
more than twenty-four hours from that time Mr. Thiers and all the mem-
bers of his government would be obliged to flee from Paris, and that
an insurrectionary committee of the national guard would, at the
moment I am writing, be complete masters of the city. Yet such is
the fact. The attempt of the government to dislodge the insurgents at
Montmartre, and to get possession of the cannon there, installed before
daybreak yesterday morning, proved a complete failure., the troops of
the line fraternizing with the national guard and refusing to fire upon
them. All was lost from that moment, though the government did not
appear to realize it, and various feeble demonstrations were made during
the day to vindicate the public authority. All day long, whenever the
troops of the line and the national guard came within reach of each
other, they reversed their muskets in token of peace. Without knowing
the full gravity of the situation, I started about noon yesterday to<