On February 17 he begged them to defer questions as to the future form of government, working meanwhile solely for the present needs of France, and allowing future victory to be the meed of that party which showed itself most worthy of trust.

"Can there be any man" (he exclaimed) "who would dare learnedly to discuss the articles of the Constitution, while our prisoners are dying of misery far away, or while our people, perishing of hunger, are obliged to give their last crust to the foreign soldiers ?" A similar appeal on March led to the informal truce on constitutional questions known as the Compact of Bordeaux.

It was at best an uncertain truce, certain to be broken at the first sign of activity on the Republican side.
That activity was now put forth by the "Reds" of Paris.

It would take us far too long to describe the origins of the municipal socialism which took form in the Parisian Commune of 1871.

The first seeds of that movement had been sown by its prototype of 1792-93, which summed up all the daring and vigour of the revolutionary socialism of that age.