The idea had been kept alive by the "National Workshops" of 1848, whose institution and final suppression by the young Republic of that year had been its own undoing.
History shows, then, that Paris, as the head of France, was accustomed to think and act vigorously for herself in time of revolution.

But experience proved no less plainly that the limbs, that is, the country districts, generally refused to follow the head in these fantastic movements.

Hence, after a short spell of St.Vitus' activity, there always came a time of strife, followed only too often by torpor, when the body reduced the head to a state of benumbed subjection.

The triumph of rural notions accounts for the reactions of 1831-47, and 1851-70.
Paris having once more regained freedom of movement by the fall of the Second Empire on September 4, at once sought to begin her politico-social experiments, and, as we pointed out, only the promptitude of the "moderates," when face to face with the advancing Germans, averted the catastrophe of a socialistic regime in Paris during the siege.

Even so, the Communists made two determined efforts to gain power; the former of these, on October 31, nearly succeeded.