It also decreed the abolition of the budget for Public Worship and the confiscation of clerical and monastic property _throughout France_--a proposal which aroused ridicule and contempt.
[Footnote 61: Debidour, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol.ii.

p.
438-440.] It would be tedious to dwell on the details of this terrible strife.
Gradually the regular forces overpowered the National Guards of Paris, drove them from the southern forts, and finally (May 21) gained a lodgment within the walls of Paris at the Auteuil gate.

Then followed a week of street-fighting and madness such as Europe had not seen since the Peninsular War.

"Room for the people, for the bare-armed fighting men.

The hour of the revolutionary war has struck." This was the placard posted throughout Paris on the 22nd, by order of the Communist chief, Delescluze.