COLUMN VENDOME, AND BUTCHERY OF THE ARCHBISHOP. FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY BARRICADES.

PARIS ON FIRE.

NIHILISM IN RUSSIA.

THE WOMAN ASSASSIN. THE MIR, THE ARTEL, SIBERIA, POLAND. THE POVERTY OF MONCASI.

HOW A CULPRIT IS GARROTED.

COMMUNISM.

3d Fisherman: Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.

1st Fish.: Why, as men do a-land: the great ones eat up the little ones.

-Shakspeare.

AT the present time, when the poor man is rapidly becoming the bitter enemy of the rich man, and when the rich man is bending all efforts to the overthrow of every rival, being either thoughtless or careless of the laborer between the millstones, the ominous word at the heading of this page falls upon the ear with the baleful charm of the black art, bringing us to a closer inspection of that precarious condition of society which we either timidly or resolutely apprehend to be close at hand.

There is little doubt that the term, if not the principle, of Communism owes its wide dissemination to the last Orgy of Paris, when that great city, in the noble paraphrase of Victor Hugo, "was nailed upon the cross for the sins of the whole world." Had not the Commune reigned in the capital of France from the 18th of March to the 27th of May, 1871, the word "Communism," although of ancient lineage and long standing, would have still passed current only in the mouths of dreamers and abstract philosophers. When the world shuddered at the fate of Paris, the term " International," previously a token of everything sinister, was silently dethroned, and the word "Commune," "by merit raised to that bad. eminence," leaped into supreme significance, and has maintained its empire.

"Communism" has thus come to be the single expression into which the mighty host of questions appertaining to the pecuniary condition of all classes is now moulded by the troubled mind. The silent but resistless contamination of America with the moral epidemic hidden under these three syllables has been more rapid than the westward progress of

any physical plague; while the perfect freedom of American citizens collectively, and their deplorable lack of freedom individually, render the prevalence of the contagion an affair well calculated to inspire the most unaffected consternation.

The subject necessarily regards the past and present manner of division among men of the desirable things of this world. If a perfectly just distribution of such fruits of the earth as are at all divisible were to be miraculously secured, thus dispelling the quality of exasperation now most prominent,

seems probable, upon consideration, that an equal amount of dissatisfaction would then succeed among those members of society to whom enjoyments not capable of partition were denied. Thus, it is presumable that, in a State like Massachusetts - where all could have a competence were the results of their combined labors equally divided-those who were i would feel a strong bond of sympathy among one another, impelling them to a common hatred of the healthy as rancorous as are, under present circumstances, the sentiments of the tramp toward the autocrat of rail transportation. With this melancholy remark upon human inclinations are associated many thoughts concerning the extreme ease of proving the impracticability of new schemes of society. These thoughts can be left to the ready divination of the reader, allowing a more speedy transit to the real intent of this chapter, which will be to account for the spell which is thrown upon the mind by a word christened in blood in the past, and portentous of bloodshed in the future.

It is probable that the nearest approach to the real spirit of honest Communism is to be found at present among the most miserable of all human beings, the tribes of savages which exist in the sorest poverty imaginable, living without government, upon fish or game, clothed in skins, and making no accumulation of food, thus exposing themselves to the most rigorous of privations at frequently-recurring intervals.

With the very next step from this actually-savage state, the members of society separated into fortunate and unfortunate classes. The head of the family, or patriarch, protected and sustained his dependents, and in return received their assist

ance and entire allegiance, wielding over them the power of penal chastisement even unto death, and thus initiating the first form of human government.

From the pastoral state mankind advanced to the founding of communities, wherein the authority of the head of the family, instead of being absolute, was somewhat restricted by the influence of public opinion. The constant wars with which existence was then attended led to the enslaving of the vanquished, and the laborer of those times was usually the property of the person furnishing the capital for the production of wealth. The final conquest of all other communities by the superior art of war practiced at Rome, led to the accumulation of enormous riches by the favored classes of that city, and the consumption, with vast waste, by a few, of the resources of the known world. This tended to the eventual downfall of that system of society, and precursed a state of subsequent insecurity of life which made it profitable for the weak to seek the protection of the strong at any sacrifice which might be demanded by the person who extended the shelter of his might.

From this feudal state society advanced to its present stage, in which all citizens are supposably guaranteed the possession of whatever property they can accumulate according to a certain fixed manner-nominally a manner not conflicting with the rights of others, but not really confined to any such bounds. In this phase of existence evidences of the greatest wealth and the most repulsive squalor are seen upon the same street, and not infrequently the occupants of the collection of habitations denominated "the poorer quarter" in a community produce, through the large surplus of riches regularly taken away from them by agreement, the whole wealth upon. which the aristocratic section of the society thrives so abundantly.

The inequality of this manner of division, although brought about by the improvidence and numerical overgrowth of the inferior classes, becomes more glaring with the diffusion of intelligence-for knowledge, being cheaper than food, maintains a more equable distribution. The result of the obser