outcome of the national elections; it represented the nation. It was a
living protest against the assumption of the February days, and it was
intended to bring the results of the revolution back to the bourgeois
measure. In vain did the proletariat of Paris, which forthwith
understood the character of this national assembly, endeavor, a few
days after its meeting; on May 15, to deny its existence by force, to
dissolve it, to disperse the organic apparition, in which the reacting
spirit of the nation was threatening them, and thus reduce it back to
its separate component parts. As is known, the 15th of May had no other
result than that of removing Blanqui and his associates, i.e. the real
leaders of the proletarian party, from the public scene for the whole
period of the cycle which we are here considering.

Upon the bourgeois monarchy of Louis Philippe, only the bourgeois
republic could follow; that is to say, a limited portion of the
bourgeoisie having ruled under the name of the king, now the whole
bourgeoisie was to rule under the name of the people. The demands of the
Parisian proletariat are utopian tom-fooleries that have to be done away
with. To this declaration of the constitutional national assembly, the
Paris proletariat answers with the June insurrection, the most colossal
event in the history of European civil wars. The bourgeois republic
won. On its side stood the aristocracy of finance, the industrial
bourgeoisie; the middle class; the small traders' class; the army; the
slums, organized as Guarde Mobile; the intellectual celebrities, the
parsons' class, and the rural population. On the side of the Parisian
proletariat stood none but itself. Over 3,000 insurgents were massacred,
after the victory 15,000 were transported without trial. With this
defeat, the proletariat steps to the background on the revolutionary
stage. It always seeks to crowd forward, so soon as the movement seems
to acquire new impetus, but with ever weaker effort and ever smaller