Note 293 — BOOK IX[283]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
M. Thiers had said in the Tribune, under the Monarchy of July, in the course of the discussion of the law against the associations:
"France abhors the Republic; speak of it to her, and she recoils in affright; she knows that that form of government turns to blood or imbecility."
In 1872, Henry Reeve met him in Paris and describes the conversation as follows in his Journal:
"M. Thiers' conversation on the war, the Commune and the siege was very interesting. He said to me:
"'Certainement je suis pour la République! Sans la République qu'est-ce que je serais, moi? Un bourgeois, Adolphe Thiers!'
"He described the withdrawal of the troops from Paris, which was his own act. Then the siege, which he claims to have directed, the battery of Mouton Tout, adding:
"'Nous avons enterré, en entrant à Paris, vingt mille cadavres!'"
(John Knox Laughton: Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, Vol. II., p. 202).—B.