a permanent insult cast by the victors on the vanquished, a perpetual attack on one of the great principles of the French Republic Fraternity, decrees the column of the Place Vendôme shall be demolished.
This beautiful column took its name from the hotel of
Duke Vendôme, the illegitimate son of Henry IV., which
formerly stood here. The form of the Place is a perfect
octagon, 420 by 450 feet. The buildings bordering on the
Place are very beautiful, and of Corinthian architecture.
In the centre formerly stood an equestrian statue of Louis
XIV; this was demolished by the people during the first
revolution, the base only being saved. In 1806, the Emperor
Napoleon I. gave orders for the erection of a triumphal
monument in honor of the successes of the French
armies. The column was of the Tuscan order, and copied
after Trajan's Pillar at Rome. Its height was 135 feet;
in circumference at the base, 35 feet; the base was 21 feet
high and 20 square. The summit was reached by a winding
staircase of 176 steps. The column was covered with
bas-reliefs in bronze, composed of 276 plates, made out of
1200 pieces of cannon taken from the Russians and Austrians,
representing the victories of the French armies in
the German campaign of 1805. There were over 2,000
figures of three feet high, and the metal used weighed
1,800,000 pounds. The column was surmounted by a collossal
bronze statue of Napoleon I, 11 feet high, in a
Roman toga; this was erected by Napoleon III, in 1863,
replacing the old familiar statue with the cocked hat and
military surtout. The Emperor's statue was hurled to the
ground during the revolution of 1814, but France was not
satisfied until a finer one was placed upon the summit.
The whole cost was about $300,000.
The Commune did not decide the destruction of the national monument without some opposition. A small mi-
