- nority argued that it was not the moment to waste time
on such trifling questions. The reasons which preceded the text of the decree were also the subject of a long discussion. Although monuments commemorative of victories are of a nature to perpetuate insatiable animosities between nations, if they are to disappear, the national representation of the whole of France ought to order their suppression, the whole of France having contributed to their erection.
Paschal Grousset, in his paper, the Vengeur, says:
"At last that Column Vendôme is to be removed—a
ridiculous and monstrous trophy, erected at the command
of a blind despot, to perpetuate the remembrance of his
insensate conquests and his culpable glory—a monument,
moreover, destitute of all artistic value—a cantata in
bronze, a daub in metal instead of on canvas—in short, a
wretched imitation of Trajan's column. Art will lose
nothing by its destruction; good sense and patriotism will
gain. For the fact is injudicious to leave under the eyes
of the ignorant and the simple the stupid glorification of
a cursed past. That Column of Vendome . . . I have
never been able to look at it without my heart bounding
with indignation and disgust. In the time of the Empire
there was always to be seen hanging on the railings and
rotting in the rain, innumerable wreaths of a flaunting
yellow or a dirty white: Souvenir, Regrets, Gloire, Victoire.
Without the sentinel who watched over this rubbish with
jealous care, one might have taken the place for the traditional
shop always to be found next door to the marble-mason's
at the gates of the cemeteries."
The seizure of the public treasures of the Paris churches
created an intense excitement, and most of the respectable
journals which still remained unsuppressed were loud in
their complaints against Rochefort, a supporter of the
