. There is no need at present to go into the
details of the truce (for such it was) between these high contracting parties,
the Government of the empire of Great Britain and a handful of working-men (as
they were called in scorn in those days), amongst whom, indeed, were some very
capable and square-headed persons, though, as aforesaid, the abler men were not
then the recognised leaders. The upshot of it was that all the definite claims
of the people had to be granted. We can now see that most of these claims were
of themselves not worth either demanding or resisting; but they were looked on
at that time as most important, and they were at least tokens of revolt against
the miserable system of life which was then beginning to tumble to pieces. One
claim, however, was of the utmost immediate importance, and this the Government
tried hard to evade; but as they were not dealing with fools, they had to yield
at last. This was the claim of recognition and formal status for the Committee
of Public Safety, and all the associations which it fostered under its wing.
This it is clear meant two things: first, amnesty for the rebels, great and
small, who, without a distinct act of civil war, could no longer be attacked;
and next, a continuance of the organised revolution. Only one point the
Government could gain, and that was a name. The dreadful revolutionary title was
dropped, and the body, with its branches, acted under the respectable name of
the Board of Conciliation and its local offices. Carrying this name, it became
the leader of the people in the civil war which soon followed.«
    »O,« said I, somewhat startled, »so the civil war went on, in spite of all
that had happened?«
    »So it was,« said he. »In fact, it was this very legal recognition which
made the civil war possible in the ordinary sense of war; it took the struggle
out of the element of mere massacres on one side, and endurance plus strikes on
the other.«
    »And can you tell me in what kind of way the war was carried on?« said I.
    »Yes,« he said; »we have records and to spare of all that; and the essence
of them I can give you in a few words. As I told you, the rank and file of the
army was not to be trusted by the reactionists; but the officers generally were
prepared for anything, for they were mostly the
