Delescluze, LOUIS CHARLES

Delescluze, LOUIS CHARLES, French communist, was born at Dreux, 20th October 1809. His politics early drove him from France to journalism in Belgium, but the February revolution opened to him a career in Paris, where his clever and facile pen quickly made him popular with the rabble, but earned him from the authorities imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 francs. Again at Paris in 1853, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and was next transported to Cayenne, where he remained till 1859. His experiences of his sufferings he gave in De Paris à Cayenne; Journal d'un Transporté (1867). After his return he was quiet for some years, until his journal, Réveil, started in 1868 to advocate the doctrines of the International, brought him anew into trouble. In the infamous history of the Paris Commune he played a prominent part, and upon his head rests in great part the guilt of its most execrable atrocities—the murder of the hostages, and the burning of the public buildings of the city. He died on the last barricade, 28th May 1871.