It is this that M. Thiers repeated word for word to the first conciliators, the delegates of the _Union Syndicale_, who applied to him on the 8th May: "Let the insurrection disarm; the Assembly cannot disarm. But Paris wants the Republic. The Republic exists; by my honour, so long as I am in power, it will not succumb. But Paris wants municipal franchises. The Chamber is preparing a law for all communes; Paris will get neither more nor less." The delegates read a project of compromise which spoke of a general amnesty and a suspension of arms. M. Thiers let them read on, did not formally contest a single article, and the delegates returned to Paris convinced that they had discovered the basis of an arrangement. They had hardly left when M. Thiers rushed off to the Assembly, which had just endowed all communes with the right of electing their mayors. M. Thiers ascended the tribune, demanding that this right should be restricted to towns of less than 20,000 souls. They cried to him, "It is already voted." He persisted, declaring that "in a republic the Government must be all the better armed because order is the more difficult to maintain;" threatened to hand in his resignation, and forced the Assembly to annul its vote. On the 10th, the _League of the Rights of Paris_ sounded the trumpet and had a solemn declaration placarded: "Let the Government give up assailing the facts accomplished on the 18th March. Let the general re-election of the Commune be proceeded with.... If the Government of Versailles remains deaf to these legitimate revindications, let it be well understood that all Paris will rise to defend them."[121] The next day the delegates of the League went to Versailles, and M. Thiers took up his old refrain, "Let Paris disarm," and would hear neither of an armistice nor of an amnesty. "Pardon shall be extended" said he, "to those who will disarm, save to the assassins of Clement-Thomas and Lecomte." This was to reserve himself the choice of a few thousands. In short, he wanted to be replaced in his position of the 18th March with victory into the bargain. The same day he said to the delegates of the Masonic lodges, "Address yourselves to the Commune; what is wanted is the submission of the insurgents, and not the resignation of legal power." To facilitate this submission, the next day the _Officiel_ of Versailles compared Paris to the plain of Marathon infested by a band of "brigands and assassins." On the 13th, a deputy, Brunet, having asked whether the Government would or would not make peace with Paris, the Assembly adjourned this interpellation for a month.