COMMUNE, kOm'mun, the unit or lowest division in the administration of France, cor responding in the rural districts to the English parish or township, and in towns to the English municipality. In France there are about 36,000 communes, with a considerable measure of self government, with the power of holding prop erty, etc. Each commune has a council elected by universal suffrage, and the council is pre sided over by a moire and one or more adjoints or assistants. In the larger communes the moire is selected by the central government out of the members of the council; in others he is appointed by the prefect of the department. The central government, through its officials, exercises generally a very large control over the affairs of the commune.
The rising of the Commune of Paris in 1871 should not be confounded with "Communism') (q.v.). It was a revolutionary assertion of the autonomy of Paris; that is, of the right of self-government through its commune or munic ipality. The theory of the rising was that
every commune should have a real autonomy, the central government being merely a federa tion of communes. The movement was based on discontent at Paris, where the people found themselves in possession of arms after the siege of the Germans. The rising began on 18 March 1871, and was only suppressed 10 weeks later after long and bloody fighting between the forces of the commune and a large army of the central government; 6,500 Communists having fallen during 20-30 May, and 38,578 being taken prisoners. Consult Du Camp, 'Les con vulsions de Paris' (4 vols., Paris 1878-79); Lessagaray, 'Histoire de la (Paris 1896); March, 'History of the Commune of 1871' (London 1896).