The most potent revolutionary threat the nineteenth century had yet seen

The whole disastrous story of the National Guard during the siege was a shining example of half-measures. In response to popular pressures, the Government had raised 400,000 Gardes; but, doubtful of their reliability (both military and political), it had trained and armed them insufficiently to be of any combat value - yet just enough to constitute the most potent revolutionary threat the nineteenth century had yet seen.

A. Horne, The terrible year: the Paris commune, 1871 (1971), 59