_1871. FEBRUARY. PARIS AFTER CAPITULATION_
Food in abundance--Theatrical parody--Contrasted conditions--
Preparations for German entry--Causes assigned for defeat--
Citizen and regular soldiers--Distributing food.
Renewed disturbances inaugurated the month of February. The central
market, in which were the food stores arriving from without, was again
attacked and pillaged; nor were the rioters dispersed until a strong
military force arrived on the spot. Further supplies came pouring into
the city, until within a few days there was abundance everywhere; all
restrictions on sale removed; restaurants recovered much of their
ordinary aspect. From London came large quantities of food, and of
appliances for wounded; a donation from the city to the Municipality
of Paris. The whole of those supplies, in accordance with such terms,
were divided among the twenty arrondissements of Paris, with the result
that a large share fell to the dangerous classes so often alluded to;
comparatively little to the professional and other respectable classes
who all through the times of greatest trial had borne their privations
in silence. Within a few days thereafter, so profuse had been the
supplies issued that large quantities, exposed for sale in shops,
could be purchased at less than their ordinary retail price. But money
wherewith to make purchases had not yet come into the hands of those
most in want.
The urgency of conditions among the “better” classes alluded to was
known to those of us who had passed through the difficulties of the
siege now at an end; proffered suggestions in regard to issuing food
and other requirement to them were ignored by those in charge. Thus
came about the undesirable state of things that the disaffected and
dangerous among the population had more than they could make use of;
the orderly and reputable obtained little, if anything, to relieve
their necessities. An Englishman applied at the mairie of the 9th
Arrondissement for help in food from the _don anglais_ received. He
was asked, “Are you really much in want to-day?” “Very much,” was his
reply, “or else I should not have wasted the day by coming here.” So
they gave him a halfpenny biscuit, a square inch of cheese, and three
lumps of sugar, but not until he had been kept waiting several hours!
That is but one illustration.
While on the one side the scenes just mentioned were in progress as an
outcome of well-meant liberality on the part of our own country, others
were to be seen, the style of which presented to us foreigners a phase
of Parisian characteristics altogether new. In a theatre close to the
Porte St. Martin, the privations and various other painful incidents of
the siege were parodied much to the apparent amusement of the crowded
house. Comment on the “performances” in question is best omitted.
Fugitives who had abandoned their houses while investment of the city
was incomplete returned in daily increasing numbers, to find for the
most part that stores of food and wine they had left behind were
non-existent, they having been taken possession of meanwhile. Railway
passenger traffic was resumed; on the Seine the _bateaux mouches_
conveyed crowds of sightseers to the various river stations, near which
the most interesting relics of the siege might be seen, including
dismantled forts, dilapidated houses, devastated grounds, and burial
places of victims of the war. For the payment of the indemnity to the
Germans in accordance with terms of Convention it became necessary to
raise a special loan. No sooner were the terms[312] of that Convention
published than the people took it up with enthusiasm; from morning till
night queues of intending subscribers,[313] from sums of a few francs
to thousands, occupied the pavements in the vicinity of the offices
where their contributions were to be received. Nothing could better
indicate the frugality of the Parisian masses in respect to available
money than the fact that a sufficient sum was thus quickly and readily
obtained to enable the municipality to pay to the German authorities at
Versailles the first moiety--namely, one hundred millions of francs--of
that indemnity. Return to the ordinary conditions of the capital went
on; shops were re-opened; the windows made gay with merchandise;
gas re-lighted in the thoroughfares at night. Supplies of provisions
and of money in large sums, sent from various sources, continued to
arrive, one noteworthy contribution of the latter kind being 112,000
francs from Mexico. The process of disarming the troops was still in
progress, until the numbers should be reached in accordance with the
preliminaries already determined. The Government of the Defence gave
place to the National Assembly. The armistice was extended, first from
the 19th to 24th of February, then from the latter date to March 12,
the Treaty of Peace being signed on 26th of that first named. Part
of that Convention was that German troops should enter Paris, and
occupy part of the capital until the ratification of the Treaty by the
Assembly. Great excitement and threatened outbreak among the lower
orders was the immediate result, while the papers of the day fanned
rather than moderated popular ill-feeling by rhodomontade and calumnies
in their columns.
Preparatory to the entrance of the German forces, it was determined
that those of Paris should occupy quarters for the time being on the
left side of the Seine; that the duty of maintaining order should be
confided to the Garde Nationale. The citizen soldiers “magnanimously”
offered to take charge of the artillery guns, for the removal of which
horses were non-existent; the whole were collected and “parked” in the
Parc de Monceau, though at the time questions arose as to the means
by which they were again to be got from the hands of those to whom
they had so fallen. Signs of probable disturbance multiplied apace;
barricades were erected in some of the principal thoroughfares; fights
occurred between the most violent elements of the populace and the
Garde Nationale, with the result that some of the guns were taken
possession of by the former.
Brought in contact with representatives of various classes of society,
political and religious opinion, opportunity was afforded me to note
the views expressed by them respectively as to the causes to which the
present humiliation of Paris and of France was considered to be due. It
was my custom to record the several opinions expressed in conversation
as soon as I had an opportunity of doing so. I reproduce them as
follows, rather than in a classified order, namely:--
1. The empire was looked upon as “expended.”
2. The manhood of Paris and of France had become degenerated in
physique; the sick and the relatively weak having been alone left after
the wars of the 1st Napoleon to propagate their kind.
3. The study of the military sciences had been neglected; officers
underwent examination rather for the purpose of obtaining appointments
than to attain proficiency in knowledge of their profession.
4. Defects in administration by the Intendance, and general
obstructiveness in that branch of the service.
5. Over-centralization, so that when emergency of war occurred, no
corps was complete in itself; _materiel_ had to be obtained from Paris,
means of transport and roads being at once blocked in consequence.
6. The soldiers being allowed to give their votes at elections, their
sympathies were diverted to their political parties rather than with
their military commanders.
7. Want of mutual confidence between officers from the highest to
the lowest rank; between officers and their men, and between the men
themselves.[314] In fact, general mistrust prevails where confidence
should exist.
8. The officers to a great extent being members of the same class of
society to which the rank and file belong, there is an absence of that
deference towards them by the latter, such as is considered essential
to the maintenance of the highest order of discipline. From this and
other circumstances there was said to exist a deplorable state of
indiscipline, of which indeed some striking illustrations occurred
during the siege.
9. Laxity of discipline among the higher officers, due to the
(assigned) circumstance that the deposed Emperor manifested hesitancy
and uncertainty with regard to punishments for shortcomings and
offences on their part.
10. A spirit of impatience of control and of opposition against
authority, fostered by the conditions of social life in France,
including the absence of domesticity, and, as a consequence, of lively
affection between parents and children, and among children themselves,
many of whom spend their early years among strangers.
11. The expenses connected with the unfortunate expedition to Mexico
had so far exceeded the estimate, that the Emperor “feared” to make
public the whole of the circumstances connected therewith; hence it
was considered necessary to divert to their liquidation money obtained
nominally for current military purposes. Thus it was asserted the
actual condition of military establishments differed from that
represented on paper.
12. A general lowering of the moral sense, of which the religious
sentiment is the first great principle.
To this somewhat imposing list I append the subjoined, which was
subsequently collated while perusing various works relative to the
Franco-Prussian war, namely:--
(_a_) Absolute unpreparedness of a war, which was begun “with frivolity
without parallel.”
(_b_) General maladministration.
(_c_) Antagonism between the Paris and Provincial Governments.
(_d_) Misrepresentations of actual conditions contained in official
Proclamations and in organs of the Press.
(_e_) Political divisions and sub-divisions among the people, whether
official or non-official.
(_f_) Antagonism of interests and personal considerations among the
higher administrators and commanders.
(_g_) Disturbances fomented and brought about by agitators.
(_h_) The inferior military qualities of a large portion of the
citizen-soldiers.
(_i_) Social immorality. For a long time past piety and moral
earnestness have been much shaken in French society; the cancer of
frivolity and immorality has eaten into the heart of the people.
That several of the defects above enumerated are real is beyond all
question, even when allowance is made for those which are perhaps more
theoretical than actual. Some had special reference to the episode of
the war from which France was about to emerge heavily crippled; others
have a prospective significance; nor is it easy to conceive of success,
so long as they are permitted to continue.
Adverting to the non-military qualities already mentioned, and to
the conduct in face of the enemy displayed by the extemporised
citizen-soldiers, to whom per force of circumstances the defence
of Paris had to a considerable extent to be confided, the fact is
noteworthy and suggestive that, having become to some extent acquainted
with the use of arms and with war, they became transformed into very
dangerous elements when the Commune was declared. It was then that they
fought resolutely against the Versailles forces, and committed many
of the atrocities by which that occasion was to be disgraced.[315]
Of the troops belonging to the regular army, however, it is their
due to observe that in actual combat the gallantry displayed by them
could not be exceeded; no more could their patient endurance under
the difficulties, privations, and general hardships incidental to the
siege. But individual qualities were overbalanced by the disadvantages
and evils just enumerated.
No sooner had the gates of Paris been opened, under provision of the
armistice, than my coadjutor[316] with the Germans performed to me the
good and brotherly act of bringing for myself, and for distribution
among my friends and other persons whom I knew to be in necessitous
circumstances, not only liberal supplies of food, but also considerable
sums of money, contributed by charitable persons to me unknown. It was
a source of lively satisfaction to be able thus to aid individuals and
some institutions; and in the performance of that most pleasant task
several incidents occurred the recollection of which is still fresh. A
few examples must suffice. One lady, to whom I carried a fowl, among
other articles, was prostrate in bed, her physical powers reduced
by starvation to an extremely low ebb. When I told her that she was
simply dying from want of food, her reply was that she really had no
appetite; she did not think she could eat anything if she had it; yet
when I supplied her with some savoury morsels to be used at once, and
then the fowl to be cooked later on, her face brightened, she half
raised herself in bed, and clutched the little articles I had brought
to her. Another lady, to whom I presented some balls of butter, rolled
up separately in bits of newspaper, did not delay to unfold the packet,
but took a mouthful of the whole, including butter and paper. Being
informed that I had a few red herrings for distribution, she next day
drove to my hotel in her well-equipped carriage to receive _one_[317]
of those savoury fish. The “Little Sisters of the Poor” were astounded
and delighted to be presented with a small cartload of mutton, bread,
eggs, butter, and various other articles; for the aged paupers, to
whose care till death they devoted themselves, had been reduced to
extreme want, not a few having succumbed under their privations. In
accordance with invitation from the Lady Superior, I visited their
establishment to receive expressions of gratitude from its inmates, and
in the course of my visit was shown through a ward in the uppermost
storey into which a Prussian shell had penetrated, and where some of
the old, decrepid inmates had there and then died of fright. A Roman
Catholic Seminary sent a representative to express the thanks of its
inmates for supplies given to them. As I subsequently was informed,
the nurses in an ambulance that I similarly aided danced round the
table on which the supplies were displayed, while they invoked
blessings on my head. Some British subjects to whom I was able to give
assistance in food and money were most grateful. As regards myself,
what I most craved for, and indulged in when opportunity offered, was
fried fat bacon and fruit, more especially apples.