_September 30th._
We are still beating our tom-toms like the Chinese, to frighten away the
enemy, and our braves still fire off powder at invisible Uhlans. The
Prussians, to our intense disgust, will not condescend even to notice
us. We jeer at them, we revile them, and yet they will not attack us.
What they are doing we cannot understand. They appear to have withdrawn
from the advanced positions which they held. We know that they are in
the habit of making war in a thoroughly ungentlemanly manner, and we
cannot make up our minds whether our "attitude" is causing them to
hesitate, or whether they are not devising some new trick to take us by
surprise. That they are starving, that their communications with Germany
are cut off, that their leaders are at loggerheads, that the Army of the
Loire will soon be here to help us to demolish them, we have not the
slightest doubt. The question is no longer whether Paris will be
taken--that we have solved already--it is whether the Prussians will be
able to get back to the Rhine. We are thankful that Bismarck did not
accept Jules Favre's offer of a money indemnity. We would not give a
hundred francs now to ensure peace or an armistice. I went this morning
into a shop, the proprietor of which, a bootmaker, I have long known,
and I listened with interest to the conversation of this worthy man
with some of his neighbours who had dropped in to have a gossip, and to
congratulate him on his martial achievements, as he had been on guard in
a bastion. We first discussed why the Army of the Loire had not arrived,
and we came to the conclusion that it was engaged in rallying Bazaine.
"I should like to read your English newspapers now," said one; "your
_Tims_ told us we ought to cede Alsace and Lorraine, but its editor must
now acknowledge that Paris is invincible." I told him that I felt
convinced that he did so regularly every morning. "No peace," shouted a
little tailor, who had been prancing about on an imaginary steed,
killing imaginary Prussians, "we have made a pact with death; the world
knows now what are the consequences of attacking us." The all-absorbing
question of subsistence then came up, and some one remarked that beef
would give out sooner than mutton. "We must learn," observed a
jolly-looking grocer, "to vanquish the prejudices of our stomachs. Even
those who do not like mutton must make the sacrifice of their taste to
their country." I mildly suggested that perhaps in a few weeks the
stomachs which had a prejudice against rats would have to overcome it.
At this the countenance of the gossips fell considerably, when the
bootmaker, after mysteriously closing the door, whispered, "A secret was
confided to me this morning by an intimate friend of General Trochu.
There is a tunnel which connects Paris with the provinces, and through
it flocks and herds are entering the town." This news cheered us up
amazingly. My bootmaker's wife came in to help him off with his military
accoutrements; so, with a compliment about Venus disarming Mars, I
withdrew in company with an American, who had gone into the shop with
me. This American is a sort of transatlantic Bunsby. He talks little,
but thinks much. His sole observation to me as we walked away was this,
"They will squat, sir, mark my words, they will squat." I received this
oracular utterance with respect, and I leave it to others to solve its
meaning, I am myself a person of singular credulity, but even I
sometimes ask myself whether all I hear and read can be true. Was there
really, as all the newspapers this morning inform me, a meeting last
Sunday at London of 400,000 persons, who were addressed by eminent
M.P's, and by the principal merchants and owners of manufactories in
England, at which resolutions were adopted denouncing the Queen, and
calling upon Mr. Gladstone either to retire from office, or to declare
war against Prussia?
The Tuileries correspondence, of which I gave a short summary yesterday,
reveals the fact that both M. de Cassagnac and Baron Jerome David were
regular pensioners on the Civil List. The cost of the Prince Imperial's
baptism amounted to 898,000fr. The cousins, male and female, of the
Emperor, received 1,310,975fr. per annum; the Duc de Persigny received
in two months, 60,000fr.; Prince Jablonowyski, Countess Gajan, Madame
Claude Vignon, Le General Morris, and many other ladies and gentlemen
who never did the State any service, are down for various sums. Among
other items is one of 1,200fr. to General de Failly for sugar plums. The
Duchess of Mouchy, whose name continually appears, received 2,000,000fr.
as a marriage portion. The son of the American Bonaparte had a pension
of 30,000fr.; Madame Ratazzi of 24,000fr.; her sister, Madame Turr, the
same; Marquis Pepoli, 25,000fr. But the poor relations do not appear to
have been contented with their pensions, for on some pretext or other
they were always getting extra allowances out of their rich cousin. As
for Prince Achille Murat, the Emperor paid his debts a dozen times.
Whatever he may have been to the outer world, poor old Badinguet seems
to have been a Providence to his forty-two cousins and to his personal
friends. He carried out Sidney Smith's notion of charity--put his hand
into someone else's pocket, and gave away what he stole liberally.
_Figaro_, with its usual good taste, recommends the battalions of the
National Guard to choose celebrities of the _demi-monde_ for their
vivandières. From what I hear every day, I imagine that the battalions
will be far more likely to hang the editor of this facetious paper than
to take his advice. I am told by the kiosque women that its sale is
falling off daily.
The clubs and their organs have announced that the municipal elections
are to take place, with or without the consent of the Government, on
October 2, and that not only the inhabitants of Paris, but the Gardes
Mobiles and the peasants who have taken refuge within the walls of the
city are to vote. In the working men's quarters there is undoubtedly a
strong feeling in favour of these elections being held at once. But the
working men do not attend the clubs. I have dropped into several of
them, and the audience appeared to me principally to be composed of
strongminded women and demagogues, who never did an honest day's work in
their lives. The Government has, however, been "interviewed" on the
subject of the municipal elections by the chiefs of the battalions of
the National Guards of the Faubourgs, and, if only some men of position
can be found to put themselves at the head of the movement, it will
cause trouble. As yet, Ledru-Rollin is the only known politician who
avowedly favours it. The Government is, I believe, divided upon the
expediency of holding the elections at once, or rather I should say,
upon the possibility of putting them off without provoking disturbances.
I am inclined to think that, as is usually the case, the Moderates will
yield on this point to their Ultra colleagues. Very possibly they may
think that, if ever a capitulation becomes necessary, it will be as well
to make the nominees of the Faubourgs share in the responsibility. As
Jules Favre said of Rochefort, they are perhaps safer in the Government
than outside of it.
The column of the Place Vendôme is daily bombarded by indignant
patriots, who demand that it should be razed to the ground, and the
metal of which it is composed be melted down into cannon. The statue of
Napoleon I., in the cocked hat and great-coat, which used to be on its
summit, was removed a few years ago to a pedestal at the end of the
Avenue de la Grande Armée. It has been concealed to preserve it from the
iconoclasts. There has been a lull of late in M. Gambetta's
proclamations. Within the last twenty-four hours, not above two fresh
ones have appeared. The newspapers are beginning to clamour for a
sortie. Why, they ask, are we to allow ourselves to be besieged by an
army which does not equal in numbers our own? Why are we to allow them
quietly to establish their batteries? There is a certain amount of sense
in these complaints, though the vital question of how regiments, which
have never had an opportunity of being brigaded together, will be able
to vanquish in the open field the disciplined troops of Germany, is the
unknown [Greek: x] in the problem which has yet to be solved. It is
evident, however, that the question must be tested, unless we are to
remain within the fortifications until we have digested our last omnibus
horse. If the enemy attacks, there is fair ground to suppose that he
will be repelled; but then, perhaps he will leave us to make the first
move. Without entering into details, I may say that considerable
engineering skill has been shown of late in strengthening the defences,
that the Mobiles and the National Guard, if their words mean anything,
which has yet to be proved, are full of fighting, and that the armed
force at our disposal has at length been knocked into some sort of
shape. Every day that the Prussian attack is delayed diminishes its
chance of success. "If they do carry the town by assault," said a
general to me yesterday, "it will be our fault, for, from a military
point of view, it is now impregnable." What the effect of a bombardment
may be upon the morale of the inhabitants we have yet to see. In any
case, however, until several of those hard nuts, the forts, have been
cracked, a bombardment can only be partial.
There was heavy firing last night, and it increased in intensity this
morning. At about one o'clock I saw above 100 wounded being brought to
the Palais de l'Industrie, and on going to Montrouge I found the church
near the fortifications full of them. The following is the official
account of what has happened:
Our troops in a vigorous sortie, successively occupied Chevilly and
l'Hay, and advanced as far as Thiais and Choisy-le-Roi. All these
positions were solidly occupied, the latter with cannon. After a
sharp artillery and musketry engagement our troops fell back on
their positions with a remarkable order and _aplomb_. The Garde
Mobile were very firm. _En somme journée très honorable_. Our
losses have been considerable. Those of the enemy probably as
considerable. TROCHU.
I need not add that as usual we have had rumours all day of a great
victory and a junction with the Army of the Loire. General Trochu's
despatch, dated 10-30, Bicêtre, reduces matters to their real
dimensions.
_October 1st._
Although the Government statistics respecting the amount of food in
Paris have been published, and are consequently, in all probability, in
the hands of the Prussians, I do not like to give them myself. It can,
however, do no harm to explain the system which is being adopted by the
authorities to make our stores hold out as long as possible. Every
butcher receives each morning a certain amount of meat, calculated upon
his average sales. Against this meat he issues tickets in the evening
to his customers, who, upon presentation of the ticket the next morning,
receive the amount for which they have inscribed themselves at the price
fixed by the tariff of the week. When tickets have been issued by the
butcher equivalent to the meat which he is to receive, he issues no
more. Yesterday a decree was promulgated, ordering all persons having
flour on sale to give it up to the Government at the current price. It
will, I presume, be distributed to the bakers, like the meat to the
butchers. As regards meat, the supply does not equal the demand--many
persons are unable to obtain tickets, and consequently have to go
without it. Restaurants cannot get enough for their customers. This
evening, for instance, at seven o'clock, on going into a restaurant, I
found almost everything already eaten up. I was obliged to "vanquish the
prejudices of my stomach," and make a dinner on sheeps' trotters,
pickled cauliflower, and peaches. My stomach is still engaged in
"vanquishing its prejudice" to this repast, and I am yet in the agonies
of indigestion. In connection, however, with this question of food,
there is another important consideration. Work is at a standstill.
Mobiles and Nationaux who apply _formâ pauperis_ receive one franc and a
half per diem. Now, at present prices, it is materially impossible for a
single man to buy sufficient food to stave off hunger for this sum, how
then those who depend upon it for their sustenance, and have wives and
families to support out of it, are able to live, it is difficult to
understand. Sooner or later the population will have to be rationed like
soldiers, and, if the siege goes on, useless mouths will have to be
turned out. It was supposed that the peasants in the neighbourhood of
Paris, who were invited to take refuge within its walls, would bring
more than enough food with them for themselves and their families, but
they preferred to bring their old beds and their furniture. Besides our
stores of flour, of sheep, and of oxen, we have twenty-two million
pounds of horse-flesh to fall back upon, so that I do not think that we
shall be starved out for some time; still the misery among those who
have no money to buy food will, unless Government boldly faces the
question, be very great. Everything, except beef, mutton, and bread, is
already at a fancy price. Ham costs 7fr. the kilo.; cauliflowers,
1.50fr. a head; salt butter 9fr. the kilo, (a kilo, is about two
pounds); a fat chicken 10fr.; a thin one, 5fr.; a rabbit, 11fr.; a duck,
9fr.; a fat goose, 20fr.
Rents, too, are as vexed a question as they are in Ireland. In a few
days the October term comes due. Few can pay it; it is proposed,
therefore, to allow no landlord to levy it either before the close of
the siege or before December.
General Trochu, in his Rapport Militaire of yesterday's proceedings,
expands his despatch of yesterday evening. The object, he says, was, by
a combined action on both banks of the Seine, to discover precisely in
what force the enemy was in the villages of Choisy-le-Roi and Chevilly.
Whilst the brigade of General Giulham drove the enemy out of Chevilly,
the head of the column of General Blaise entered the village of Thiais,
and seized a battery of cannon, which, however, could not be moved for
want of horses. At this moment the Prussians were reinforced, and a
retreat took place in good order. General Giulham was killed. General
d'Exea, while this combat was going on, marched with a brigade on
Creteil, and inflicted a severe loss with his mitrailleuses on the
enemy. This report contrasts favourably with the florid, exaggerated
accounts of the engagement which are published in this morning's papers.
I am glad to find that France possesses at least one man who tells the
truth, and who can address his fellow-citizens in plain language. The
credulity of the Parisians, and their love of high-flown bombast, amount
to a disease, which, if this city is not to sink into a species of
Baden Baden, must be stamped out. Mr. O'Sullivan recently published an
account of his expedition to the Prussian headquarters in the _Electeur
Libre_. Because he said that the Prussians were conducting themselves
well in the villages they occupied, the editor of the paper has been
overwhelmed with letters reviling him for publishing such audacious
lies. Most Frenchmen consider anyone who differs from them to be either
a knave or a fool, and they fabricate facts to prove their theories. An
"intelligent young man" published a letter this morning saying that he
had escaped from Versailles, and that already 700 girls have been
ravished there by the Prussians. This intelligent young man's tale will
be credited, and Mr. O'Sullivan will be disbelieved by nine-tenths of
this population. They believe only what they wish to believe.
M. Rochefort has issued a "poster" begging citizens not to construct
private barricades. There must, he justly observes, be "unity in the
system of interior defences." The _Réveil_ announces that the Ultras do
not intend to proceed to revolutionary elections of a municipality
to-morrow, because they have hopes that the Government intend to yield
on this question. The Prefect of the Police is actively engaged in an
attempt to throw light upon Pietri's connection with the plots which
periodically came to a head against the Empire. Documents have been
discovered which will show that most of these plots were got up by the
Imperial police. Pietri, Lagrange, and Barnier, a _juge d'instruction_,
were the prime movers. A certain Bablot received 20,000fr. for his
services as a conspirator.
The complaints of the newspapers against the number of young men who
avoid military duty by hooking themselves on in some capacity or other
to an ambulance are becoming louder every day. For my part I confess
that I look with contempt upon any young Frenchman I meet with the red
cross on his arm, unless he be a surgeon. I had some thoughts of making
myself useful as a neutral in joining one of these ambulances, but I was
deterred by what happened to a fellow-countryman of mine who offered his
services. He was told that thousands of applicants were turned away
every day, and that there already were far more persons attached to
every ambulance than were necessary.
Dr. Evans, the leading spirit of the American ambulance, the man whose
speciality it was to have drawn more royal teeth, and to have received
more royal decorations than any other human being, has left Paris. Mr.
Washburne informs me that there are still about 250 Americans here, of
whom about forty are women. Some of them remain to look after their
homes, others out of curiosity. "I regard," said an American lady to me
to-day, who had been in a southern city (Vicksburg, if I remember
rightly), when it was under fire, "a bombardment as the finest and most
interesting effort of pyrotechnical skill, and I want to see if you
Europeans have developed this art as fully as we have, which I doubt."
_October 2nd._
I wrote to General Trochu yesterday to ask him to allow me to accompany
him outside the walls to witness military operations. His secretary has
sent me a reply to-day regretting that the General cannot comply with my
request. The correspondent of the _Morning Post_ interviewed the
secretary yesterday on the same subject, but was informed that as no
_laisser passer_ was recognised by the Mobiles, and as General Trochu
had himself been arrested, the Government would not take upon itself the
responsibility of granting them. This is absurd, for I hear that neither
the General nor any of his staff have been fired upon or arrested during
the last week. The French military mind is unable to understand that the
world will rather credit the testimony of impartial neutrals than
official bulletins. As far as correspondents are concerned, they are
worse off under the Republic than even under the Empire.
M. Louis Blanc's appeal to the people of England is declamatory and
rhetorical in tone, and I am inclined to think that the people of
England are but a Richard Doe, and that in reality it is addressed to
the Parisians. M. Blanc asks the English in Paris to bear witness that
the windows of the Louvre are being stuffed with sandbags to preserve
the treasures within from the risks of a bombardment. I do so with
pleasure. I cannot, however, bear him out in his assertions respecting
the menacing calm of Paris, and the indomitable attitude of its National
Guards. M. Blanc, like most of his countrymen, mistakes the wish for the
will, words for deeds, promises for performance. What has happened here,
and what is happening? The forts are manned with sailors, who
conscientiously fire off their cannon. A position has been lost. Two
sorties consisting of troops and armed peasants have been driven back.
The National Guards do duty on the ramparts, drill in the streets, offer
crowns to the statue of Strasburg, wear uniforms, and announce that they
have made a pact with death. I sincerely trust that they may distinguish
themselves, but they have not had an opportunity to do so. Not one of
them has as yet honoured his draft on death. Behind their forts, their
troops, their crowd of peasants, and their ramparts, they boast of what
they will do. If they do really bury themselves beneath the ruins of
their capital they will be entitled to the admiration of history, but as
yet they are civilians of the present and heroes of the future. Noisy
blusterers may be brave men. I have no doubt there are many in Paris
ready to die for their country. I can, however, only deal with facts,
and I find that the Parisians appear to rely for safety upon everything
except their own valour. One day it is the Army of the Loire; another
day it is some mechanical machine; another day dissensions among the
Prussian generals; another day the intervention of Russia or Austria. In
the meantime, clubs denounce the Government; club orators make absurd
and impracticable speeches, the Mayor changes the names of streets, and
inscribes Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité on the public buildings. The
journals of all colours, with only one or two exceptions, are filled
with lies and bombast, and the people believe the one and admire the
other. The Minister of the Interior placards the walls with idle
proclamations, and arrests Bonapartists. Innocent neutrals are mobbed as
Prussian spies, and the only prisoners that we see are French soldiers
on their way to be shot for cowardice. Nothing is really done to force
the Prussians to raise the siege, although the defenders exceed in
number the besiegers. How can all this end? In a given time provisions
and ammunition will be exhausted, and a capitulation must ensue. I wish
with all my heart that the hosts of Germany may meet with the same fate
as befell the army of Sennacherib; but they are not likely to be killed
or forced to retreat by speeches, pacts with death, sentimental appeals,
and exaggerated abuse.
The _Temps_ calculates that our loss on Friday amounted to about 500
wounded and 400 killed. The object of the sortie was to blow up a bridge
over the Seine, and to rouse the courage of the Parisians by obtaining a
marked success at a point where the Prussians were not supposed to be in
force. Neither end was attained, and consequently we are greatly
depressed. Count Bismarck has not condescended to send a reply to the
Corps Diplomatique, requesting to be allowed to establish postal
communication with their Governments, much to the disgust of that
estimable body.
The result of the pryings of the Government into the papers of their
predecessors has as yet only disclosed the facts, that most of the
conspiracies against the Empire were got up by the police, and that the
Emperor bribed porters and postmen to open letters. His main object
seems to have been to get hold of the letters of his Ministers to their
mistresses. The fourth livraison of the Tuileries papers contains the
report of a spy on the doings of the Russian Military Attaché. This
gentleman lost some document, and observes that it can only be his
Prussian colleague who took it from him. Such is diplomacy. The weather
is beautiful. Women and children are making holiday in the streets. The
inner line of barricades is nearly finished.
_Evening._
The news of the fall of Strasburg and Toul was received by the
Government here this morning, and has just been made public. "In
falling," says M. Gambetta, "they cast a glance towards Paris to affirm
once more the unity and indivisibility of the Republic; and they leave
us as a legacy the duty to deliver them, the honour to revenge them."
The Boulevards were crowded, and everyone seemed as much astonished as
if they had never believed this double disaster to be possible. Many
refused to credit the news. _L'Electeur Libre_ proposes to meet the
emergency by sending "virile missionaries into the provinces to organise
a _levée en masse_, to drive from our territory the impious hordes which
are overrunning it." These missionaries would, I presume, go to their
posts in balloons. It never seems to occur to anyone here that the
authority of a Parisian dropping down from the clouds in a parachute in
any province would be contested. The right of Paris to rule France is a
dictum so unquestioned in the minds of the Parisians, that their
newspapers are now urging the Government to send new men to Tours to
oust those who were sent there before the commencement of the siege. It
strikes no one that the thirty-eight million of Frenchmen outside Paris
may be of opinion that the centralization of all power in the hands of
the most corrupt and frivolous capital in the universe has had its share
in reducing France to her present desperate condition, and may be
resolved to assert their claim to have a voice in the conduct of public
affairs. The Parisians regard all provincials as helots, whose sole
business it is to hear and to obey. If the result to France of her
disasters could be to free her at once from the domination of the
Emperor and of Paris, she would in the end be the gainer by them.
I hear that General Vinoy expresses himself very satisfied with the
soldierly bearing of the Mobiles who were under fire on Friday. It was
far better, he says, than he expected. He ascribes the failure of his
sortie to the forts having forewarned the Prussians by their heavy
firing between three and four o'clock in the morning. M. de Rohan,
"delegate of the democracy of England," has written a long letter to M.
Jules Favre informing him that a friend who has arrived from London (!)
has brought news of an immense meeting which has been held in favour of
France, and that this meeting represents the opinion of the whole of
England. M. Jules Favre, in his reply, expresses his sincere thanks "for
the sentiments which have been so nobly expressed in the name of the
English nation." The correspondence occupies two columns in the _Journal
Officiel_. M. de Rohan's residence in England is, I should imagine, in
the vicinity of Tooley-street.
_October 3rd._
The _Journal Officiel_ contains a decree ordering the statue of
Strasburg, on the Place de la Concorde, to be replaced by one in bronze.
No war news.