_October 5th._
From a military, or rather an engineering point of view, Paris is
stronger to-day than it was two weeks ago. The defences have been
strengthened. With respect, however, to its defenders, they are much
what they were. The soldiers of the line and the marines are soldiers;
the Mobiles and the Nationaux, with some few exceptions, remain armed
citizens. Each battalion is an _imperium in imperio_. The men ignore
every one except their own officers, and these officers exercise but
little influence except when they consent to act in strict accordance
with the feelings of those whom they are supposed to command. Some of
the battalions appear to be anxious to fight, but it unfortunately
happens that these are the very ones which are most undisciplined. The
battalions of the _bourgeois_ quarters obey orders, but there is no go
in them. The battalions of the artizan Faubourgs have plenty of go, but
they do not obey orders. General Trochu either cannot, or does not,
desire to enforce military discipline. Outside the enceinte, the hands
of the Mobiles are against every man, but no notice is taken when they
fire at or arrest officers of other corps. The Courts-martial which sit
are a mere farce. I see that yesterday a Franc-tireur was tried for
breaking his musket when ordered to march. He was acquitted because the
court came to the conclusion that he was "un brave garçon." The
application of military law to the Nationaux is regarded by these
citizens as an act of arbitrary power. Yesterday several battalions
passed the following resolution:--"In order to preserve at once
necessary discipline and the rights of citizens, no man shall
henceforward be brought before a council of war, or be awarded a
punishment, except with the consent of the family council of his
company."
I am not a military man, but it certainly does appear to me strange that
the Prussians are allowed quietly to entrench themselves round the city,
and that they are not disturbed by feints and real sorties. We can act
on the inner lines, we have got a circular railroad, and we have armed
men in numbers. General Trochu has announced that he has a plan, the
success of which he guarantees; he declines to confide to a soul any of
its details, but he announces that he has deposited it with his notary,
Maître Duclos, in order that it may not be lost to the world in the
event of his being killed. As yet no one has fathomed this mysterious
plan; it appears to contemplate defensive rather than offensive
operations.
Mont Valérien now fires daily. Its commander has been changed; its
former one has been removed because the protests against the silence of
this fort were so loud and strong. His successor, with the fate of his
predecessor before him, bangs away at every Uhlan within sight. For the
commanders of forts to be forced to keep up a continual fire in order to
satisfy public opinion, is not an encouraging state of things. The
assertion of the Government, that no reports of what is going on in
France have been received from Tours, is discredited. They have got
themselves in a mess by their former declarations that communications
with the exterior were kept up; for if they know nothing, it is asked
what can these communications have been worth. Our last news from
outside is derived from a Rouen newspaper of the 29th ult., which is
published to-day.
A few days ago it was announced that all pledges below the value of
20fr. would be returned by the Mont-de-Piété without payment. Since then
everyone has been pledging articles for sums below this amount, as a
second decree of the same nature is expected. It is not a bad plan to
give relief in this manner to those in want. As yet, however, there is
no absolute destitution, and as long as the provisions last I do not
think that there will be. So long as flour and meat last, everyone with
more or less trouble will get his share. As the amount of both these
articles is, however, finite, one of these days we shall hear that they
are exhausted. The proprietors have been deprived of their power to sue
for rents, consequently a family requires but little ready money to rub
on from hand to mouth. My landlord every week presents me with my bill.
The ceremony seems to please him, and does me no harm. I have pasted
upon my mantlepiece the decree of the Government adjourning payment of
rent, and the right to read and re-read this document is all that he
will get from me until the end of the siege. Yesterday I ordered myself
a warm suit of clothes; I chose a tailor with a German name, so I feel
convinced that he will not venture to ask for payment under the present
circumstances, and if he does he will not get it. If my funds run out
before the siege is over I shall have at least the pleasure to think
that this has not been caused by improvidence.
Some acquaintances of mine managed in the course of yesterday to get out
to Villejuif without being arrested. I have not been so fortunate. I
have charged the _barrières_ three times, and each time have had to
retire discomfited. My friends describe the soldiers of the line in the
front as utterly despising their allies the Mobiles. They camp out
without tents, in order to be ready at any moment to resist an attack.
_October 7th._
Paris would hardly be recognised under its present aspect by those
citizens of the Far West who are in the habit of regarding it as a place
where good Americans go when they die. In the garden of the Tuileries,
where _bonnes_ used to flirt with guardsmen, there is an artillery camp.
The guns, the pickets of horses, the tents, the camp-fires, and the
soldiers in their shirt-sleeves, have a picturesque effect under the
great trees. On the Place de la Concorde from morning to evening there
is a mob discussing things in general, and watching the regiments as
they defile with their crowns before the statue of Strasburg. In the
morning the guns of the forts can be heard heavily booming; but the
sound has now lost its novelty, and no one pays more attention to it
than the miller to the wheel of his mill. In the Champs Elysées there
are no private carriages, and few persons sitting on the chairs. The
Palais de l'Industrie is the central ambulance; the Cirque de
l'Impératrice a barrack. All the cafés chantants are closed. Some few
youthful votaries of pleasure still patronise the merry-go-rounds; but
the business cannot be a lucrative one. Along the quays by the river
side there are cavalry and infantry regiments under tentes d'abri. The
Champ de Mars is a camp. In most of the squares there are sheep and
oxen. On the outer Boulevards lines of huts have been built for the
Mobiles, and similar huts are being erected along the Rue des Remparts
for the Nationaux on duty. Everywhere there are squads of Nationaux,
some learning the goose-step, others practising skirmishing between the
carts and fiacres, others levelling their guns and snapping them off at
imaginary Prussians. The omnibuses are crowded; and I fear greatly that
their horses will be far from tender when we eat them. The cabbies,
once so haughty and insolent, are humble and conciliatory, for Brutus
and Scævola have taught them manners, and usually pay their fares in
patriotic speeches. At the Arc de Triomphe, at the Trocadero, and at
Passy, near the Point du Jour, there are always crowds trying to see the
Prussians on the distant hills, and in the Avenue de l'Impératrice (now
the Avenue Uhrich), there are always numerous admirers of Mont Valérien
gazing silently upon the object of their worship. In the Faubourg St.
Antoine workmen are lounging about doing nothing, and watching others
drilling. In the outer faubourgs much the same thing goes on, except
where barricades are being built. Round each of these there is always a
crowd of men and women, apparently expecting the enemy to assault them
every moment. At the different gates of the town there are companies of
Mobiles and National Guards, who sternly repel every civilian who seeks
to get through them. On an average of every ten minutes, no matter where
one is, one meets either a battalion of Nationaux or Mobiles, marching
somewhere. The asphalt of the boulevards, that sacred ground of dandies
and smart dresses, is deserted during the daytime. In the evening for
about two hours it is thronged by Nationaux with their wives; Mobiles
who ramble along, grinning vaguely, hand in hand, as though they were in
their native villages; and loafers. There, and in the principal streets,
speculators have taken advantage of the rights of man to stop up the
side walks with tables on which their wares are displayed. On some of
them there are kepis, on others ointment for corns, on others statuettes
of the two inseparables of Berlin, William and his little Bismarck, on
others General Trochu and the members of the Government in gilt
gingerbread. The street-hawkers are enjoying a perfect carnival--the
last editions of the papers--the Tuileries' papers--the caricatures of
Badinguet--portraits of the heroic Uhrich, and infallible cures for the
small-pox or for worms, are offered for sale by stentorian lungs.
Citizens, too, equally bankrupt alike in voice and in purse, place four
lighted candles on the pavement, and from the midst of this circle of
light dismally croak the "Marseillaise" and other patriotic songs. As
for beggars, their name is legion; but as every one who wants food can
get it at the public cantines, their piteous whines are disregarded.
Lodgings are to be hired in the best streets for about one-tenth part of
what was asked for them two months ago, and even that need not be paid.
Few shops are shut; but their proprietors sit, hoping against hope, for
some customer to appear. The grocers, the butchers, and the bakers, and
the military tailors, still make money; but they are denounced for doing
so at the clubs as bad patriots. As for the hotels, almost all of them
are closed. At the Grand Hotel, there are not twenty persons. Business
of every kind is at a standstill. Those who have money, live on it;
those who have not, live on the State: the former shrug their shoulders
and say, "Provided it does not last;" the latter do not mind how long it
lasts. All are comparatively happy in the thought that the eyes of
Europe are on them, and that they have already thrown Leonidas and his
Spartans into the shade.
The Government has placarded to-day a despatch from Tours. Two armies
are already formed, we are told--one at Lyons, and the other at----. The
situation of Bazaine is excellent. The provinces are ready. The
departments are organising to the cry of "Guerre à outrance, ni un pouce
de terrain, ni une pierre de nos forteresses!" I trust that the news is
true; but I have an ineradicable distrust of all French official
utterances. A partial attempt is being made to relieve the population.
At the Mairies of the arrondissements, tickets are delivered to heads of
families, giving them the right to a certain portion of meat per diem
until January. The restaurants are still fairly supplied; so that the
system of rationing is not yet carried out in its integrity.
I am not entirely without hopes that the trial through which France is
passing will in the end benefit it. Although we still brag a good deal,
there is within the last few days a slight diminution of bluster. Cooped
up here, week after week, the population must in the end realise the
fact that the world can move on without them, and that twenty years of
despotism has enervated them and made other nations their equals, if not
their superiors. As Sydney Smith said of Macaulay, they have occasional
flashes of silence. They sit, now and then, silent and gloomy, and mourn
for the "Pauvre France." "Nous sommes bien tombés." This is a good sign,
but will it outlive a single gleam of success? Shall we not in that case
have the Gallic cock crowing as lustily as ever? The French have many
amiable and engaging qualities, and if adversity would only teach them
wisdom, the country is rich enough to rise from the ruin which has
overtaken it. M. Jules Simon has published a plan of education which he
says in twenty years will produce a race of virile citizens; but this is
a little long to wait for a social regeneration. At present they are
schoolboys, accustomed to depend on their masters for everything, and
the defence of Paris is little more than the "barring out" of a girls'
school. They cannot, like Anglo-Saxons, organise themselves, and they
have no man at their head of sufficient force of character to impose his
will upon them. The existing Government has, it is true, to a certain
extent produced administrative order, but they have not succeeded in
inspiring confidence in themselves, or in raising the spirit of the
Parisians to the level of the situation. The Ultras say justly, that
this negative system cannot last, and that prompt action is as much a
political as it is a military necessity.
The sixth livraison of the Tuileries papers has just appeared. Its
contents are unimportant. There is a receipt from Miss Howard, the
Emperor's former mistress, showing that between 1850 and 1855 she
received above five million francs. This sum was not, however, a
sufficient remuneration in her opinion, for her services, as in July,
1855, she writes for more, and says "the Emperor is too good to leave a
woman whom he has tenderly loved in a false position." This and several
other of her letters are addressed to the Emperor's Secretary, whose
functions seem to have been of a peculiarly domestic character. Indeed,
the person who fulfilled them would everywhere, except at a Court, have
been called something less euphonious than "secretary." A report from M.
Duvergier, ex-Secretary-General of the Police, is published respecting
the _Cabinet Noir_. It is addressed to the then Minister of the
Interior. It is lengthy, and very detailed. It appears that occasionally
the Emperor's own letters were opened.
I went to the Hôtel de Ville this afternoon, to see whether anything was
going on there. Several battalions passed by, but they did not
demonstrate _en passant_. The place was full of groups of what in
England would be called the "dangerous classes." They were patiently
listening to various orators who were denouncing everything in general,
and the Government in particular. The principal question seemed to be
that of arms. Frenchmen are so accustomed to expect their Governments to
do everything for them, that they cannot understand why, although there
were but few Chassepots in the city, every citizen should not be given
one. It is indeed necessary to live here and to mix with all classes to
realise the fact that the Parisians have until now lived in an ideal
world of their own creation. Their orators, their statesmen, and their
journalists, have traded upon the traditions of the First Empire, and
persuaded them that they are a superior race, and that their
superiority is universally recognised. Utterly ignorant of foreign
languages and of foreign countries, they believe that their literature
is the only one in the world, and that a Frenchman abroad is adored as
something little less than a divinity. They regard the Prussians round
their city much as the citizens of Sparta would have regarded Helots,
and they are so astonished at their reverses, that they are utterly
unable to realise what is going on. As for trying to make them
comprehend that Paris ought to enjoy no immunity from attack which
Berlin or London might not equally claim, it is labour lost. "The
neutrals," I heard a member of the late Assembly shouting in a café,
"are traitors to civilisation in not coming to the aid of the Queen of
Europe." They did their very best, they declare, to prevent Napoleon
from making war. Yet one has only to talk with one of them for half an
hour to find that he still hankers after the Rhine, and thinks that
France wishes to be supreme in Europe.
_October 8th._
Yesterday I happened to be calling at the Embassy, when a young English
gentleman made his appearance, and quietly asked whether he could take
any letters to England. He is to start to-day in a balloon, and has paid
5,000f. for his place. I gave him a letter, and a copy of one which I
had confided on Wednesday to an Irishman who is trying to get through
the lines. I hear that to-morrow the Columbian Minister is going to the
Prussian Headquarters, and a friend of mine assures me that he thinks if
I give him a letter by one o'clock to-day this diplomatist will take it.
The Corps Diplomatique are excessively indignant with the reply they
have received from Count Bismarck, declining to allow any but open
despatches through the Prussian lines. They have held an indignation
meeting. M. Kern, the Swiss Minister, has drawn up a protest, which has
been signed by himself and all his colleagues. The Columbian Minister
is to be the bearer of it. It bombards Bismarck with copious extracts
from Puffendorf and Grotius, and cites a case in point from the siege of
Vienna in the 15th century. It will be remembered that Messenger
Johnson, at the risk of his life and at a very great expense to the
country, brought despatches to the Parisian Embassy on the second day of
the siege. I recommend Mr. Rylands, or some other M.P. of independent
character, to insist upon Parliament being informed what these important
despatches were. The revelation will be a curious one.
Yesterday afternoon I made an excursion into the Bois de Boulogne under
the convoy of a friend in power. We went out by the Porte de Neuilly.
Anything like the scene of artificial desolation and ruin outside this
gate it is impossible to imagine. The houses are blown up--in some
places the bare walls are still standing, in others even these have been
thrown down. The Bois itself, from being the most beautiful park in the
world, has become a jungle of underwood. In the roads there are large
barricades formed of the trees which used to line them, which have been
cut down. Between the ramparts and the lake the wood is swept clean
away, and the stumps of the trees have been sharpened to a point. About
8,000 soldiers are encamped in the open air on the race-course and in
the Bois. Near Suresnes there is a redoubt which throws shell and shot
into St. Cloud. We are under the impression that the firing from this
redoubt, from Valérien, Issy, and the gunboat Farcy, which took place on
Thursday morning, between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., has destroyed the batteries
and earthworks which the Prussians were erecting on the heights of St.
Cloud and Meudon-Clamart. You, however, are better informed respecting
the damage which was done than we are. When I was in the Bois the
redoubt was not firing, and the sailors who man it were lounging about,
exactly as though they had been on board ship. Occasionally
Mont-Valérien fired a shot, but it was only a sort of visiting card to
the Prussians, for with the best glasses we could see nothing of them.
Indeed, the way they keep under cover is something wonderful. "I have
been for three weeks in a fort," said the aide-de-camp of one of the
commanders of a southern fort, "every day we have made reconnaissances,
and I have not seen one single Prussian."
From what I learn, on good authority, the political situation is this.
The Government consists mainly of Orleanists. When they assumed the
direction of public affairs, they hoped to interest either Austria or
Russia in the cause of France. They were, therefore, very careful to
avoid as much as possible any Republican propagandism either at home or
abroad. Little by little they have discovered that if France is to be
saved it must be by herself. Some of them, however, still hanker after a
Russian intervention, and do not wish to weaken M. Thiers' prospects of
success at St. Petersburg. They have, however, been obliged to yield to
the Republicanism of the Parisian "men of action," and they have
gradually drifted into a Government charged not only with the defence of
the country, but also with the establishment of a Republic. As is usual
in all councils, the extreme party has gained the ascendancy. But the
programme of the Ultras of the "ins" falls far short of that of the
Ultras of the "outs." The latter are continually referring to '93, and
as the Committee of Public Safety then saved France, they are unable to
understand why the same organisation should not save it now. Their
leaders demand a Commune, because they hope to be among its members. The
masses support them, because they sincerely believe that in the election
of a Commune Paris will find her safety. The Government is accused of a
want of energy. "Are we to remain cooped up here until we are starved
out?" ask the Ultras. "As a military man, I decline to make a sortie,"
replies General Trochu. "We are not in '93. War is waged in a more
scientific manner," whispers Ernest Picard. The plan of the Government,
if plan it has, appears to be to wear out the endurance of the besiegers
by a defensive attitude, until either an army from the provinces cuts
off their communications, or the public opinion of Europe forces them to
raise the siege. The plan of the Ultras is to save Paris by Paris; to
make continual sorties, and, every now and then, one in such force that
it will be a battle. I am inclined to think that theoretically the
Government plan is the best, but it ignores the material it has to do
with, and it will find itself obliged either to adopt the policy of the
Ultras, or to allow them to elect a "Commune," which would soon absorb
all power. The position appears to me to be a false one, owing to the
attempt to rule France from Paris through an occasional despatch by
balloon. What ought to have been done was to remove the seat of
Government to another town before the siege commenced, and to have left
either Trochu or some other military man here to defend Paris, as Uhrich
defended Strasburg. But the Government consisted of the deputies of
Paris; and had they moved the seat of Government, they would have lost
their _locus standi_. Everyone here sees the absurdity of Palikao's
declaration, that Bazaine was commander-in-chief when he was invested in
Metz, but no one seems to see the still greater absurdity of the supreme
civil and military Government of the whole country remaining in Paris
whilst it is invested by the German armies. Yesterday, for instance, a
decree was issued allowing the town of Roubaix to borrow, I forget how
much. Can anything be more absurd than for a provincial town to be
forced to wait for such an authorisation until it receives it from
Paris? It is true that there is a delegation at Tours, but, so long as
it is nothing but a delegation, it will be hindered in its operations by
the dread of doing anything which may conflict with the views of its
superiors here. Paris at present is as great an incubus to France as the
Emperor was. Yesterday M. Gambetta started in a balloon for Tours, and
in the interests of France I shall be glad to see his colleagues one and
all follow him. The day before a balloon had been prepared for him, but
his nerves failed him at the last moment, and he deferred his departure
for twenty-four hours.
M. Rochefort was "interviewed" yesterday by a deputation of women, who
asked to be employed in the hospitals instead, of the men who are now
there. He promised to take their request into consideration. I was down
yesterday at the headquarters of the Ambulance Internationale, and I
cannot say that I think that the accusations of the Ultra-press
respecting the number of young Frenchmen there, is borne out by facts.
There have been, however, a vast number of _petits crevés_ and others
who have shirked military service by forming themselves into amateur
ambulances. The "sergents de ville" have received orders to arrest
anyone wearing the Red Cross who is unable to produce his certificate as
an _infirmier_. This has thrown the _petits crevés_--the pets of priests
and old ladies--those youths who are best described by the English
expression, "nice young men for a small tea-party"--into consternation.
I saw yesterday one of these emasculated specimens of humanity arrayed
in a suit of velvet knickerbockers, with a red cross on his arm, borne
off to prison, notwithstanding his whining protests.
Another abuse which has been put an end to is that of ladies going about
begging for money for the "wounded." They are no longer allowed to do so
unless they have an authorisation. I have a lively recollection of an
old grandaunt of mine, who used to dun every one she met for a shilling
for the benefit of the souls of the natives of Southern Africa, and as I
know that the shillings never went beyond ministering to the wants of
this aged relative, warned by precocious experience, I have not allowed
myself to be caught by the "ladies."
A singular remonstrance has been received at the British Embassy. In the
Rue de Chaillot resides a celebrated English courtezan, called Cora
Pearl, and above her house floats the English flag. The inhabitants of
the street request the "Ambassador of England, a country the purity and
the decency of whose manners is well known," to cause this bit of
bunting, which is a scandal in their eyes, to be hauled down. I left Mr.
Wodehouse consulting the text writers upon international law, in order
to discover a precedent for the case. Colonel Claremont is doing his
best to look after the interests of his fellow-countrymen. I had a
prejudice against this gentleman, because I was unable to believe that
any one hailing from the Horse Guards could under any circumstances make
himself a useful member of society. I find, however, that he is a man of
energy and good common sense, with very little of the pipeclay about
him.
From Monday next a new system of the distribution of meat is to come
into force. Between 450 and 500 oxen and 3,500 sheep are to be daily
slaughtered. This meat is to be divided into twenty lots, one for each
arrondissement, the size of each lot to be determined by the number of
the inhabitants of the particular arrondissement. The lot will then be
divided between the butchers in the arrondissement, at twenty centimes
per kilogramme below the retail price. Each arrondissement may, however,
adopt a system of rations. I suspect most of the beef I have eaten of
late is horse; anyhow, it does not taste like ordinary beef. To obtain a
joint at home is almost impossible. In the first place, it is difficult
to purchase it; in the second place, if, when bought, it is spotted by
patriots going through the street, it is seized upon on the ground that
any one who can obtain a joint for love or money must be an aristocrat
who is getting more than his share. I met a lady early this morning, who
used to be most fashionable. She was walking along with a parcel under
her shawl, and six dogs were following her. She asked me to drive them
away, but they declined to go. I could not understand their sudden
affection for my fair friend, until she confided to me that she had two
pounds of mutton in her parcel. A tariff for horse-flesh is published
to-day; it costs--the choice parts, whichever they may be--1f 40c. the
kilo.; the rest, 80c. the kilo.
_Figaro_ yesterday published a "correspondence from Orleans." The
_Official Gazette_ of this morning publishes an official note from the
Prefect of Police stating that this correspondence is "a lie, such as
those which the _Figaro_ invents every day."
_Afternoon._
I have just returned from the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville. When I got
there at about two o'clock six or seven thousand manifesters had already
congregated there. They were all, as is the nature of Frenchmen in a
crowd, shouting their political opinions into their neighbours' ears.
Almost all of them were Nationaux from the Faubourgs, and although they
were not armed, they wore a kepi, or some other distinctive military
badge. As well as I could judge, nine out of ten were working men. Their
object, as a sharp, wiry artizan bellowed into my ear, was to force the
Government to consent to the election of a Commune, in order that the
Chassepots may be more fairly distributed between the bourgeois and the
ouvriers, and that Paris shall no longer render itself ridiculous by
waiting within its walls until its provisions are exhausted and it is
forced to capitulate. There appeared to be no disposition to pillage;
rightly or wrongly, these men consider that the Government is wanting in
energy, and that it is the representative of the bourgeoisie and not of
the entire population. Every now and then, some one shouted out "Vive
la Commune!" and all waved their caps and took up the cry. After these
somewhat monotonous proceedings had continued about half an hour,
several bourgeois battalions of National Guards came along the quay, and
drew up in line, four deep, before the Hôtel de Ville. They were not
molested except with words. The leading ranks of the manifesters
endeavoured by their eloquence to convince them that they ought not to
prevent citizens peacefully expressing their opinions; but the grocers
stood stolidly to their arms, and vouchsafed no reply. At three o'clock
General Trochu with his staff rode along inside the line, and then
withdrew. General Tamisier then made a speech, which of course no one
could hear. Shortly afterwards there was a cry of "Voilà Flourens--Voilà
nos amis," and an ouvrier battalion with its band playing the
Marseillaise marched by. They did not halt, notwithstanding the
entreaties of the manifesters, for they were bound, their officers
explained, on a sacred mission, to deposit a crown before the statue of
Strasburg. When I left the Place the crowd was, I think, increasing, and
as I drove along the Rue Rivoli I met several bourgeois battalions
marching towards the Hôtel de Ville. I presume, therefore, that General
Trochu had thought it expedient to send reinforcements. "We will come
back again with arms," was the general cry among the ouvriers, and
unless things mend for the better I imagine that they will keep their
word. The line of demarcation between the bourgeois and the ouvrier
battalions is clearly marked, and they differ as much in their opinions
as in their appearance. The sleek, well-fed shopkeeper of the Rue
Vivienne, although patriotic, dreads disorder, and does not absolutely
contemplate with pleasure an encounter with the Prussians. The wild,
impulsive working man from Belleville or La Villette dreads neither
Prussians without, nor anarchy within. If he could only find a leader he
would blow up himself and half Paris rather than submit to the
humiliation of a capitulation. Anything he thinks is better than this
"masterly inactivity." Above the din of the crowd the cannon could be
heard sullenly firing from the forts; but even this warning of how near
the foe is, seemed to convey no lesson to avoid civil strife. Unless
General Trochu is a man of more energy than I take him to be, if ever
the Prussians do get into the town they will find us in the condition of
the Kilkenny cats.
_October 9th._
The representative of the Republic of Columbia, to whom I had given my
letter of yesterday, has returned it to me, as he was afraid to cross
the lines with it. The Briton who has paid for a place in a balloon is
still here, and he imagines that he will start to-morrow, so I shall
give him my Columbian letter and this one. I understand that any one who
is ready to give assurances that he will praise everything and every one
belonging to the Government, is afforded facilities for sending out
letters by the Post-office balloons, but I am not prepared to give any
other pledge except that I shall tell the truth without fear or favour.
The _Journal Officiel_ of this morning, and the Moderate papers, boast
that the Ultra manifestation of yesterday was a complete failure. As
usual, they cry before they are out of the wood. After I left the Place
it appears that there was a counter manifestation of bourgeois National
Guards, who arrived in military order with their arms. Jules Favre
addressed them. Now as far as I can make out, these battalions went to
the Hôtel de Ville on their own initiative. No one, however, seems to
see any incongruity in the friends of the Government making an armed
demonstration as a protest against armed and unarmed demonstrations in
general. The question of the municipal elections will lie dormant for a
few days, but I see no evidence that those who were in favour of it have
altered their minds. As far as yesterday's proceedings were concerned,
they only go to prove the fact, which no one ever doubted, that the
bourgeoisie and their adherents are ready to support the Government, but
they have also proved to my mind conclusively that the working men as a
body have entirely lost all confidence in the men at the head of
affairs.
On the pure merits of the question, I think that the working men have
reason on their side. They know clearly what they want--to make sorties
and to endeavour to destroy the enemy's works; if this fails--to make
provisions last as long as possible by a system of rationing--and then
to destroy Paris rather than surrender it. The Government and their
adherents are waiters on Providence, and, except that they have some
vague idea that the Army of the Loire will perform impossibilities, they
are contented to live on from day to day, and to hope that something
will happen to avert the inevitable catastrophe. I can understand a
military dictatorship in a besieged capital, and I can understand a
small elected council acting with revolutionary energy; but what I
cannot understand is a military governor who fears to enforce military
discipline, and a dozen respectable lawyers and orators, whose sole idea
of Government is, as Blanqui truly says, to issue decrees and
proclamations, and to make speeches. The only practical man among them
is M. Dorian, the Minister of Public Works, M. Dorian is a hard-headed
manufacturer, and utterly ignoring red tape, clerks, and routine; he has
set all the private ateliers to work, to make cannon and muskets. I have
not yet heard of his making a single speech, or issuing a single
proclamation since the commencement of the siege, and he alone of his
colleagues appears to me to be the right man in the right place. I do
not take my views of the working men from the nonsense which is printed
about them in official and semi-official organs. They are the only class
here which, to use an Americanism, is not "played out." The Government
dreads them as much as the Empire did; but although they are too much
carried away by their enthusiasm and their impulsiveness, they are the
only persons in Paris who appear to have a grain of common sense. "As
for the Army of the Loire," said one of them to me this morning, "no
one, except a fool or a Government employé, can believe that it will
ever be able to raise the siege, and as for all these bourgeois, they
consider that they are heroes because once or twice a week they pass the
night at the ramparts; they think first of their shops, then of their
country." "But how can you imagine that you and your friends would be
able to defeat the Prussians, who are disciplined soldiers?" I asked.
"We can at least try," he replied. I ventured to point out to my friend
that perhaps a little discipline in the ouvrier battalions might not be
a bad thing; but he insisted that the indiscipline was caused by their
distrust of their rulers, and that they were ready to obey their
officers. "Take," he said "Flourens' battalions. They do not, it is
true, march as regularly as the bourgeois, and they have nothing but
kepis and old muskets; but, as far as fighting goes, they are worth all
the bourgeois put together." I do not say that Trochu is not wise to
depend upon the bourgeois; all I say is, that as the Empire fell because
it did not venture to arm any except the regular soldiers, so will Paris
render itself the laughing stock of Europe, if its defence is to depend
upon an apocryphal Army of the Loire, marines from the Navy, peasants
from the provinces, and the National Guards of the wealthy quarters. To
talk of the heroic attitude of Paris, when the Parisians have not been
under fire, is simply absurd. As long as the outer forts hold out, it is
no more dangerous to "man the ramparts" than to mount guard at the
Tuileries. I saw to-day a company of mounted National Guards exercising.
Their uniforms were exquisitely clean, but I asked myself of what
earthly use they were. Their commander ordered them to charge, when
every horse butted against the one next to him. I believe a heavy gale
of wind would have disconnected all these warriors from their chargers.
I fully recognise the fact that the leaders of the ouvriers talk a great
deal of nonsense, and that they are actuated as much by personal
ambition as by patriotism; but it is certain that the individual working
man is the only reality in this population of corrupt and emasculated
humbugs; everyone else is a windbag and a sham.
A decree has been issued, informing all who have no means of subsistence
that they will receive a certain amount of bread per diem upon
application at their respective mairies. We are also told that if we
wish to make puddings of the blood of oxen, we must mix pigs' blood with
it, otherwise it will be unwholesome.
It has been showery to-day, and I never have witnessed a more dismal
Sunday in Paris. A pigeon from. Gambetta's balloon has returned, but
this foolish bird lost _en route_ the message which was attached to its
neck.