This diseased state of
mind arises mainly, I presume, from excessive vanity. No Parisian is
able to believe anything which displeases him, and he is unable not to
believe anything which flatters his _amour propre_. He starts in life
with a series of delusions, which all he has read and heard until now
have confirmed. No journal dares to tell the truth, for if it did its
circulation would fall to nothing. No Parisian, even if by an effort he
could realise to himself the actual condition of his country, would dare
to communicate his opinion to his neighbour, for he would be regarded as
a traitor and a liar. The Bostonians believe that Boston is the "hub of
the universe," and the Parisian is under the impression that his city is
a species of sacred Ark, which it is sacrilege to touch. To bombard
London or Berlin would be an unfortunate necessity of war, but to fire a
shot into Paris is desecration. For a French army to live at the expense
of Germany is in the nature of things; for a German army to live at the
expense of Frenchmen is a barbarity which the civilised world ought to
resent. If the result of the present campaign is to convince Frenchmen
that, as a nation, they are neither better nor worse than other nations,
and to convince Parisians that Paris enjoys no special immunity from the
hardships of war, and that if it sustains a siege it must accept the
natural consequences, it will not have been waged in vain, but will
materially conduce to the future peace of the world. As yet--I say it
with regret--for I abominate war and Prussians, and there is much which
I like in the French--this lesson has not been learnt. Day by day I am
becoming more convinced that a lasting peace can only be signed in
Paris, and that the Parisians must be brought to understand by hard
experience that, if victory means an accession of military glory, defeat
means humiliation, and that the one is just as possible as the other. If
the siege were raised to-morrow, the occupation of Alsace and Lorraine
by an enemy would be disbelieved within six months by this vain,
frivolous populace; and even if the German army does ever defile along
the Boulevards, I shall not be surprised if we are told, as soon as they
have withdrawn, that they never were there. Shut up in this town with
its inhabitants, my sympathies are entirely on their side, but my reason
tells me that Bismarck is right in insisting upon treating in Paris. Let
him, if he can, come in here