to put off the elections. After a short parley this was
promised. Another demonstration took place to urge the Government not to
make peace, to accept as their colleagues some "friends of the people,"
and to promise not to re-establish in any form a police force. An
evasive answer was given to these demonstrators. It seems to me that the
Government, in its endeavours to prevent a collision between the
moderates and the ultras, yield invariably to the latter. What is really
wanted is a man of energy and determined will. I doubt if Trochu has
either.

The bold Britons who tried to run the blockade have returned. They
managed to get over the bridge of Neuilly, but were arrested a few yards
beyond it and brought back to General Ducrot. One of them was taken in
with the passports of the five. "I cannot understand you English," the
General said; "if you want to get shot we will shoot you ourselves to
save you trouble." After some parley, General Ducrot gave them a pass to
go through the French lines, but then he withdrew it, and said he must
consult General Trochu. When the spokesman emerged, he found his friends
being led off by a fresh batch of patriots for having no passports, but
they at length got safely back to the Grand Hotel. Their leader, who is
an intelligent man in his way, gives a very discouraging account of what
he saw outside. The Mobiles were lying about on the roads, and everyone
appeared to be doing much what he pleased. This afternoon I went up to
the Trocadero to look at the heights on which they say that there are
already Prussian guns. They appear most uncomfortably near. Those who
had telescopes declared that they could see both guns and Prussians. We
were always told until within a few days that Mont Valerien would
protect all that side of Paris. How can the engineers have made such a
mistake?

This evening I went to call upon one of the chiefs of '48, and had an
interesting conversation with him. He says that many think that he and
his friends ought to be in the Government, and that eventually they all
will be; he added "the Reds are determined to fight, and so long as the
Government does not make a humiliating peace they will support it." I
tried to get out what he considered a humiliating peace, but he rather
fenced with the question. He tells me that at the Folies Bergeres, the
headquarters of the ultras, great dissatisfaction is felt with the
Committees of the "Clubs" for having gone yesterday to