as confided her destinies. Some
said that the admirals had stated that they would blow up their forts
rather than surrender them; but if the worthies who vouched for this had
been informed by the admirals of their intentions, I can only say that
these honest tars had chosen strange confidants.

Paris, as I have already said more than once, has been fighting as much
for her own supremacy over the provinces as for victory over the
Prussians. The news--whether true or false I know not--that Gambetta,
who is regarded as the representative of Paris, has been replaced by a
sort of Council of Regency, and that this Council of Regency is
treating, has filled everyone here with indignation. Far better,
everyone seems to think, that Alsace should be lost to France, than that
France should be lost to Paris. The victories of Prussia have been
bitter to Frenchmen, because they had each of them individually assumed
a vicarious glory in the victories of the First Empire; but the real
patriotism of the Parisians does not extend farther than the walls of
their own town. If the result of this war is to cause France to
undertake the conduct of its own affairs, and not to allow the
population of Paris and the journalists of Paris to ride roughshod over
her, the country will have gained more than she has lost by her defeats,
no matter what may be the indemnity she be called upon to pay. The
martial spirit of the National Guard has of course been lauded to the
skies by those newspapers which depend for their circulation on these
braves. The question what they have done may, however, be reduced to
figures. They number above 300,000. According to their own statements
they have been fighting for nearly five months, and I venture to say
that during the whole campaign they have not lost 500 men. They have
occasionally done duty in the trenches, but this duty has been a very
brief one, and they have had very long intervals of repose. I do not
question that in the National Guard there are many brave men, but one
can only judge of the fighting qualities of an army by comparison, and
if the losses of the National Guard be statistically compared with those
of the Line, of the Mobiles, and of the sailors, it will be shown
that--to use an Americanism--their record is a bad one. The soldiers and
the sailors have fought, and the women have suffered during the siege.
The male population of Paris has done little more than bluster and drink
and brag.

To-d