g positions,
giving them up and retaking them, to lose or abandon them once more, has
been the night work of the last week. Except it may be by treason, or by
the Commune falling to pieces, they are not nearer a march on Paris than
they were three weeks ago. I won't say a month ago, because then the
work could have been done by a few thousand good troops. A non-official
organ of the Government now tells us to be confident, because "unless in
the case of such accidents as one cannot suppose, or of unforeseen
surprises, _some weeks_ will be sufficient to bring to an end the
necessary but sad entreprise of the attack on Paris!" The same paper is
of opinion that only "some months" will have elapsed before order is
restored in the capital. It thinks the _Journal Officiel_ ridiculously
sanguine, because the latter says, "our works of approach advance with a
rapidity which elicits the admiration of all men of art, and which
promises to France a speedy end of its trials, and to Paris a
deliverance from the horrible tyrants who oppress it." Perhaps it is
because the artillerists and other military men whom I meet are not
"men of art," but certainly I cannot find that any of them take so
bright a view of the position. I have just spoken with a very
distinguished foreign officer who has seen the position here and who has
been every where to look at the Insurgent side. He tells me that at the
batteries outside the city he saw some very good men, but that, taken as
a whole, the National Guards within the city are the most miserable lot
he ever saw under arms. All the barricades are admirably made as to
workmanship, but there is not one of them that could not be taken by
troops approaching from streets at angles with the points at which those
obstructions are placed. The Place Vendome is "a rat-trap," and the
Insurgent chiefs take good care not to make it their own Head-Quarters.
The gallant gentleman to whom I refer believes that if the troops once
got inside the _enceinte_, the insurrection would utterly collapse; but
if the military confine themselves to the operations in which they are
now engaged it will be a considerable time before Paris gives in. Such
is the report of a competent and impartial authority. Rumours of the
most contradictory character are rife from morning till night in the
open air lobby of the Assembly--the Rue des Reservoirs. Deputies who
"ought to know better" circulate very absurd _canards_; but, as remarks
a