Nobody will be able to accuse us of want of moderation if we insist on this just and equitable demand. Your Excellency will make these views your own and advocate them in discussions. "BISMARCK."

And so, with the opening days of September, the great FrancoGerman War entered upon its second phase. Dynastic ambition had met its doom at the hands of German patriotism and military prowess. Would Republican self-assertion wield the resources of the French nation to better purpose? A manifesto was addressed by the French International Working Men's Society to the Socialist Democracy of Germany. "As soon as the Rhine has been recrossed" they proclaimed, "we shall stretch out our hands, and shall forget the mutual crimes which despots made us commit. Let us proclaim the liberty, fraternity and equality of the peoples, and let us form United States of Europe. Long live the Universal Republic!" Blanqui and his partisans placarded their adhesion to the Provisional Government.

It was an exciting moment for all politicians who had been hitherto relegated to the cold shade of inactivity. Victor Hugo made his way over from Guernsey, and put forth an impassioned address, likening the destruction of tyranny to the breaking up of the frozen rivers of Russia. "Thou shalt not die, O Liberty !" he said. "One of these days, at the moment when least dreamt of, at the very hour when thou shalt have been most profoundly forgotten, thou shalt arise, O splendour. On a sudden we shall see that day-star, thy face, rise from the ground and flame at the horizon. Upon all that snow, upon all that ice, upon that hard white plain, upon that water turned to stone, upon all that monstrous winter, thou shalt launch thy golden arrow, thy burning and shining radiance-heat, life, life! And, then, listen! Hear ye that sullen noise? hear ye that deep and formidable cracking groan? It is the breaking up; it is the Neva crumbling; it is the river resuming its course; it is the living water, joyous and terrible, as it heaves and breaks the dead and hideous ice. It was granite, you said; see, it melts like glass. It is the breaking up; I tell you it is truth coming back; it is progress beginning again; it is humanity putting itself once more on the march, and sweeping up, tearing down, hurrying, bustling, mingling, and drowning in its waves, like the wretched paltry furniture of a hovel, not only the brand-new empire of Louis Bonaparte, but all the constructions and all the works of the old everlasting despotism. See it all go by. It is vanishing for ever. You will never set eye on it again. That book, half sunk, is the old code of iniquity; that woodwork going under, the throne; that other disappearing, the scaffold! And for this prodigious foundering, this supreme victory of life over death, what was needed? 'One glance of thine, O Sun; one ray of thine, O Liberty!"" At this juncture, also, the Orleans Princes resumed their application to be allowed to serve their country in propria persona. But Jules Favre replied that their presence might be misinterpreted, and appealed to their

patriotism to depart. The Count de Chambord, from a distance, wrote a letter filled with the most patriotic sentiments. "Yes, above all things it is necessary to repulse the invasion," he said: "a true mother would rather abandon her infant than see it perish."

On the 13th General Trochu held a grand review of the National Guard and Mobiles. From 200,000 to 300,000 men were drawn up for inspection. The General was every where hailed as the hero of the Republic. An order of the day was issued, stating that 70,000 men would be required for daily service on the ramparts.

The military resources of France at this moment were thus estimated. General Vinoy was said to have saved 40,000 men from the wreck of MacMahon's forces. The army of Lyons mustered 100,000. Paris held 30,000 regular troops. In the depôts were some 50,000, besides regiments of recent formation. The Paris forts and fortifications employed 200,000 Mobiles, and 150,000 National Guards. But the only compacted army that remained of the mass which had moved against the Prussians, was that of Bazaine, now shut up within the fortifications of Metz. This force was nearly 300,000 strong; and sanguine tacticians expected from day to day that it would burst through the surrounding circle of Prince Frederick Charles's army, and either march straight back to the defence of Paris, or catch the German army of the Crown Prince on its flank. It had been a characteristic of the French temper in this ill-starred war, that what it wished to believe, it managed to convince itself of as fact; and so now rumours were constantly afloat that Bazaine had made a victorious sortie, and that he and his well trained army were set free for the triumphs in the field which they were sure to gain. It was about this time that the phrase "la verité vraie," for the affirmation of facts that were not wholly the fabrication of sanguine brains, came into vogue within the walls of Paris. As regarded Bazaine, la verité vraie was, that a few ill-managed attempts to break through their durance left his troops as hopelessly enclosed as ever; that famine began seriously to tell upon them; and that he himself, after the proclamation of the Republic, disgusted with the new face of things, or conceiving the possibility of playing an Imperial-Restoration game, after the fashion of General Monk, withdrew from any share in the active command, which was assumed by Canrobert. Meanwhile the

army of the Crown Prince, relieved from any fear of a rival in the field, set forward by three roads, through the valleys of the Marne, Oise, and Seine, on its southward march to Paris.

On the 5th, King William made his entry into Rheims. On the 14th, his head-quarters were advanced to Chateau Thierry; on the 20th to Ferrières. The French had abandoned the position of Pierrefitte, to the north of St. Denis. To the south, at Sceaux, the 2nd Bavarian corps d'armée, with the 5th and 6th Prussian corps, commanded by the Crown Prince, met three divisions of the corps of Vinoy, and pushed them behind the forts, taking 1500 prisoners and seven guns. On the 19th, General Ducrot, who

occupied the heights of Villejuif with four divisions, advanced against the Germans at Meudon; but the first regiment of Zouaves was seized with a panic, which communicated itself to other detachments, and he was driven back in confusion and with considerable loss. From that time the investment of Paris by the German troops was complete.

The German troops around Paris consisted of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, 12th North German army corps, and Guards, the Bavarian corps, and the Wurtemburg division; in all from 200,000 to 230,000 men.

The famous fortifications, constructed thirty years before, projected, according to general reputation, by Thiers, but raised at a cost of 6,000,000l. sterling when Guizot was Minister to Louis Philippe, were now about to be put to their first practical test. They consisted, as is well known, of an enceinte of forts placed at varying distances from one to three or four miles beyond the ramparts encircling the town, the circuit embraced by these forts measuring twenty-four miles. A military critic says, "The works themselves are models of their kind. They are of the utmost simplicity; a plain enceinte of bastions, without even a single demi-lune before the curtains; the forts, mostly bastioned quadrangles or pentagons, without any demi-lunes or other outworks; here and there a horn-work or crown-work to cover an outlying space of high ground. They are constructed not so much for passive as for active defence. The garrison of Paris is expected to come out into the open, to use the forts as supporting points for its flanks, and by constant sallies on a large scale to render impossible a regular siege of any two or three forts. Thus, whilst the forts protect the garrison of the town from a too near approach of the enemy, the garrison will have to protect the forts from siege batteries; it will have constantly to destroy the besiegers' works. Let us add that the distance of the forts from the ramparts precludes the possibility of an effective bombardment of the town until two or three at least of the forts shall have been taken. Let us further add that the position, at the junction of the Seine and Marne, both with extremely winding courses, and with a strong range of hills on the most exposed, the north-eastern front, offers great natural advantages, which have been made the best of in the planning of the works."

The original intention of the Provisional Government had been to convene the electoral colleges all over France for the 16th of October, in order to the choice of a Constituent Assembly which was to establish the government of the country on a legal basis. As events hurried on, some of them desired to fix this event a fortnight earlier. In a circular issued to explain this purpose, Jules Favre took occasion again to declare the position he and his friends had taken up. To many it seemed more mildly expressed than his first circular, and symptomatic of a desire to find a way of peace, even if by partial submission. He said :—

"I will sum up our entire policy. In accepting the perilous task which was imposed upon us by the fall of the Imperial Government we had but one idea-namely to defend our territory, to save our honour, and to give back to the nation the power emanating from itself, and which it alone could exercise. We should have wished that this great act might have been completed without transition, but the first necessity was to face the enemy. We have not the pretension to ask disinterestedness of Prussia. We take account of the feelings to which the greatness of her losses and the natural exaltation of victory have given rise in her. These feelings explain the violence of the Press, which we are far from confounding with the inspirations of statesmen. These latter will hesitate to continue an impious war, in which more than 200,000 men have already fallen. To force conditions upon France which she could not accept would only be to compel a continuance of the war. It is objected that the Government is without regular power to be represented. It is for this reason that we immediately summon a freely-elected Assembly. We do not attribute to ourselves any other privilege than that of giving our soul and our blood to our country, and we abide by its sovereign judgment. It is therefore not authority reposed in us for a day. It is immortal France uprising before Prussia-France divested of the shroud of the Empire, free, generous, and ready to immolate herself for right and liberty, disavowing all political conquest, and all violent propaganda, having no other ambition than to remain mistress of herself, and to develope her moral and material forces, and to work fraternally with her neighbours for the progress of civilization. It is this France which, left to her free action, immediately asks the cessation of the war, but prefers its disasters a thousand times to dishonour. Vainly those who set loose a terrible scourge try now to escape the crushing responsibility by falsely alleging that they yielded to the wish of the country. This calumny may delude people abroad, but there is no one among us who does not refute it as a work of revolting bad faith. The motto of the elections in 1869 was peace and liberty, and the plebiscitum itself adopted it as its programme. It is true that the majority of the Legislative Body cheered the warlike declarations of the Duke of Gramont, but a few weeks previously it had also cheered the peaceful declarations of M. Ollivier. A majority emanating from personal power believed itself obliged to follow docilely and voted trustingly; but there is not a sincere person in Europe who could affirm that France freely consulted made war against Prussia. I do not draw the conclusion from this that we are not responsible. We have been wrong, and are cruelly expiating our having tolerated a Government which led us to ruin. Now we admit the obligation to repair by a measure of justice the ill it has done; but if the Power with which it has so seriously compromised us takes advantages of our misfortunes to overwhelm us, we shall oppose a desperate resistance, and it will remain well understood that it is the nation, properly represented in

a freely elected assembly, that this Power wishes to destroy. This being the question raised, each one will do his duty. Fortune has been hard upon us, but she is capable of unlooked-for revolutions which our determination will call forth. Europe begins to be moved; and sympathy for us is being reawakened. The sympathies of foreign Cabinets console us and do us honour. They will be deeply struck by the noble attitude of Paris in the midst of so many terrible causes for excitement. Serious, confident, ready for the utmost sacrifices, the nation in arms descends into the arena without looking back, and having before its eyes this simple but great duty, the defence of its homes and independence. I request you, sir, to enlarge upon these truths to the representative of the Government to which you are accredited. He will see their importance, and will thus obtain a just idea of our disposition."

It was evident that, as a Provisional Government only, the acts of Messrs. Favre, Gambetta, Crémieux, and the rest had no power to bind the nation to lasting conditions. Their authority was founded on the Paris street-law of the moment. They were, as Bismarck afterwards offended Jules Favre by observing, "Messieurs du Pavé" only. Any succeeding rulers might reject their acts altogether. Count Bismarck himself, as director of the policy of the North German Confederation and its allies, felt fully the diplomatic difficulties of the situation. Had the Emperor, though a prisoner, retained his functional authority, or had the Empress and Count Palikao remained to act as his delegates, some guarantee might have been found for whatever policy should be decided upon as a basis for peace. To allow breathing space, therefore, for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly seemed both reasonable on the part of the French, and desirable in the interests of Germany. Accordingly, M. Jules Favre made known his desire for an armistice; and having ascertained through the intervention of Lord Lyons, the English Ambassador, that Count Bismarck was willing to discuss its possible terms with him in person, he repaired to the Prussian head-quarters at Ferrières on the 19th of September. In the interview which took place the irreconcilableness of the positions occupied by the two negotiators was manifest. The North German Chancellor demanded as the condition of an armistice the cession of Toul, Verdun, and Strasburg. But the first circular of Jules Favre had laid down the principle," not an inch of our territory, not a stone of our fortresses;" and notwithstanding the impending fall of all the places specified, and the counterbalancing advantages a suspension of hostilities might have afforded to France for the re-organization of her Government and forces, even in the case of resumed war, the terms were peremptorily rejected.

The intervention of the neutral powers before so terrible an outrage to civilization as the bombardment of Paris should begin was still a hope in the breasts of some of the French politicians. Were the positions of the belligerent parties quite incapable of compromise? It was pretty well known that even Favre and his