The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-04-22 00:00:00

THE REVOLUTION IN PARIS.

PA RN, Monday._

The following important announcement appeared In the
Journal Ottickl:—
" A number of National Guards belonging to the 248th
Battalion have dared to invade the Belgian Ligation In the
Rue Faubourg St. lionore, and have violated the sacred
right. of hospitality due by France to Forelgoers. and
diplomatic Immunities, respected by all sividisA people.
An inquiry has been opened Several of thole who are
culpable have been arrested, and it will not be long before
the others will he. They will be tried immediately before a
council of war."
ranis, Tuesday Night.

'the Insurgents got a severe defeat yesterday. Large de-
fensive works Have been carried out at Asnieres dining the
last few days. The neutrals of the Commune believed the
poslibm sa'e from any attack. Beyr.nd the bridge over the
stint, a strong bairieatie was thrown up filteen yards from
the railway station, and armed with to,, mitraineusee,
Another earthwork was thrown op ea the sight to cover the
ettack Iron, the Chariehourg r read, in addition. The
Colombo road was piote,ted by a barrtuuden.l punting stones
covered with two metres of earth. A trench, 000 metres
bung, united the principal posts of the imurgents. hevoil
armour-plated locomotives were ready along the railway for
the defence of the National °nerds.
The locomotivea were armed with AineriCan mitraillousea.
The roads in AeliPres were batricaded by toe Insurgents.
Having no cavalry the insurgents were nimble to make a
reconnatstance, and were Unaware that the Versailles troops
had ern,' the itodonle of ilomievilliers, and placed heavy
naval guns In position at Colombo'.
rho Redoubt nennewllliers is about 1,000 metres from
Asnieres. • .-

When the hest shells foil In And Ores yesterday from
Vourhet.d, upon the Chlteau itec.m, the Nations' Guards
took little notice, being accustomed to, and sheltered agents%
a fire fr m that direction. Suddenly a tremendous tire was
opened upon them In front and on the right dank fn.
Colombon and tiennevilliers.

The National Guards g+ve way, and took refuge In the
trenches. At this moment two attacking column+ took the
insurgents in front and II ek. The nuitrailleu•es which
guarded the bartic+de heti only t!me to fire one volley. The
insurgents defended the station for a short time, bnli the
cross fire Iran no heavy that In less than an hour they were
driven across the Seine.

Reinforcements were gent for by Dombrowski, and at nine
o'clock the the arrant. retorted to the ettack. rho Versailles
troops repulsed the N.ttionii (Inert's. with ;„reat lose. Eye-
wltneuea state that Dombr 'wild led a desperate assault in
person.
. .

At four o'clock, all wee over at N toddy. The insurgents
were forced to retreat to the Porte SI alliot. Mary of them
were drowned, the bridge of boats having Woken.
Two headrest National Guard., enrolled by force, have been
conducted to Frit dicCtre.

Tin report that negoUallone are going on hotween Parts
and Vermilion gains ground.

The Commons has passed the law with regard to debta
recounnended by Its Commission. It Is as tolloae:
_ .

" The Ceiumjine of Psris decrees Art. 1. The payment
of dohs of all kind incurred to the present date will be
etfecti.d within a period of three y ears from the 15111 of next
J aly.
" Art. The total of the toms due will be divided into
twelve equal instalments, payable every three montim from
the lime date.
• -

"Art. 4 Proceedings In the event of non-sccentance or
floe-payment can only be taken upon each particsal ir Instal-
ment.

---••
" Art. 5. Every debtor, availing himself of the delay
accorded by the pre:ent decree. who shall during that
period divert, alienate, or make away with his assets to
defraud his creditor, shall be considered guilty of frandulent
bankruptcy, If In business ; and If not In buslut it, of swivel.
hog ; and proceeolnits may be taken against him by his
creditor, or by the Public Minister.
.• fus COMMUNE oF C 0111.3"

The Special Correspondent of The Time: has gent
the following particulars of the Civil War, writing
from Paris the 15th instant :

" Happy are they that expect nothing, for they shall not
be disappotuted." The sanguine few—l suspect very few—
who anticipated s favoursble tactic for the pacific negotia-
tions of the Lipas d'Union Raoul,licatno most h-ave suffered
cruelly from their complete collapse. To day'. 01
which, as a rule, la edited with no little ability, makes
political capital out of the failure by quoting the rather rash
statement of the Ligue that "if the Goverhmeut of Ver-
sailles refused their just demands all Parts would rise to en-
force them." The organ of the Commune assumes, of course,
that the Government has mimed theee demands, and calls
upon the Ligue to see that Pate fulfuls the task they have
by anticipaiion Imposed on it—in other words, to aid, or at
least countenance, the (Ifs.: to which the Commune Is making
to compel those ill-starrel members of the middle class
whose ages range between 19 and 40 to Jul In the hateiul
work of slaughtering their brothers and cousins at Versailles.
tif ail the victims of this miserable was-, perhaps these
unlucky conscripts are the most to be plated. I met ohs of
them a duy or two ago, a ene, handsome young fellow, well-
born, highiy erlucw.e,!' and of ample fortune. All his
simpathies were naturally with the party of Vereall'es and
armless the Commune, lie had a brother acid several near
relatives serving with the Versant. envy. Vet he had
just received inert those domlcilary visits which the ',gents
of the Commune are now so loud of making, followed by a
peremptory mum:ions to take a rhlo and ['jilt ior the Con.
MMie alit Iliairty, in whose acted motto is would .1/13
privilEgeto kill or he killed by one's own hr .thir. Toe poor
fellow did not toile take this view of ids clothe. or ps Motion,
1 and when I met that he woo just on the point of tryin g to
make his escape from Pam, with the pleasant prospect
before him of being tried by courtemartial and possibly shot
if his attempt wore discover,' too coon. It was a great
relief to bear afterwards that he succeeded—l had pernapt
better not say how.
But still his case wes only one of themands, though pro-
bably the great majority had not hle luck. The soirees of
Ike Commune aro vtgllaut, and it is a hard matter inched
for auy Es...named of Me lighting age to escape from Parts.
it 11 001 easy for a Frenchman el my ago unless he boa
friends at court }hatless are the devi ace for flight to which
these Stole prieeners, for they are uothie x less, in their
desperation resort. I wan at the English Embassy Jitter-
day, soot found it literally hosteged hy is crowd of applicants
inventlig every conceivable pretext by whtch to ostahlleh
their clatm toss lieglish passport. The majority of the ap-
platten:s had of courts to Ito rein:led. isle a painful tack in
such cases to eay no, but as the Sec not Secretary very justly
po sited nut, to give panto., to to those who have no sort of
dates to them senuhl speedily mgka them melees to those
whom they are intended to protect.
It may comfort those of your reader, who are compellel
to coma to Peas or who have friends here to kuow that an
Erglish ',superb has so far been to high eflictal quarters a
ported protection. The Commune, of which many mem-
bers have no lack of political shrewdness, Is fully alive to the
expediency of conciliating foreign sympathies, and has been
studiedly courteous In Its attitude toward" the representatives
of the Eugliala Government. Is has Informed hhe Secretaries
of the Embassy that aU Engllihman rex:hieing In Paris oeght
to fly the Brithh flag, as this Hog is sure to be reapactod.
Girths the Commune full credit hr its emeriti, ene still need
scarcely say that It costas comowlEtt too cone :eutly upon this
respect, inasmuch as all its agents are pno teems 'so shrewd
or a' Ihreetraintng esthete chiefs. I hear on good au'hority
that a plan was a few days ag s termed for pltlagtog the house
of Mr. It`chard Wel.aca by a band of Nation's! Black gnsrds.
Ho is moat the last man whom any Frenchman Should
conspire to injure, for his munifixent liberality durirg the
path ul privations of the siege kept the wolf from the door of
many and many a French home, It made him in fact so deser-
vedly popular that he was nearly being eleated member of She
National Assmbly by way of compliment, although it was well
known that as an Eogitah citizen he could not take his seat.
But, despite those considerations, his great wealth peeved too
crone a temptation tsr some of the refit she who take ad-
v.:ace o! then uniform as National Gaards to go from
home to home pia:de:fug under pretence of acting as police.
Fortin:ate', he received warning-In time, and appealed to the
Commune, who Expressed greet indignation at the threatened
outrage, and at once took mean. to Insure him protection.
It is reported that soother English gentleman, a banker, has
been less fortunate, and has been robbed of cousiderable
property, but I cannot vouch for the truth of the report.
There is little doubt, however, that these case, are excep-
tional, and that, as a rule, Englishmen have been, up to the
present moment at any rate, as safe in Paris now as In pre-
vious times. At least this Is my opinion, and I give it he.
'nee the wildest notions appear to prevail amoog Engilah-
men at home about the riska ran by their fellow-countrymen
who remain in Perla One acquatntahce of my own own, a
man net, h. should say. easily alarmed, carefully. hid his
. .

_
money in his boots before entering Parir,is if expeeling to be
searched and robbed at the Gore u Nerd, which he knew
to be In possession of the Cano.uulsta. This c<remony of
searching with a view to plunder has not yet, I believe,
been observed towards herb arrivals of any kind, but, even
ii it were, I have little doubt that eaceptlons would be
mode in favour of those armed with Euglish passports. It
may easily be Imagined what efforts are made to secure, no
matter how, so valuable a guarantee, and the Secretaries of
the Eoglish Embassy, whose duty it is to rehire nine out of
ten applications, had a hard life of It. One of them told me
he had to submit for twenty minute. to • continuous torrent
of the most violent invective from a very great lady well-
known in Parbian society, who declared him a al/grace
to Englaud end to humanity because he would not givo a
pbastort to a breach priest whom she wished to spirit
away. _ _

The military situation continues—so far, at least, as I can
make it out—much the same frcm day to day. Au enormous
quantity of powder and ball is spent, and Paris re-echoes
with the reverberations of cannonade and fusillade. But at
the end the " butcher's VII" is Incomprehensibly out of pro-
portion to the terrific noise made, and the position of
the combatants seems materially what it was before
Last night the noise was so tremendous in the direction
of Puy and Mattnon that I could not resist starting off
to see if I could get outride the gate', and arrived at
the Porte Versatile., about one o'clock em. I was almost
deafened by the ceaseless tattle of musketry, varied
occealonally by the growl of the mitralllense, and the airy woe
perpetually lighted up with flashes from the mouth of
cannon. Imagination depicted the combat srts in a strife
so hot—hotter, I think. than anything I had ever heard
during the siege—slaughtered by scorer. I could Oct get out
of Farb at that hour, but receiving permission to do so at
daybreak returned before five o'c'ock, and was astonished to
fli.d from tr les near Lay and Venires, where the firing
had been loudest, that all this tremendous ado had been about
little or nothing There were very few even wounded I c
only conjec'ere that the Versailles policy Is to make the
Communists blaze away their ammunition or else to go on
crying "wolf !" until at last they can by a real Lusincip-Pke
attack uurpcive the fold, thrown elf Its guszel by so many
sham ones.