The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-11-13 00:00:00

RESURRECTED PARIS.

I have been most impressed (writes a Paris corres-
pondent) for these few days with the French facility of
mending. It is wonderful. It so chanced that in the
year 1871 I passed a few hours in Paris, returning
homeward from a hurried trip to Switzerland. It was
just after the city had been delivered from the desola-
ting sovereignty of the Commune. The saddest of sad
sights was Paris then. On every side were evidences
of the destruction which Frenchmen had dealt out to
their own chief city. The Tuileries were a ghastly and
almost still smoking ruin. The Hotel de Ville, which
had been perhaps the most sumptuous building in the
world, was scattered and smashed into distorted heaps
of blackened stones. The proud column of Ven-
dome, wreathed about with the long record of the
victories of the First Napoleon, was broken into indis-
tinguishable bits, its pedestal alone remaining. Many
other public buildings stood with staring windows and
halls despoiled by fire and blackened walls. Private
houses in every street were swaying and tottering in
' various wreck. The fronts of those still standing were
pitted from top to bottom with the scars of shells and
bullets. The magnificent statues in the garden of the
Tuileries, in the wonderful Place de In Concorde and
in the public parks were here headless, there armless,
yonder legless. At the city gates, where the fighting
had been most severe, the scene of confusion was in-
describable. There was not a church which did not
bear in broken windows and shattered columns and
peeled and fractured walls the traces of the terrific
fratricidal conflict. The ruins which the Prussians spared
Paris out of pity for it and out of reverence for its huge
treasures of architecture and art Frenchmen themselves;
had set rioting through all its pleasant places. No de-
scription can do justice to the immense destruction
which French vandalism and French fury bad wrought
In their own beautiful capital. But what was Paris
then you would scarcely recognise as Paris now. I
have been astonished beyond measure at the change,.
There is scarcely a trace of bhe ruin which had cap-
tured almost the entire city. True, the Hotel de
Ville has not yet completely risen from its ashes but
it is rising. Certainly, you can see the remnants of
the storm which smote the Tuileries, but these black-
ened footprints are being rapidly effaced. The Column
Vendome towers again, with no trace of destruction
left upon it, save only that the summit, on which
stood the statue of the First Napoleon, is empty;
just now these queer French people are in large
doubt whom to place there. You would never know
there had ever been a conflict in the streets by
the look of them. The houses have been rebuilt.
The wounded walls have been healed with skil-
ful plaster and skilful stone. The statues have been
so deftly patched you would never know they had been
ever touched by bullet. The old gaiety flashes and re-
sounds along the streets. The singular recuperative
energy of the French, rising above the mightiest mis-
fortune, seizing the future immediately, however bad
and disheartening has been the past, concentrating the
forces of the nation to the payment of the enormous
war indemnity almost in a moment—that quick and in-
destructible and heroic spirit which no disaster can
ever capture—has received no better expression and
illustration than in this sudden rebuilding of this mar-
vellous city, almost as desolate a little time ago as
was Jerusalem when the Romans smote it and gave its
temple to the flames.

Mr. BRIGHT on OUR FOREIGN POLICY.
In a letter which a gentleman in Glasgow has re-
ceived from Mr. John Bright he refers to the spirited
i
foreign policy which the Conservatives n the days of
their opposition assured the country they were ready,
whenever they got into office, to inaugurate.
i
Bright does not believe n a spirited foreign policy,
and he thinks Lord Derby has the same want of faith.
What is required is a "jut foreign policy." He
quite agrees with the award given by the French Pre-
sident in the Algoa Bay arbitration. We were wrong,
and the case went against us. Those who exclaim
against arbitration should remember that it has hither-
to been unfavourable to Great Britain because Great
Britain entered upon arbitration with hands that were
not clean. Ajust foreign policy can only harm those
who do injustice; and now Mr. Bright points out that
we are reaping the reward of the spirited foreign
policy of the nation twenty years ago, when blood and
treasure were lavishly spent by us in supporting the

Turk on his throne. The Turk is worse off than ever,
and the Great Northern Powers are taking the ques-
tion of what is to be done with him into their own
hands without caring to consult either England or
France. The bondholders urging a spirited foreign
policy on Lord Derby under these circumstances seems
to Mr. Bright rather amusing.