The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-16 00:00:00

THE ENTRY INTO PARIS.

The special correspondent of the Daily News with the
Saxon army thus writes from Paris, February 14 :—I
hear that the Prussians have hindered, the entry of horses
into Paris, as not being part of the revictualment, yet
being capable of becoming food, should the Parisians
determine on a desperate revolution, on barricades,
street fighting, and so forth. This seems to
me a wild possibility scarcely worth guarding
agaigst. The forts are occupied, the ramparts are
disarmed, the barricades which did exist are almost all
removed, and the city is at the mercy of its conquerors.
What if a few hot-headed men should make a disturb-
ance in Popincourt, or La Villette ? I doubt their doing
anything of the sort ; but even if they should, the matter
could not assume serious proportions. The National
Guard is strong enough to maintain order, and has no
wish to see tli 3 city destroyed. The soldiers and
sailors have yielded up their arms, and would be
the last people to rush into ill-prepared, hopeless fighting,
after they have had so much serious work to do ; and
lastly, the whole of the existing authorities in the city are
pledged to maintain the terms of the Convention. I find
much sarcasm levelled at General Trochu for not having
been more vigorous in his defence ; and I hear many
people, high and low, mutter that they will be even with
Germany some day. But as to an immediate or
violent reaction against the surrender which has
saved them from starving, the Parisians shew no sign of
it. They accept their position quietly, and discuss the
chances of peace and war without any of the belligerent
energy which they have displayed whilst their hands were
free. There is no question that they would be very glad
to avoid a German occupation, and that even the
marching through of German troops would mortify

them bitterly. In either case they would not merely
have a token of defeat brought clearly before their eyes,
but would undergo substantial discomforts which they
may well wish to escape. A German occupation would
mean a great deal of snubbing and of calling to order for
the Parisian mob; censorship of the press for the lite-
rary class ; and a control of their affairs by strangers
for the monied and business man of the city; a trium-
phal entry and march through the principal streets
would be a more transient evil; yet even here there would
be more than the mere humiliation of seeing the victors
pass by in their pride. So great would the German
precautions be that whole blocks of buildings would be
cleared of their inhabitants, or at least strongly oc-
cupied by troops; that there would be a search for
arms, and a quartering of Germans along the line of
the entry ; that, in a word, the city would be bound
down for a time with cords, tight enough to pinch.
I can well understand the desire of the Germans to enter
Paris, and can sympathise with the curiosity awakened in
the minds of the hardy, patient fellows who have watched
so long round their destined prize ; but I can also under-
stand how the most thoughtful and practical of Parisians
mighe join with the natural instinct of the crowd in
hoping against hope, that some arrangement, to
be made at Bordeaux, may spare them the sight of
the spiked helmets in their midst. The days of grace are
now very few, and even a short prolongation of the armis-

tice leaves open the question of the entry into Paris.
Are they to come ? That is what the people ask. They
have innumerable theories on the failure of their defence,
but only one question about the immediate future.
There would, of course, be need of preparation before the
Germans did come. The city must change a great deal
from the aspect which it has at the present time. Those
scattered groups of disarmed soldiers and Mobiles must
be gathered together and marched away. Those stray
members of half-a-dozen different corps, Turcos and
Chasseurs d'Afrique, marines and artillerymen, who now
give the streets a faint resemblance to Paris before the
war, must set out for Germany if the Germans are really
to take possession. German guards must be • es-
tablished at the military posts to reinforce or
supersede the National Guard of the city ; and mysterious
inscriptions must be chalked upon many a door, to state
how many officers and men are quartered there. There
must be, in fact, a greater change from the time of anxious
waiting, of the elections and disarmament, to the time
of foreign occupation, than has occurred in passing
from the armed defences of the siege to the present state
of things. The ramparts look very dreary now with the
guns removed, and only a few sentries at long
intervals ; but still they are held by Frenchmen, and
Frenchmen with weapons in their hands are seen at the
gates. The barricades are being demolished by French-
men, who work under no immediate foreign pressure. The
shrill fanfare of French bugles may occasionally be
heard, and one sometimes meets a company of the Na-
tional Guard marching along the street, fully equipped
with knapsacks and greatcoats, as though about to take
the field.

The Paris correspondent of the Etoile Belge says that, so
numerous are the applications for permission to leave
Paris that in one day alone 4,500 such applications were
thrown into the waste paper basket.

There can be no harm .in now stating (writes the Bor-
deaux correspondent of the Daily News) what it would
have been indiscreet to have mentioned sooner, that when
a month ago somebody expressed surprise to M. Gam-
betta that he should be anxious to 'send M. Jules Favre to
the London Conference, Gambetta replied, "I care
nothing for the Conference under the circumstances, but I
want to get Jules Favre out of Paris." Gambetta then
believed that Trochu had no thought but capitulation, and
that Jules Favre was his most influential ally.

An explosion of cartridges occurred on Monthly
night in the shop of James Powell, gunsmith, South
Castle-street, Liverpool. The explosion is supposed to
have been caused by a burglar who had broken in.
Nobody was hurts but the stook and shop were destroyed.