The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-18 00:00:00

REPUBLICANISM IN PARIS.

Writing from Paris February 16, the Daily News corre.
spondent with the Saxon Army thus describes a visit
to a Republican club :—The night before last I
went to a red-hot Republican Club in Belle-
ville, where, I heard some • remarkably wild speak-
ing. One of the orators—from the conformation
o! his legs I inclined to the opinion that he was a shoe-
maker—evolved out of the fervour of his patriotic
ardour a strategetical scheme that ought, had he
I only got an opening, to have made him the saviour of
France. Here is the programme, mush in the speaker's
own words. " Ah, citizens, the hated men of the thrice-
accursed William are defiling the casements of that famous
fortress to our west, that iron door which, locked, would
keep out for ever the brutal barbarian. Val Men is
dragged in the mire ; her beauty ravished by
the vile Teutons. And it was a Frenchman who
deliberately handed over Valerien to the hateful em-
braces of these heathen hounds. Woe is me for France,
that a Frenchman could have dealt this great blow 4 la
patrie. Before the shades of the mighty Republican
dead I denounce this sham Republican, Jules Favre ; this
chicken-hearted, miserable pseudo-patriot ; this vile
panderer to the passions of the conqueror. Not now,
it may be, is the time for just retribution; but, saere,
away in the vista of the future I see a guillotine and the
heads of traitors !" Wild cheering followed, led off
by a little man so covered with " fluff " that one would
imagine he had been tarred and feathered, or was develop-
ing into an incipient feathered state, but who,l was informed
was a journeyman flock-bed maker. I don't doubt
but that he may be very terrible in his
wrath—this little pluffy advocate for the reign of
terror ; but when not in wrath he looks rather
insignificant, and has a look as if used to be
thrashed by his wife. When the cheers had subsided
the bandy-legged orator went on in a practical vein.
" Well, traitors have yielded Val4rien ; that dire fact
confronts us. Is it to be said that the men of Paris are so
nerveless as to sit still and look up, and see the wretched
Prussian rag flouting a French sky on the battlements of
Val6rien? Perish the thought, No; let 20,000 patriots
come forward. We shall select a leader, and he will
lead us in the dead of night up the side of Valdrien, and
we shall fall upon the dogs, the thrice damnable Prussian
dogs, and butcher them as they snore their Teuton snore.
`A bas les Prussiens ! A Mont-Valerien ! A Mont-Valerien !"

And the bandy legs jumped off the tribune with a tragic
wave of his right arm over his head. His views as to the
location of Mont-Valdrien were not apparently
well defined; or if so, were erroneous. He got as far as
the door and had a drink of water; then he came back.
Perhaps the virtue went out of him, because those present,
on whom he may have counted as the nucleus of his
20,000 recruits, confined themselves solely to cheering,
and chewed no anxiety to go out in the Mont Valdrien
direction in the damp night air.

PROGRAMME OF THE GERMAN ENTRY
INTO PARIS.

Under date Paris, February 16, the Daily News corres-
pondent with the head-quarters of the Crown Prince
of Saxony writes :—The journals are trying to foment a
feeling of irritation on the subject of the German entry
into Paris, but as yet they have not, to all appearance,
succeeded. Yet this step—this German entry—suggests
possibilities so gloomy that I own to a shudder as I try to
look them in the face. There can be no question as to
the German intention. For a long time I believed it
subject to modification, and that it was used only as an
argiiment wherewith to awe France into the accepance of
harder terms to spare her capital. But there is, it seems,
another element in the question. The Emperor is, it is
well known, a very devout man, and he is this much
of a fatalist that he firmly believes he i 3 an instru-
ment in the Almighty's hands for humiliating the
French. It is with him " the sword of the Lord and
of Gideon." The Teutonic Gideon dare not hang
back from accomplishing the purposes of Heaven,
and Heaven wills it that the sons of the Father-
land shoUld perambulate the streets of Paris. At
table the other night the white-haired old monarch de-
clared, it is said. with a blow of his clenched fist on the
table, that were it to cost his last trained man, the Ger-
man armies should march through Paris. He is in bad
health—breaking fast, I fear ; but Heaven and destiny
force him into the Tuileries ; and thither he goes,
if he should have to be carried to his carriage.
To accomplish the purpose, for the working of
which he believes himself the instrument, the Emperor
with characterik.fic bravery risks everything involved,
in an entry into Paris. And so the preparations are
going on. Not the whole besieging army is to be marched
through, but every nationality in the great German Em-
pire is to 1-e represented in the ominous pro-
cession—Prussian, Pole, Saxon, Wnrtemberger, and
Mecklenburger. The programme is all cut and
dry. The German road will be from west to
east, along the broad boulevards. The houses on
either side will be strongly occupied by German troops.
Living barricades, composed of strong men with needle
guns in their hands, and helmets on their heads, wil
stand athwart the cross streets ; no precaution will be
omitted that high organisation and extreme caution can
devise. The troops, division by division, will march
through and through at the rate of a division a-day ; no
division to remain in Paris over night. The
military occupants of the houses lining the
route, and the strong guards at the Tuile-
ries will, of course, be fixtures, and what
will the Parisians have to say to this ? Most, no doubt,
having once subdued themselves to submit to the inevit-
able, will let that curiosity have vent which is so leading
a characteristic of the French. Adopting the pleasant
fiction that the Germans are treating them to a rare
show, they will try their best to see it, and enjoy it in a
grnmbling, discontented fashion. But in' the two mil-
lions which live in Paris, there are for certain some
spirits of a more implacable temperament. Reckless
fanatics there must be, who, with a stern disregard of
consequences, regard assassination in such circumstances
as the purest patriotism. No precautions can suffice to
avert every risk. Then rises up before me a lurid picture
—a flash, a report, a moment's confusion, chaos, through
which breaks a wild. yell of rage ; and then God pity
Paris. Discipline is nearly omnipotent, but not
quite. The rope is very strong ; but when the strain is
stronger, the rope inevitably snaps. And underlying the
quiet, docile, biddable geniality and domesticity of the
German, there is a terrible savagery, so deep down that
it has been latent, with but few exceptions, through all
the drama of this tragic war ; yet there nevertheless, and
to be roused beyond a doubt by that flash and
that report. Then it shall be woe, not alone to
the men of Paris, but to the women ; yea, even to the
tender little ones. Fire and sword, sack and rapine,
Badajos, St. Sebastian indefinitely magnified, and their
worst features intensified by the fact that the motive
causes are not lust and drunken recklessness, but fell
revenge and ruthless hate. Let us turn away from the
picture with another shuddering exclamation, " God pity
Paris !" •
The Paris correspondent of the Standard, writing on
February 16th, remarks :—From private sources I learn
that an order of the day has been read to the besieging
army, promising that there should be a triumphal march
through Paris. Observe, not an occupation, but a march
through, a simple defile. Select troops have been
told off for this honour, and are already busy fur-
bishing up their' arms and appointments. Every
means will be employed by the Prussian authorities
beforehand to guard against " accidents. " You
will understand the word. If a drunken or impassioned
communist fired a shot on the soldiers of the German
Emperor, it would be pretext sufficient for a barborous
massacre, in which the innocent would assuredly suffer
most. The 26th, I understand, has been fixed for this
holiday tramp through the capital. The Parisians love a
spectacle dearly, but I think I may promise you the
cavalcade of conquerors will pass that day through
empty streets. There is yet time to save Paris
from the deep humiliation and possible dangers of this,
piece of Gothic pomp, this gratification of a paltry spirit
of arrogance. Look at the fearful risks that are run by
this poor city if one mad fool allows his wild patriotism
to get the better of his discretion and throws a cracker
into the midst of these solid battalions. He will
be fired upon by one, perhaps by twenty men, for
the Prussians will not trust themselves to enter with empty
pouches ; shots will bring more shots, the cry will run
through the faubourgs " The foreign enemy is massacring
our brothers," and then there may be—mind, I say may
be—such a picture of bloodshed as this world has rarely
seen. This is the not unlikely peril that is affronted.s
by this spectacular extravaganza Pa
ris
streets. Pa
streets. Is the experiment really worth the terrible
probable cost? If Germany is wise and discreet. she
will
spare her poor beaten sister this final humiliation.st Let
Berlin have its ovations by all means, and Munich, utt.
gard, Carlsruhe, and every capital of them that pleases,
but why insist on degrading stricken and prostrate Paris
to the very dust. It is cruel, ungenerous, and impolitic.

The Florence Chamber of Deputies has adjourned until
the Ist of March. Signor Lanza has declared that he
would fix a day for the Guarantees Bill to be dis-
cussed before the final transfer of the capital to Rome.
The Senate at Bucharest has voted a resolution express-
ing completer devotion towards Prince Charles, and
entire co-opeation in acts of his Government.
ite
The official Vidovdan, of Belgrade, publishes an article
seeking to prove that the annexation of Bosnia is a vital
question for Servia. The integrity of the East would, it
says, thereby be guaranteed.