The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-17 00:00:00

INSIDE PARIS.

Iu a letter from Paris, dated Sunday, January 15, the
special correspondent of the Daily News says :—The bom-
bardment continues. Sometimes it relaxes in fury, and
then it resumes the attack with all the old violence—
chiefly in the night. The people endure it with a forti-
tude which is worthy of all praise. The inhabitants of the
left bank of the Seine are now crowding to the right
bank, and all are lending themselves cheerfully to
help these Southerners out of their difficulty. The
charity of Paris is boundless. I had no idea till this
winter what a kindhearted people these French are. We
have an idea in England that they are frivolous and heart-
less, and that their kindly manners do not reach below
the surface. You should seo their self-sacrifice—their
almsgiving—their good-heartedness their boundless
liberality. The misery of the poor is very great ; but
it brings out all the finer qualities of French
nature, showing how those who- have nothing can endure
with heroism, and how those who have to spare will give
what they have most generously. Whatever be the
result of the siege—whether Paris be saved or cap-
tured—she will come out of the fiery furnace ennobled
and purified with a sense of greatness which even
defeat cannot destroy, and with a possession of
human feeling which will assure to her, and regain
for her, what under the sway of Napoleon she had nearly
lost—the empire of the heart. It is, perhaps, difficult,
in the moment when she is downtrod len, and the victori-
ous enemy at her gates points to her the finger of scorn,
and assumes to be the scourge of God, to imagine such
victory growing out of defeat ; but it is not the first time
in the history of the world that the weak has confounded
the strong, and that out of death and decay have
sprung life, resurrection, and victory. Of course, how-
ever, Paris hopes to be saved, and is doing the best she
can to win. That best for the moment consists in making
all ready for a great attack, if, peradventrre the armies
of the provinces should come to our relief, and in
husbanding our resources to the last degree.
Nobody in Paris doubts that salvation will come if we
can only wait—or, at least, pcbody doubts it who is not a
foreigner. The greatest efforts are accordingly being
made to economise the food, and to apportion it so that it
may last as long as possible. Hitherto we have had
unlimited quantities of bread, but now I hear
that it is to be rationed. The bread is not very agree-
able ; it is black, but I suppose it is wholesome, and I
dare say it will last longer than the enemy ima-
gines. The horses, too, are being very carefully told out—
and one hears many sighs as the time comes for killing a
favourite animal. Most persons in good position have
tried to save their horses in various ways—some by lend-
ing them to the ambulances, others by registering them
as connected otherwise with the army or the public ser-
vice. In this way most of the ambulances have had
more than three times as many horses as they actually
required. These foreigners set up a claim to have
their horses respected. But war is war, and hunger
is a terrible tyrant. The horses are being seized with
ruthless hand, and a decree has just been launched that
all must be given up with the exception of 2,000, which
are to be reserved for the necessities of traction. These
2,000 horses are distributed among the different mayoral-
ties on the calculation of one to 1,000 inhabitants.
If an arrondissement has 100,000 inhabitants it will
be allowed 100 horses at the disposal of the mayor,
who will let them out as he sees fit for such service as
may be necessary. In like manner the cows are to be
killed, with the exception of 3,000 which are reserved to
supply milk for children and invalids. The mortality
among children has been very severe, and much of it is
said to be due to the want of milk. The 3,000 cows
are accordingly reserved for them, and are apportioned
among the different districts of Paris according to
population. You will see from this, and there is no use
in concealing it, that we are pinched very hard, but still
the end is not by any means so near as the enemy
imagines. What lam most afraid of is the end of all.
Paris will hold out to the last extremity. She believes
in her armies of succour, and whatever may be your
own views on the subject, I ask you for the
sake of argument to assume that succour comes—
that Paris is delivered—but after a considerable delay.
It is expected here most assuredly that the armies of the
provinces will save Paris, but it is not expected that they
will save her in a day. They will have to fight hard ;
deliverance may be long delayed ; it may make all
the difference in the world whether Paris can or can-
not hold out one day more. Let us suppose that
she holds out that one day, and still another day, and that
then deliverenoe comes. The joy may be great indeed,
but it will not feed 2,000,000 starving wretches. It will
take at least a week under favourable conditions to get a
day's' provisions into the town—it may take a fortnight ;
and we require 2,000 tons a day of one kind or
another. How are we to get these 2,000 tons
a day ? Imagine the distress, the sickness, the mortality,
the famine, and the famine fever, while the provisions
are delayed. If Paris can be saved, she will regard such
suffering as of small account ;it is worth the price. If
Paris cannot be saved—if the armies of the provinces are
to be beaten—then the best things to hope for is that these
armies may be beaten quickly.

No little surprise, says the London correspondent
of the Manchester Guardin, is expressed at Mr. Hibbert's
acceptance of the office of secretary to the Poor-law Board,
which was hardly deemed likely to be thought worthy of
his standing in the House of Commons, where he was the
senior, and in every way the superior, of his immediate
predecessor, Mr. Arthur Peel.
ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.—A des-
patch has been forwarded from Madrid, announcing the
appointment by special " decree" of a Commission,
under the authority of the Minister of Works and Edu-
cation, charged with forwarding the interests of Spain
in these Exhibitions in London ; the nomination of a
"Commissioner General" in London to act in union
with Her Majesty's Commissioners ; and a preliminary
Spanish Exhibition every year in Madrid, from which
choice specimens "of the fine art and manufactures" of
Spain can be selected and forwarded to the Lqndon Ex-
hibition at the expense of the Spanish Government.