The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-27 00:00:00

INSIDE PARIS.

In a letter from Paris, dated December 19, the specie
correspondent of the Standard writes :—A bloody Christ- ,
mas and a black New Year we have in store by all fore-
bodement. God forgive those who brought things to such
a pass ! The position is now so critical that it cannot
last ; it must change for worse or better ; and
this attempt to deliver Paris will be, as I have said,
the decisive one. If it fail, the 'French may as
well fling up the sponge at once. Any subsequent
trials will have slighter chance 3, and will only lead to
useless shedding of blood. And if it do fail, the admis-
sion had better be made that the Prussians are better
soldiers than the French, as well as being 'better led,
organised, and disciplined. Provisions are getting visibly
scarcer ; for that one has only to look at the wan, thin
faces of begging children at every street corner and outside
every restaurant. The news which we have received is, un-
doubtedly, most terrible ; all the little reverses sustained
round Paris seem to fall into insignificance when
compared to it. Rouen occupied by the Prussians ; the
defeat of the Army of the Loire, and the re occupation of
Orleans, confirmed in most positive terms ; and the Go-
vernment fled from Tours. But if the news is crushing,
the demeanour of the population is remarkable. In no
quarter of the town has the public tranquillity been dis-
turbed even for a single. moment. At the commence-
ment of the siege the slightest reverse was the pretext for
au effervescence; the Boulevards were crowded with an
impetuous, noisy crowd if a single company seat on a
' reconnaissance sustained the loss of a few men..
' Now we see that the army which they had expected so
long, upon which they had relied for deliverance —which
was, in tact, to save France—may be put to the rout with-
out causing any disorder. The habitual phlegm attri-
buted by all Frenchmen to their neighbours, the inhabi-
tants of that foggy fsla,nd, where, accirding to their tra-
dition, the sun is never seen during the winter, and but
sheds a lurid light in summer, is far outdone by the
bearing of the hot-headed, excitable Parisians. Truly
they have had a severe . lesson in the school of
adversity ; but is it not to their credit that they have
proved such apt pupils? If each town and village has
eq _tally profited by their misfortunes, the Prussians may
find it more difficult than they even now suppose to extort
from theni the cession of the two coveted provinces.
Fighting for the integrity of their country, for their
honour, for their hearths and homes, no sacri-
fice which their rulers may be compelled to call upon
them to make will be too great. "If we are successful,",
says a will-educated and thinking Frenchman, " we retain
our rank amongst the five great _European Powers ; if, on
the contrary we fail, and these provimes fall into the
hands of the invader, we are not only reduced to the lev el
of a second-rate Power, but that which Prussia pretends
to seek as a guarantee for the future peace of the
Continent cannot but prove the direct cause of
a war as terribly obstinate as the present. Can
we breathe freely with such au incubus on our chest
as the Prussians on the line of the Moselle ? • They
might as well be where they are to-day, at the
gates of our capital." You have, no doubt, been
astonished that nearly three weeks have been allowed to
pass without any offensive movement; but your amaze-
ment cannot equal ours. One would almost think that
the Governor of Paris had been persuaded, by the mis-
carriage of his first enterprise, that all hope of extricating
any part of his army from the town before capitulating
• was at an end; and that he shrinks from sending men to
death in a hopeless cause. It is nevertheless, certain that
neither the army nor the population will be contented to
wait patiently the end without making a supreme effort.

The inevitable calamity—capitulation—should their efforts

prove futile, is also discussed in the ulol and collected
manner so necessary in difficult circumstances. Deter-
mined not to give in till the very last, they do not dis-
guise the fact that a time must come. and that shortly,
when the governor of the city will be obliged to deli-
ver over the keys of the gates into the hands of the King
of Prussi's.