The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-24 00:00:00

PARIS UNDER fIIEGE.

The Telegraph examines the question whether the forti-
fications, in which M. Thiers has so paternal an interest,
will suffice for the defence of Paris. It is a difficult
problem of war, which General Trochu appears to answer
in the affirmative, and Von Moltke in the nega-
tive. It is difficult to see how the actual ram-
parts of Paris, of which there are ninety-six
faces and nineteen miles, could keep out deter-
mined stormers rushing in at half a dozen places, and
pretending to attack as many more. The outlying forts,
such as those at Mendon, Aubervilliers, Noisy, and
Mont Valerien, would have to do the hard work, and
they are, no doubt, of a more advanced style of construc-
tion than the ditches and walls of M. Thiers. But
these works are sadly weakened by their great
extent ; they must all be manned in force, for
the points of attack could never be surely known.
And, although the guns might be numerous and the gun-
ners resolute, the Germans have shown their willingness
to throw away life lavishly in order to gain their ends.
When the walls of a capital city have been passed
defence collapses. The presence of the enemy in the
streets is always the signal for despair and civil confusion ;
authority is set on one side ; the compactness and the
singleness of will in the invaders render them secure. It
is, in truth, like inflicting a wound upon the nervous
centres of a body—the organisation becomes immediately
paralysed. Such, at any rate, was the experience in Paris
of 1814 when the Allies had once entered. The garrison
fought bravely enough at Montmartre and the
Buttes du Chaumont, but all idea of fighting
departed when the first shots fell in the Chaussee
d'Antin. Obviously it is the duty of General
Trochu to speak boldly ; and the readiness of the brave
citizens to die "to the last man " upon the last line of
their defence becomes them nobly. But civilisation
would protest against the dreadful extremity of such an
act of war as the storming of Paris. At those walls, if
the Germans continue their successes, it might surely be
possible to effect a peace which would satisfy them and
save the honour of the capital and of France.
The Standard has good hope of the capital. The Parisian
citizens it says will be privileged with arms : the walls of
the capital will be manned principally by volunteers ;
prices have barely risen; the money market is not
calamitously agitated; in one word, France feels herself
to be France still, in spite of unlooked-for disasters.
To talk of starving Paris is to talk nonsense. Not a
halfpenny has been added to the cost of bread; no one
has lost confidence ; the idea of a peace dictated at the
Tuileries is scouted. Why, the very children would
grow suddenly into men before the vaunts of
Prussia could be justified. There is for
France, any day in history, a Young and a
Younger Guard. Very many of us remember
how M. Thiers was ridiculed when, in the golden prime
of Louis Philippe's reign, he recommended the Paris for-
tifications. Of what value could they be ? it was
asked. They are the buckler of the nation,
just now. Twenty miles, in a circle, of solid
earthwork and masonry, suggest strategic ideas to the
German commanders which they are not likely to despise.
Only treachery or weakness can open the gates of Paris
to a foreign foe. The treachery we do not imagine to be
possible ; the weakness it is for the Prussian attack, if it
ever gets so far, to test; the national spirit, at any rate,
is supreme, and Paris, in its crisis, exhibiti a glorious
spectacle.