The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-06 00:00:00

FRANCE DISORGANISED.

11l a letter, dated the 26th September, purporting to be
from its special correspondent in Paris, the Tc/crp-aph gives
the following :—"lt is hourly becoming more apparent
that discipline is at present an unknown quality among
the so-called regiments of France. Paris is being

defended by an armed mob. A night or two since a
step Was taken by General Trochu which for the first
tame gave some indication that Paris is now in a state of
siege. A ukase appeared, enjoining that every caf6 and
estaminet should be closed at half-past ten p.m. lam
happy to add that on the 19th many officers, revelling in
uniforms heavy with gold-lace, and rejoicing in the clank-
ing of their sabres, were hustled and insulted at the
Caf6 Richo by the Gardes Mobiles, because they were
taking their pleasure, some of them in company with frail
members of the demi-monde sisterhood who have hitherto
escaped banishment. These Bobadils were singing the
" 111 arseillaise," and sipping their i-cg Anzericain—an
awful compound, in which all manner of hetero-
geneous liquors are brought into harmony by the • infiltra-
tion of unlimited quantities of sugar—as the stout mot/tots
trooped by to take their nightly share of duty. It.might
be imagined that, in the present condition of Pari
and of France, whatever there may be of earnest-
ness and seriousness in the composition of a
Frenchman would be brought to the surface. I regret to
be compelled to state that I meet officers every day who
have no other thought than so to comport themselyes as
to attract tl e admiring gaze of the largest possible num-
ber of passers-by, especially of the female genders
I hesitate to state the opinion which the expe-
rience of this present war has compelled me to form as to
the character and temper of Frenchmen. Observing
.of
what stuff they are made, I am more than ever lost in ad-
miration of the marvellous genius for war displayed at
the beginning of this century by the First Napoleon.
That \she should have been able out of such materials
to create the mighty engine of offence which won Aus-
terlitz, Jena, and Wagram, and so nearly drove back the
English army at Waterloo, is to me a never failing source
of wonder and surprise. It is in vain that I importune
every friend who has long resided in yaris, mid beg him

to spew me a Frenchman in any line of life who is a
man of business. Brave, passionate, chivalrous men,
capable of impulsive and melodramatic acts of self-devo-
tion, we have in abundance ; but it is as true to-day as it
was when Napoleon the Great said it, that men who, had
what he called "two o'clock in the morning courage"
there was but one specimen in France—to wit,
himself alone. During the present warßazaine is the only.
Frenchman who has given any evidence of his possession
of this calm, unruffled, serene presence of mind when the
hour of action comes. If Paris holds out, her triumph
will be due to the fact that, impulsive, fiery, in-
consequent, and irrational as Frenchmen are when called
on to act, many of them possess a patience and
tenacity. when called on to suffer and to wait, deserving of
very high commendation, and especially adapted for de-
fending towns.