New-York tribune., 1870-09-21
MIGA WRER IN ERHNCE.

MfCAWBER IN FR8NfE.
Victor Hugo is o man of genius besides, IA
everybody knows, he is Freedoms high priest,
and, we have no doubt goes about, as he says,
with the sacred elixir of liberty coursing
through his veins instead Of blood and George
Sand can marry and unmaIry her heroines with
more admirable celerity than any n0yel-mOnger
of them ALL But, considered as u fighting pair,
their mode of warfare, we humbly contend, is
omen TO criticism They have rushed to the
front with dauntless yigor, and hurled each of
them closely written sheet of letter-paper at
the foe. But is the best means of assaulting
the Germans in the present crisis that of the
penny posts True, i'll ordinary times, man
of courage might be forgiven for turning tail
and running for life if one of NJ. liugo's epstles
were pumped fairly at him. We have Train
of our own we have like gaspng experiences
TO remember We know what it is to mentally
drown in a tidal wave of frothy beer. But
the situation now, we submit, is imminent.
Wilhelm has thick skin aud n good many
men to back him. We fear that Paris will
find other dcfenses necessary than Hugo and
Sand cackling on the parapets.
The lady, it is true keeps out of shooting
range, and safely chants and gesticulates far
off her admiration of the Republic. Perhaps
if she were actually in Paris, with the enemy
Mt the gates and famine impending, she would
find the third awakening of liberty less ideally
beautiful The plump little woman poses like
the prophecies Deborah, and evidently deems
herself mother in Israel All the world is
hopeful now for France, and earnest men see
symptoms in the present revolution more
IL. of al
real liberty than any which have preceded it;
but nobody, we fear, will join her in holding
ND Paris Just now as " the normal state which
" the conscience of humanity DESIRES or the
inevitable end of the toll of humanity
Female politicians are sangune in France as
in New York however Very small acOrns
become great oaks in their eyes.
As for Victor Hugo, he is Micawber rediyi-
vus. He has pcted the world in general with
his letters for years and years, from his
nights in jersey, and now he rushes on the
Prussians with this last epistle as though they
were one gigantic Hcep, to be demolished by
twirl of his pen. 1t appears TO us peaceful
outsiders that he reveals the plan of the cam
paign more imprudently than is the usage
with military men. Behind the ramparts," he
assures them, there are barricades ! and
behind the barricades the sewers will be filled
with powder which - pif paff boom! - will
blow them all up quite into the air !! Should
they survive the sewers, he proceeds to inform
| them, they will be obliged to take Paris in
| detail, each stone and brick having the inten-
! ton of making a separate fight Of its own.
Europe designs to be slaughtered On that
"spot, and the great light of French liberty
"must be extinr ruished, soul by soul " Con-
sidering the fact that the French people havo
hitherto proved themselves very expert in
playing the game of fOllOw-my leader in masses
to liberty or despOtism, and that Europe Is
just now busy in keeping her skirts as clear
| as possible of the scrape, we must listen to his
prophecies with a certain measure OF allow
ance. He has his own doubts of Paris, appar-
emily, and of the apathy with which she has
seen him march to the front. "She sleeps,
" but she will awake" he cries; her incidence
will give you the measurement of her energy"
which is mode of measurement of energy
| only to be imagined by Hugo.
| Seriously, great name should never be
allowed to cover folly. The mistake in French
politics has always been that it was a pie
wide enough for every mans finger. Poets
and nOvelsts have taken the lead as often as
as ready to follow one as the other. Victor
Hugo is in some regards great man, poet
and novelist, with free, liberal views, but
singularly destitute of the common sense,
aplomb, and practical insight needed in a
political leader at this crisis when not only
the Government but the very existence of the
nation is in peril. We would be glad to per-
ceive no such symptoms in his condition as
these heated, unmeaning cries; or, if they
must be uttered, to find they were thought
worthy of no notice. France has listened to
such mOngers of farTagO before, and always to
her own detriment. We have faith enough,
too, in Victor Hugo to believe him capable of
better things. We would prefer to find him
with q rife in his hands than shouting to the
Germans mysterious warnings Of sewers full
of powder. The walls of Jericho fell, we are
told at the blast of a rams horn. But we
have altered all that. Something more than
the blowing of rams horn will be needed to
d..