The New York herald., 1870-11-01
The Spectre Of Bamias IN France.


deep and solemn warning through the general
din Of war that comes to us from Europe. It
is, indeed, like "a Gre bell In the night to re-
call men, not only in France but throughout
both hemispheres, from their dreams Of mar
tial pomp and show to the stern and dreadful
realities of the situation. The document refer
red to, which was published in HERALD
despatch from Washington city yesterday
morning, points out the practical fact,
appalling in its importance, that, owing to the
wanton destruction of roads and bridges lead
ing from Paris to the provinces-a destruc-
tion wrought by the French themselves
invading Germans will find It utterly impossl-
BILE to supply the two million people which the
capital contains with the neoessaries Of life
even after the city oapitulstes As i'd, the pris
oners taken by the Germans In the various fights
and sorties attempted by the garrison state
that the latest rations have been but one
pound Of meat per week for each soldier inside
the defences Of the city, with the stock Of
animal food rapidly disappearing. Meanwhile
the investing force have, by intense exertion
and unceasing vigilance, been able to keep
open communication with the Rhine frontier,
and have drawn very heavy aid, in all requi-
sites, from home. But they have also COM
pletely est out and exhausted the country
environlng Paris, over radius of some days
journey not made by railroad, and the daily
wider and wider consumption is rapidly extend
ing the unprodnctive area. The food question
has already become very irksome and oppres-
sive one to the strangers. The latter number
nearly, il not quite, seven hundred thousand
men in arms, and chiefly concentrated around
the French capital, the actual number furnished
by the North and South German States
together, for the war, being more than eight
hundred thousand, and allowance being made
for those put h0rs de combat by sickness,
wounds and death. All, then, that the reopened
railroads running eastward TO Germany and
tho scouting expeditions sent out on every
side can do is to meet the incessant demands
of this enormous force. They can achieve no
more. What, then, arc to become the inevita-
BILE consequences of throwing the vast popula-
ton of Paris on their own resources in the
winter season in an isolated region eaten out
and shaven close by the locusts Of WARP Will
there not be positive danger Of the starvation
of hundreds of thousands of people, as Bis
marck predicts? The conclusion is heart
rending to contemplate, yet it is not only pos
sible but imminent.
But it Is not Paris alone which finds itself In
this miserable plight. All France is to some
degree, menaced with similar calamity. In
the twenty departments now mainly under the
duction and of harvesting, the excessive con-
sumption by both armies, the reckless or una
voidable waste, the burning and other destruc-
ton of material, and the removal beyond the
frontiers of large quantities Of agricultural
produce which cannot be reimported have
swept the country bare. Moreover, we must
recollect that last spring, before the
war began, we had repeated advlces
from France Of anticipated short crops
in France, and that these advices have
not been contradicted. Recently there have
been more satisfactory accounts from the
southern departments, but, as general sum-
ming up, even were there no war, this great
French nation Of forty millions would have
had to depend very largely upon imported
cereals for its winter subsistence. The two
years advance supply on hand of breadstufs,
which was one Of the boasted arrangements of
the imperial system, seems to have been, for
this year at least, as much myth as the
strength and reliability Of its military organiza-
tien. In one word-a word of solemn, over
shadowing portent-the gaunt spectre Of
famine looms up in more gigantic and ghastly
proportions every hour over the once fair land
Of France. The nation but yesterday so
mighty is 'hsrd bestead and hungry" and
neither rulers nor people know whittier to look
in this hour of their tribulation. The trials
that have fallen upon them are almost apoca-
lyptic in their suddenness, their completeness
and their terror. With the threatened dear th
comes the nameless horror of the ''pestilence
that walketh in darkness" which falls upon
all famished regions, and of the still more
frightful eutburst Of frantic passions among
hot-blooded races driven to despair. The
hour seems close at hand, indeed, for
the beautiful, the imperial city Of the late
Napoleonic empire, when s'the keepers Of
the house shall trenble and the strong men
shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease
because they are few, and those that look
out of the windows shall be darkened," and
all the proud nation shall share in her sorrow.
This is terrible contingency for Christen-
dom to contemplate--a momentous lesson for
ambitious princes and statesmen to ponder. 1t
cannot be underrated or fail TO be compre-
hended. Let MS hope that its instruction will
not be thrown away.
Yet again, mingling with the abstract idea
thus presented to our minds is the agony Of
individual suffering, not among stalwart men
atouo hnt amOn~ the ;nnOcent and defencaleaa