The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-08
SPIRIT OF xHn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions ofthe Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-compiIed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE SIEGE OF PARIS.
From the n. Y. Herald.


the splendid army of MacAIahon on the Rhine
frontier became a certainty (unless avoided
by treaty of peace) after the astounding
cspitulation of Sedan. After Sadowa there
was treaty of peace which saved the capital
of Aust1ia but after Sedan, which involved
the overthrow of the responsible government
| of France and the substitution of a provi-
sional republic resolved upon the expulsion of
| the enemy, there was no alternative to King
! William but the siege of Paris. Accordingly
his restless army columns from Sedan were
moved down upon the city. They have en-
circled it, and by an impossible wall of steel
they have isolated it from the outside world.
They have so far completed the prodigious
work of investment in circuit of thirty miles
that they are reported as ready to commence
operations not only upon some of the exterior
defensive forts, but in the bombardment OF
the city itself.
We have meantime, through the limited
aerial mail facilities of balloons and carrier
pigeons, information from within the walls,
that though the city has two millions of con-
sumers of provisions, and is totally cut off
from all outside sources of supply, it is still
provided with means of subsistence which
may be made to hold out for three or four
months; that the Seine, flowing through the
city, furnishes an abundant supply of water,
which cannot be cut off; that the armed de-
tenders within the citys walls and exterior
fortifcatins far exceed in number three hun
dred thousand men; that they have abundance
of ammunition for small arms and artillery:
that they are preparing for offensive opera
tions; and from Tours we learn that on the
Rhone and the Loire other armies are rapidly
forming to come to the rescue. These re-
ports of the state of things in Paris are from
the citys defenders, who, of course, repre-
sent their situation in the most favorable
light. We really, however, know no more
of what is going on from day TO day in Paris
than of the events transpiring in the inner
city of Pelin OF in the streets of Timbuctoo-
fact which, in this boasted epoch of ad-
vanced civilization, is the most astounding
of all the astounding facts of the wonderful
nineteenth century.
Assuming, however, that the internal con-
dition of Paris, as represented at Tours
through those balloon and pigeon expresses,
is substantially true, may not General Trochu
be preparing for sortie upon which he cal
culates to change the fortunes of the war?
With an army of three hundred thousand
men at his command, is it not within his
power to sally out en- nldSSe upon some weak
point of the enemy's encircling line and
double it up by mere weight of numbers, as
Stonewall Jackson, in an overwhelming flank
attack, doubled up and pushed away from
Richmond the army of Mcclellan? Some
such brilliant coup as this may be contem-
plated by Trochu and in the little outside
almost every day, he may be training his SOL
diers for grand attack; but the repeated
failures of Bazaine with his veteran soldiers
in his sorties from Metz are rather calculated
to discourage than to invite any such expert
ments with the raw troops of Paris.
General Grant, we are informed from a re-
liable source at Washington, $50 far from
uttering doubt as alleged, with reference to
the Prussians being able to capture Paris, to-
day October 81 expressed the opinion that
they would be successful, Judging by all the
military circumstances. General Grant thinks
that from sail the military circumstances"
Paris will have to capitulate, or that it will be
taken by the investing German army and
this opinion, from the hero of the sieges of
Vicksburg and of Petersburg and Richmond,
will command universal attention and respect.
Assuming that the issue of the siege will
establish the soundness of this opinion, and
that Paris a month or two or three months
hence, from the combined pressure of isola-
tion, bombardment, hunger, and internal
disorders, will be reduced to a surrender,
what then ? Will the government at Tours
succumb and ask for peace or an armistice,
or will it be still controlled by the implacable
and impracticable ''reds' in favor of war to
''the last ditch 2"
We think it altogether probable that the
fell of Paris will bring even the most violent
of the members of the existing French Gov
tion that further resistance will only entail
upon France further losses, sufferings, and
humiliations. Count Bismarck has en-
phatically declared that Prussia has nothing
to do with the business of establishing the
local government of France, but that short of
a responsible or regular government Prussia
must hold some material guarantees in enter
ing into treaty of peace. That the present
provisional establishment of France, with or
before the capture of Paris, will be brought
into such stipulations for peace as will save
France from further misfortunes, and secure
to her the republic, we can hardly doubt.
Meanwhile we cannot dismiss the conviction
that England, Russia and Austria, acting con-
Jointly at this crisis with France in behalf
of peace, would speedily put an end to this
disastrous and deplorable war;
WILL RUSSIA INTERFERE?
From the N. Y. Times.
The doubts which we recently expressed
as to the rumored Intervention of Russia in
| the Franco-German war are confirmed by
the progress of eveuts. 1t is true that the
Gear is apparently reinforcing his garrisons
in Poland and Volhynia, but this might we'll
be with Republic declared in France, and
one threatened in Italy and Spain. The
weak side of Russia is still the Polish from
tier, and a democratic uprising in Europe
might easily kindle some of the infiammable